What Is the Best Newsletter Frequency for Financial Advisors?

An email list is more than a collection of names and addresses; it represents a group of relationships that can be developed over time. Staying connected with clients and prospects requires consistency, which raises a practical question: how often should you reach out? The best newsletter frequency for financial advisors typically depends on the firm’s approach and the preferences of its audience.

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Understanding the Best Newsletter Frequency for Financial Advisors

How often do clients want to hear from their advisors? According to a 2024 YCharts communication survey, 39% of investors said they wanted to hear from their advisors at least monthly, while 40% preferred contact every two to three months. ¹ With that in mind, the best newsletter frequency for financial advisors may be monthly, bimonthly or quarterly. That’s often enough to stay in touch without becoming a nuisance to clients.

If you’re sending email newsletters less often (or not at all), you could be missing opportunities to initiate deeper conversations with prospects and clients. Notably, 47% of investors surveyed by YCharts said their understanding of their advisor’s recommendations and investment strategy could be communicated more effectively via email.

On the other hand, you don’t want to bombard clients or prospects with too many emails. Daily emails, for instance, could be viewed as an annoyance unless they’re part of a structured drip campaign that completes over a set time period. You might use the occasional email blast for prospecting, but those can come off as spammy if used too frequently.

Creating email campaigns can be time-consuming but you can free up valuable hours in your day by using automation tools. SmartAsset AMP, for example, gives advisors the ability to create automated newsletters on a range of topics and target client types. The tool also allows advisors to schedule their newsletter sends weeks or even months in advance.

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How to Develop an Email Newsletter Schedule

Creating a schedule for sending newsletters to your subscribers can help you streamline this aspect of your marketing. You can create content and schedule it to be delivered automatically at a predetermined date and time through your email marketing service or customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

How do you decide how often to schedule your messages? The simplest solution may be to ask your clients. Another option is to do some A/B testing to deliver messages on different days of the week and at various times to see which ones get the best response. Here, you’re going to study three performance metrics:

• Open rate: Open rate reflects the number of people who opened your message after receiving it.
• Click-through rate: This metric measures the number of people who clicked a link that was included in your message. For example, you might include a link to your latest blog post or to a booking page for an upcoming seminar you’re hosting.
• Conversion rate: Conversion rate tells you how many people took a specific action after clicking a link included in the email. For example, how many people shared your blog post or signed up for your seminar.

These metrics can tell you how compelling your content is, starting with your headline and subject line, and continuing with the body of the email itself. Click-through rate is a measure of engagement, while conversion rate helps you evaluate return on investment (ROI) for a specific campaign.

A good email open rate typically falls between 20% and 30%, according to HubSpot, while a good click rate is anything above 2% for most industries. For conversion rate, good is generally anything between 1.5% and 5%. ³

It may take a few weeks or even a few months of testing to determine how often to send email newsletters and which days or times work best. If you need a little direction, HubSpot says the best days of the week to send marketing emails are Tuesday, Wednesday and Monday. That’s in order of the days with the highest open rates. Emails sent around 11 a.m. on those days have the best odds of being opened.

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Email Marketing Tips for Financial Advisors

Email marketing is a skill you may need to learn, and it can take time to find the right rhythm. Use these tips as a helpful guide in developing your email marketing strategy.

• Start with a valuable lead magnet: A lead magnet is a free resource, such as a checklist, calculator or quiz, you offer to prospects in exchange for their email address. Lead magnets can help you build your email list if you’re offering something that your ideal clients want to access.
• Segment your list: You may segment your book of business to identify your highest-value clients and applying a similar approach to your email list follows a similar principle. You might segment your list to separate current clients from prospects, and further segment your prospect list based on demographics or engagement to pinpoint the warmest leads. You should be able to segment your list through your email marketing service or CRM.
• Personalize messages: Personalization matters to prospects and clients who want to feel more connected to their advisors. Including personalized subject lines is a small but effective way to increase open and click-through rates.
• Focus on value: Before you hit send on your next email newsletter, ask yourself what’s in it for your subscribers. A good email newsletter delivers value in some way, whether that’s sharing a new resource, offering insights into market trends or teasing your latest blog post with an excerpt. Every email you send should give your readers a reason to look forward to your next message.
• Keep it brief: You don’t want to tie up prospects or clients’ time with a lengthy ramble. Keep your newsletters concise and to the point. If you’d like to discuss specific topics in more detail, consider creating a blog post or downloadable white paper and include the link, with a strong CTA.
• Add a clear call to action: Your call to action (CTA) is the next step you want your subscribers to take after reading your email. For example, you might direct them to visit a specific page on your website, download a free resource or respond to your message with an answer to a question you’ve asked. Stick to one CTA per message to avoid confusion.
• Review messages for compliance: The SEC’s marketing rule outlines what advisors can and cannot include in their marketing messages, including those sent via email. Have your compliance team review messages before they go out and ensure that you have a recordkeeping system in place for compliance.
• Track your metrics: Monitoring open rates, click-through rates and conversion rates can help you understand what you’re doing right (or wrong) with your email newsletter campaigns.

Bottom Line

Pinning down the best newsletter frequency for financial advisors can be challenging, as every advisor’s marketing strategy and clientele are different. At a minimum, you may want to stay in touch with clients via email at least monthly. If you’re hoping to make connections with prospects and convert them to clients, emailing weekly or biweekly may help support that goal. Experimenting with different frequencies can help you find your optimal newsletter frequency.

Tips to Gain More New Clients

• SmartAsset AMP (Advisor Marketing Platform) is a holistic marketing service financial advisors can use for client lead generation and automated marketing. Sign up for a free demo to explore how SmartAsset AMP can help you expand your practice’s marketing operation. Get started today.
• Email is one piece of the digital marketing pie; your marketing plan may also include social media content, search engine optimization (SEO), PR outreach, digital ads and collaborative efforts that put your firm in the spotlight. Developing buyer personas or an ideal client avatar can help you determine which marketing strategies may prove most effective.

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