For this episode we will answer the following question:
How can my financial service firm determine a goal for an email we write to make sure it’s high-performing?
Email is one of the oldest and most powerful tools firms use to engage with potential customers on a deeper level. But as time has passed, it’s become unfortunately common for firms to lose sight of why they’re sending out certain emails and how such emails will even help them achieve their company’s goals.
With plenty of directionless email blasts saturating the financial industry these days, how do you make sure the emails your firm is sending out are truly relevant to your potential customers who receive them while also helping them move forward through the sales process?
It all comes down to making your emails goal-oriented, with a clear purpose and focused on the customer.
First things first, let’s talk about the Who. This may sound silly, but you’d be surprised how many times businesses send emails to recipients with no idea of who they’re really sending it to. Think about it, how many times you have received an email from a business that seems completely irrelevant, wondering why it was sent to you in the first place.
Even before you start writing your email, take the time to think about your firm’s buyer persona. What is their demographic, lifestyle, or ways of consuming information? For example, is your email targeting men aged around 40-55 years old? How about investors who possess considerable wealth and can make larger investments? Mapping out who exactly you want this email to be sent to will ensure your emails are received by the right people and can therefore provide relevant help to them.
Next, ask yourself What is the objective of sending this email? Many businesses will say they just want recipients to click and open it, but this isn’t a good answer. What do you want the recipient to do after they’ve read your email? Examples could include wanting them to sign up for a webinar about alternative investments linked in the email or downloading an eBook offer that goes into more detail about the same topic.
Something that can easily be overlooked is When to send an email. This is a place where lots of firms can go wrong, sending out emails when it’s only most convenient for them. The problem lies in that even after you’ve created an excellent email with lots of great resources, if you send that email out to a potential customer who is not at the point of finding it helpful, your email quickly becomes completely ineffective. Keep in mind at what point your potential customers are at in the buyer’s journey so that you can make sure to send emails at the right time so that the content included in them will actually be helpful to them.
Ask yourself Where your email will be read and what device your potential customer may use to read such emails. Does your buyer persona go through the bulk of his emails on his laptop at work, or does he tend to use his smartphone mainly to check his emails? For example, if your buyer persona uses his smartphone more often, you should tailor your firm’s emails accordingly so that the font size is larger, the format is mobile-friendly, and the CTA included is large enough to accommodate the click of a finger.
This one is arguably one of the most important questions to ask yourself –Why is your firm sending this email? This really comes down to the true motive behind the email –are you solely trying to advertise your firm’s services or are you thinking about the customer and trying to provide help to them? Good emails find a balance between the two so that both the customer and your firm can benefit. But, if the customer doesn’t even cross your mind when writing an email, that’s when you know your emails need re-focusing.
Last but not least, think about the How. How will you know when your email goals have been met? The most common ways to assess your emails’ success is by looking at the number of clicks and opens each of your emails receive, but these two things are not the only indicators of success. Other valuable insights would include looking at your website’s traffic, how potential customers are engaging with your social media, and any other types of customer activity across your firm’s multiple channels to see how the receiving of emails may affect their interactions with your firm.
That is all for this episode. If you have any marketing questions that you would like us to answer related to the financial service world, please send them to podcast@bethinkmarketing.com