Financial Email Marketing Strategies: How to Increase Your Clients’ Wealth

financial email marketing cover image with a one dollar bill

Learning about finance has never been easier. Digital financial products are widely accepted by all generations, while new ones emerge every day. Many of them address unique generational challenges, for example retirement, or the burning millennial problem of student loan debt or entering homeownership. 

Online audiences are interested in finance are diverse and complex, and it’s crucial to understand the best ways to reach them. As one of the channels with the longest digital traditions and a high ROI,  financial email marketing should occupy a central spot in your digital marketing strategy. 

This comprehensive guide will cover the basics of financial email marketing and strategies to cut through the inbox clutter.



Why Email Marketing is Important for Financial Advisors and Fintech Companies?

As consumers opt for technology-driven experiences, such as generative AI, financial services companies keep finding ways to improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention. Email marketing continues to play a crucial role in their outreach.  In fact, 81% of financial services marketers already use email marketing to reach customers because it’s cost-efficient and powerful.

As one of the most profitable marketing channels, the financial services industry uses email marketing because:

  • It’s cost-effective: Compared to traditional marketing methods, email marketing boasts a $45 ROI for every dollar spent.
  • It provides targeted communication: Instead of sending generic email blasts, financial email marketing allows precise audience segmentation, a method of dividing audiences based on demographics, psychographics, and in this case — the recipients’ financial habits. 
  • It helps build trust and relationships: Regular marketing newsletters and informative email content foster trust with readers.
  • It aids in personalization: Emails can contain greetings, relevant past interactions, and elements related to customer preferences. This level of personalization strengthens connections and improves conversion rates
  • It ensures timely updates: Email automation lets you send targeted messages quickly, increasing customer engagement.
  • It provides measurable results: Email marketing offers clear campaign metrics and helps track performance easily.

Additionally, email marketing allows you to target customers at different stages of the buyer’s journey.

In such a highly quantifiable environment, it’s useful to learn the right email marketing benchmarks when creating a strategy. 


Financial Services Email Marketing Benchmarks

According to the mentioned Wifitalents study, 70% of financial services firms have a digital transformation strategy in place, which includes email marketing. 

But how would you know what type of content, timing, and frequency works for your customers?

Watching your own email marketing metrics alone might not be enough and you will need an industry-level benchmark to compare them against.

We’ve put together common email marketing industry benchmarks in the table below.

Email Marketing Metric Percentage
Open rates 26.48%
Click-through rates2.4%
Click-to-open rate10.1%
Unsubscribe rate 0.20%
Financial services email marketing benchmarks from Hubspot, Campaign Monitor, Vibetrace

Analyzing your metrics against the widely known benchmarks will allow you to track your email performance and understand customer behavior in-depth.


Financial Services Email Marketing: Legal Compliance

Financial services are at the forefront of legal regulations dealing with the money of hundreds of customers daily. Security and legality are of utmost importance, but so is privacy as people are looking for institutions that guard their personal data. Legal compliance extends to all marketing methods financial institutions practice, including email.

Data privacy laws, such as GDPR, CAN-SPAM Act, and CCPA, protect consumers from misleading marketing messages and unauthorized use of private data and are especially relevant in email. 

By respecting people’s opt-out preferences, including a prominent and simple unsubscribe option in your emails, and removing unsubscribed contacts from your email list, you show that you value their choices and privacy, thus exhibiting a trustworthy behavior.

At Campaign Refinery, we understand the importance of consumer preferences and automatically includes a one-click unsubscribe button in every email clients send out.

As a marketer working for financial services and corporate advisors, you should familiarize yourself with each regulation and ensure your email content is fully compliant. 


Email Marketing for Financial Advisors vs. Financial Services Companies

While both financial companies and advisors utilize email marketing, their approach and target audience differ significantly. For example, a financial advisor would guide consumers toward a personalized financial journey. Whereas, a financial service company typically offers loans and other services to relieve consumers’ financial stress.

The table below contains the key differences that set them apart.

Email Marketing Aspect Financial Services Financial Advisors
Target audience The general public, investors, and business entitiesHigh net-worth individuals and small business owners
Content focus Investment products, market analysis, financial productsTax strategies, retirement planning, personalized investment plans
Tone and style Professional, informative, but often promotionalPersonalized, consultative, relationship building
Email sending frequency Higher frequency of promoting products or servicesModerate frequency to maintain client engagement without overwhelming them
Call to actionOpen an account, contact sales, invest in a product Personalized financial review, schedule a consultation
Email content examples Product launches, market updates, financial newsCase studies, client success stories, personalized advice columns
Measurement metricsOpen rates, click-through rates, and conversionsClient engagement, meetings, and bookings
Visual design Often more visually appealing with images and colorsSimple yet informative to build trust and credibility
Email marketing for financial services vs. financial advisors 

Financial services companies target a broader audience, while advisors send ultra-relevant content based on customers’ specific needs. 

Both financial advisors and service companies need to learn to navigate the email marketing landscape properly. Let’s explore it in more detail.


Understanding People’s Financial Email Habits 

A study on how millennials use email showed that 68% of the respondents preferred emails over other modes of communication. Consumers said email messages feel more personalized and relevant.

This finding is crucial because it reveals the importance of personalization and targeting, both of which must be included in your marketing strategy.

Checkout the following unique email habits of your target audience to learn how to nurture and retain them:

  1. Mobile-first mentality: Millennials often check emails on their mobiles. With the rise in mobile email marketing, more and more people opt to receive emails on smaller devices for better accessibility.
  2. Shorter attention span: People receive hundreds of similar-looking emails every day. This significantly reduces their attention span. So, keep your content easily skimmable with bullet points, infographics, and short videos.
  3. Visually driven: Although the email size of a plain text message is lower, people prefer visually engaging emails. They often look for eye-catching email design, including images, videos, GIFs, and other interactive elements.
  4. Value-driven content is king: Have a clear goal and purpose for each email — educational content, financial tips, and resources.
  5. Customers expect a two-way street: Give recipients a chance to engage in the conversation. It could be as simple as using email surveys, polls, or encouraging them to ask questions.

By understanding these habits, you can build a targeted email marketing campaign strategy that resonates with your audiences. Remember, any marketing tactic starts with having a list of permission-based and engaged email subscribers. Let’s learn how to build one. 


How to Build Your Financial Marketing Email List 

Attracting a tech-savvy customer group requires a strategic approach that satisfies their interests and needs. 

The following strategies will help you build a thriving email list.

Offer Valuable Finance Related Lead Magnets

In the finance industry, generating leads is quite unique. Maintaining high credibility and building trust are the essences of every outgoing message, since consumers are more likely to entrust their funds to a trustworthy, credible and reliable company with good reputation. 

Collecting contact information can be challenging, and lead magnets are essential tools to capture attention and build long-term relationships. You can offer valuable resources in exchange for visitors’ valid email addresses.

Use these seven lead magnet strategies to effectively collect data and boost credibility:

  1. Offer free downloadable resources: Provide downloadable content directly addressing your prospects’ financial needs. Offer investment cheat sheets, budget planners, or debt payoff guides.
  2. Present financial goal guides: Offer comprehensive guides on loan payments, financial planning, or achieving specific financial goals. 
  3. Invite to free webinars or online courses: Based on each consumer’s needs, offer webinars on basic finance learnings or repaying student loans. 
  4. Write and promote blog posts with insightful tips: Write insightful blog posts on common topics people struggle with. Practice social media listening (reviewing users’ preferences and likes on social media posts) to understand customers’ financial goals. This will give you blog post topic ideas that resonate with people.
  5. Offer free financial tools and calculators: Tools that estimate how much to save for retirement or for a specific goal (like a 50th birthday party) do well with customers. You can also allow access to free budgeting and expense-tracking tools.
  6. Offer limited financial consultations: Give visitors a free consultation in return for their contact information. 
  7. Engage people with risk tolerance quizzes: Help customers with tools to determine their risk tolerance levels. 

Should you want to learn more about lead magnets, sign up for our Lead Magnet Multiplier short course. It will teach you how to write irresistible copy and it’s completely free, as long as you complete it within 7 days of sign-up. 

Run Engaging Social Media Promotions

A sound digital marketing strategy combines the power of social media, email, and content marketing. In fact, social media marketing can act as an extension of your email marketing efforts. For example, you can send an email marketing newsletter and promote it on your social pages to encourage more responses.

This will do two things:

  • It will help promote your newsletter and get more eyes on it.
  • It will encourage interested people to sign up for your email list.

Another way to capture audience’s attention is through contests. Make it easy for people to enter with their email addresses and communicate the benefits of joining the contest. For example, they might get free financial resources, exclusive content, or a free consultation. 

Content Marketing For Email List Growth in the Finance Industry  

Content marketing serves to attract, educate and retain an audience, encouraging them to subscribe to your email list. This method allows you to understand what your audience likes, so you can emulate those messages in your mass emails.

The opportunities to use content marketing are endless. You can create:

  • Podcasts,
  • E-books and guides, 
  • Videos and tutorials, 
  • Blog posts, 
  • Webinars and workshops.

Moreover, you can guest blog or collaborate with other creators to expand your reach. Remember to choose reputable guest blogs and include a link to your landing page where readers can subscribe to your email list.

Let’s recap the ways in which you can build your financially oriented email list in the table below.

Strategy Type of Content 
Lead magnets ‣ Free downloadable resources
‣ Free financial guides
‣ Blog posts with financial tips
‣ Free financial consultations
‣ Free quizzes and cheatsheets
Social media promotions‣ Cross-post on social media 
‣ Run contests and giveaways
Content marketing‣ Videos and tutorials
‣ Podcasts
‣ E-books and guides
Strategies to build your financial email list

Use Email Segmentation and Personalization to Diversify Audiences

The next step is to segment audiences and personalize your emails. 

Personalization means including as many personal details as you can automate in your emails, such as customer’s name and sharing the content they’re interested in. Segmentation means dividing customers into targeted groups based on their preferences and past behavior to send them relevant content.

You can segment the audience based on:

  • Age,
  • Location,
  • Spending habits,
  • Lifestyle,
  • Behavior.

Read our detailed guide on segmentation models to understand the nuances. 

People have different financial needs depending on age, income level, and spending habits. Draw insights from their previous interactions or group them based on their interest. For example, some might be interested in opening a new fixed deposit account while others would need an investment plan. 

Segmenting the audience can increase the open rate significantly, but sometimes you will have two completely different semgents you want to promote the same product to. For example: you want to promote a savings-tracking app to both millennials and women of all ages. 

This tricky situation inspired our engineers at Campaign Refinery to create a special feature called Audience Groups, a simple option allowing you to group different audience segments together and send one, instead of two separate campaigns. 

Still, you should be careful when grouping audiences with varied interests. Even a slightly irrelevant email could make people lose interest in your offers. 


Email Marketing Tips: Corporate Financial Advisors and Financial Services Checklist

While legal compliance is mildly different for financial advisors and services companies, the email marketing best practices are similar. 

Here is the checklist you should include in all financial email campaigns:

  • Maintain a clean email design: Avoid crowding the emails with images and videos. Instead, increase credibility by adding links to the help center, maintaining consistent brand logos, and complying with legal regulations.
  • Provide valuable content: Offer actionable guidance and industry insights to help audiences achieve their financial goals. 
  • Embrace mobile-friendly emails: Ensure emails display well across all devices. Prioritize clean email design and clear CTAs.
  • Include clear subject lines: Craft subject lines that reflect the financial email content. Ideally, keep them under 50 characters for higher impact and proper display on all devices.
  • Keep body copy credible: Any financial email body copy must not be misleading and comply with legal regulations. Maintain transparency and only include credible information.
  • Increase personalization: Address the readers as ‘You’ and include their names and past interactions to maintain the rapport.
  • Send emails with permission: Always obtain consent before emailing people. Use clear opt-in forms and ensure a double opt-in process to safeguard your sender reputation.
  • Clean your email list regularly: Contact management is a critical part of financial email marketing. Continuously monitor and remove inactive email addresses from your email list.

    Campaign Refinery offers an automatic email list cleaning tool that eliminates harmful and inactive email addresses.

Types of Email Campaigns in the Finance Industry 

Whether you’re an individual advisor or a financial services company, you would typically use the following email campaigns to nurture leads and convert them.

1. Transactional Finance Emails 

Transactional emails contain critical information such as order confirmations, appointment scheduling, and other concrete information related to the transaction. For example, remittance emails are a type of transactional finance emails.

In the finance industry, transactional emails could be:

  • Account opening confirmations,
  • Transaction receipts, 
  • Balance confirmations, 
  • Consultation appointments,
  • Password resets,
  • Important security updates.
transactional example finance
Transactional email example in the finance industry. Source

Credit Karma sends a reminder about opening a new account and how it can affect the average account age.

2. Promotional Finance Emails

Financial institutions and advisors often use promotional emails to update customers on new product arrivals, discounts and coupons, or mobile banking features. 

These emails highlight special interest rates, limited-time offers, and loyalty programs to incentivize customers and drive specific actions.

promotional finance email example
Promotional email example by a financial institution. Source

Ando’s promotional email offers 1.5% cashback and helps reduce carbon and fight climate change.

3. Educational and Informative Emails in the Finance Industry

Financial literacy content is a must to engage recipients and guide them on the right financial path. Covering topics like budgeting, saving for retirement, or managing debt can resonate with a broader audience and build trust.

Additionally, provide market insights, detailed analysis of the current financial landscape to position yourself as an industry thought leader.

educational finance email example
Financial educational email example. Source

Starling Bank shares a helpful guide on virtually saving for the future. 

4. Finance Welcome Emails

Welcome emails introduce your brand and showcase the benefits, building a rapport with first-time users. Highlight key features and offer resources to build trust from the start.

welcome finance email example
Welcome email example. Source

Greenlight’s welcome email adds a little bonus to encourage recipients to refer them to their circle.

Aside from the above email types, you will also send automated trigger emails based on user actions. For example, an appointment reminder will be sent automatically to customers for their upcoming session with a financial advisor or loan officer. 

Finally, to maintain brand credibility and trustworthiness through email, you’ll need a reputable partner. 


Choosing a Reliable Email Service Platform for Your Finance Emails

As a financial company or a consultant, you want the best for your clients. That means choosing an email service provider (ESP) that caters to your needs and makes sure your emails reach your clients’ primary inboxes. At the same time, your ESP should be in compliance with the law and on top of the latest email security protocols. 

You can find all of these traits in Campaign Refinery.

Campaign Refinery offers the highest deliverability rate on the market while maintaining an immaculately clean sending practice. We’re also selective about the senders we open our doors to and work only with the best. That’s why our powerful system and your smart strategies are sure to achieve excellent results you’ve never seen before. 

Want to become a top sender with Campaign Refinery?

Apply to join us today!

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