6 Email Marketing Tips for Financial Services Brands

Email marketing is still one of the most powerful tactics in every marketers toolkit - it's just been modernised and empowered!

In the finance industry, email is often an afterthought, being used primarily for operational alerts - such as deposit and withdrawal confirmation, policy updates, and statements - rather than for marketing communications too. There is a huge opportunity here - particularly when it comes to nurturing leads through the funnel from prospects to customers.

1. Run an opt-in, 'financial trends' newsletter

Create a weekly/monthly opt-in newsletter that is full of diverse info and snippets of industry happenings. Accent on 'industry happenings', rather than boring, product specific information. Also, a classy layout and use of imagery is recommended.

At the end of the day, links to your blog posts offer readers a reason to read and share your newsletter: a joke-of-the-day, events worth going to that month, or a great guest blog your team wrote.

2. Keep track of metrics, and test, test, test

You should keep an eye on metrics like bounce rate, open rate, click-through rate, and so on. A CRM platform like HubSpot will make this so much easier, and you’ll be split-testing your way to glory in no time. Test subject lines, images, length, and format, and figure out what is working best.
According to HubSpot research, the finance industry has an average open rate of 40%.

3. Maintain your lists

Make sure to spend time segmenting your lists into segments that make sense for your industry - that could be by customer type (personal/business), product type (current/ savings account or life assurance/car insurance) and geographic location. It’s important to audit these lists regularly, ensuring the list criteria are still relevant.

4. Use email to leverage other parts of your digital financial services strategy

Use email to drive people to relevant blog posts, to alert them of competitions or referral schemes you’re running, or to get them to share or follow you on social media. Remember email subscribers are often the most engaged in your network, so tap into them.

For more on how to build a stronger digital strategy, read our blog called, "Best New Digital Strategies For Financial Services"

5. Use email personalisation

It’s amazing the number of generic emails sent on a daily basis that are not personalised - even with a name. Do not commit this crime! Regardless of what email system you’re using, personalising your emails with at least a name shouldn’t be difficult.

Choosing a reputable CRM platform makes this a lot easier and more efficient, and there are a few good options out there. We usually recommend HubSpot for it's ease-of-use regarding key features. With HubSpot, you’ll easily personalise your automatic emails that not only greet the person by name, but also serve up content that they’re more likely to be interested in based on their previous interactions with your website and content. The HubSpot integration, bringing automatically compiled lists and email marketing automation together, is a real gamechanger.

6. Be strategic

Let’s take an example from the insurance industry. If you are marketing an insurance company, make sure to communicate with people at key times - such as when they are due to renew. Make sure that they receive a renewal reminder email a few weeks before. This should be easily set up within an inbound marketing platform using email workflows and content/list-triggered emails.

Conclusion

Email marketing is not dead - it's just that traditional ways of doing it should be.

If you'd like more help in the pursuit of an email marketing strategy that takes less of your time and get more results, we highly recommend our eBook linked below. It is made complete with many excellent, real-world examples...