The age of email is not over. It is still a vital marketing tool in the armoury of any financial services firm. At least it should be, according to any reputable financial marketing agency.
The trouble is, email can bring disastrous consequences if the marketing isn’t done right.
The wrong offer or message, sent to the wrong client/prospect, at the wrong time, from the wrong sender, and with the wrong subject line can bring profound disaster to a business.
So it stands to reason that your financial marketing agency will recognise this, and have established policies, checks and liability structures in place to avoid such blunders.
What follows are five, minimum checks which a marketing agency should employ prior to sending any email campaign:
#1 Is the contact list for the campaign correct?
Financial advisers should strive to build up a fresh, well-segmented email list. (For tips on how to do that, see our post here). There should be a clear, accurate record of who your contacts are, how you acquired their details, and what their key demographics consist of (location, lead score etc.).
Your email needs to be relevant to the audience you are sending it to. So, if you are planning to send a seasonal promotion to potential clients, your marketing agency must be careful not to send it to existing clients.
#2 Is the sender name and address correct?
If your agency is using email marketing software like MailChimp, then they will have the ability to customise the “from” name and email address in the message that is being sent on your behalf.
Is the campaign intended to come from you personally, the company in general, or one of your colleagues? Make sure this is clearly communicated to your agency, and they should be careful to adhere to your instruction.
#3 Are the merge fields correct?
You want your email campaigns to be as personal as possible. That means addressing the recipients by their individual names, which means using merge fields correctly.
These must be correct. The last thing you want is for your recipients to find a message in their inbox saying: “Dear *|Merge1|*”!
#4 Is the send time optimised?
Your financial marketing agency will have access to resources and tools which inform them of the best times to send messages to your database. They should be able to justify their decision to you based on solid data and established marketing practice.
It’s important to state that the send time will depend on the specific composition of your contact list for the campaign. For instance, pensioners might read their emails at a different time to younger, small business owners.
#5 Is the subject line compelling and relevant?
Ultimately, you don’t just want the email to go to the right people, at the right time. You also want your recipients to actually open your message!
Your marketing agency should be adept at creating intriguing, unique and engaging subject lines which are hard for your recipients to resist opening. No agency will ever achieve a 100% open rate, but for an opted-in list then anything below 20% should be met with raised eyebrows.
