Create a Digital Newsletter

• A financial adviser can use a digital newsletter to reach prospects and existing customers with advice, information, statistics, forecasts, and stories about investors who used the adviser's services and achieved success. Some financial advisers design their newsletters themselves. But if the adviser lacks writing or design skills, he or she can hire a writer to draft content for the newsletter and a designer to suggest a layout for the newsletter. Best practices for newsletters are listed here:

•  Choose a frequency--monthly, biweekly, etc-- and maintain it.
• Create a theme and structure for the newsletter, so each one will have a similar layout and appearance.
• Indicate how to opt out, in case someone doesn't want to receive the newsletter.
• Create a readable newsletter with content that is curated from various sources.

Create a Set of "Lead Magnets" for Prospects and Clients

• A lead magnet can be a report, white paper, or checklist that the financial adviser develops and offers to people who read his or her newsletter or email. The lead magnet is an item of value that advisers give prospective customers or existing customers for free. They are incentives to sign up for the adviser's newsletter, future event, blog, or even a consultation. Giving a free item of value like this builds trust.
• An announcement of an event that the adviser will attend or host is another lead magnet that a newsletter or email campaign can bring to prospects and customers, along with an invitation to come to the event.
• Each email campaign the financial adviser designs can have a lead magnet that will encourage email recipients to click on an offer of more information and a download. Those who click are seen as prospects for financial services.

Segment the Email List as It's Built

• "Segmenting" is the process of dividing an email list into smaller divisions or parts so that targeted, personalized emails can be sent to prospects or clients.
• By segmenting his or her email list, the financial adviser can choose recipients based on specific criteria, such as people who purchased one of the adviser's services, people who read the adviser's blog in the last two weeks, or people who signed up to attend a free presentation the adviser plans to give. Email marketers agree that the smaller the segment, the more effective the message is. The goal is to target the needs of the readers.
• The major advantage of segmenting the email list is to assure the financial adviser that recipients are getting emails that they want with information they care about. Dividing the list based on criteria such as behavior (attending an event the adviser suggested), life cycle stage (prospect, subscriber, client, etc.), net worth, prospect or client location, age (retiree, pre-retiree, Gen X, Millennial, etc.), allows the financial adviser to tailor and personalize the reader's experience and make the adviser stand out as a professional who knows the reader's situation.
• Considerable work is involved in segmenting an email list, but the adviser can learn the methods of segmenting as he or she progresses in creating the list.

Choose a Goal for Each Email

•  The financial adviser must know what he or she wants to achieve with each email sent. Is it just to get someone to read the email, or something else? Discussing ideas with a colleague can help a financial adviser focus each new email effectively. Reading other financial advisers' newsletters is also a good source of ideas and methods for narrowing an email's focus.
•  According to HubSpot, 99% of people check their email daily, or even more often. So the adviser who sends an email knows that there is a good chance that the prospect or client will see the message when it arrives.
•  Examples of email goals include signing up for a blog or newsletter subscription, getting a social media follow, getting a content download for one of the lead magnets, registering for a webinar, getting a phone call for a consultation, or opening an account with the adviser. These goals are also referred to as "calls to action" or CTAs. They answer the question, "What do I want the email recipient to do after reading this email?"
• Financial advisers who know the goal of each email segment are confident that what they send out to clients and prospects will have a positive result.

Use an Email Service Provider to Track Email Success

• The three most popular email service providers are: AWeber, Constant Contact, and MailChimp. Each one is different and has different advantages. The financial adviser should read about each one and ask colleagues which they use. Basic services that each provider must offer include automation, smooth operation across all platforms, tracking ability, and ability to use templates.
• Using an email service provider allows the financial adviser to track the success of each email segment. Email service providers allow users to see how their email campaigns are working. For each campaign, the financial adviser can get a report showing the number of opens, clicks, and forwards each email produced. Setting a budget for email services is important, to make sure that the financial adviser gets the services that he or she wants, and no more.
• These data are a significant help in building a financial advising business. The adviser can follow these numbers over time to learn which topics each audience responds to, and use that data for future campaigns.

Leveraging Website

• Financial advisers offer visitors to their websites the opportunity to join their email list.
• They inspire people to volunteer their email addresses by offering content such as newsletters, helpful guides, and videos.
• Contents like courses and interactive tools like calculators or assessments work as “lead magnets” in attracting prospective individuals to give their email addresses.
• The process of using the website strategy entails using ‘lead magnets.’ Financial advisers promote their lead magnets on their website with buttons, displays or pop-ups that invoke forms designed to capture email addresses, and potentially, additional content information.
• A website is effective in finding prospective clients for financial advisers because people who get to the website are usually “warm” leads.

Using Client Referrals

• Financial advisers use referrals to build great customer relationships. Through these relationships, financial advisers rely on these relationships to get prospective clients and their email contacts.
•  Referrals from existing clients are one of the best ways for financial advisers to drum up business.
• The process of using client referrals involves financial advisers using their clients as brand ambassadors for their firms.
• Once existing clients become ambassadors, they offer up unsolicited introductions.
• The majority of individuals trust referrals from people they know, which means that referrals can be a great way to build an email list of prospects.

Leveraging Social Media

•  Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube are all viable channels through which financial advisers build an email of prospects.
• Financial advisers use social media lead ads such as Facebook Lead Generation Ads to build an email of prospects.
• Effective use of social media allows financial advisers to reach more prospective customers across different platforms and get to acquire their email addresses.
• The process of leveraging social media for email leads starts when a financial adviser hyper-targets individuals based on their job titles and geography. For example, if one has a focus on a segment like plastic surgeons, one can easily find them on LinkedIn.
• Once the financial adviser identifies the target people, one can connect with them for free, and then share content they will see in their feed.
• If the content is valuable enough, these highly qualified prospects will engage with it and provide contacts including email addresses for further engagements outside social media platform.
• Another process in using this strategy involve running social media lead generation campaigns in which financial advisers are able to display their ads to a laser targeted audience along with a specific lead-capture form that interested people fill out. From the bigger user base in social media, financial advisers find people interested in their offer who willingly share their email addresses.
• There are opinions that leveraging social media is one of the most effective financial adviser prospecting ideas. 

Executing Opt-in Subscription Software Tools

• Financial advisers use software tools that were built specifically to make it easy for a website owner to embed an offer with a call to action somewhere on their website.
• To use the opt-in subscription strategy, financial advisers make opt-in subscription software tools in-build in the design of their website.
• This can take on several forms, including a “Floating Bar” that appears across the top of the screen, a “Scroll Box” that rolls up from the bottom of the screen, or a “Pop Up” that appears on the screen on top of the text.

Research Strategy

Use of a Sign-Up Form on a Blog

• A financial adviser who runs a blog on his/her website can prompt readers of the blog to sign up so that they can be contacted through email when new posts or content on the blog is published. This is especially effective for those readers that do not want to miss newly published posts or content.
• The financial adviser should use a sign-in form to request an email address from the reader that he/she will use to inform the reader of new published posts or content on the blog. Readers can also be encouraged to sign up for email messages.
• The financial adviser should then ensure that he/she publishes a blog post on a regular basis depending on the availability of content and time. This could be once or twice per month, or after every few months. Whatever frequency the financial adviser chooses should be one that can be sustained for a long time to help build trust with prospects. The content should also be tailored to the target audience to attract important prospects.
• With an increase in spam and data breaches, adding a data security statement under the sign-up form will help put people at ease and encourage them to share their personal contact information, including their email address. The form should be kept simple and not ask for too much information. Blog readers should be asked for just their email address and maybe their name.

Use of an Email Signature

• Financial advisers can use their email signatures to build their email list of prospects. This is because they send out emails daily or weekly to many people, and can direct those people to their email lists by asking them to sign up.
• If a financial adviser sends out a monthly or quarterly e-newsletter, they can also include a note in the email signature encouraging the reader to sign up for the adviser's email list if the email was forwarded from a friend.
• The financial adviser can also encourage those that subscribe to his/her email list to forward or share any tips that they found useful with friends, family, and acquaintances and this will help spread the word and grow the email list.
• To popularize one's e-newsletter and get many people interested, the financial adviser needs to not only share financial information such market updates but should include other interesting information such as family milestones and any charitable causes they participate in, to keep things fresh and relevant and prevent the content from being dry and boring.

Use of Business Cards

• Another strategy that financial advisers can use to build an email list of prospects is to use their business cards. When meeting people face to face, financial advisers can ask for their business cards and offer theirs. They can then add the email address from the business cards received to their email list of prospects.
• People can also be encouraged to leave their business cards when they visit the financial adviser's premises. A special place can be designated for the cards to be dropped into, such as a glass bowl. The email addresses on the business cards can then be added to an email list of prospects.
• Financial advisers can also mention their newsletter, blog, or website on their business cards so that whoever receives the business card can check out their blog or newsletter and opt into the financial adviser's email list.
• Financial advisers need to ensure that the sign-up form is properly placed on the website so that it is easily seen and accessible to visitors.