Writing better emails involves more than simply personalizing a message for your audience. Once you understand what your prospects care about, the next step is finding the right way to communicate that message and learning what actually resonates. In today’s FA Alpha Daily, we explore how financial advisors can strengthen their email campaigns through better messaging, continuous testing, and clear calls-to-action.
FA Alpha Daily:
Practice Management Insights
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In a past “Practice Management Insights” article, we highlighted the importance of writing better emails to your prospective clients.
There, we walked through the importance of defining your goal, doing your research, identifying your audience’s level of awareness, personalizing your emails, and having a clear call-to-action (CTA).
Today, we’re going to cover what comes next once you’ve put those foundational steps into practice.
The Next Step In Writing Better Emails
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The path towards writing better emails doesn’t stop when you’ve done your research, identified your customers’ level of awareness and personalized your emails.
Once you’ve taken all of those steps, you need to: 1.) Identify which copywriting formula to use and 2.) conduct A/B tests for your emails.
Picking a Copywriting Framework
Before you begin writing the first drafts of your email campaign, it’s important to identify which copywriting framework you’ll use.
Your choice will depend on what’s likely to resonate most with your clients or prospects, based on the data you’ve gathered and their level of awareness.
One of the most popular copywriting frameworks you can use is the PASO Formula.
PASO stands for Problem, Agitation, Solution, and Outcome.
This framework is typically used to speak directly to a reader’s pain points. It starts by identifying a problem (say, a client’s uncertainty about whether they’re saving enough for retirement), honing in on that concern just enough to prompt action, proposing a solution, then presenting the outcome the client can expect.
Aside from PASO, the DOS Formula is another example of a copywriting framework you can utilize in your email campaigns.
If you aren’t familiar yet, DOS stands for Desire, Obstacle, and Solution.
This framework works especially well when you want your emails to feel more aspirational or motivating for the reader.
When using this approach, you start by naming what your client or prospect genuinely wants, whether that’s financial independence, a comfortable retirement, or peace of mind.
From there, you highlight the obstacle standing in their way, then propose your services as the solution.
Using either of these frameworks effectively depends on how well you understand your audience’s level of awareness and the voice of customer (VOC) data you’ve gathered.
Keep in mind that these two frameworks aren’t your only options. The right choice will always come back to the data you’ve collected about your clients and prospects, so don’t be afraid to experiment.
Speaking of experimentation, once you’ve picked a framework and drafted your emails, it’s time to test them.
Conducting A/B Tests
Experimentation is essential if you want to keep improving your emails, since it helps you figure out what actually resonates with your audience.
A/B testing involves the creation of writing two versions of an email, differing in subject line, opening hook, and call-to-action (CTA), and sending each version to specific segments of your audience.
The goal is to see which version performs better, allowing you to refine your current campaign and build a stronger foundation for future ones based on real data.
Beyond tracking performance metrics, you can also gather direct feedback from clients, since their responses can help you improve future campaigns.
To do this effectively, write emails that genuinely invite a reply, whether that’s a quick question, a scheduling request, or simply an opinion on a topic you’ve raised.
If you want to undertake this additional step, you need to write emails that encourage your target audience to reply and interact with you.
There’s one more lever worth pulling to strengthen your email campaigns: Write a compelling subject line that inspires action.
Your subject line is one of the most important parts of your email since it will dictate whether your message gets read or not.
If you’re having a hard time creating a headline that will capture your readers’ attention, consider leveraging the VOC data you’ve gathered since this will tell you what matters to your target audience the most.
Using Emails To Convince Prospects
There you have it—the additional steps you need to take to write better emails.
Put these insights into practice the next time you sit down to write an email campaign, and you’ll be well-equipped to capture your audience’s attention from the first line.
When used properly, these strategies will help you build enough trust and clarity that clients and prospects feel confident acting on your CTA, whether that means booking a consultation, acting on your recommendation, or simply replying to keep the conversation going.
Best regards,
Joel Litman & Rob Spivey
Chief Investment Officer &
Director of Research
at Valens Research
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