Six Reasons Your Email Marketing Goes Bust

In an age when VR headsets, one-on-one teleconferencing, and 360 videos are becoming more mainstream, email can seem like a quaint—even old-fashioned—way of marketing. However, just as direct mail is still relevant to an advisor’s target market, so is email. With a number of affordable platforms, email marketing comes at a reasonable price, compared to other forms of marketing. But often agents and advisors become frustrated with email marketing because they don’t get the results they would like to see. If this is you, here are six reasons why your email marketing goes bust.

You Don’t Segment

Segmenting is critical to building a sturdy email marketing engine. There are many different ways to segment an email list. For example:

Demographics (i.e. older and younger prospects)
Level of Engagement (what have they responded to in the past)
Bulk and Targeted

A good email service provider and CRM can help make segmenting easier, so that at a glance you know where an individual may be in your pipeline. This is very useful information if you want to issue tailored emails.

You Don’t Replenish Your Lists

Over the life of an email campaign strategy, your lists will likely become smaller, but more valuable. With non-responders and undeliverable addresses whittled away, what remains should be a small core of consistent openers. However, at some point, even this valuable list will lose some of its worth, with consumers opening emails, but not taking actions that allow them to become clients. This is why it is important to replenish your lists periodically. Even better, have a process in which new consumers automatically join your lists. For instance, a content or lead magnet strategy in which consumers provide information in exchange for a gimmie.

You Don’t Issue Emails Consistently


One big question advisors face with email marketing is how often to issue emails to a list of prospects. Too much and your audience will become annoyed. Too little and your name won’t be in front of them as much as you’d like. What is right for you will vary, but in general, a couple of emails in a week’s time is a good benchmark to follow. If you want to engage more often than this, vary your content and type of emails.

Your Subject Lines Are Weak

Crafting a good subject line is an art. A subject line has to inspire confidence, tease content, and speak to a consumer’s specific need or curiosity. If you get too aggressive or sales-y, then your email may be dismissed as spam. Too dry and literal, and your email won’t have a strong pull to open.

Here are few examples of good subject lines:

The Versus or Comparison

When You Can Actually Retire Vs. When You Want To Retire
Fixed Index Annuities Vs. Traditional Annuities: What’s the Difference
Saving Versus Spending: Why You Might Be Doing Both Wrong

What You Need To Know About X
What You Need To Know About Retirement
What You Need To Know About Saving

Why/How

Why Working With A Financial Advisor Matters
Why Planning Your Legacy Now Is Important
How You Can Save Even With Debt
How Your Retirement May Change Next Year

The Future

The Future of Retirement
In Your Future–A Better Retirement Plan

The Missing

One Big Thing Missing From Your Retirement Plan

Just For You

Selected Just For You—Key Life Insurance Stats

You Don’t A/B Test

Most email platforms will allow you to A/B test an email before sending it out to your entire list. Often this is used to test subject lines, but in many cases, can be used to test other elements. Test variants of buttons, colors, links, fonts, and images—as well as subject lines—to determine the best performing template.

You Include Too Many Images or Too Much Text

An image or two can spice up an email, but going overboard can distract from the content and worse, affect deliverability. Putting too much text in an email can cause eye strain, with consumers ignoring the important details. If you have a piece of communication that needs to go over a few hundred words, place the content on your website and tease it in the body of the email.

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