Why send a newsletter?
Because it will make you money and if done in the right way, you will be able to track exactly the amount you earn. While most financial professionals use a newsletter as a branding tool (i.e. promote a good image), smart professionals use the newsletter as a direct-response tool to make sales. While branding is fine, you never know if you are earning money from your branding efforts. Direct-response however gives you metrics to track (calls, email and sales) so that you can see the profitability.
Farm It Out
While it is easy to create a newsletter (there are many desktop publishing tools), few advisors have the writing talent needed (or frankly, a sufficiently broad education). Therefore, most will want to use ghost-written articles, i.e. a prepared newsletter written by financial professionals. The writing staff will typically have writers whose expertise and knowledge may exceed your own in specific areas (e.g., CPAs, CFAs) and permit delivery of articles of great value for your prospects and clients.
Simplify Compliance
Such professionally written newsletters will have articles that have ALREADY been FINRA reviewed and tremendously reduce the compliance hassle for you. In most cases, the FINRA review is sufficient for compliance officers to give the okay at smaller firms. The large wire houses may still want to do their own review. If changes are required, the right newsletter will allow you to easily change words or sentences to make the article compliant per your firm's requirements .
Where's the Profit?
A newsletter which merely has good content has no value if it does not generate business for you. A good newsletter is a direct-response tool and the advisor should be able to track revenue attributable to the newsletter. As an example, in the SeniorFinances newsletter, every article leaves the reader without the punch-line, begs an unanswered question or offers an add-on to the article. The result is inquiries to the advisor and new sales. Sending a newsletter which is just a “feel good” item from which the advisor cannot track sales, is frankly, a waste of time and money.
Your Silent Sales Person
The newsletter MUST be sent monthly. The average consumer is bombarded by so many inputs that if the advisor does not get in front of the investor or insurance buyer every 30 days, they forget him. The monthly visit by the newsletter subconsciously reflects to the reader staying power and consistency of the advisor.
Send or email the newsletter to prospects and clients. When constructed as per the above, it will convert prospects to clients (via their inquiries) and generate additional business from clients who have not taken the initiative to call.
The right newsletter is like having a sales assistant that does not need a vacation or benefits and never has a sick day.
[…] marketing methods (seminars, telemarketing, direct mail, referrals, etc). Prospects get your marketing piece each month. If you deliver the right content, two percent (20 people) will take action. That action […]