Grant Carmichael, MBA, CISSP │ July 14, 2026
The Problem With Most Advisor Newsletters
You already know what a bad financial advisor newsletter looks like. It arrives on a Tuesday. It has a subject line like “Q2 Market Update.” It’s three paragraphs of vague macro commentary, a stock photo of a graph, and a signature block. You read half of it, forget it existed, and move on.
This is what the majority of advisor newsletters look like. And it’s why open rates tank, unsubscribes creep up, and the newsletter eventually gets killed because “nobody reads it anyway.” The content wasn’t the problem — the format was.
A newsletter that people actually read does one thing the average advisor newsletter doesn’t: it treats the reader like a real person with a real problem, not a compliance checkbox to file. Here’s how to build one.
"I've audited financial advisor email sequences where emails 1 through 7 barely got opened. Then email 8 arrived with a subject line about a last chance to act — and the open rate spiked. The content of the sequence wasn't the problem. The subject line was the whole game, the entire time."
Why Email Still Works for Financial Advisors
Before the formula, the case for why this matters — and I’ll make it real: I worked with a financial advisor who ran a lead magnet funnel. Someone downloaded it, got added to the email list, and received monthly newsletters for three years. That person became a $5 million client.
Three years of consistent, low-cost email contact turned a download into one of the most valuable client relationships in the practice. That’s not a marketing stat. That’s a real outcome from a real email program built to stay top of mind over the long game.
The EVANCED Marketing Platform ties email into the full client journey — so you can see which emails drive follow-up calls, which segments are engaging, and which clients haven’t heard from you in 90 days. But first you need content worth sending. Here’s the structure.
The 9-Step Newsletter Formula
If the subject line doesn’t earn the open, nothing else matters. Most advisor subject lines fail because they describe content instead of creating curiosity or signaling value. “Q2 Newsletter” tells the reader exactly what they’re getting — and they’ve decided they don’t need it before they’ve opened it.
A good subject line does one of three things: it sparks curiosity, it names a specific problem, or it promises something concrete. Keep it under 50 characters. Test it on yourself: would you open this email if you didn’t write it?
| Type | Bad | Better |
|---|---|---|
| Market update | Q2 Market Commentary | What Q2 volatility actually means for your plan |
| Tax topic | Year-End Tax Planning Reminder | 3 things to do before December 31st |
| Retirement | Retirement Planning Tips | The retirement math most people get wrong |
| General | Monthly Newsletter — July | One question worth asking your advisor this month |
The first paragraph of your newsletter should name a tension your reader is living with. Not a market update. Not a product announcement. A real, specific concern that a person in your target client profile is carrying around.
“A lot of people approaching retirement right now are watching rates, watching their account balances, and quietly wondering if the plan still works. If that’s you, here’s what I’m seeing and what it means.” That’s a first line someone keeps reading. “Welcome to the July edition of our newsletter” is not.
After naming the challenge, briefly establish why you have something useful to say about it. Not a credentials list. One sentence that connects your experience to their problem. “I’ve helped dozens of clients navigate this exact situation over the past 15 years” does the job. It signals competence without a bio recitation.
This is the brand messaging principle in action: you’re the guide, not the hero. The client is the hero. Your job is to make their journey easier.
This is the meat of the email — the actual content. Two to four short paragraphs. A specific framework, a checklist, a perspective they haven’t heard, or a decision they should be making. Concrete, not vague. Specific, not general.
The failure mode here is writing content so broad and hedge-everything that it communicates nothing. “Markets go up and down and it’s important to stay diversified” is not a plan. “Here are three questions to ask before you make any changes to your allocation in the next 90 days” is a plan.
Before the CTA, help the reader visualize what applying your advice actually produces. One or two sentences. “Clients who did this review in Q3 went into year-end with a much cleaner tax picture and no year-end scramble.” This isn’t hype — it’s context. It answers the reader’s implicit question: “Why does this matter?”
It also bridges naturally into your call to action, which comes next. You’ve named the problem, given the plan, shown the outcome — now it’s time to invite action.
Every email needs one clear call to action. Not three. Not a footer full of links. One. The ask should be proportional to where you are in the relationship — a newsletter to existing clients can ask for a check-in call. A nurture email to a cold prospect should ask for something smaller, like downloading a guide or replying with a question.
“If any of this resonates and you want to talk through your situation, reply to this email or grab 20 minutes on my calendar here.” That’s a good CTA. It’s specific, low-friction, and personal.
Email platforms reward engagement — replies, clicks, forwards. One of the most effective things you can do in any email is ask a simple question and invite a reply. “What’s the one financial topic you wish you understood better? Hit reply and tell me — I read everything.” This builds list health, surfaces client concerns, and creates real conversations.
Most advisors skip this because it feels informal. That’s exactly why it works. Your clients trust you. Informal is fine. Unresponsive is not.
After the main message and CTA, add a short secondary section: a tip, a stat, a quick explainer, or a resource. This is the “P.S. you might find this useful” section. It adds value for readers who scroll past the main CTA and rewards engagement without diluting the primary message.
Keep it to three to five sentences. A tax deadline reminder, a link to a relevant article you wrote, a question worth thinking about. Short. Self-contained. Optional to read.
Close with something personal. Not “Best regards, [Name].” Something that sounds like a real person wrote it. A brief note about what you’re thinking about this month. A one-sentence observation. “We’ve been having a lot of conversations lately about sequence-of-returns risk. If that term sounds unfamiliar, it’s worth a conversation before your retirement date.”
Personality in a financial services email is rare enough that it gets noticed. Be the advisor who sounds like a person. It compounds over time into the kind of relationship where clients refer without being asked.
Frequency, Compliance, and Platform
Monthly is the minimum. Bi-weekly is better if you can sustain the quality. Weekly only makes sense if each email is short and tightly focused — a single insight, not a full newsletter format.
For compliance: work with your broker-dealer or RIA compliance team on pre-approval workflows. Most platforms like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and ActiveCampaign support archiving for FINRA requirements. Make sure your system keeps records. EVANCED handles this as part of every email marketing engagement — compliance workflow included, not as an afterthought.
- Does your subject line create curiosity or name a specific problem?
- Does your first paragraph name a tension your reader is actually feeling?
- Is there exactly one CTA — and is it specific and low-friction?
- Does your email sound like it was written by a person or generated by a compliance department?
- Are you sending at least once a month, consistently, without gaps?
- Do you have a way to track opens, clicks, and replies so you can improve?
- Is your unsubscribe rate under 0.3% per send? If higher, the content or frequency needs work.
"The best newsletter you can send is one your clients forward to someone and say 'my advisor sent this — thought you'd find it useful.' That forward is a warm referral. Build the newsletter worth forwarding."
If you want to build an email program that actually drives client retention and referrals — not just fills a compliance box — that’s a conversation worth having. We build these from scratch or audit and fix what’s already running. Let’s talk.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Grant Carmichael
Founder & Chief Strategist, EVANCED · MBA, CISSP, GCSA · Google Certified Partner
Build a Newsletter Your Clients Actually Look Forward To
EVANCED builds and manages email programs for financial advisors — from strategy and copywriting to compliance workflow and performance tracking.
