We Analysed 1,000 Fund Marketing Emails—These 5 Templates Won
What does it take to break the email marketing mould? Is it about busting the bank to ‘out-Blackrock Blackrock’, catching a lucky viral moment, or some simple know-how? Luckily for any sized fund, it’s the latter. Crafting emails to the tastes of today’s investors is one part research, one part ingenuity.
We’ve spent an awful lot of time investigating the emails haves and have-nots that are specific to asset and wealth management and the hedge fund space. Thousands in fact, and no matter how they’re dressed and who to, every single communication has to include an intrinsic purpose that showcases the unique benefits of any firm – what you can do for an investor, and what separates you as a stand out brand committed to excellence through customer service and content expertise.
So while it may be a quick fix to grab a design agency that makes whiz-bang templates for you to repurpose, they may not be as successful as those that understand an investment audience. Creative Directors are a better idea in that they understand a fund’s brand and relay that across every marketing platform, emails included, giving them a competitive edge when they sit in inboxes. But if that’s not an option, any marketer can adapt simple design processes to every type of email to 1) portray value to the investor, and 2) contribute to the overall AuM-building strategy.
In our analysis, we’ve deduced five key templates that do a lot of heavy lifting in nurturing prospects and existing investors, from updates about their holdings to cordial exclusive invites. In thinking that form follows function, we’ll outline why we see these as winners from both a practical and aesthetic point of view, and inspirations for any budding email marketing aficionados to repurpose in their own artistic ways.
Fund Commentaries That Talk to Investors
Why It Wins
Relaying financial information – especially weekly, month-by-month, or annual results – in one combined package is not easy. It can look too much like a stock exchange section of the FT, lists and lists of numbers or tiny text that come across as contractual.
Here, this email treats the fund as what it is: a service that’s intended to provide personal benefits to an investor. It showcases a one-to-one connection between money manager and recipient, addressing their goals, risk, and educates about the current landscape and what the projected future looks like.
Practicality
It’s obvious from the heading what fund is being talked about, getting straight to the point.
If an investor wants to learn more, they’ll follow up. Shorter commentaries enhance the graphics to tell a story since the last update, without waffling on.
Quotes from a trusted portfolio are highlighted to heighten the brand feel upfront, making it a personal exchange that tees up the performance graphs, rather than forces them.
The graphs are benchmarked or compared to past performance––packing in all relevant information in a short space and being transparent.
Aesthetics
Draping the entire visual elements – the hero image, and line graphs – in branded colours exists for effective brand recognition.
Any additional graphics, such as the portfolio manager photos, add a touch of design flair and authenticity without taking away space from the financials. These, like any graphs (static and interactive), can be swapped in from a media library without fiddly resizing or formatting.
Bold fonts for summaries and quotations is an unbelievably quick way to highlight pertinent information without fussing with the look and feel. Different colours for this text can also be used for extra ‘pop’.
Unignorable Webinar Invites
Why It Wins
Digitalisation is outstanding for connectivity, no less in the webinar space. In fact, almost half of B2B marketers counted virtual events as their best performing content in the past year.
With so many around, busy investors cannot attend every hour-long talk. In that case, this fund email does what it needs to. It is bold without being pushy, and signifies straight away what takeaways attendees will get. It gets across value, as well as ‘what, when, where, why, and how’ in one small package.
Practicality
It does more with little, copy-wise. It stresses exclusivity in the subject to achieve quicker sign-ups. The more registrations and contact details, the more likely the chances of desired follow-ups with additional content.
All the information from the persuasive title and dates and times are wrapped into a single section. One content space is all an investor needs to understand what’s in it for them, if they’re free to join, and sign up.
Explaining the webinar’s benefits should not be a long spiel. Instead, in this way, it should focus on networking, learning and engaging with fund managers.
Aesthetics
Placing the details in a large graphic ties the event name, place and time to the brand. It becomes immediately memorable and looks tidy.
The call to actions jump from the page, vibrantly signposting the one route investors need to take to perform their intended action.
A scrollable format ‘offers’ more information for investors that want to know more, giving the impression of granting additional benefits for those that seek them.
Colourful links draw attention to contact details without taking any additional real estate.
Beyond the ‘Thank You’ Note
Why It Wins
This attendance recognition crams in everything that’s necessary to both those that signed up and attended, and those that registered but could not make the date. It addresses both camps subtly through content – but not just any content – varying lead magnets to promote interactions with a separate landing page or form, attuned to their preference for video or visual formats.
Practicality
The copy is short and sweet. The marketer’s purpose is to get downloads from visual media, and that’s what the investor will expect from this mailer. A decluttered ‘content library’ fulfills those needs.
The call to actions are direct and near the top, while those that require further assistance do not need to trail through interactive elements to get to the contact details tied to the sales or customer service team.
Aesthetics
Utilising the same as the webinar invite graphic looks familiar to all sign-ups. There’s consistency there, conveying what the email refers to immediately before they dive in and keeps them ‘locked in’ to the topic, event and fund at that crucial follow-up time.
The ‘play’ button and PDF icon look clickable, sending them to a relevant download page directly without them having to look far.
They say “a picture tells a thousand stories” and the icons portray sustainability and positive world impact for an emotional pull that also looks sleek and modern.
Official In-Person Invites
Why It Wins
Like online events, investors should understand what to expect from them and why they should join. But unlike their web-based counterparts, on-site events need to get them out of the house! This emailer is all about being sophisticated, professional and promoting exclusivity without being stuffy.
Here it manages to do so while giving a running order of the day to signify what learnings they’ll receive by signing up.
Practicality
So much information gets conveyed into what is essentially a one-page digital pamphlet. The salutations, event details, agenda, and what to expect are all addressed in a ‘block’ format. This separates the text from clickable features so it’s not distracting, and informative.
Aesthetics
Blending the event venue in with the fund’s branding in the hero image is a smart move: adding credibility and being eye-catching. A cut-and-paste stock image would look impersonal and not feel like a ‘real’ event in the same way.
It’s very subtle, but both the cream background and the font and colour differentiation in each section’s titles helps break up these ‘block’ components. This makes the info-packed email feel like a seamless step by step introduction for easy readership.
Announcing Achievements
Why It Wins
It’s easy to gush about a personal achievement. But this template places the impetus on the investors and the specific fund’s contributions itself rather than the company. It uses imagery to specifically display the fund’s value before getting to the performance side of things, and is therefore not so ‘salesy’.
Practicality
Think, “why should this news matter to the investor?” In this example they’re a valued part of the success, shown through an initial salutation the email’s only longer-form copy that commends their role. It’s all that’s needed to strengthen the relationship between fund and investor.
However, this email also works to guide recipients through fund page links and a downloadable report landing page. This could spur further activity with other funds in a range. It’s easier to grab attention for other products after some good news!
Aesthetics
Merging the financial branding with that of Morningstar is ultra effective in tying the fund’s value to a level pedigree, using only two entwined icons.
The email can afford to be heavier with images as the rating logos give more sway than text, saved for investors that wish to explore more about performance and metrics.
Every element is laid out neatly, even when stuffing multiple credentials into an image box which, in turn, makes it feel like more!
Given the number of emails we all receive – a combination of discounts, RSVPs, the abandoned baskets – the amount of inspiration out there for effective, engaging templates is overwhelming.
But we hope that these examples take away that option paralysis to focus on what matters: drawing in touchpoints from investors that boost the readership and viewership of your content base, or success in greater event attendees and asset-raising opportunities.
Emails serve many use cases, all being powerful helpers to any fund marketer. With these five UX designs, this covers the bases for any go-to market plan to get off to a fantastic headstart.
