Hey, it’s Brooks. Welcome to Mondays with Money Marketers, where Wall Street meets Madison Avenue.

As a quick reminder: We’re an email marketing agency for financial service firms. We use email to drive leads, increase conversion rates, reduce churn, and boost your bottom line.

We taught ourselves how to do everything above by growing our own newsletter, The Street Sheet, from 5,000 subscribers to 160,000 subscribers (and counting).

We then took what we learned and started helping companies like J.P. Morgan, SoFi, Empower, Benzinga, and more with their email and content marketing.

Every Monday, we share tips and tricks we’ve learned that you can implement yourself.

Before we dive in, here's a link to my calendar if you'd like to discuss how we can help you generate more business.

In today’s edition:

• The Marketing KPIs Financial Firms Should Track

• How to Spend Less Time on Email Marketing – And Still Make Money

• Morgan Stanley’s CMO on bringing brand purpose to life through sports

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LINKS WORTH A LOOK

🗣️ Marketing News & Insights

• How to Spend Less Time on Email Marketing – And Still Make Money (Entrepreneur)

• 3 high-impact email automations you need to drive revenue (MarTech)

• How to Embed a Video in an Email: 4 Simple Methods (Vimeo)

💼 Industry News & Insights

• New Advisor Survey Finds Rapid Attitude Shift on AI (ThinkAdvisor)

• Advisor M&A Deals Fueled By Desire To Grow, Experts Say (Financial Advisor)

• Financial Advisors: 6 Stages to Signing a New Client (MorningStar)

🤔 Honorable Mentions

• Morgan Stanley’s CMO on bringing brand purpose to life through sports (MarketingDive)

• Gathering Feedback That Counts: Crafting Client Surveys To Offer Services That Matter Most (Kitches)

• Raising Advisors' Marketing Game – In Conversation With Ficomm Partners (Family Wealth Report)

DEEP DIVE

Green Means Growth: The Marketing KPIs Financial Firms Should Track

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Today, everything is about green—but for financial firms, green isn’t just the color of luck, it’s the color of growth. And when it comes to marketing, growth doesn’t happen by chance—it happens by tracking the right data and making informed decisions.

Most financial firms invest in content marketing, email campaigns, and social media, but few actually measure whether those efforts are leading to tangible business results. So, how do you know if your marketing is working? The answer lies in tracking the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Here are the marketing KPIs every financial firm should monitor to ensure their efforts are leading to long-term growth.

1. Cost Per Lead (CPL): Are You Spending Smart?

Generating leads is great, but if you’re paying too much to acquire them, your marketing efforts won’t be sustainable. CPL measures how much you’re spending to bring in each new lead. To calculate it, use:

💰 CPL = Total Marketing Spend / Number of Leads Generated

A high CPL could indicate inefficiencies in your marketing funnel. Consider optimizing your email marketing, social media ads, or SEO strategy to reduce acquisition costs.

2. Conversion Rate: Are Leads Turning Into Clients?

Bringing in leads is one thing—converting them into paying clients is another. Your conversion rate tells you how effective your sales funnel is.

📊 Conversion Rate = (Number of Conversions / Total Leads) x 100

If your conversion rate is low, it might be time to refine your follow-up emails, adjust your offer, or improve your call-to-action.

3. Email Open & Click-Through Rates: Are People Engaged?

Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools for financial service firms—but if no one is opening your emails, it won’t drive results.

📩 Open Rate = (Emails Opened / Emails Sent) x 100
🔗 Click-Through Rate (CTR) = (Clicks / Emails Sent) x 100

If your open rates are low, test different subject lines. If CTR is struggling, improve your email copy and call-to-action.

We wrote an entire article on specific KPIs to track for just e-mail marketing. You can read that here.

One important note: Open rates have become less reliable due to privacy measures like Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP). MPP works by preloading email content, including tracking pixels, on Apple’s servers before the recipient opens the email. This process marks emails as “opened” even if the recipient hasn’t viewed them, leading to inflated open rate statistics.

4. Website Traffic & Time on Page: Are People Finding Value?

Your website is your digital storefront. If you’re investing in content marketing but not getting traffic, something’s off. Key metrics to track:

• Total website visits – Is your content attracting people?

• Time on page – Are they actually reading?

• Bounce rate – Are they leaving immediately?

A high bounce rate may indicate weak content or poor website design.

5. ROI on Marketing Spend: Is It Worth It?

At the end of the day, marketing is an investment. If it’s not generating a return, it’s time to pivot.

📈 Marketing ROI = (Revenue from Marketing – Cost of Marketing) / Cost of Marketing

A positive ROI means your marketing efforts are fueling growth. If not, reevaluate your strategy.

Final Thoughts

Green means growth—but only if you’re tracking the right numbers. By monitoring these KPIs, you can ensure your marketing is a revenue-generating machine, not just a cost center.

Need help refining your marketing strategy? Money Marketers specializes in content marketing that delivers real results. Let’s talk.

AD SPOTLIGHT: WSJ