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

As a quick reminder, we provide flexible, compliance-approved content solutions for financial service firms to help retain clients and generate leads.

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:

• What is “XMail”?

• 10 marketing predictions for 2025

• Your Newsletter's Number 1 Goal

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LINKS WORTH A LOOK

🗣️ Marketing News & Insights

• Elon Musk Hints at 'Xmail' : A Potential Rival to Gmail and Apple Mail (Entrepreneur)

• 10 marketing predictions for 2025 as new era of productivity dawns (Marketing Dive)

• Launch A Thought Leadership Content Program In 30 Days (Forbes)

💼 Industry News & Insights

• Nearly 71% Of New Advisors Drop Out Within 5 Years (FA-Mag)

• Five Ways Financial Planners Can Exceed Client Expectations In 2025 (MorningStar)

• Using Feedback Surveys To Discover What Clients Value (Flow Financial Planning)

🤔 Honorable Mentions

• 27% of SMBs Fail at Customer Follow-Up—Here’s What It’s Costing Them (Lifewire)

• How To Create An Irresistible Offer: 8 Psychological Triggers (I Mean Marketing)

• The Difference Between CRM and ESP (LeadPages)

DEEP DIVE

Your Newsletter's Number 1 Goal: Actually Making it to the Inbox

Deliverability directly impacts your bottom line.

If your open rates are consistently low, it’s often not due to your content, but because your emails aren’t making it to your subscribers' inboxes. Poor deliverability leads to wasted effort, lost revenue, and diminished audience trust.

What is the point of writing a newsletter if it never actually makes it to your audience’s inbox?

Inbox providers use algorithms to evaluate whether an email is worthy of landing in the inbox. If too many of your emails are flagged as spam or bounced, your sender reputation—the "credit score" of your email domain—takes a hit, and your future emails may be blocked altogether.

Today we’ll dive into the topic of deliverability and share some best practices you can implement now to ensure your 2025 email marketing efforts aren’t wasted.

Email Deliverability Best Practices

1. Authenticate Your Domain

Think of domain authentication as proving your identity to email providers. By setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, you provide proof that your emails are legitimate and not being sent by impersonators. Authentication improves your credibility and reduces the likelihood that your emails will be marked as suspicious.

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework) ensures that only authorized servers can send emails on your behalf.

• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) adds a unique encrypted signature to your emails.

• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) helps prevent unauthorized use of your domain.

2. Build and Maintain a Clean Email List

Avoid the temptation to buy email lists. Purchased lists are filled with invalid addresses, spam traps, and disengaged recipients that hurt your sender reputation. Instead, build your list organically through opt-ins and gated content.

Regularly clean your list by removing inactive subscribers and invalid emails. Email validation tools can help identify addresses that bounce, ensuring you're only emailing real people.

3. Provide a Clear Opt-In and Opt-Out Process

Subscribers who willingly opt-in to your emails are more likely to engage. Use double opt-in where subscribers confirm their email addresses to ensure they truly want your content. Additionally, always include a clear and easy-to-find unsubscribe link. Making it difficult for users to opt-out can lead to spam complaints, which tank your sender score.

4. Engage Your Audience with Quality Content

Inbox providers monitor user engagement—like opens, clicks, and replies—to determine whether your emails are relevant. If subscribers routinely ignore or delete your emails, it signals to email providers that your content may not be valuable.

Focus on delivering content your audience cares about. Personalize emails with the recipient’s name, mention relevant details, and segment your audience to ensure each email is tailored to their interests.

5. Avoid Spam Triggers

Certain words and practices can set off spam filters. Avoid excessive use of all caps, exclamation points, and phrases like "100% free" or "Congratulations, you’ve won!" Be mindful of your email formatting and avoid sending emails with large attachments or too many links.

Monitor Your Email Metrics

Consistently review your email deliverability metrics, such as bounce rate, open rate, and click-through rate. If you notice a spike in bounces or spam complaints, investigate the issue promptly.

Free tools like Google Postmaster Tools and third-party services like Litmus and Mailgun can provide insights into how inbox providers view your emails.

This is Absolutely Essential

Email deliverability is an essential but often overlooked component of a successful email marketing strategy. By implementing authentication, building a high-quality list, maintaining engagement, and avoiding spam triggers, you can improve your sender reputation and maximize the impact of your campaigns.

At Money Marketers, we help financial service firms create compliance-approved email marketing strategies that not only captivate their audience but also land in their inboxes.

If you’re struggling with email deliverability or want to take your content marketing to the next level, let’s chat about how we can help.

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