ADVISOR MARKETING

Susan Theder

Your best shot at engaging clients might be mixing text and email.

F YOU’ VE INVESTED IN YOUR EMAIL MARKETING, GOOD. KEEP GOING.

Email is still one of the most effective ways to stay in front of clients, share your thinking, and demonstrate your expertise over time. The relationships it builds are real.

But here’ s what email can’ t always do: get your client’ s attention immediately.

That’ s where texting changes things. It’ s not a replacement for email.

It’ s the missing piece of your email strategy. In fact, combining the two channels can increase your customers’ engagement with you.

Different Jobs, Different Channels

Think about how you actually communicate in your own life. You likely send long updates to people by email. You text someone when you need a quick answer, or when something is time-sensitive, or when you just want to check in.

Your clients think the same way. And once you start treating texting and email as two tools with two distinct purposes, both become more effective.

It’ s email that’ s going to carry the weight of your content strategy. It’ s where you send the market commentary, the retirement planning guide, the quarterly newsletter. Text, on the other hand, handles the moment-to-moment stuff: the appointment reminder, the document nudge, the quick note after a volatile week.

The results speak for themselves: People often respond to texts within minutes, whereas they will wait for email, with the average response times for the latter being measured in hours, not minutes, according to marketing specialists.

Clients’ expectations about your communications with them have shifted, and they didn’ t slow down to ask you permission.

Yet when email is included, it covers the full communication spectrum. Separately, text communication has gaps that email covers( and vice versa).

What Clients Expect Now

Clients’ expectations about your communications with them have shifted, and they didn’ t slow down to ask you permission. Your clients are getting same-day responses from their insurance broker, their real estate agent, their bank. They’ re confirming appointments by text and getting instant updates on everything from a flight delay to a prescription refill. That’ s the baseline they carry into every relationship, including yours.

This doesn’ t mean clients expect you to be available around the clock. It means they expect responsiveness when it matters, and they notice when it’ s missing. Consider a three-day email thread that’ s required to confirm a meeting time. Or a game of phone tag about a simple document request. These ways of interacting create friction that erodes people’ s confidence over time. Not because your clients are impatient, but because they’ re comparing the communication experience they have with you to every other service in their life.

Texting closes that gap. When you check in to confirm appointments or discuss market moves or ask the client about some big event in their lives, these moments of timely contact signal attentiveness in a way

MAY / JUNE 2026 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | 17