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:

• How to Design Mobile-Optimized Emails

• A Landing Page That Will Double Your Leads

• Robinhood Lets You Bet On The Election

First time reading? Sign up here

LINKS WORTH A LOOK

🗣️ Marketing News & Insights

• Copy This Perfect Landing Page To Double Your Leads Instantly (Wes McDowell)

• Back to Basics: Social Media Marketing for Your Brokerage (National Association of Realtors)

• Why Marketers Are Spending Less on Social Media (Harvard Business Review)

💼 Industry News & Insights

• A $12 Trillion Opportunity for Financial Advisors (A Wealth of Common Sense)

• Robinhood rolls out contracts to bet on US presidential election (Reuters)

• Brightwave’s AI agent helps asset managers find signal, and it’s fundraising fast (TechCrunch)

🤔 Honorable Mentions

• It’s Time to Bring 401(k)s Into the 21st Century (WSJ, Subscription Required)

• Advisor Sentiment Index: Confidence in the Economy Ticks Upward (Wealth Management)

• The Number One Way Americans are Becoming Millionaires (Morningstar)

DEEP DIVE

How to Design Mobile-Optimized Emails to Generate Leads & Engagement

Here’s a fun and important fact that everyone on this list needs to know:

Roughly 3 in 5 consumers check their email on the go (mobile) and 75% of them say they use their smartphones most often to check email.

Cool, why should you care?

Because if the design of your email looks terrible on the phone, you might as well just not even send it.

Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but it’s not far from the truth.

Not only is it a bad look for your brand (ESPECIALLY for younger audiences), but you’re probably not generating the leads and engagement you want when you press “send”.

Even if the content is more educational, and you’re not looking for clicks or calls, you want to make sure that your audience actually enjoys reading what you wrote.

In my opinion, design isn’t rocket science.

Yes, there are some master designers out there (we have a few on our team), and they do make a difference.

But if you’re looking to upgrade the look and feel of your newsletters by yourself, here are a few things to keep in mind to deliver value and drive leads on small screens.

K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid)

When it comes to fonts and colors, simplicity and readability are key on mobile devices.

Stick to clean, sans-serif fonts like Arial, Helvetica, or Roboto, as they’re easy to read at smaller sizes and adapt well to various screen resolutions.

Avoid fonts with thin strokes or excessive embellishments, as these can blur or appear pixelated on mobile screens.

In terms of color, high contrast works best. Dark text on a white or light background remains the gold standard for readability, but if you're aiming for a bolder look, deep blues or charcoal grays on off-white backgrounds are both readable and stylish.

For call-to-action buttons, use vibrant, contrasting colors like blue, green, or orange, as they stand out against white or dark backgrounds and draw attention to where it matters most. Just remember to keep your color scheme consistent with your overall brand, namely your website.

💡 Pro Tip: Keep your margins tight! Excessive margins may look good on desktop but can significantly reduce the valuable screen real estate on mobile devices.

Too-big margins force readers to scroll more than necessary, diluting the impact of your message and potentially causing frustration.

Aim for balanced, narrow margins that give enough space for readability without wasting precious space—this keeps your content compact, easy to read, and focused, encouraging quick engagement from clients, app users, traders, etc.

Break Up the Text

This is a personal favorite because I learned the hard way from a subscriber of ours who HATED the fact that we didn’t put any spaces between big blocks of text in our newsletter. They said it was hard to read and guess what they were right!

On mobile devices, breaking up text into 2-3 sentence chunks is essential for readability. A single, dense paragraph can take up the entire screen, making it feel overwhelming and hard to digest.

By keeping paragraphs short, you allow readers to scroll through and absorb information quickly, which is exactly what we're doing here—using brief, separated paragraphs to keep your attention focused.

This approach respects the mobile user's experience, allowing them to skim, grasp key points, and engage without feeling bogged down by a wall of text.

Top-Spot Magic: Why Your Link Should Lead the Way

If your email's goal is to drive action, placing a link at the top of the newsletter—before readers even need to scroll—is a powerful move.

Why?

This prime position catches attention right away, making it more likely that subscribers will click through.

When readers engage quickly, it boosts the email's click-through rate, signaling to email providers that your content is valuable, which in turn can improve inbox deliverability.

Beyond that, these clicks also help you identify your most engaged subscribers, enabling you to create lookalike audiences in Facebook and Google marketing.

Targeting these lookalike groups makes your campaigns both cheaper and more efficient, as you're reaching people similar to those already interested in your content.

In short, an early link can have a cascading effect on both your marketing ROI and email success.

Consistency Counts: Educate, Engage, Repeat

If the primary goal of your newsletter is to educate rather than drive immediate action, you can afford to make it a bit longer and skip having links up top.

However, consistency in format is crucial. When readers know what to expect each week, they’re more likely to engage and stick with it over time.

A simple structure—like three sections of about 300 words each—gives a solid framework without overwhelming the audience.

This consistent layout makes the reading experience smoother and becomes part of the design itself.

Over time, readers become familiar with the flow, making it easy for them to find the information they value most, which ultimately builds trust and loyalty.

Design for Dark Mode

Around half of all emails are now opened in dark mode, especially on mobile devices. Ensure your email design accounts for this shift by testing both light and dark modes.

Use transparent PNGs for logos and icons, and avoid black text on transparent backgrounds.

When I first started designing for mobile, I didn’t realize just how critical dark mode was until I noticed a drop-off in engagement due to images and text not displaying correctly.

Now, dark mode testing is standard for every email we send.

Test Across Multiple Devices and Platforms

Finally, never underestimate the importance of thorough testing. Email clients vary widely in how they render emails, and mobile devices are even more unpredictable.

Make sure to test your email across various devices and email platforms to see what adjustments may be necessary.

For retail investing apps or asset managers, the stakes are high, so a glitch-free experience is paramount.

Designing emails that resonate with busy professionals isn’t just about looks; it’s about strategically delivering content in a way that respects their time.

By implementing these insider tips, you’ll be on your way to creating mobile-friendly emails that drive results and build engagement.

If you’re ready to take your email marketing to the next level, let’s talk. Click here to schedule a time to talk. Make it a great week, we’ll see you back here next Monday.

VINTAGE AD SPOTLIGHT