Episode Summary
On Episode 2 of The Out & About Podcast, Tiffany and Jimmy explore what makes financial services newsletters engaging — focusing on faces, stories, and simple ways to get personal without oversharing. They discuss why consistency builds anticipation and how team pages signal trust, and offer low-lift content ideas teams can start using this week.
Key Takeaways:
Newsletters can feel routine but that consistency is actually their strength. While many newsletters lean on links and education alone, what really grabs attention is people. Faces and stories can help humanize financial services and make your message feel more relatable and memorable.
- Financial services firms want their newsletters to drive engagement, but it can be tricky to know how personal to get and how to involve busy teams.
- Research shows that About Us and Team pages are some of the most-visited on firm websites. People want to know who they’ll be working with, so newsletters should reflect that same interest in the people behind the business.
- There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to your newsletter content. One client we work with has built a culture where everyone contributes short professional or personal anecdotes to the monthly newsletter, which has led to high engagement and open rates. Another client takes a different route, focusing on professional updates only. Both approaches work — it comes down to what fits your firm’s culture.
- A few surprising truths came up in our conversation:
- Faces stand out: Portraits capture attention — think how your eye is drawn to a face in a gallery (hello, Mona Lisa).
- “Personal” doesn’t have to mean private: Use promotions, anniversaries, awards, and team spotlights to signal longevity and trust — no family details required.
- Simple prompts go far: Ask team members for best advice quotes or even things like first jobs. These humanize without oversharing.
Don’t Miss the ONE Thing You Should Go Do First!
- Listen for Jimmy and Tiffany’s “One Thing” recommendation — like snapping candid team photos to make your newsletter more relatable and engaging.
Links & Resources
- Previous Episode [#1]: The Out & About Podcast: Ep. 1 — Are Your Newsletters Really Engaging? Metrics Financial Marketers Should Track
- Blog Post: Why Emotionally Connecting with Clients is Good for Business in Financial Services with Brendan Frazier
- Blog Post: Tips for Effective Branding and Website Strategies for Financial Services
- Blog Post: Email Marketing Insider Tips for Financial Advisors
- Tool or Resource: Check out “Science Says”—one of our favorite newsletters!
Related Links & Episodes
- Previous Episode [#1]: The Out & About Podcast: Ep. 1 — Are Your Newsletters Really Engaging? Metrics Financial Marketers Should Track
- Blog Post: Enhancing Advisor Success: How to Add Value Beyond the Numbers Through Human Connection
- Tool or Resource: Check out “Science Says”—one of our favorite newsletters!
Join Us!
- Subscribe to our newsletter for templates, checklists and more mentioned in the show—we’re “always coming up with more things to send.”
Transcript
Tiffany Silverberg (00:09):
Honestly, we get that question. Well, it's not even a question. It's like it becomes a whole part of our meeting.
Jimmy Lim (00:15):
You know, just to add, it's the why that’s really helping clients kind of build that impression of you. I feel like I know your voice already. I've seen you move. I've seen the way you talk and that helps.
Tiffany Silverberg (00:32):
Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Out and About Podcast, where we break down all things marketing and financial services, what we see working and what we see not working. So whether you've been in the marketing seat for decades or just put on that marketing hat last, last week, last month, we're here to support you. So today on the show, I have Jimmy again, episode two, Jimmy.
Jimmy Lim (00:56):
Episode too.
Tiffany Silverberg (00:57):
That's right. We're on a roll at this point. It's just the Jimmy and Tiffany show.
Jimmy Lim (01:02):
I know.
Tiffany Silverberg (01:02):
So we're talking about newsletters again and this time what's in them. So, welcome Jimmy.
Jimmy Lim (01:07):
Thanks.
Tiffany Silverberg (01:08):
Okay. I have a question I forgot to prep you for, but do you have a favorite newsletter that you always open every time it comes into your inbox? When we say newsletter we mean an email newsletter.
Jimmy Lim (01:19):
Yeah.
Tiffany Silverberg (01:20):
Not printed. But anyway. Do you have a favorite?
Jimmy Lim (01:23):
I do.
Tiffany Silverberg (01:24):
You don't have to call out what it is.
Jimmy Lim (01:27):
I have a few. And then I have one that actually was recommended by you, Thomas McKinlay Science Says. That one's so good because it's very close to what I do, right? So for those who are wondering, what are they talking about? It's really just a marketing newsletter that is talking about data-driven insights about marketing. So consumer marketing in general. Like, did you know this works? Or when you pick this word over that word, when you make this larger and then that font size smaller, this is what happens. Fascinating.
Tiffany Silverberg (02:06):
Oh, really good one. I think they recently rebranded, so I can't remember what they're called now but you're right. That's on my must open every time it comes too. For some you're like, delete, delete. Why did I ever sign up for this? But that one is like, must open, must forward to the team. It's a good one.
Jimmy Lim (02:25):
What about you?
Tiffany Silverberg (02:28):
Yeah, well that is one. I'm trying to think of others. I mean, I like books. So I have some literature or reading-related ones that are like that. I know it's coming in at a certain time every week and it's going to have nerdy book-related stuff and I want to read it.
Tiffany Silverberg (02:48):
The consistency is key.
Jimmy Lim (02:50):
Yes. I was going to say that. It just makes me think — like a light bulb moment — it comes at a certain time every week. That's the consistency. Building the expectation. It's almost like that, oh, I lost the name of the experiment where it was a famous experiment about how when they ring the bell…
Tiffany Silverberg (03:10):
Oh, Pavlov’s dog.
Jimmy Lim (03:11):
Yes. That's the one. So it's so true.
Tiffany Silverberg (03:14):
Yes. It comes in on Friday morning and it's more leisurely, right? So it's like a routine. It's a ritual at this point. You open it.
Jimmy Lim (03:25):
That's the bell.
Tiffany Silverberg (03:25):
You plan the weekend. Yep. Totally. Yeah. So many things our clients could do with that. Okay, so we're gonna talk about newsletters, those email newsletters and what's in them. But first we'll just say, start with this positive vibe we always start with. So what are we saying yes to? So Jimmy, what are you saying yes to when it comes to what's in a newsletter?
Jimmy Lim (03:53):
What I'm saying yes to in general is visuals but really faces, just show me faces. It intrigues me. Who is that? You know, it is just a natural instinct for us to just kind of scan the room, right? I mean, even when we go to a museum, we look at pictures but then there's one with a face all the way down the corridor. Your eyes just get drawn to it.
Tiffany Silverberg (04:18):
So Mona Lisa, everyone has to go to it.
Jimmy Lim (04:20):
Yes.
Tiffany Silverberg (04:21):
I love it. Yeah, it is true. And I have to say, if our fabulous design director was here, Ellie, she would agree. We love the faces, we love the brand. Oh, what am I trying to say? Like, team photo shoots —
Jimmy Lim (04:39):
Oh yes.
Tiffany Silverberg (04:39):
— photos we can use as stock images. Those are always the best. Yeah, mine was really similar. So I'm always saying yes to just stories in newsletters, so real life stuff. People-related stuff. That's always the best.
Jimmy Lim (04:56):
Stories. Yeah. I mean, everyone loves a good story, from when we were kids to even now, right? That's what drives a lot of social media, like TikTok, storytelling. Do you know what happened when I went to the blah, blah, blah? And then you get hooked.
Tiffany Silverberg (05:11):
Yes, exactly. Well, it just humanizes things. I think especially in this financial services world, everything can kind of become numbers and that's the, well, this is probably like a whole separate podcast but that's often the hangup maybe, or the perception is that like it's all dry, it's boring, boring marketing but it doesn't have to be. There's so many good stories to share. Cool. So shall we dive in?
Jimmy Lim (05:42):
Yes.
Tiffany Silverberg (05:43):
Okay.
Jimmy Lim (05:44):
So what are we talking about?
Tiffany Silverberg (05:46):
What are we talking about? What's the problem? Well, we just said people stuff, people stuff in the newsletters. So faces, stories, all that kind of stuff. Tell us about the data there.
Jimmy Lim (06:01):
Yeah, I was going to say something interesting to share, right? I know you quote this pretty often as well, that when I looked at the data for our clients in terms of their websites, we have a Homepage, obviously that should be the most visited page. That's a no brainer. But typically the top three pages, second or third would be the Team page. And it just nicely is supported by or dovetails into other research done by other companies where they have shown people really want to know who are the ones who are doing, I'm just gonna lump the term, like salespeople, who are the ones on the team, right? And this really could be even a social media page for a coffee company, a cafe showing who's the barista making the coffee.
Tiffany Silverberg (06:53):
Yeah.
Jimmy Lim (06:53):
Even something as non-personal as that — it's a coffee.
Tiffany Silverberg (06:59):
Yeah. Yeah.
Jimmy Lim (07:00):
So that's the thing. People are just really interested about the team and what do you think could be the challenge or thing to overcome?
Tiffany Silverberg (07:13):
Yeah. So I was gonna say with this particular podcast topic, we could go anywhere with it, right? You want to share blog posts, you want to share information, education. But I think the tricky thing is exactly that. How do we share more about people? And it goes into social media and all of that kind of stuff too. But we'll talk about newsletters in particular, and honestly we get that question. Well, it's not even a question. It becomes a whole part of our meeting, like, okay team, how are we going to share more about your team? There's so many challenges, right? How do we even get the team involved? Everyone's too busy, right? They're doing more important work, better work, I don't know. Or just the other thing. What we're probably gonna use is the title.
We'll see how do you get personal without being too personal? So I'll just share it because we have one client whose whole team is involved. It's built into the culture that everyone knows you'll be sharing something in the newsletter every month. I don't think it's a have-to for them because I've noticed a couple people come and go. But especially the leadership, they always just share a little anecdote about what they're doing professionally, what they're doing personally, every single month. And it's just baked in. I don't know if they have it. I don't know if they send out a reminder to everyone or if they just do it during their meeting huddle.
But it's great. There's always just so much and it gets so much traffic, such high open rates. Everybody wants to know what people are up to and what vacations they took and all that good stuff. Then we have other clients that it's just not in their culture. And that's totally fine. Like there's no better or worse here, but there's some clients, it's just like, we would never ask our team to share that kind of information, that would just be weird for everybody to know who their kids are and where they're vacationing and all that kind of stuff. So it becomes tricky. But I think there's a lot of things you can do to get personal without getting personal.
Jimmy Lim (09:20):
Yeah. It's totally understandable, right? Because I know in the age of social media, with lots and lots of information floating out there and isn't there a popular famous saying like, what goes on the internet stays there forever? So people are kind of like, oh, do I really want my picture to be there talking about my kids? Or what if it's something like that? How can we overcome that and let people know, okay, we're not going to tell you to start telling your childhood stories. Or which school your kids go to, what age they are. How can we get personal, right?
Tiffany Silverberg (10:05):
Yeah. So we do have some strategies we've done with clients. And I think one of the hurdles is, we just don't want to come off as unprofessional, right? We don't really want to be talking about people's trips to the beach because we're over going with lots of money, right? Or big life changes and transitions and important steps in life. We don't want to talk about frivolous stuff. So I think in those cases, if that's the hangup, you can get more personal by talking about team stuff that relates to the company. So promotions and anniversaries or just spotlighting someone and the kind of work that they do at the company. So you're really still promoting your services. Especially anniversaries. They really show the longevity of people on your team and the comradery and things like that. So that's a good way to get around that. And then, I can keep talking about this forever. So chime in if you have other things.
Jimmy Lim (11:13):
Yeah, I was gonna say, I really like to think it's about the team members. It's about the team but it doesn't necessarily have to veer so close. We use the word personal, but personal is really defined in so many ways, right? It could be your personal achievements, like a team member won this award or was nominated for something like top RIA. That is worth promoting. And then I really like when you said about celebrating anniversaries, the why behind that is it's really longevity, right? In general I would say, okay, let's just use something not quite like financial services but let's just say hairstylist, right? You have a hairstylist you like going to, and then won't you be worried like, oh, what if they leave? I really like them. Right? So it's that familiarity. It's that comfort, that trust.
Tiffany Silverberg (12:16):
Well, that's actually a big one for a lot of our clients too, that longevity, but also just helping people to get to know other people on the team. So they may know their advisor, but if you're coming up to any kind of succession or things like that, it's good for people to start to get to know other people on the team or the leadership that's up and coming and things like that. So that's always really good.
Jimmy Lim (12:41):
Oh, I was going to add as well, that what I really like is also you can get quotes from people and it doesn't have to be quotes about them. It can be quotes about what is the most important financial advice you were given growing up or something like this.
Tiffany Silverberg (13:03):
I always love that.
Jimmy Lim (13:04):
Or what is the thing that drives how you do certain things? So it's still personal. I think the goal is not promoting a certain person to be like how we think of a celebrity employee of the month. We know the celebrity's kids, where they go to, when they got their last haircut or something like that. That's not what we want. We want people to know more about the team members. Again, because financial services, right? It's so personal. Like we were talking earlier about how we even share that with family members. It's just something personal. But to share that with somebody who is at this point in time a stranger. You want to be like, oh, I would love to know them a little bit more.
Tiffany Silverberg (13:55):
Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. So another idea some of our clients have used is if you don't want to spotlight a particular person or if they just don't have a lot of that going on, you can also do things like what has everybody been reading? Or what's your favorite coffee shop in the area? Especially if you're local, you can play up local things in the area if you're going after local clients.
Jimmy Lim (14:23):
Yes.
Tiffany Silverberg (14:24):
What have you been reading? What have you been watching? I like the reading one a lot because I already mentioned earlier that I love books. But especially if you are a little bit more of an intellectual type of firm and you have that sort of brand personality you can kind of play that up a lot with that side of things.
Jimmy Lim (14:43):
Oh, love it. I love it that you said that because it just gave me like a little bit of a good tangent. It's also about what works for your brand as a company.
Tiffany Silverberg (14:51):
A hundred percent. Yeah. Right.
Jimmy Lim (14:52):
Are you very research heavy? Then maybe help people know, almost like earlier when you asked me, what's your favorite newsletter? That's personal. But then it's also kind of work related. So it works.
Tiffany Silverberg (15:08):
Yeah. Absolutely. And also you don't have to call out Bob says his favorite book is this and Sarah says her favorite. You could just do a collage of big book covers or or do a pie graph or some sort of fancy graph or something.
Tiffany Silverberg (15:26):
Pull them on different things. I saw today, well today that we're recording, it's Pumpkin Spice Day apparently. So,, if you're more of a fun brand, you could do something like, are you into certain drinks or whatever.
Jimmy Lim (15:44):
Or coffee for the whole team today. And then there's a cheap photo, right?
Tiffany Silverberg (15:47):
Everybody guess everyone's coffee order, right? Another one I liked, you mentioned the best advice; I love that one because it goes into why you're in financial services or why you're in financial planning or wealth management or any of those things — why you got into the job you got into. But another one I like is your first job, which I just think is random and funny. You don't know if it's going to be babysitter or lifeguard. That one's kind of, again, personal, but it's not really who you are now, just kind of interrelated.
Jimmy Lim (16:25):
And I think when you talk about the first job, even if it's like, I was babysitting or something like that. You may wonder, are people interested in that? Does it mean anything to them? I think it does, depending on who, right? It does. Basically, it even just makes me know you better.
Tiffany Silverberg (16:50):
Yeah. It's human, right?
Jimmy Lim (16:52):
Right, just to know a little bit about you. Sometimes we form opinions — that's how we get to know people, right? Like, she likes this, or he likes to read that. Like, okay, that's interesting. He must be really interested in this topic. And then you kind of form a picture, get kind of an idea about what this person is. And we have another client where they were sharing that when prospects come to the first meeting, they kind of know whether it's gonna close. And part of it is really about if you do enough work where people feel like they know you before they know you, before they meet you, then when they meet you, it's really about are you living up to what my impression of you is.
Tiffany Silverberg (17:46):
Yeah.
Jimmy Lim (17:46):
And if it is, I feel like I know you already.
Tiffany Silverberg (17:50):
Yeah. We didn't have this one on the list, but a lot of our clients are doing more video.
Jimmy Lim (17:57):
Oh yes. I love that.
Tiffany Silverberg (17:59):
Yeah. Some of them are professional shoots, well orchestrated, well produced. Others pick up the phone and are just creating sort of one-off videos. But either way, having those images instead of a blog post, gets so much engagement too. Because again, it's getting to know people. I can watch their face. I can see them talk. Yeah.
Jimmy Lim (18:25):
Oh, yes. That is a great point. It may not even be about what you like to eat or what you like to read. It could be just putting a video and you are the ones headlining that video, right? You're the one talking people through things. It's essentially, I would imagine, once we have more of these podcast episodes going out, people are going to get familiar with us too, right?
Tiffany Silverberg (18:57):
Oh, that's right.
Jimmy Lim (18:58):
I feel like I know your voice already. I've seen you move. I've seen the way you talk and that helps in just building that chemistry, I guess.
Tiffany Silverberg (19:08):
Yeah. No, it's true. They get to know you. Honestly. That's a big reason we want to do this podcast is because we just want people to get to know the team and we love hanging out, so we figured other people might like hanging out with us and then they know what it's like to be in a meeting with us.
Jimmy Lim (19:21):
Exactly. Yeah.
Tiffany Silverberg (19:23):
Yeah. Cool. Any other ideas?
Jimmy Lim (19:31):
Yeah, I was just going to add to that last point about something frivolous and funny, like, sometimes we're so familiar with, for example, a celebrity's voice.
Tiffany Silverberg (19:43):
Yeah, yeah.
Jimmy Lim (19:43):
That even just hearing it, we'll know this person, right?
Tiffany Silverberg (19:48):
Yes. Yes.
Jimmy Lim (19:48):
So it's about that. So imagine when you meet a celebrity. I'm not saying we're celebrities. I'm not saying our clients’ goal is to become a celebrity but just using it as an example. Sometimes you meet them and you feel like, oh, I feel like I know you already.
Tiffany Silverberg (20:04):
Yeah. Well, and I think you said this earlier, if not, I've heard you say it before — people are living up to who you think they are. Right?
Jimmy Lim (20:14):
Yes. There’s expectations,
Tiffany Silverberg (20:15):
Building the trust. By just being an authentic voice in person. So, cool. Well we always wrap up with what's the one thing clients or listeners should go do? I say clients because that's where this came from. We often finish huge presentations. We've been talking forever and they're like, okay, but what's the one thing? What do I do now? So we haven't been talking for that long, but still, what's the one thing we should go through?
Jimmy Lim (20:45):
Let me go back to kind of saying yes to. I would say we talked about getting personal and how to get personal without getting personal. But you know, it also takes time. So the one thing, our one thing is always what can you do right now in this moment, once you stop this podcast, what can you do? Just really put pictures and pictures of like faces, even stock pictures, right? It doesn't need to be like, let me find a team photo right now. It could be a stock photo to just accompany a blog post, but if you put faces in it, it just feels warmer to see faces in the newsletter. What about you?
Tiffany Silverberg (21:28):
Okay, so mine is actually one we didn't mention before. But it's easy. So if you have events — I say events, that sounds really big but any kind of team gathering, right? Whether you're volunteering at the beach for beach cleanup or it's a huddle meeting in the morning and everyone happens to be wearing blue, right? And it's funny, just take a quick picture and try to use those — especially if you do have events, if you have volunteer events going on or you're giving a presentation things like that. They're great for using in the blog and the announcement section, hey, we've been out, we gave this presentation at this one place. Or our team member, so and so, spoke at this conference or we were out volunteering. All those kinds of things are, they just make easy content.
Jimmy Lim (22:24):
I love it. I think it's really helping. The why is really helping clients kind of build that impression of you.
Tiffany Silverberg (22:36):
Yeah.
Jimmy Lim (22:36):
Yeah. Yeah.
Tiffany Silverberg (22:37):
So that's my one thing. Sometime this week take a picture of the team or some of the team, someone on the team and use it in your newsletter. Cool. Awesome. Anything we forgot? Anything else we should add?
Jimmy Lim (22:51):
Oh, I know we can go on and on about all of this. But we have to save some of the good stuff for future episodes.
Tiffany Silverberg (22:59):
That's right. Exactly. Cool. Well thanks everyone for joining us for another podcast. Like I said, we're on a roll, episode two. If you loved this conversation, stay tuned for more. You can also head to outandaboutcommunications.com/community and get on that list. We're going to be sending out all kinds of goodies — we always have templates and checklists and all the good things. We're always coming up with more things to send in those. So go ahead and send in for that and we'll keep chatting.
