Email marketing for accounting firms: A beginner’s guide
In a world where social media is all the buzz, is email still relevant? The answer is yes.
More than half the population uses email and the user volume is set to grow in the coming years. While social media and email are used for different reasons, email marketing remains the most cost-effective marketing channel for businesses of all sizes. In general practice, email marketing acts as a platform for you to have a one-on-one conversation with the target audience and can be used for the entire customer lifecycle from lead generation to nurturing and loyalty-related activities.
In the case of an accounting firm, people tend to think of an accountant only when their business needs one or ahead of tax season. Email marketing can come across as an effective option to stay in touch with clients throughout the year. Accounting firms can use email marketing to build and foster relationships by offering industry updates, providing practical advice, and promoting services offered. This article lists a few ways to run successful email marketing campaigns that can help your accounting firm grow.
Set your goal
Before you begin with the campaign, setting a goal is essential. This allows you to align every step of the campaign towards this goal. The campaign goal could be to expand client base, foster client relationships, promote services, or educate clients on tax industry changes.
Break down your mailing list
Focus on quality over quantity and resist the temptation to buy an email list. A purchased email list might look like a lot of opportunities but they might not be your relevant audience.
It's best to use an existing email list since it is a list of people who have opted to hear from you. The next step would be to segment that list to align with the goal of the campaign, based on whether it is an existing client or a prospect. You could also segment them based on business size or services used.
Clients or prospects: This is the simplest type of segmentation and can make or break your email campaign. Email content tailored to a prospect might not be relevant to an existing client. For instance, a welcome email is neither impactful nor action-oriented to a client who is already using your accounting services.
Business size: Medium-sized or enterprise businesses might require more time to perform complex accounting processes compared to an individual or a small business client. In terms of tax obligations and data volume, an individual might have a simple income tax filing while businesses might have different tax obligations and larger bank records to be reconciled.
Services: All clients or prospects on your mailing list might require different services from your accounting firm. Some might need you only for tax filing, some might rely on advisory services, and a few of them might need you to be their end-to-end accounting partner.
It is important to send out relevant content to show that you are keen to build relationships and it shows you are talking to an audience who wants to hear from you to solve their accounting problems.
Determine the type of email
Understanding and identifying the type of email you can send is crucial in growing your accounting firm and building long term relationships. As an accounting firm, a newsletter is not the only option. From onboarding clients to promoting accounting or bookkeeping services, firms can leverage email marketing for increased engagement all year round. Here are some of the types of emails an accounting firm can send along with their purpose and when to send them.
Onboarding email: In the beginning, before prospects turn into clients, it is all about building trust and adding value to the client and their businesses. It is best to send a welcome email on the first day of contact or sign up. A welcome series can follow for the next two weeks. The welcome series can introduce your firm, services offered, and what they can expect from your accounting firm. Avoid adding content that sounds very sales oriented and emphasise the value your services can add to their business. As part of this series, give sufficient guidance on the best way and person to contact for the services offered or the login process on your portal, if applicable.
Newsletters: It is essential to keep your clients engaged and build on the relationship so they learn to trust your financial prowess. They are generally sent out monthly, once every two months, or quarterly. Newsletters can have dedicated sections for industry insights, reminders for deadlines, changes to regulations, financial planning advice, and firm updates. A newsletter offering rich content on industry insights and practical advice can position your accounting firm as a thought leader to your clients.
Reminder emails: This is not necessarily the nudge email for your cold clients, instead this reminder email can contain educational content on tax-related deadlines. Furthermore, you can create an email series comprised of tax deadlines, tips and checklists to prepare for the tax season, or recent changes to tax thresholds. This type of email is highly time sensitive and should be scheduled before the tax season.
Promotional emails: This type of email can add significant value to your accounting firm, whether it is for service exposure or nurturing existing clients. Promotional emails are sent when you wish to highlight services offered, pricing changes, or discounts. This can also be utilised to promote webinars or workshops which can expand your firm's visibility and increase awareness.
Plan your email content
Emails should have a clear structure and coherence to keep your clients engaged. Focus on simple and clear subject lines for the reader to get an idea of the whole email. It is essential to think, "What's in it for the reader?" to ensure the content created has an impact on them along with a clear call to action. For instance, if you are introducing a new service such as bookkeeping, make sure the subject line is simple. The content should then tell them how they can benefit from your bookkeeping service, along with a clear call to action such as "Schedule a call," "Click here for more info," or "Contact us."
Stay compliant
It is highly recommended that an accounting firm holds high standards in terms of compliance and data privacy regulations such as GDPR in the EU and UK, CASL in Canada, and the like. It pays off to be informed about local and international laws when it comes to processing personal data. It's recommended to give clients a link to unsubscribe from your mailing list and ensure their preference is respected. Make sure emails are securely stored and avoid sharing financial details over emails.
Just like every other marketing campaign, track measurable KPIs such as open rate, click-through rate (CTR), bounce rate, conversion rate, and unsubscribe rate. KPIs play a role in observing trends and identifying the content that works for your firm and your audience.
Email marketing can support massive growth and ROI for the business if executed in the right manner and at the right frequency. It is key to find the sweet spot of "just the right amount" of content to place your accounting firm in front of your audience without overloading their inboxes.