Practice Development Articles
Effective Email Marketing for Accountants
How to Build Your Prospects List and Keep Them Interested
By: Sandi Smith, CPA
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Many accountants have a tough time getting prospects and even their clients to sign up for their email list. I can't blame the clients. Let's face it: most business owners aren't too interested in the newest IRS limits or accounting promulgations unless it impacts them, and that's what they have us around for.
So how can you motivate prospects to sign up for your email list? By throwing out the IRS news and getting personal. In this article, we'll explore what to put in your email newsletter that will keep them reading. Most accountants want to use impersonal content, but remember: every accountant can share impersonal content. Only you can share part of your own experience to deepen your relationship with your clients.
Plus, we'll share ten top ways to build your list. Many Internet marketers have lists of 30,000 and more, and each time they send out an email, their bank account grows by five figures in passive income. We can't promise that will happen to you after you read this article, but we can get you started on that road with these tips.
A Page-Turning Accounting Email Newsletter
Here are seven quick tips on what to put in your accounting email newsletter:
| 1. | Tell a story. Don't deal in facts, figures, and percentages. What amazing client story can you tell your prospects? |
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| 2. | Get personal. Clients want a sense of who you are, so let them in on your professional activities.
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| 3. | Include a quick tip. It doesn't have to be accounting-related; it could be finance-related.
For example, if you have local clientele, tell them Camille's restaurant offers 2-for-1 lunch on Tuesdays.
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| 4. | Add credibility. Include your latest customer testimonial or a certification or CPE you just earned. | ||
| 5. | Show your involvement. Are you involved in your community? Include a quick photo of your employees volunteering at the local arts festival. Invite your clients and prospects to volunteer with you side by side. Talk about building relationships! | ||
| 6. | Include a coupon. We all love a bargain. Have a 50 percent off services day for one day only, offer a free hour with a new client referral, or do something outrageous about two to four times a year to keep your list excited and salivating at what you might do next. | ||
| 7. | Be willing to be vulnerable. If you started out with two clients and 20 bucks in the bank and grew your business to ten employees and a seven-figure annual revenue number, we'd love to hear your rags-to-riches stories, what you learned the hard way, and how you can help us get there too. |
Editor's Note: Many accountants are unnecessarily intimidated about writing for their experiences. Remember, you don't have to write a novel. You just need to write some good paragraphs.
Grow Your List
Now that you know what to put in your newsletter to keep your subscribers riveted, let's discuss ten ways you can build your subscriber base.
| 1. | Have a subscription box on every web page. Create a short description about what they'll get, link to more information or a sample, and add a privacy policy link nearby for best practice. | ||
| 2. | Post articles on article portal web sites such as ezinearticles.com.
Include lots of keywords in your articles about your services, mention your free newsletter, and list your web site link at the end of the page so readers can find out more about you.
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| 3. | Maintain social media pages in LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. |
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Mention your free newsletter with a link to your web site in your status posts. Although LinkedIn is the logical business choice for social media, don't underestimate the power of Facebook and Twitter. All three sites allow you to post "statuses," and it's more acceptable to post more often in Facebook and especially Twitter. Create a mix of interesting (and very short - Twitter limits the messages to 140 characters) tips, finance quotes, and pitches that send them to your web site to be posted as statuses. |
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| 4. | Send a post card or a direct mail piece to an industry or a geography you want to capture market share in, and mention your free newsletter. | ||
| 5. | Send a press release mentioning some of the content in your newsletter. You may be able to get some of your stories picked up as a human interest feature, rather than the business section. Asking the reporter to include your web site in the article never hurts, even though you don't have control over what they include. | ||
| 6. | Attend networking meetings, collect business cards, and ask permission of your new contacts if you can add them to your list. | ||
| 7. | Be sure when you send your newsletter that the "Forward to a friend" feature is turned on, and encourage your subscribers in your copy to send your newsletter to others they think might like it. | ||
| 8. | Speak at local groups, such as Rotary Clubs, women's business groups, chamber meetings, or national conferences if you want to gain national subscribers. | ||
| 9. | Host a booth at a trade show and collect business cards for a drawing. | ||
| 10. | Hold an open house at your office and ask current clients, neighbors, and associates to bring their friends. |
Use Robust List Management Software
My favorite list management software is Constant Contact, and Intuit and Constant Contact have partnered to bring you a special offering at http://intuit.constantcontact.com/index.jsp. Regardless of what solution you end up with, be sure it has strong compliance with anti-spam laws, newsletter templates so you don't have to learn HTML, and bells and whistles such as "forward to a friend."
Bringing It All Together
There's no better way than an email list to capture the leads that are interested enough to stay in touch with you but aren't quite ready to buy. Reward these prospects with interesting content, and their trust in you -- and their sales -- will grow over time.
Sandi Smith, CPA, coaches CPAs to succeed in business. She is a frequent contributor to Intuit® ProConnection®. Her website is www.BrainWaysTraining.com.
Last Updated: 10/06/2009
