Email Marketing for Accounting Firms

Are you looking for a way to attract new leads to your accounting firm?

What about building and maintaining relationships with your existing clients?

A simple and effective tool to grow and retain your clientele is through a mailing list.

What are some of the benefits that you can expect to see when using an email campaign?

• It’s inexpensive
• You can speak directly and frequently to your clients and target audience
• It’s the fastest and most efficient way to communicate with a large audience
• People choose to subscribe to your newsletter, making it less intrusive than cold calling
• It’s an easy way to deliver updates, and value to your subscribers

The purpose of this article is to equip you with all the information your accounting firm needs to start your own individualized email marketing campaign.

Below, we will take you through each step that you need to get started with email marketing, make sure you are up to date on digital marketing for accountants to really make your email marketing pop.

Read on to learn the ins and outs of email marketing ideas for accounting firms.

Does Email Marketing Work for Accountants?

In short, absolutely!

However, before you can succeed with email marketing, it’s important that you have a good idea of what your emails should look like.

Key components of a good email campaign include:

• A dependable platform
• Informative, professional, and efficient content to share
• Email templates
• A list of contacts

If you don’t have all of this planned out, that’s ok! This article gives you the insider tips on building a mailing list so that you can feel confident when you plan and execute emails for your clients!

Step 1: Choosing an Effective and Efficient Email Marketing Service

A good email marketing service company will supply you with an effective emailing system.

This is especially helpful if you are reaching out to a large audience. Sending out mass emails can be confusing and make it hard to keep track of who was sent what. However, the alternative—sending out individual emails—can be time consuming and a lot of work.

Using an email marketing service can solve a lot of these problems by keeping everything organized and automated for you.

Our top three most recommended email marketing services are as follows:

MailChimp

First off is MailChimp, which is one of our favorites because of how simple it makes the whole process. We recommend using this provider if you have a small to medium-sized accounting firm.

MailChimp is great for beginners because of its cost-effective, user-friendly designs which come equipped with cutting-edge features.

One of the best qualities of MailChimp is that as you become more skilled and comfortable using the platform, you can incorporate new features as you go.
They also supply platform users with email templates that can be customized to fit into your firm's preferred style.

There are different price points based on the plan that your firm subscribes to. One of the biggest perks with MailChimp is the fact that they offer a free plan for users which allows for a maximum of 2,000 subscribers and allows up to 12,000 emails to be sent each month!

SendInBlue

Second up is SendInBlue, which allows users to manage their contact lists, optimize email templates, and get comprehensive feedback on email campaigns.

They also have many useful features and tools that you can access for free. However, their free plan has a more limited scope in comparison to MailChimp’s.

Besides this difference, SendInBlue has an incredibly easy-to-use interface and conveniently allows for some third party-apps to integrate with their services.

SendInBlue has a variety of affordable price points for users who opt to pay for a subscription.

A unique component of this service provider is that you are only charged based on the volume of emails you send, while other services normally charge based on the number of subscribers you have. Cost estimates range from $0 to $145 monthly.

Constant Contact

Third on our list is Constant Contact. Like the other two services mentioned above, this service has a wide variety of options and perks for their users.

Constant Contact offers you a 60-day free trial period to make sure you enjoy their services before you pay.

They also have a great interface that first-time users can easily navigate, with the option to integrate with other platforms to maximize productivity and create great email marketing. Generally, Constant Contact’s services can cost between $20 and $95 monthly.

Step 2: Build a Lead Magnet to Attract Subscribers

Now that you have chosen a good organizational system for your mailing list, you can move onto how to attract subscribers to send your marketing emails to.

The most effective way to start email marketing for accounting is to build a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a resource, asset, or special deal that you offer your clients in exchange for their contact details. Lead magnets can range from resources like eBooks or downloadable guides to webinars or discount codes.

For example, if you are an accounting firm that specializes in corporate taxation for small businesses, you could offer an eBook on “The Ultimate Guide to Small Business Tax Deductions”.

Once your audience accepts your free offer, they will be required to provide their name, email, and other information that you can utilize to better understand your potential customers and add them to your mailing list.

Using a lead magnet establishes a positive repertoire with clients right away. The strategy is win-win for both parties. Subscribers gain valuable information or promotions, while you gain their contact information for your mailing list.

Step 3: Create Your Email Sequence

Now that you have established a list of subscribers to contact for your accounting advertising ideas, you need to plan how to engage with them and continue to keep them engaged and interested in your firm and what you can offer.

We recommend creating an email sequence, also known as a drip sequence. An email sequence is a series of emails that are sent to your client on a set schedule once they have subscribed and are added to your mailing list.

It is easiest to use an email marketing service so you can create an email sequence that is automatically triggered and so you don't have to do it manually for every subscriber. You can check out the email marketing services we listed above to see what they offer regarding automated mailing services.

It’s important to have a strategy to ensure that you are engaging the clients’ interest and providing knowledge with each email that you send out. This will maintain engagement with subscribers on a regularly scheduled basis to keep your firm in mind, making it more likely that they will interact with the services you offer.

The first email in your sequence should be a welcome email that introduces your subscribers to your company and accounting firm website while also including the lead magnet that you promised your client.

For example, your first email could look something like this:

Subject: Your Free eBook
Hi,
Here’s your link to your free accounting eBook: “The Ultimate Guide to Small Business Tax Deductions”(Attach the link here).
Inside, you’ll build greater understanding of how to navigate corporate taxation, as well as find powerful strategies and tips to maximize your yearly profits and dividends.
To your success,
Company Name

The first welcoming email is a great start to your relationship, and it will make your potential client feel appreciated and excited about what your firm has to offer.
Once you have your welcome email sent out, your next emails can follow up with what your lead magnet offered them and outline how your firm can further provide value.

With each email you should be informing your client about services that you offer and nurture your relationship with them.

When constructing these next emails, there are some important best practices to adhere to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in your email marketing campaign.

Set Goals

With every email you send out, you need to keep in mind what your overarching goal is when writing and creating content for your subscribers.

Goals help give any plan a clear direction, and your emails are no different. Narrowing down what your desired outcomes are will help you stay focused and maintain client interest.

When setting goals, remember the acronym SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.

For example, you could start with an easy, long-term goal, like gaining 10 new prospective clients by the end of the year. From there, you can work backwards and determine how to best achieve this.

Identify Triggers

Personalized email sequences require the identification and proper trigger email that is sent to the subscriber when they interact with specific content.

For example, if a client hasn’t interacted with material you sent them a week ago, you could set a trigger that would automatically send an email to remind them of your services and promotions to reel them back in.

Email Marketing Templates For Accountants

After identifying your sequences and their accompanying triggers, you can then outline your email drip to better understand how many emails will be in each sequence. The length of the sequence will depend on your goals, and some may be longer than others.

For example, the initial sequence triggered by your lead magnet may be longer than your re-engagement sequence for clients who you are trying to entice back to your firm and its services.

Keep Your Content Relevant

While your email campaigns should be accessible and relevant to everyone, they should also contain unique and personalized information and messages depending on what your desired outcomes are.

For example, if one sequence is targeting taxation help for a small business, you can include specific material that will directly speak to young, growing businesses who may not have a full grasp of what they should be looking for when hiring an accounting firm.

Write Effective Subject Lines

Email marketing campaigns are a great way to engage clients and bring in their business. But, if subscribers don’t open them, then they can’t be effective.

Subject lines are a crucial part of any email sent, and you must pique a client’s interest enough for them to interact with what you’ve sent them.

You can accurately analyze if subscribers are opening emails from recent email campaigns. If they’re not, then you can set up testing with your automation software to determine which subject lines generate the most opened emails.

Based on these results, you can better judge what to write in your subject lines.

Include a Call to Action

When sending emails, you need to outline what your subscriber should do and expect. You must always include a CTA (Call to Action) to easily allow your clients to interact and take action to achieve your email marketing goals.

For example, a CTA can be simply a “learn more” link, which will take them to your accounting website. Without this, you may miss meaningful engagement with potential clients.

Step 4: Email Marketing Examples For Accounting Firms

Now that you have developed an attractive lead magnet, and your email sequences are designed and ready to go, it’s time to start growing your email list.
Effective ways to do this can be through SEO’s (Search Engine Optimization) and paid advertisement.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO can generate organic visibility, which helps to increase traffic to your website where new clients can interact with your lead magnet and be added to your mailing list.

Knowing about the specific keywords included in SEO for accountants is necessary in order to insert them into your marketing emails.

Paid Ads

Paid visibility is a strategy where you can pay for ads that will be seen on high traffic websites and search engines.

For instance, you could put paid ads on Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media channels to encourage clients to download your lead magnet.

After completing these important steps, you are ready to get out there and take on the emailing world!

Bottom Line

Don’t forget that you can always reach out to Revenue Scout with questions or additional guidance regarding digital marketing for your accounting firm.