Email marketing is a great way for you to attract or shore up some of the client base, and accounting firms know that once the rush begins, there will be no rest until it is all put aside in late April. It won’t be long until tax filing season comes into focus; often this is no sooner than the holiday decorations are returned to their resting place.
Hopefully you got some rest over the long period between holidays, and didn’t suffer too much post-bubbly on New Year’s Eve. You are going to need your strength once the pressure builds and the back and forth of communications starts with your clients and your staff. Marketing is probably not even on your mind, especially email marketing. If it isn’t in your wheel house, you just may be in deep water. Not to worry, we at Zen Marketing have life safety devices nearby to bring you back on dry land.
We all know that competition is stiff under normal standards, and this year will be no exception. Competition combined with the ever-changing regulations in the Tax Code, expiring incentives and the rush to get it all done can make your head spin off your shoulders. Add marketing to that mix and some may be considering moving to a desert island.
Utilizing email marketing can streamline the process of getting or staying in contact with your client base, as well as nurturing existing leads that have yet to commit. Getting some of that work done early can put your firm in good stead once the filing season is over. Normally, clients rush in, and then rush away just as quickly. Generating some leads and nurturing them with an automated email marketing campaign is a great way to smooth out the bumps and dips in clientele once the madness of April is behind you.
Email marketing is one of the most affordable methods of lead generation, so why not exploit it. Scheduled content delivery builds reputations, relations and keeps your potential client in the loop. Utilizing a pre-planned and coordinated email marketing campaign can be automated, so you can focus on matters at hand.
The affordability is one of the most attractive aspects of lead generation through email marketing. Still considered a formidable part of the lead nurturing process, when you blend it with direct mail and advertising email provides cost-effective sustainability and expanded marketing reach. With the postage rates and paper costs in a constant upward motion, it has become cost prohibitive for most accounting firms and other small businesses to rely solely on direct mail. Email provides a bridge.
As for other forms of marketing, the costs for television and radio ads have skyrocketed, mainly because of lagging viewership, DVR, satellite radio, and streaming web usage. Revenue targets must remain so even though usage has declined, the average cost per ad has gone skyward, and will remain in an upward climb. Another compelling reason for email marketing.
Inbound marketing (aka content marketing) also relies heavily on email marketing, especially where there is a need for diverse methods in developing engagement and especially with lead nurturing campaigns.
You can cross-sell targeted batches of your overall database by segmenting them into their position in the sales process. Sending get acquainted email content to seasoned prospects is not productive, and may even offend or disenchant prospects. Using data culled by what we call “lead score” will allow for targeted messaging to the right group of prospective clientele. The same holds true for selling buying decision email messaging too soon in the process may cause you to lose that prospect all together. Targeted lead nurturing is a tactic that works well, if implemented correctly.
Another worthwhile benfit that email marketing provides is the ability to personalize the email marketing messages so that the information is deemed “just for me,” which builds your brand and the relationship. Using the prospects name in the salutation and in the body of the content makes you get noticed, and it can be done through technology rather than individually creating each message.
Email marketing is a great tool for accounting firms of all sizes. You know the big boys use it, and you can as well. All it takes is a bit of knowledge, effort and someone to help guide you toward a successful campaign.
Have a profitable tax filing season.
