subject: The Best Way to Market Your CPA Firm by Making Use of Email [print this page] The Best Way to Market Your CPA Firm by Making Use of Email
The designation "best practices" frequently means aged rules and methods, and processes to avoid. For the most part these rules are long standing and correctly considered. I'm not submitted that best practices be neglected, merely that they ought to be examined at times or they can stymie innovation.
I think it was marketing Guru Mark Brownlow who first suggested that it would be better to change the term to "profit practices". He's trying to change the way we think about these practices. Rather than simply following the status quo this new term leads us, hopefully, to making sure our efforts are actually generating revenue.
So what can you do to ensure your e-mail marketing campaign is ahering to profit practice? Well the changes are subtle from the old "best practices" model, but the impact on your efforts will likely be considerable. Here are some practical suggestions...
An easy way to meet your customers where they are is to use transactional e-mails. This is an e-mail sent in response to a visitor's actions on the site. Your website should already be an intrinsic part of your e-mail marketing strategy. You're newsletter is the epitome of a transactional e-mail, but don't overlook the value of your service pages, too. At the very least put an e-mail form at the bottom of all your service pages, or better yet make a special offer. For example you could offer a short report with more information on the subject. Anyone reading that far who reponds on your form page is a very hot lead and should be followed up with an immediate transactional e-mail.
Transactional e-mails bring in revenues between three and six times higher than bulk mailings from the same clients, states a report from Experian. Transactional e-mails are a key profit opportunity.
Another important rule of e-mail marketing is to respect the permission of your subscribers. Don't bombard them with irrelevant messages. Spamming your subscribers is not only disrespectful, it's also unprofitable. You will lose subscribers and by extention the revenue they would have brought into your company.
Use social media carefully. Fans of your facebook page may not necessarily want to be marketed to, but you can use your facebook page to collect e-mail addresses from the ones that do.
Don't waste time sending e-mails to people who don't know your company. Potential customers who choose to hear from your company and are interested in your products are worth vastly more than those acquired through buying lists or other ways.
Exercise restraint. If you send too many e-mails people will start to ignore them. Eventually they will unsubscribe. Bombarding your subscribers with e-mail just won't work. If you annoy people with constant e-mails they will eventually get annoyed. Down the road when they actually need a CPA it's unlikely they'll even consider you.
Occasional e-mails about a product or a special promotion is okay; force-feeding offers to your customers, though, will turn them off quickly.
Treat e-mail marketing like the revenue stream that it is instead of just another number in the marketing budget. This means you should:
* Hire the right team
* Invest in the right partner and technology
* Apply metrics to your efforts to get a clear sense of the benefits
The biggest challenge of e-mail marketing is to meet marketing objectives while offering compelling and relevant content in your e-mails. To do this, pay attention to what content customers click on within the e-mails. What prompts them to take action?
Utilize these "profit practices" to improve the revenue from e-mail marketing instead of using deep-rooted "best practices."
