6 ways to turn your mailing list into an effective marketing tool
Over the years you’ve spent growing your accounting firm, you will have built an extensive mailing list by connecting with a wide variety of people. But once you’ve got it, what do you do with it?
Chances are, your mailing list is a highly useful catalog of clients, potential leads, and industry contacts. But it’s of little use to you if you’re not leveraging it.
If done correctly, email marketing lists require people to opt in, so recipients are typically more interested in receiving content from you. Producing and sharing content that reflects what clients and prospects find value in is what will keep your mailing list growing.
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And this growing mailing list, if utilized well, will see an increase in engagement, and ultimately, the growth of your accounting firm.
Incorporating your list into an effective marketing strategy might seem overwhelming. So, here are a few different ideas you can implement to start making the most of your mailing list.
Send high-quality, purposeful content
Crafting and sending out high-quality content (webinars, articles, blogs, videos, etc.) via email is a fantastic way to encourage engagement, click-throughs to your website, and to build your firm’s reputation.
You know your clients—their pain points, motivations, and desires. So, speak to those very things. Email marketing is most effective when people feel personally spoken to, so a high level of consideration for your target reader is important.
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Tip: Always include a Call to Action (CTA)
The more succinct, the better. What action do you want them to take after reading your email? Do you want them to click through to your website? Do you want them to book a meeting with you? Whatever it is, make it clear and try to give them only one CTA option.
Answer frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Answering FAQs is a great way to show your clients you’re listening by providing valuable, interesting information.
Why not look back at last year’s most asked questions and answer one or two per month in an email to your mailing list? Doing this will:
Demonstrate to your clients and prospects that you understand their pain points
Show them you’re proactive
Save you and your team time answering the same questions over and over again
For example, during tax season each year, you’re likely to get many of the same questions, so consider a pre-tax season FAQ email.
You can also put a section in your email asking if there are any other questions recipients want answered. Not only will this make your contacts feel heard, but it’s also a great way to generate content for your next email.
Ask for feedback and send out surveys
Feedback is gold for your firm. It’s how you can determine your team's performance and what your clients are looking for. It can also be a good way to find out if a lot of people are looking for a service you’re not currently offering.
Feedback requests sent out to your mailing list will let you see individuals’ problems, and by looking at the aggregate, you can spot the problems that affect your entire client base.
Sending out surveys, too, can be a good litmus test for the state of the wider accounting industry. Knowing what people are looking for in a trusted advisor is the first step to providing it—surveys let you keep up with the times.
Leverage content you didn’t create with a curated newsletter
Sharing genuinely useful information to your clients will simultaneously build your reputation and your client’s accounting acumen.
When clients receive quality information from you—especially external content that doesn’t directly serve your accounting firm—it shows you have their best interests at heart.
Sharing content demonstrates you are a proactive member of the industry, and have a desire to improve your clients’ knowledge base. Karbon’s Practice Excellence Weekly is an example of a weekly newsletter designed to be a genuinely valuable and engaging read.
Also, the resources necessary to send out a curated newsletter are significantly less than if you’re producing the content yourself, so it can be a great option if you’re short on time, money, or people.
Share news about your firm
Mailing lists are a useful way to get information to your contacts about your firm.
A new staff member may have been brought on board, or perhaps you’re running a promotion for a specific service—whatever the information, communicate news to your client base via your mailing list. Clients love to be kept in the loop.
Build an email cadence that works for you
Your other work might suffer if you’ve committed to sending emails too often. Plus, your mailing list won’t want to be bombarded 24/7.
It’s worth sending emails at a reasonable cadence that you can maintain, because once a contact starts getting regular, interesting communication from you, they’ll begin to expect it and look forward to it.
Having a dedicated team member organize and send off your newsletters will ensure those emails leave on time, every time.
The gift that keeps on giving
Once you’ve set yourself up with a mailing list and have a strategy to regularly send your subscribers valuable content, you’ll see your online presence blossom.
Requests for accounting services and advice will flow in because clients will be thinking of you more readily—thanks to the good communication afforded by a well-utilized mailing list.