Perceptions of E-mail Marketing
Actions
Goal
Benefits – Speed, Convenience and Cost
The Process
Information to Include in the E-mail
E-mail Marketing Mistakes
Return Rate

If asked, most CPAs admit a majority of new business comes from referrals. When pushed further, they also admit little time is spent educating clients, referral partners and prospects about services and how the firm can assist them and their clients.

If you could “touch” each referral source monthly with minimal time investment, would you be interested? What if this could be done without adding any expenses? Now we’re talking!

How can your firm do this? Begin using professional e-mail marketing as part of your practice development efforts.

Perceptions of E-mail Marketing

First, define what professional e-mail marketing is not. It is not a constant series of ads or annoying popup windows. It is not an e-mail about a product with no relevance to your client whatsoever. For example, an e-mail about prescription drugs is not professional e-mail marketing. That type of mass marketing is not appropriate for professional services – it is best suited for consumer products with a broad market appeal.

Professional e-mail is targeted and personal. It should be brief and discuss a service of relevance or provide educational insight to the recipient. The focus should be on sending simple, clean and professional messages to a targeted group.

For example, sending an e-mail discussing cost segregation services to those who work with, or are large building owners, is professional targeted e-mail marketing. Briefly mentioning the importance of a business valuation to your corporate clients is another good example. The list of topics to address is limited to your creativity.

Actions

E-mail allows you to educate these target groups and get them asking questions about your firm and additional services you might provide. It may extend their thinking to how you can service their clients. When a need arises you want to have them think of your firm as the resource to utilize.

Goal

The goal is to get the recipient to contact you for more information. Whether the call is from a referral partner who wants to meet and discuss your specialized audit or tax services, or a client requesting more information on your advisory services, the end goal is to get the call. From there, closure is dependent upon you.

Benefits – Speed, Convenience and Cost

Speed and convenience are important benefits of e-mail marketing. Once a message is developed, it is simply a matter of entering e-mail addresses and pressing send. In seconds, it is delivered and ready to be reviewed. E-mail offers the recipient an instant avenue of communication. If there is a question about a highlighted service, event or opportunity, they can reply to your message and begin communicating instantly.

Perhaps the most attractive feature of e-mail marketing is the cost. Compared to traditional forms of marketing – direct mail and telemarketing – e-mail is the most cost effective.

Assuming you have a PC and Internet connection, then there are virtually no costs to send 1,000 e-mails. To send the same number of direct mail pieces would cost significantly more. The postage alone on 1,000 pieces is $370, not including paper, envelopes and related printing expenses. Remember this cost is for one piece to be sent once.

Utilizing e-mail, you can send any number of e-mails without incurring expenses, while direct mail incurs an expense each time. Telemarketing would be even more expensive. On average a person can make 13 calls per hour. This includes time needed to navigate through phone mail systems, get past gatekeepers and leave voicemails. To call 1,000 contacts just one time would take 75 hours. Additional time would be needed to make follow up phone calls.

The Process

The key to incorporating an effective e-mail marketing strategy is to understand the process. Whether you are a technical genius or someone with limited skills, implementation is not complex. Once you have the basic technology in place, you need to build a directory of e-mail addresses.

The Internet contains a vast amount of information. Generally, attorneys are good sources for referrals, so begin by searching for lawyers in your area. Almost every law firm web site has the names and e-mails of their attorneys on the site. Associations may also have e-mail contact information available.

Record e-mail addresses from business cards collected at meetings with referral partners, clients or prospects. This is the best source of information because direct contact has been made and a relationship is in place.

Enter this information into a database. A complex system that costs thousands of dollars is unnecessary. Pick a program with which you feel comfortable, such as ACT, Goldmine or a simple Excel spreadsheet. It is important to use an application where you can easily add and edit information.

Ongoing updates and edits are critical to maintaining a “clean” database. After the first e-mail is sent, some will be returned user unknown. These are e-mails are no longer working. Additionally, there may be people who ask to be removed from your mailing list. Finally, there will be some who are interested. Note the status of these contacts to avoid sending repeat or impersonal messages.

Information to Include in the E-mail

The target audience dictates the content of the e-mail. Refrain from making it more than two paragraphs. Keep it informational, only highlighting a few points about the topic. Remember, you have the average professional’s attention for three seconds before they decide to continue reading.

Being brief allows you to quickly grab the readers’ attention by stating the main points. If interested, they will read the e-mail in detail and may go to your web site for more information.

A professional web site is important. If the recipient sees a poor web site they will not call. If you do not have a web site, develop one before beginning e-mail marketing.

E-mail Marketing Mistakes

Be sure never to include attachments. Many companies use firewall programs to guard against viruses. Since attachments are the most common way viruses are spread, they may be automatically deleted from unknown sources that include attachments. For this reason, include a link to your web site where additional information can be obtained.

Do not send the e-mail to one person and carbon copy the rest of the recipients. This will annoy everyone who receives the e-mail because they will see a long list of e-mails before they can read the message. Additionally, they will see addresses of others who received the message, which you do not want to share. Finally, and most important, you want the e-mail to appear personal.

Return Rate

What type of return should be expected? Although e-mail is faster than direct mail, the return rate tends to be the same. Typically, less than a one percent return can be expected. Remember you are only looking for one or two responses each time. If you e-mail twice a month and get two responses each time, that amounts to 24 new referral source opportunities per year – a huge pool of potential opportunities. The higher the number of e-mails sent, the greater the number of potential response.

On occasion you may encounter a higher return rate, and on others a lower rate. The key is to opening the door to new opportunities.

About the Author

Brian Swanson is a Senior Consultant at Visionary Marketing, which specializes in helping accounting firms develop marketing strategies to target new prospects, develop referral networks and increase existing client revenues. Contact Brian Swanson at 800-995-9186, or via e-mail at bswanson@ThinkVisionary.com.

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