There are many email marketing systems available today, but not all of them are suitable for law and accountancy companies. When you copy a generic format time and time again, your clients will soon tire of seeing the same information dropping into their inbox.
This is why your email marketing campaigns must be targeted and relevant to your readership. Not only this, but you have to also tell your clients why this information is relevant to them also. Inform them of the latest news or changes to tax and accounting rules, but don’t forget to explain how these changes will affect them and their business.
Here are some useful tips to consider when setting up your email campaigns.
Devise a ‘hymn sheet’
Be clear about your goals. What message do you want to deliver with your email campaign? Have a direction and an end goal that you want to achieve. Define this first before you start to create your content so that you will always have your end goal in mind while you are writing.
Putting together a plan of action and a schedule for creating your content, your distribution dates and your targeted audience will help streamline your campaigns, and prevent any tensions or internal conflict from staff who cannot see any clear goals to aim for/
Ad-hoc random emails never perform as well as tailored campaigns, especially when they are too general and aimed at everyone. Segmenting your client base into relevant groups enables you to send targeted email campaigns tailored for those client needs. This will lead to more engagement, and a better chance of having your offer taken up by those clients who need it most.
A/B testing is a proven method where you can target two very different versions of an email and monitor their impact and results. Your regular clients are more likely to buy extra services from you, so targeting them with a soft-sell email may be enough to generate some engagement. Your second version could be written to be much more aggressive, and this one can be targeted to those clients who are much less active. You could offer deeper discounts on the second version to encourage re-engagement from lapsed clients.
Obtain quality data
Gathering useful data from your clients is important because you need to know how to categorise them for your email marketing campaigns. Understanding what your clients expect from you and the service you provide can help you to target those other services you offer that they would benefit from.
You can gather information from you clients through short surveys and polls. By explaining to your clients why you are asking them these questions, they in turn will be more inclined to give you honest answers.
Make sure you include a double opt-in form on your website that enables new clients to sign up to your email list. This enables them to purposefully subscribe rather than subscribe by accident, and also gives them the option to unsubscribe easily if they feel your content is not useful to them. If you find you are getting a high unsubscribe rate, then this is a clear indicator that what you are sending out to your clients is either very poor quality, or it is not relevant for their needs.
Ensure that you are reachable on all platforms. Your clients are now becoming highly connected, and if you want to maintain your relationship with them, as well as attract new prospects, then you need to be where they are. This means being contactable through email, telephone, website, blog, mobile internet, and social media. Make it easy for your clients to sign up to your email list by including an opt-in form across all platforms.
Create quality content
When you are writing your email content, always bear in mind that through your email you are talking directly to another human, so remember to write like a human. You already have your clients signed up to receive your emails – they already know who you are and what you do, so it is fine to let your personality come through when writing your content.
In the same way that social media allows you to talk with your clients on a more informal level, so too can your emails that you send directly to them. In marketing, your writing really matters. So rather than making your clients feel alienated by the use of formal business talk, try to speak with them as if you were having a normal conversation with them.
Keep your subject lines short and sweet. You want to entice your readers in to read your email, not switch them off with an overly wordy title. Tell them what is in your email and let your readers open it to find out more.
Email marketing is one of the oldest forms of sales tools we still use today since the invention of the internet. Yet many law and accountancy firms still have a very chaotic approach to their email marketing campaigns. When done properly, a good campaign can bring in results, and will only serve to build a stronger relationship between you and your clients.
Conclusion
Persuading potential new clients to sign up to your email list is one thing, but keeping them engaged and constantly interested in receiving more emails from you is another thing entirely. We can work in partnership with you to firstly help you encourage more people to sign up to your list, and secondly work with you to keep your readers happy – lets do it! Contact us today to get started. Call us on 0203 773 9137 or email info@creativeharmony.co.uk Contact us today for an informal, no obligation, chat to see how we can help you.
