Adding to your email list is a must if you are running your own business. As a professional CPA, word of mouth is one of your most effective marketing tools. Communicating regularly with current and potential customers via email will keep you in your customers’ minds and can help you build referrals. Discover how to grow and effectively use your email list to manage customer relationships and generate leads. In this article we cover:
- Why you should have an email list
- Tools to expand your CPA email list
- Ideas for email campaigns
- What do you do next
Find more leads and drive policy renewals with expert marketing advice and all the tools you need, all in one place.
Why You Should Have a CPA Email List
Email marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies. The average ROI for email campaigns is $ 42 for every $ 1 spent. Growing your email list is an inexpensive way to generate new leads, and it doesn’t take long. You can cultivate new business and continue to provide first class service to your customers.
There are several tools you can use to grow your email list, which we’ll get into below.
Tools to help you grow your CPA email list
You may think that the best way to add to your list is to attend networking events, collect business cards, and manually enter the information into a database. It’s one way of finding new customers, but it’s time-consuming and easy to push yourself off of other tasks on your “to-do” list. Complete your personal contact with these digital tools.
Website optimization
Your website should contain a call-to-action (CTA) that encourages visitors to sign up for your newsletter. Write a short CTA outlining the value of your email list with a button or form at the bottom that will lead visitors to sign up. Your customers will sign up when they think the information is useful. So let them know what to expect from your newsletter. Adding a CTA like “Sign up for tips on saving money” or “Sign up for a free guide to making deductions for charity” will tell people what kind of content to expect from you.
Real-time examples
RHN contact form with clear CTA
The Canadian accounting firm RHN includes trust-building language on its “Contact Us” page. As shown in the figure, this short paragraph portrays the company’s employees as experts and helps customers sign up for more information.
You can also add floating boxes to your contact landing page. These forms appear as banners at the top of your website so people can easily sign up for your list.
Another way to optimize your website for lead generation is to include a contact form that collects visitor data. Constant Contact’s website builder tool offers design templates that make it easy to add one of these forms to your contact page. Make sure to monitor the contact us page and follow up with people who fill out the form or create a friendly welcome message that is automatically generated when people sign up.
Sample contact form from YPTC
National accounting firm YPTC has a clean and easy-to-navigate website. If you click the “Contact Us” button at the top of the page, you will be directed to a contact form where potential customers can provide more detailed information about themselves.
Automated emails
Setting up a welcome email that is generated when someone signs up from your website or fills out your contact form is a great way to let people know that they are actually on your list. Your welcome email serves as an introduction to your company. So make sure it matches your brand voice and tone.
Your welcome email should be friendly as this is another way to sell your newsletter and business content. Thank your contacts for signing up and write a short, informative message explaining your expectations. B. how often they receive an email and how they benefit from your content. Include information on how to contact you for business opportunities and advice.
Also describe how often people are contacted with different types of email content. If you offer subscribers premium content such as white papers or webinars, give your customers a contact or link to download these resources. You may have been promoting your email list by promising exclusive content. This email keeps your promise.
For a seamless experience, use an email automation tool that will help you generate a compelling welcome message.
Free information
People expect something in return when they sign up for your email. If you’ve written articles, hosted webinars, or created video content that is useful to customers, post free introductions on your website and provide deeper insight to your newsletter recipients. See which topics are popular on your website and offer more detailed articles and videos to subscribers.
You are likely to produce high quality content as part of your online marketing strategy, but you are storing some of your most useful information for people who subscribe to your email. This shows them that they are valued customers and creates a good reason for people to sign up for your newsletter. Exclusive content should address your customers’ needs. Consider including tax-saving tips, free accounting webinars, and other financial information that your customers find relevant.
Once you have started generating new leads and adding your website to your list, keep in touch with your new contacts. Segment your CPA email list and create different targeted campaigns that will build your relationship with your contacts.
There are many ways to segment your list, which means that you can sort your email contacts into different categories. You can organize them by location or industry or create separate lists for existing customers and new contacts. Segmentation allows you to customize your messages, which can lead to higher open rates.
Ideas for email campaigns
Your welcome email serves as the first point of contact between you and your contacts. However, emailing them regularly with memorable subject lines is the best way to drive engagement and raise awareness about your business. To check the success of your email campaigns, measure your email analytics to see which messages are generating the best engagement in order to customize your future emails
frequently asked Questions
Creating content that provides in-depth answers to frequently asked questions adds value to your CPA email list. In general, your email should be short. Pick a question to answer and write a 250-500 word article that will give customers the best advice. You can also write an in-depth blog post and use your newsletter to drive traffic to it. If you’re not sure which questions to answer, take a look at your website analytics to see which pages are showing the most engagement to see if certain topics are of interest.
Speaking and teaching engagement announcements
Some CPAs occasionally host webinars or speak at conferences. These educational activities not only teach your clients to help themselves between appointments, but are also great for networking. If you host webinars or teach at an industry conference, promote them by posting a message to your email list.
Referral Requests
One of your main goals in email marketing is to generate word of mouth. Sending referral requests is a great way to generate these leads. If any of your email segments are current or past customers, send them an email with an incentive for a referral. You can offer free webinar attendance, a gift card, or a discount on future accounting services by using a referral code to track the success of the campaign.
Special events
You can host the occasional customer review event to build relationships and thank your customers for their business. Send out invitations to these events through your email list. This way you can save printing and postage costs and create different messages for existing and new customers that inspire them to network or just to have fun.
Targeted email campaigns draw customers’ attention to your company and encourage them to recommend your company to others. These campaigns will help build your credibility and encourage new customers to sign up for your emails. This is where you start building your email list.
What do you do next
Add to your CPA email list by looking at your website and seeing where it can be optimized for lead generation. If you don’t already have a contact form, add one in a prominent place. Create a call-to-action communicating the benefits of registering for your email list and set up an automatic welcome email for anyone who signs up.
Once your list has subscribers, start segmenting and strategizing email campaigns to keep in touch with your customers. With quality content, you will see more people sign up for your list.
For more information on understanding email marketing, see Constant Contact’s Marketing Guide, The Download.
