How often do you get emails daily? According to the stats, it’s 121 emails per day on average.
You probably signed up to hear about the latest offers at your favorite restaurant or receive newsletters from a niche website. Whatever the case is, it indicates that email marketing is alive and kicking, and there’s a good reason for it.
About 4.37 billion people use email accounts worldwide. It’s a lot, right? However, if your business relies on selling products and services to accountants, it can be a bit tricky.
Why? Because accounting professionals often handle 100-200 emails daily, which is more than average, and they are busy professionals.
So how to do effective email marketing to accountants and hook them to your products?
Before learning what tactics to apply, let’s understand why marketing to accounting firms is a game changer.
Effective Ways to Email Marketing to Accountants
Accountants aggressively use email services for their day-to-day work.
Besides, accounting is a lucrative sector and has grown as one of the most successful business niches in the world today. Many key players exist in the accounting niche, including CPAs, auditors, accountants, Chief Financial Officers (CFO), budget managers, controllers, comptrollers, payroll managers, etc.
They have more purchasing power than many other industries. The accounting services reached a value of nearly $587.94 billion in 2021 and can grow up to $1,009.51 billion in 2026 at an 11.4% rate, according to Market and Research reports.
While the possibilities are limitless, connecting with accountants isn’t an easy task. Besides, accountants are not experts in marketing, and they have little time to entertain any promotional offer. For them, time is their most precious resource. They require quick details about your product or service and how it can help save their company more time and money.
Badgering them for business without an impressive pitch is probably not the best idea.
So, here are some actionable tips on marketing to CPA firms to help you make the right move.
1. Define the Target Audience and Build a Comprehensive List
If B2B marketers aspire to gain more leads and attract accountant clients, knowing what type of accountants you should target can be a game changer. After all, a budget manager may require different accounting products than a corporate auditor. It requires having in-depth insights into the niche audience and understanding their pain points to the T.
Besides, not all CPAs have the exact purchasing needs or budget to invest in marketing to power their practice. Hence, knowing your ideal audience helps to divert resources to financial executives who can become paying customers.
Here are some simple ways to power up the list-building game.
- End all digital interactions with opportunities for prospects to sign-up
- Offer potential clients something of quick value, such as a free eBook
- Give them the option to opt out and consider their privacy requirements
- Keep existing client emails up to date
- Proactively nurture the list with offers and insightful content
2. Selecting the Right Email Platform for Optimum Results
The key to effective email marketing is finding the right email platform. Using an Excel spreadsheet for lists with Outlook to send emails no longer fit the suit. In this digital era, you need something far more impactful and efficient than this.
Effective email marketing platforms provide tools to create professional emails and seamless workflows. They have easy-to-use features to build up-to-date contact and email lists.
It also includes powerful tools to store personal data, fulfill unique campaign requirements, A/B testing, and analyze results. Another advantage of using email marketing platforms is that they are cost-effective.
MailChimp and Get Response are among the most accessible and popular email marketing platforms today.
3. Compose User-friendly Subject Lines to Attract Leads
While you want your emails to be insightful, subject lines should capture the reader’s interest from the get-go. Engaging subject lines are often catchy and personal, providing a solid reason to check the entire email content.
As you launch marketing campaigns, use the following tips while writing subject lines:
- Add a personal touch by using the recipient’s name or location
- Be a little descriptive, offering a specific hook to read further
- Ask open-ended questions to raise curiosity
- Use three or fewer punctuation marks per subject line
Remember that the main objective of the email subject line is to tempt people to open the email. So, try testing different techniques by checking metrics like open and click-through rates.
4. Create Engaging and Insightful Content
Regarding marketing messages, accounting professionals are more interested in their essence and value than striking illustrations. But at times, the financial and accounting jargon can come across dry and too formal.
Hence, the content should involve an engaging use of accounting and financial terminologies, copy, and instructions to offer real value to the reader.
Content works like magic when it offers real value, such as news and data about topics that resonate with the target audience. Some other examples of content types for marketing to accountants are:
- Latest tax law updates
- QuickBooks tips, hacks, tricks, and tutorials
- Recent news from accounting and bookkeeping industry
- Frequently asked questions about accounting
5. Optimize the Email Design
It’s not a hidden secret that attention spans are getting shorter, especially in the digital realm. Hence, the best emails are easy to understand and easy to read. While using images and graphics makes it attractive, overuse can hinder the reading experience and influence its success.
In this era, over half of all emails get read on mobile. Besides, accountants have started using phones for most of their business, including reading and replying to emails. So, if the email design isn’t suitable for small screens, you’re creating an obstacle for them. To top it all, almost 80% of people will delete an email if it isn’t responsive to a small screen.
Improve your email design with these engagement-boosting tips.
- Design an email with a clear purpose and helpful illustrations (not distracting)
- Follow visual hierarchies – first attention-grabbing big image, followed by a thinner copy text block, ending with a CTA button
- Use enough whitespace
- Utilize the A/B testing feature to improve email marketing design
6. Include Clear Calls to Action (CTA) for Better Response
A call to action is essential for marketing. These links and buttons work as signposts, guiding the user on what step should be taken next. When a clear CTA is not mentioned, users aren’t able to sign up for your service.
Besides, it improves the conversion rate. The more people click on a CTA, the more likely you get a lead. To craft effective CTAs, consider the following tips:
- Ensure the link or button is highlighted
- The placement of the CTA should immediately catch the reader’s attention
- Underline the advantages for the reader by taking specific action
- Action-driven CTAs like “Download Now” or “Subscribe today so you’ll never miss an update” boost conversions
- Stick to five words or less to fit the click button
7. Test and optimize
Once you’re ready to send email communications, you can analyze their performance by checking different metrics. It’s best to set benchmarks based on average performance and then try to pinpoint patterns amongst the most successful emails to understand what resonates the most with accountants.
Try testing different subject lines and CTAs using A/B testing tools and sending them at various times to see if it influences the success ratio of the campaign.
8. Sending Follow-up Email
Follow-ups are more significant than initial communications. They can be sent in response to the subscriber’s actions. Follow-up emails not only prompt the prospects to set up a meeting for B2B interaction but also lets them leave feedback. These emails build trust and indicate that your brand follows a more customer-centric approach.
Follow-up emails also help filter the hot and active leads from the ones not interested in further communication. Using a lead magnet as a follow-up email helps to deliver value to the prospect and position your brand as a market expert.
Conclusion
Accountants are often strapped for time. But they have a say in many purchasing decisions for their firms. Hence, not tapping into this sea of opportunities can cost your B2B business big bucks.
On a parting note, let’s revisit the key takeaways about email marketing to accountants.
- The first step to devising effective marketing is defining the target audience and building an email list of prospective accounting professionals. eSalesData’s accountants email list offers everything you need to develop a foolproof strategy for marketing to CPA firms.
- B2B marketers should leverage an appropriate email marketing platform that helps to design email copy and manage their campaigns.
- Successful marketing to accountants is possible only with attention-grabbing subject lines, engaging content, attractive email designs, and personalization that opens doors to innumerable opportunities.
- Remember to optimize CTAs for more conversions.
- Finally, monitor your metrics to test and optimize campaigns for better results.
