Create your own low-cost customer enewsletter in five simple steps

In my previous post, I made the business case for enewsletters, which can be a highly effective marketing tool for accountants and other service-based businesses. For little cost, you can market your services to prospects, current and former customers.

But what are the key legal considerations and what steps should you take if you want to your enewsletter to succeed?   

1 Build and segment your enewsletter contact list…

Obviously, you’ll have email addresses for existing clients. And although you may have them for former clients and prospects, if you haven’t gained their informed consent, email them all to tell them about your new enewsletter, including a link to your website’s enewsletter subscription page.

Gather your signed-up email addresses into one enewsletter contact database. Segmenting this into different types of customers and targeting each with variations of your enewsletter can greatly increase your success. Separating private individuals from businesses is an obvious place to start, but you could segment your database into leads, customers and previous customers.

Top tip >> Segment your business customers by age, size or sector, so that you can better serve their specific information needs.

2 Get more subscribers to sign up

Enabling visitors to easily subscribe via your home page and others is a must. Give links good visibility, but avoid invasive pop-ups and anything else that could annoy.

Don’t ask for too much information at first. You just need a name, some basic details and an email address. On your sign-up web page, tell subscribers how you’ll use their email address. If you plan to send other marketing emails, allow them to opt out. Include enewsletter sign-up links in your email footers and social media posts and profile pages. Publicise your enewsletter offline, too.

Top tip >> Don’t waste money buying email lists, because the quality can be poor. Instead, always seek to grow your subscription list.

3 Draw up an enewsletter content plan

Create this for the next 12 months. Plan in content when it will be most relevant and useful to recipients. As an obvious example, if you are an accountant, you include a piece on Self-Assessment in your November or December enewsletter ahead of the 31 January tax return online filing deadline.

Also align content with your marketing aims. For example, you may want to try to sell a particular service at a certain time, so you include related content in the preceding month’s enewsletter.

You should also plan content around topical, seasonal, national or international events. Provide an engaging mix of topics and content format in each newsletter. Be original. About three items of content per newsletter is a good target – think quality not quantity. This content should live on your website. Create an archive page, so visitors can read your previous enewsletters.

Top tip >> Your content should be rich in value. Tell recipients something new. Solve their problems. Help them to succeed. Save them time and money. Also showcase your expertise.       

4 Choose the right enewsletter solution

There are many enewsletter management platforms/apps. They include MailChimp, Mailjet, GetResponse, MailUp, MailerLite, Emma, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, MailUp, AWeber, Benchmark, Sendloop, SendinBlue and ConvertKit.

Some offer a free service, with limited features/benefits, but these can still work well if you have a relatively short mailing list. The more you pay, basically, the more you get, and monthly deals are available from about £10-£15 – a relatively low investment.

So, how does they work? You import your database, create an enewsletter design or use/customise a responsive template (so your email looks good on all devices) and schedule your distribution. Most paid solutions enable you to segment, A/B test, custom brand your enewsletters and gain advanced audience insights, so you can improve your success rate.

Top tip >> Make it easy to share your newsletters via email links or social media sharing buttons. It can help to grow your subscription list.

5 Preview, send and analyse

After all of your content has been written – and proofed – most enewsletter platforms/apps allow you send test versions to yourself, to check it looks good on desktop and mobile device, and won’t be deemed junk mail. If all is OK, you can send or schedule your enewsletter for distribution.

You can never be totally sure how your enewsletter will perform, but most enewsletter platforms/apps provide analytics, so you can see what worked and what didn’t. Key metrics include open rate, click-through rate and unsubscribe rates.

Top tip >> Always analyse performance data. Learn lessons and make improvements. Don’t give up if results aren’t great straight away. Success takes time and effort.

Some important legal requirements

• Your must comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements when it comes to personal data.

• Recipients should also have given their explicit consent to receiving your enewsletter. Individuals and organisations must opt-in to receive your email. Get verifiable consent via an affirmative action.

• Recipients must be able to unsubscribe easily.

• Each enewsletter must clearly state your business name, registration number if a limited company, your postal and email addresses. You can’t conceal your identity.

• Anti-spam laws restrict the sending of “spam” (unsolicited marketing emails) to subscribers.

• Never send unsolicited enewsletters. Most of us hate them – don’t we?

• Written by Mark Williams, founder and content director of Dead Good Content. Copyright 2020 © Dead Good Content.

Why your accountancy firm needs its own client enewsletter

Most of us have signed up to receive email newsletters – the good, the bad and the ugly. We look forward to receiving the ones we like and value, but soon unsubscribe from those crammed with irrelevant content or a blatant barrage of sales messages.

Just when they looked to be all but dying out, about three years ago enewsletters underwent a renaissance. Everyone was doing them again; some were superb and they helped brands to build better customer relationships. Enewsletters can be a particularly effective marketing tool for accountants and other service-based businesses.

“Enewsletters can be a particularly effective marketing tool for accountants and other service-based businesses”

Why are email newsletters popular?

Email marketing is where you send out pure sales-related content, for example, information about your latest offers. But enewsletters contain news, features and other content designed to inform recipients – to increase their knowledge.

The key reason why people sign up to enewsletters is they want to learn more about things they’re interested in. Many of us love enewsletters and those that national newspapers send out every day are now among the most popular. Your average enewsletter design is now far better and enewsletters are much easier to read on smartphone, which has also helped to boost their popularity, because you can read them wherever you are (almost).

If someone has signed up to receive your enewsletter, it’s less likely to be spam-filtered. And research suggests that the average enewsletter open rate is high, providing you have a good subject line and the recipient recognises the sender. Pick a good mix of high-quality, relevant, timely content and your click-through rates can also be high.

“If you provide valuable information that benefits subscribers, they’re more likely to know, like and trust you – and buy what you’re selling”

Highly effective

When well written, produced and distributed, email newsletters are a highly effective way to reach prospects and existing customers, ensuring that you remain in their thoughts (or occasionally pop into their heads, at least).

If you provide valuable information that benefits subscribers, they’re more likely to know, like and trust you – and buy what you’re selling – the ultimate aim, of course. In a business context, your enewsletter information should enable recipients to increase their knowledge, solve their problems, save time, money or otherwise become more profitable and successful.

Having your own enewsletter can make your small accountancy firm appear bigger and more professional – and more interested in its clients – which can really set you apart from your competitors. Adding value to your customer relationships in this way can ensure that your customers remain loyal.

“Latest news, tips, updates and key-date reminders are all common enewsletter content, but longer-from content can also prove popular ”

Question of balance

Latest news, tips, updates and key-date reminders are all common enewsletter ingredients, but longer-from content can also prove popular. You can tell recipients about latest developments, whether in their sector, the small-business world or at your business (don’t overdo this). Sharing your insight via enewsletter is a good way to underline your credibility as an expert, while competitions and giveaways are also popular. Research suggests that subscribers are happy to hear about new offers or latest deals via enewsletters (but limit this also). Think “tell, tell”, rather than “sell, sell”.

Some businesses send out weekly enewsletters, while others send them out every two weeks, each month or quarter. Many accountants send out Budget specials, of course, while many have sent out special enewsletter to explain the latest Covid-19-related changes. Frequency is key, because you mustn’t bombard recipients, you simply want to keep them connected, engaged and informed.

“Part of email marketing’s attraction is it offers a great return on investment – some believe a £42 ROI for every £1 you spend”

Return on investment

Enewsletters can be created for very little cost, even if you buy content. Part of email marketing’s attraction is it offers a great return on investment (ROI) – some believe a £42 ROI for every £1 you spend (source: Direct Marketing Association). That’s a pretty compelling claim.

Testing and analytics enable you to quickly find out what works best, whether that’s your subject lines, content type or when to send your enewsletter. Setting up and managing a customer enewsletter is relatively straightforward, but if you just don’t have the time, knowledge or inclination, paying someone else to do it for you could prove a wise investment.

In my next post, I’ll provide a step-by-step guide to setting up an enewsletter for your accountancy firm, together with some important legal considerations.

• With 15 years’ experience as a leading writer of small-business content, Mark Williams is the founder of Dead Good Content, which specialises in writing readymade and bespoke content for accountancy firms and others that want to market their services to small businesses.

How to create a new marketing plan for your accountancy firm

The lockdown may have smashed a gaping hole right through your marketing plan for 2020. You may serve sectors that have been particularly hard hit. Some of your prospects or existing clients may have already gone to the wall.

Many of the assumptions, aims and actions set out in your previous marketing plan may no longer hold water. Your marketing plan may not have been working anyway. And, whether through lack of time or knowledge, some smaller accountants don’t have a marketing plan, which may be limiting their growth.

Although many are understandably feeling slightly dazed and confused at the moment, doing nothing isn’t an option. All businesses must act if they are to get back on track, and creating a new marketing plan could really help your recovery.

“Planning is bringing the future into the present, so we can do something about it now”

Why create a marketing plan?

As once explained by celebrated American time-management author, Alan Lakein: “Planning is bringing the future into the present, so we can do something about it now”. Lakein is also credited with the often-quoted adage:  “Failing to plan is planning to fail”.

This is a slight over-simplification, because businesses without marketing plans aren’t necessarily doomed to failure. Moreover, marketing plans don’t guarantee success, because things don’t always pan out as expected. But planning can increase your chances of success, while enabling you to make the most out of available opportunities.

You can develop a marketing plan for your entire business or just a specific product, service, market or customer type. Your marketing plan need not be long or intricate, in fact, the shorter and simpler the better (the KISS principle certainly applies). Most marketing plans are for periods of one to three years.

Marketing plan basics

In essence, marketing is how you get prospects and customers interested in buying your products or services (after that, you’re into selling). The marketing process involves research, creating a service or product (sometimes), promoting, selling and distributing your wares.

According to Susan Ward: “When you’re putting together a marketing plan, concentrate on four key components – products/services, promotion, distribution and pricing.” Success rests on offering the right things for the right price in the right way, while ensuring that enough people know who you are and what you sell. Ward says creating and implementing a marketing plan can help you to keep your marketing efforts better focused, so that you ultimately make more sales.

If your market knowledge is out of date or lacking, your marketing plan will be flawed. If necessary, undertake up-to-date market research. Your plan must also summarise your offer (including your USP) and your market (ie its size, value, trends, etc), your target customers, your competitors and your market position. All of the above should also be up to date.

“The most crucial marketing plan aims are linked to sales, expressed in numbers or percentages, linked to those detailed in your business plan ”

Setting marketing plan aims

Take enough time to consider your marketing plan aims, which should be SMART (ie specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound). If they’re specific, you know exactly what you’re trying to achieve. If they’re measurable, you can assess your performance.

Ambition is a great thing, but there’s no point in setting unrealistic marketing plan aims, because you’ll only fail. You should set milestones and a deadline for your marketing plan, because then you’ll be able to assess your progress.  

Your marketing plan goals could include increasing awareness of your brand, launching new services and targeting new customers and entering new markets. However, the most crucial marketing plan aims are linked to sales, expressed in numbers or percentages, linked to those detailed in your business plan.

“If you spend time creating a sound marketing plan, it could make a big difference to your ability to survive and thrive in these challenging times”

Marketing plan strategy

Now you must decide your marketing tactics or marketing strategy, in other words – how you’ll achieve your marketing plan goals. Key options include search engine, email and content marketing, PR, social media and advertising, while word-of-mouth recommendations remain important to many small accountancy firms. Most businesses use a mix of tactics, and if don’t know which ones work best – test, measure and learn.

Once you’ve decided your marketing tactics, calculating their cost allows you to set and allocate your marketing budget. Closely monitoring which marketing tactics are delivering the required results will enable you to assess your return on investment. Over time, you’ll be able to allocate your marketing spend where it’s most likely to deliver your marketing and business plan objectives.

Finally, creating a marketing plan that you never use is pointless. If you spend time creating a sound marketing plan, it could make a big difference to your ability to survive and thrive in these challenging times. To quote another popular business adage, action without planning can prove fatal, but planning without action is futile.

• With 15 years’ experience as a leading writer of small-business content, Mark Williams is the founder of Dead Good Content, which specialises in writing bespoke and ready made SME blog and news content for accountancy firms and others that want to market their services to small businesses.