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 small businesses need accountants more than ever

About five years ago, I first began to read predictions that traditional accountants could soon find that their number was up. According to reports, accountants were literally living on borrowed time, because of technology’s relentless advance. I’ve even had accountants tell me this recently.

In 2014, it was estimated that almost half (47%) of job categories could be automated within two decades, with accountants and auditors high up on the endangered list. Technology would be able to complete most of their duties and tasks, faster, better and at a far lower cost, some sources predicted.

End game

In the coming decades, some believe automation will kill the accounting profession as we know it. Accounting software companies continue to add more automation to their wares, impacting manual accounting processes and slowly but surely removing the need for accountants and bookkeepers to take care of many simple tasks.

With little knowledge, freelances, contractors, sole traders and micro-business owners can now use apps that allow them to conveniently manage their expenses, invoicing and tax from their smartphones. Such apps provide data that makes filling out tax returns much easier.

They can be connected to current bank accounts and credit card accounts – while some apps even offer their own business current account. And they target accountants, encouraging them to get their clients to become users, so that accountants are freed from mundane tasks and can contribute value in other ways (well, that’s the marketing spiel, anyway).

“Many business owners may not be as tech-savvy as you believe. According to ONS data, only 48% of UK businesses have a website. ”

Cause for comfort

Some say it’s inevitable that in the future, tech rather than accountants will advise business owners on finance, funding, tax and other matters. Small-business owners may be able to use chatbots, for example, to have their questions answered in real time, for free or at low cost, rather than having to meet or call a flesh-and-blood accountant (and pay for the privilege).

Accountants are offered some crumbs of comfort in this brave new future world, because although there will be fewer accountants and accountancy firms, those still standing will take on more strategic and analytical roles, we’re told. Time will tell.

No one knows the extent to which technology will impact accountancy or how soon significant change will come. And many UK business owners may not be as tech-savvy as some would have you believe. According to the most recent ONS data, only 48% of all UK businesses have a website. The figure for micro-businesses is just 45%.

“Many people – especially older business owners – aren’t going to be using chatbots to have their business queries answered any time soon”

Vital role

Although research suggests that 100% 16-24 year old use their mobile phones to get online, more than a quarter (27%) of 55-64 year old do not use their mobile phone to get online, while neither do 40% of mobile phone users aged 65-plus. About 14% of people in the UK aged 60-plus now run their own business, either full time or part time, with a further 9% freelancing. So, we see that many people – especially older business owners – aren’t going to be using chatbots to have their business queries answered any time soon.

Clearly, accountants still have a pivotal role to play in ensuring that the UK’s 5.9m SMEs are kept well informed and expertly advised. Never more has that been truer than this year, of course when many micro and small businesses have relied on their accountants to help them negotiate their way through furloughing and tax and business rate changes. Small businesses also needed to know about government grants and loans, as well as how to cut costs and keep their cash flow healthy.

Throughout the UK, the best accountants and accountancy firms reached out regularly to their small-business clients, to give them life-saving guidance in the most challenging of times. With the economy in an alarming state, things still far from stable because of Covid-19 – and with the Brexit transition period ending early next year – small businesses need their accountants more than ever. Who else can they rely on?

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