Within Business to Business (B2B) marketing, email still remains one of the most popular means of communication, and therefore one of the most effective ways of reaching your target market.
It’s also one of the safest and least risky ways to market your accounting firm.
That’s because while platforms such as Linkedin and Facebook are great for building followings and generating enquiries, you don’t own them. If they get sold or their algorithm changes, you could experience a drastic change in marketing results.
You can use LinkedIn and Facebook to grow a community and find leads, but you still need to have content in a place you own and have complete control over. That place is your email list.
Your email list is one of the most important marketing assets you can own. Here is how to make the most of the emails that you have on your email list using 3 email sequences all accounting firms should have built into their email marketing platform.
A new subscriber has just signed up to your mailing list.
First: congrats! That’s exciting news! Second: DO NOT TAKE THIS LIGHTLY!
Think to yourself how guarded you are with your own email address these days and how reluctant you can sometimes be to subscribe to things. People don’t just give their email address to anybody. It means that they’ve seen something they like, and they want to find out more.
Your new subscriber email sequence is how you do that.
It’s your chance to make the most of their newly-earned attention and build trust, add value and showcase some credibility over the course of a few emails.
When it comes to welcoming new subscribers, here are 2 different sequences:
Indoctrination might sound like a strong word, but it’s exactly what you’re looking to do with this first email sequence. You’re looking to get a lead to accept that something is true so they can make the decision to work with you.
Ask yourself, what does your prospect need to believe to be true in order to work with you?
Here are a few ideas…
The way that you start to help them to accept a new set of beliefs is by emailing them strategic pieces of content over a period of weeks. These pieces of content need to help guide them towards hopefully taking some action i.e. booking a call with you.
Here’s an example of what an indoctrination email sequence might look like running over 2-3 weeks:
This type of sequence is best used on a general email sign-up e.g. they click subscribe to your mailing list via your website or somewhere else.
If people come into your mailing list for the first time from downloading a specific piece of content e.g a guide to tax saving strategies for landlords, then you can use this style of sequence, however you could use the next sequence instead.
Going back to the previous example, if I’ve just downloaded a guide about tax saving strategies for landlords then I’m giving you 2 very important pieces of information:
And what this means is that you are in a unique position to create a content-specific nurture sequence based on those 2 things. You know what my industry is, and you know one of my biggest challenges. Use that information wisely.
The goals and structure are largely the same as the indoctrination sequence. You’re looking to add value and build trust & credibility with me over a period of weeks. Here’s an example of what it might look like:
Once prospects have completed either of the 2 sequences above, you don’t just stop emailing.
These relationships can take time to build, so if they don’t convert immediately, you move them into the next email sequence, the long-term nurturing sequence.
Your long-term nurture sequence is how you maintain and build relationships with prospects over a long period of time. It’s how you stay top of mind so when the time comes that they need you, or the piece of content you share hits them at the right time, they know exactly who to speak to.
When it comes to long-term nurture sequences, there are a few ways to do it:
Both of the sequences above rely on people engaging with your emails. If people aren’t engaging then ideally you want them off your email-list (unengaged contacts that consistently don’t open emails can harm your email deliverability).
Before you boot them off, try to engage them with a re-engagement sequence.
Sometimes, no matter how hard you try (and how many emails you send), subscribers lose interest and stop engaging.
Continuing to email these people over a long period of time isn’t a great idea for 2 reasons:
Here are three campaign options for you to send if you have a group of unengaged subscribers
Setting up automations isn’t a 10-minute task. But once you’ve spent some time creating these marketing assets, they’ll stand to generate you an ROI from your email marketing efforts for months, even years to come.
Automating these email sequences will ultimately come down to the apps that you use.
In a nutshell, a decent CRM system (Hubspot) or email marketing system (ConverKit) will do the job nicely. Both are fairly intuitive to use and can do everything I’ve referenced above (and more) with ease.
Email marketing remains one of the best channels for B2B marketing to date – and building an active email list of prospects and leads is a must-have for accounting firms serious about growth via marketing.
Start building your audience, implement some of the sequences above, and watch as your email marketing machine slowly starts to turn subscribers into leads, and leads into clients.