The ultimate guide to email marketing for accountants

With people spending a third of their waking lives online, accounting firms need effective strategies to capture their attention. This is why digital marketing is so important. 

The digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving. In recent years, social media, influencer marketing, webinars, and podcasts have soared in popularity. Yet one of the oldest strategies remains one of the most effective: email marketing.

Email marketing for accountants is a tried-and-tested way to boost client engagement and convert leads. In this article, we’ll explain why. We’ll also highlight some best practices you can use to create highly effective email marketing campaigns.

Why email marketing for accountants is so important

Email has been around since the dawn of the internet. In the digital world, it’s considered old tech. Yet decades after it first became popular, it remains the most-used form of communication, with almost five billion users worldwide.

As the go-to communication channel for most people and businesses, email is also a powerful marketing tool. In this section, we’ll highlight the benefits of email marketing for CPAs and accountants.

Converting leads

Email marketing is proven to drive results. In fact, its ROI puts other marketing channels to shame. For every dollar spent on email campaigns, businesses get $36 back! 

This makes email one of the most cost-effective lead conversion strategies. Lead conversion is ultimately how you grow your business, making email marketing an essential tool for any accounting firm owner looking to scale their operations.

Enhancing client engagement

One of the key benefits of email marketing for tax professionals is enhanced client engagement. Email campaigns are a great way to keep in touch with your existing clients. Through targeted campaigns, you can engage different client cohorts with important information and updates, including: 

• Periodic newsletters
• Tax updates and upcoming deadlines
• Industry insights and thought leadership
• Information about your services, pricing, and special offers

Increasing client retention

Given that it costs 25 times more to acquire new clients than retain existing ones, your accounting business should be doing everything it can to keep your existing clients engaged and happy. Through regular email campaigns, you can promote trust and credibility. In turn, this strengthens client loyalty — which ultimately benefits your bottom line.

Best practices for email marketing for accountants

So how do you go about creating effective email marketing campaigns that boost client engagement and convert leads? In this section, we’ll highlight five best practices you can apply to drive results.

1. Write engaging subject lines

When creating an email campaign, it’s easy to focus solely on the email content itself and overlook the importance of the subject line. But this is a mistake. Your subject line is crucial because it convinces the recipient to open the email. 

The average email open rate is just over 22% across all industries. One-third of people who decide to open an email do so because of a catchy subject line. Here are some tips to help you write highly engaging subject lines: 

• Be clear and concise. Directly communicate the email’s value in as few words as possible — ideally 30-50 characters or 4-7 words. Example: “5 tax tips to save you money”.
• Create a sense of urgency. Use time-sensitive language. Example: “Act now: tax season is approaching!”
• Pose a question. Spark curiosity by speaking directly to the reader. Example: “Are you ready for tax season?”

2. Nail your email content

Once a recipient opens your email, you’ve got a small window of opportunity to engage them. There are several ways you can do this, including: 

• Personalization. Customize your emails with first names and tailored content.
• Provide value. Include valuable information and resources, such as free templates, checklists, or tips.
• Keep it concise. Your emails should be snappy — ideally between 50 and 125 words.
• Format for readability. Use short sentences, short paragraphs, and bullet points.

Providing valuable information in an engaging way is only part of the story, however. Your email should encourage the recipient to do something. This could be to book a call with you, to sign up for a webinar, or anything else. You do this with a well-placed call to action (CTA). For example: “Schedule your free consultation” or “Get 25% off tax services today”. 

3. Focus on design and the user experience

Emails aren’t just about words — there’s a significant design element to successful email campaigns as well. The best emails are not only visually appealing, but they are also easy to read on any device. Here are some tips for creating marketing emails that look amazing: 

• Include design elements. Add infographics, images, or embedded videos to improve engagement.
• Mobile-friendly. Ensure your emails are optimized for smartphones and tablets. 
• Logical hierarchy. Structure your emails so that key information stands out. Use headings, bold text, and buttons where necessary.

4. Get the right frequency

Frequency and cadence are important in email marketing campaigns. Email drip campaigns — i.e. campaigns where engagement is built over a series of emails — have 80% higher open rates than single-send emails. But if you bombard people with too many emails, too regularly, you’ll put them off.

So how should you approach email marketing frequency? The goal is to keep your audience engaged and build familiarity with your brand and services, without overdoing it. Here are some tips to get it right:

• Create drip campaigns that comprise 4-10 emails
• Space emails out so you are sending no more than two per week
• Send periodic emails, such as monthly newsletters, quarterly updates, or seasonal reminders

5. Increase engagement with targeted campaigns

No two clients or leads are the same. For this reason, sending blanket emails to your entire client or lead list isn’t the most effective approach. Instead, you should divide your email list into different segments.

For example, you could have a segment for individuals and another for businesses. Within your business segment, you could create additional segments based on business size or industry — and so on. 

Once you’ve segmented your audience, you can send them targeted emails designed to address their unique needs. For example, you can send tax preparation tips to individuals and payroll tips to businesses. 

How to use email marketing templates for accounting firms

When it comes to email marketing for accounting firms, there are plenty of tools designed that can do the heavy lifting for you. One example is email marketing templates. Using templates can speed up the email creation process while adhering to best practices around design, formatting, and content. 

Most email marketing platforms come with template libraries built-in. You can use these as the starting point for creating emails that are engaging and on-brand. Let’s look at some examples. 

Newsletter email templates

Accounting newsletters are an effective way to keep clients engaged over the long term. A good newsletter email template should include the following: 

• A catchy header to capture the imagination 
• A preview of what the recipient can expect from your newsletter — different sections, stories, insights, etc.
• A well-placed CTA to encourage them to read more

Here are some template examples from Campaign Monitor:

Promotional email templates

Promotional email templates help you spread the word about new services, discounts, or even events. They should be engaging enough to encourage immediate action from the recipient. Here are some pointers to consider: 

• Use a bold, engaging header
• Highlight the value of the offer or promotion in the body copy — what’s in it for the recipient?
• Create a sense of urgency or need 
• Use an action-oriented CTA button — e.g. “Claim your 25% discount!”

Here are some examples from Beefree. Remember, all elements — including images and copy — can be changed.

Reminder email templates

Reminder emails provide quick follow-ups to gently encourage the recipient to take action. You can send these to contacts who haven’t yet signed up for a webinar or taken advantage of a special offer, for example. Effective reminder emails include: 

• A strong header that builds urgency — e.g. “Last chance to claim your spot!”
• Essential information about the event or offer
• A relevant CTA

While a sense of urgency is crucial, it’s important not to sound overly pushy. Here’s an example of a reminder email template that could be modified for an accounting practice:

Tips for using templates

Templates save you a ton of time when creating new emails. That said, without the right care, they can make your emails look generic. For this reason, you should see templates as a starting point rather than an endpoint. Make sure you customize your templates so they look and feel related to your brand. You can do this by: 

• Adding your logo and other business-specific imagery
• Using the fonts and colours you use on your website
• Personalizing email content as much as possible

By using templates provided by your marketing automation software, you can create automated email campaigns without lifting a finger. The software adds client-specific information for you, ensuring that your emails look and feel personalized. 

The best marketing software also allows you to carry out A/B testing. By trying out different designs, content, and CTAs, you can improve the effectiveness of your email templates over time. 

Measuring success: KPIs and metrics for email campaigns

When it comes to email marketing for CPAs, understanding how campaigns are performing is crucial. There are several KPIs and metrics you can use to measure success. Tracking them will help you optimize future campaigns and achieve better results. 

Open rate

The open rate tells you the percentage of recipients who opened your email. It says a lot about how well-written your subject line was, as well as how relevant your email was to the audience. As we mentioned earlier, the average open rate across industries is 22%. For financial services, however, the average open rate is slightly higher at 26%. 

Click-through rate (CTR)

The CTR is the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link in your email. This could be a link to your website or a CTA prompting the reader to do something. It indicates how engaging and compelling your email content and CTAs are. It also tells you how well your email content motivates readers to take action.

An acceptable CTR is considered somewhere in the range of 2% to 5%. In terms of email marketing for accountants and the finance industry more broadly, you should aim to beat the average CTR of 2.7%.   

Bounce rate

Your bounce rate tells you the percentage of emails that couldn’t be delivered to the intended recipients. This happens, for example, when users have given you incorrect or outdated email addresses. 

The average bounce rate across all industries is around 2%. If your bounce rate is higher than that, you likely have issues with the quality of your email list.

Unsubscribe rate

Your unsubscribe rate shows you the percentage of recipients who opt out of receiving future emails. When someone does this, it’s usually an indication that: 

• Your email content is poor or not relevant to the recipient
• The recipient is no longer interested in working with you
• You have sent too many emails in quick succession

Unsubscribe rates tend to be pretty low, averaging 0.24% across all industries. This is often because recipients would rather choose not to open an email than go through the steps needed to unsubscribe.

Using analytics tools to refine your email campaigns

To measure and track these metrics, you need the right marketing analytics tool. Most marketing automation platforms come with analytics capabilities built in. This way, you can manage everything — from audience segmentation and automated scheduling to performance tracking — in one place. 

Armed with real-time campaign data, you can make incremental adjustments to your subject lines, email copy, and segmentation to boost results. 

Top email marketing tools for accountants

Here are three of the best marketing tools to help you create efficient and effective email marketing campaigns.

1. Hubspot

HubSpot is a suite of tools designed to transform the way businesses engage clients and manage client relationships. In addition to its highly popular Marketing Hub platform, HubSpot offers solutions for sales, customer service, content, operations, and commerce. 

Key features:

• Drag-and-drop email creator and customizable templates
• AI-generated email subject lines and email copy
• Automated workflows for campaign scheduling
• Web forms, SMS marketing, and social media management
• Seamless integration with HubSpot CRM and other HubSpot platforms

Pricing:

HubSpot offers a free version of its marketing software for up to two users. While it has limited features, it does span email marketing and basic analytics. For more advanced marketing features, you’ll need to upgrade to one of these paid plans: 

• Marketing Hub Starter at $15 per month per user
• Marketing Hub Professional at $800 per month for up to three users (additional users cost ($45)
• Marketing Hub Enterprises at $3,600 per month for up to five users (additional users cost $75)

2. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a popular email automation platform. In 2012, it was acquired by Intuit — the software giant behind market-leading accounting and tax software such as QuickBooks Online and TurboTax. 

Key features:

• Generative AI tools for creating engaging, on-brand emails
• Tools for segmenting and personalizing emails
• Robust email analytics and reporting, complete with industry benchmarks
• Integrated SMS campaigns alongside email
• More than 300 integrations, including QuickBooks Online  

Pricing:

Mailchimp offers a free version for one user that enables you to send up to 1,00 emails per month. For more advanced features, you can upgrade to one of these plans: 

• Essentials at $13 per month for three users
• Standard at $20 per month for five users
• Premium for $350 per month for unlimited users

3. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is a cloud-based marketing automation platform. It’s designed to help businesses from any industry create highly personalized and impactful digital marketing campaigns.

Key features:

• Predictive and conditional content that adapts based on client data
• Customizable tags for sorting your contacts
• Drag-and-drop email builder with 250+ templates
• AI-powered email generator
• Marketing automation builder with customizable templates

Pricing: 

ActiveCampaign offers the following four pricing plans: 

• Starter at $15 per month for one user
• Plus at $49 per month for one user
• Pro at $79 per month for three users
• Enterprise at $145 per month for five user

Build seamless workflows with TaxDome

Marketing automation is one thing. When you throw your practice management software into the mix, you can build seamless workflows that streamline your client engagement workflows. 

TaxDome enables you to connect and sync with email tools and marketing automation platforms via our Zapier integration. Zapier is a third-party automation tool that enables you to build automated workflows by connecting multiple tools together. When an action occurs on one platform, it triggers another action on another platform — and so on.

So what does this mean in practice? Well, when you update or delete an email address in your TaxDome CRM, those changes can be automatically synced in your email marketing platform. Likewise, when you capture a new lead through a web form, you can automatically add it to your TaxDome CRM. You get the picture.  

To sum up

Email marketing for accountants is a tried-and-tested way to convert leads and engage clients. With an impressive ROI of 3,600%, it outperforms newer, trendier digital marketing strategies. So, if you’re looking to grow your business in a cost-effective and reliable way, make sure you follow the best practices we’ve outlined in this article. 

As with all things digital, the key to effective email marketing is having the right technology. Thankfully, there are plenty of marketing tools that can simplify and automate your email campaigns. But to build a truly efficient accounting firm, you need more than just marketing automation. 

With a platform like TaxDome, you can manage your clients, tasks, teams, and documents all in one place. You can even sync client data directly with your marketing software for seamless automated workflows.   

To see why TaxDome is the leading practice management platform for forward-thinking accountants, request a demo today.