Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/123770
MARKETING IN PRACTICE By Kristy Short, Ed.D 4 Tips for a Successful Client Newsletter A client newsleter is one of the most effective ways to 'speak' to your clients. A newsleter not only provides a regularly scheduled touch (or contact), which makes your clients feel connected to you, it also builds loyalty and drives sales. If clients are loyal, they rarely leave your frm and ofen will up-purchase services. And what frm doesn't want their clients to stick around long term and buy higher-billable advisory services? Of course, the power of your client newsleter depends on content. Here are a few tips to ensure the success of your main client communication. 1] Offer Educational, Timely Content Part of showing your clients that you care is to ofer them Kristy Short, Ed.D, is partner and Chief Marketing Ofcer in RootWorks LLC (RootWorks.com) and president of rwc360, LLC (rwc360.com)— frms dedicated to providing practice management education, branding, marketing, and public relations services to the accounting profession. She is also a professor of English and marketing. Reach her at kristy.short@ CPAPracticeAdvisor.com. 14 good information…stuff they can really use. As such, make sure that your newsleter content is informative and timely. For example, provide tips during tax season, small business advice for operating more efciently, or updates to the best technology for small businesses. If the content is educational and accurate, your clients will look forward to reading your newsleter each month. If the content is not helpful, you will get a lot of unsubscribes. 2] Avoid Too Much "Salesy" Speak Your clients get marketing emails all the time from multiple vendors trying to sell them something. Tey don't want a lot of sales pitches from their trusted advisor. When writing your content, the best advice is to stay on an educational track. You can place a small advertisement of to the side—for example if you want to announce a new service ofering. But these types of announcements should be kept to a minimum. You don't want your clients to tag your newsleter as a sales rag. 3] Give Your Clients a Voice in What Content is Included Who knows better what type of information your clients want to read than your clients? Now and again, be sure to ask your readership what they would like to see in future newsleters. May 2013 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com You can do this through a brief email survey or by placing polling questions on your website. You can also simply add a concise announcement to the end of a newsleter that states, "We want to hear from you! Please email us at [name@ourfrm.com] and tell us what types of articles you would like to see in future newsleters." Tis will also help to gauge the efectiveness of your newsletter content. Suggestions will shed light on the type of information clients want to see, which you can compare to content you've ofered in past communications. Be sure to enhance your content if clients are providing suggestions for topics that have never been included in past newsleters. 4] Educate Yourself on Email Marketing Don't just assume that your newsletter is flawless and on target. Take the time to do some research and atend some webinars on the topic of email marketing. You may be surprised at what you learn. Many educational webinars dedicated to email marketing (which includes newsleters) ofer a great deal of sound and proven tips for marketing success. One good source is the email marketing service giant, Constant Contact. Te company ofers several free webinars. Bottom Line You should be using your newsleter to build loyalty and stay in consistent communication with your clients. Your newsleter is a tool for building relationships and establishing a twoway dialog where both sides see value. If you already have a client newsleter, consider these tips to improve content. If you have yet to launch a newsleter, this article provides sound advice for writing content that will be efective. Now, get to communicating! Clients love that.