Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/36891
SMALL BUSINESS ADVISOR The Key to E-Mail Marketing for Small Organizations O One of the ways successful fi rms are continuing to grow during the current economic downturn is by fi nding new and existing clients with targeted, personalized service. Large fi rms have used customer relationship management (CRM) and contact management systems for years to manage sales activities, track correspondence, and log contact with current and prospective customers, but these systems are frequently not used by small fi rms that don’t have dedicated marketing departments. Although practitioners have a signifi cant amount of content clients want (e.g. new IRS mileage rates, tax law changes, etc.), they don’t always communicate it to all of their clients in a timely manner. And when they do send targeted messages to clients, they oſt en don’t have a systematic way of knowing the clients’ interest level in a topic. So they simply wait for the phone to ring. E-mail marketing is an at ractive way to com- Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, Technology Editor Brian Tankersley is a Knoxville, Tennessee CPA and consultant whose practice is focused on technology consulting and training for accountants. Brian is a nationally recognized speaker with K2 Enterprises (k2e. com), and blogs on accounting technology at CPATechBlog.com. Comments, suggestions, and errata are always welcome, and should be e-mailed to brian.tankersley@ CPAPracticeAdvisor.com. municate with clients and prospects, but many small businesses don’t know where to start. Newly integrated with Sage Peachtree 2012, Sage ACT! e-Marketing for Peachtree is a tool that helps practitio- ners create, manage and evaluate the results of e-mail marketing efforts using attractive templates that work with almost any device a customer could use to receive e-mail. When an eff ective strategy is combined with a customer manage- ment tool like Sage ACT! e-Marketing for Peachtree, fi rms can fi nd new clients and increase the breadth of services to long-term cus- tomers. Customers can be grouped based on their needs and 36 36 August 2011 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com interests, and diff erent messages can be communicated based on the fi rm’s approach for each client type. One of the challenges of traditional e-mail mar- keting is the lack of basic information about the success or failure of these eff orts, including the following: • How many recipients opened the message? • Was the message readable in the recipient’s e-mail application? • Which recipients clicked on one of the links in the message? Sage ACT! e-Marketing for Peachtree uses ana- lytical tools to track each recipient’s activities associated with an e-mail message. By using unique links and codes in a message, a fi rm can know (both individually and in the aggregate) who opened a message, what they clicked on and how that compares to past messages. T is feedback makes it possible for fi rms to know what clients are actually reading from the message, and can be used to make adjust- ments to the types of information included in future newslet ers. Another challenge for small organizations is making the content appear on the wide range of hardware and software used to read e-mail. A solution should ensure that the message is legible across numerous devices, including mobile phones, tablets, personal computers and laptops. While some users will read the message in Microsoſt Outlook, others will use applications such as Outlook Express, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or Mozilla T underbird. Given the large number of tools people use to consume the message, most firms should partner with a company that is an expert in delivering messages across multiple platforms and devices. A fi nal hurdle for e-marketers is compliance with the ever-changing laws and regulations governing online activity, including laws such as the CAN SPAM Act of 2003, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and many others. T ese laws restrict the types of messages that can be sent out, and create new penalties (which could include fi nes and imprisonment) for failure to comply with their mandates, which include a requirement that a recipient be able to click on a link to “unsubscribe” from future mailings. Sage ACT! e-Marketing for Peachtree is powered by Swiſt page, a leading e-mail marketing company, and is designed to help businesses comply with relevant laws and regulations. While many accountants are tempted to simply e-mail a PDF of a printed newslet er to clients, this approach can give younger clients a poor impression of your fi rm. Given the value the tax and accounting profession places on maintaining the proper image, the information available on who is opening a message and viewing links, the complexities of creating a message that can be read across multiple platforms, and the risks of not complying with rel- evant laws and regulations, this is not something you will want to do internally. Firms should increase the eff ectiveness of campaigns and decrease the risks of not complying with relevant laws and regulations by using a comprehensive e-Marketing service such as Sage ACT! e-Marketing for Peachtree for their bulk e-mail communications.