Three Ways To Make Email WORK In Your Tax Business

Note: A few of our staff, and I will be attending the New Orleans IRS Forum next week, and we’ll also have a booth. Come through and say hello if you’ll be there! 
Using email in your tax practice is a tricky thing.
Many tax professionals are content to only send those generic “tax tips” that come as part of those commoditized “brochure-style” websites — that for some dumb reason, many tax professionals still cling to, despite the fact that they don’t really do much at all to build a prospect database, or help to “sell” your business to visitors.
But I’m not here to harp on websites.
Because, after all, websites are best seen (in our tax industry, at least) as the portal and foundation for true follow-up and “nurture” marketing — through email.
Because nurturing your list is about THREE main things…
1) Coming across as a real person. Obviously, broadcasting out genericized tax tips doesn’t help in this way. Yes, you can add a conversational intro to those “newsletters” but when people see an email with a big banner at the top, or with a laundry-list of articles in the body it screams: I’m being marketed to. OR They’re only doing this to “nurture” me.
You understand? Your list, by now, “gets” that businesses send emails to keep in touch with their database because they somehow learned that this is the best practice.
Yes, cynicism is real — so that’s why you should dispense with the headers, write like a real person, and don’t overwhelm them with too much content.
2) CONSISTENCY. This is huge with email.
When you only send something monthly, both our internal testing with tax firms, as well as industry standards, stipulate that  unless you are in front of your list on a regular basis (weekly is perfect for us), then the open rates go down, the complaints increase and generally there is the sense in the eyes of the recipient of: Hey, who the heck is this emailing me? UNSUBSCRIBE.
3) Harvesting. What I mean by this is that within your emails, on an occasional basis (i.e. NOT in every email!), you give your list a chance to respond.
This can take the form of having a call for specific questions to be emailed to you, having the recipient take an action (whether through social media, calling your office, or some sort), or (and this one is big), giving a special offer to your list from time to time. 
Whether it’s tax planning, a return review, or an invitation to try out additional services from your firm, give your list a REASON TO RESPOND.
Keep it simple, and don’t be overly-aggressive, but DO NOT MISS THIS STEP with your list!
Fortunately, all of these elements can be completely done for you.
Check out: www.StartEmailingNow.com, if you haven’t already — and feel free to email me any specific questions about either the content of this particular blogpost, or about what this service can look like for your tax business.
Until next time…