Trade Show Success is in the Follow Up

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No doubt those of you who are exhibiting at an upcoming trade show you are busy organizing your collateral and displays. Got enough business cards? Check. Found last year's raffle bowl? Check.

But there is an important aspect that often gets overlooked when preparing for a trade show or similar event.

What is Your Follow Up Plan? 

Every trade show has a beginning, middle and end. The beginning is the preparation and planning, advertising your participation to your audience, getting all of your merchandise samples packed or marketing pieces printed, or something like this.

The middle, well, that is the show itself. Shaking hands, sharing business cards, pitching your unique value proposition, and trying to speak over the PA system. It's a great opportunity for your business, and you will meet many new people which might (or might not) become opportunities for you to do business.

The end is the most important phase of a trade show and surprisingly often the most under-planned and sometimes totally overlooked. But if you want to generate a return on investment at the EXPO consider our process.

We send a follow up, handwritten note (actually a font because my handwriting is terrible!) to everyone we meet who might be a prospect or future referral source. We then add them to an automated three month drip e-mail campaign, where we share information that is relevant to our conversation (usually marketing related, because we are a marketing company).

Along the way we may post a white paper, invite them to read an article on our blog, or even mail them a promotional product (if we source something that is very clever).

Our goal is not to sell; our goal is to build engagement, establish credibility, and get them to our website where our story is best told, along with the many client testimonials!

If you have planned and prepared well, work the show properly (a.k.a. stop selling!) and follow up effectively and consistently, you will have an excellent trade show.

If Bloggers Get 5 Times the Leads – Why Don’t You Blog?

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There is a real disconnect when I come across a business professional that doesn’t have an active blog on their site. It’s not that I don’t respect them as business people; they have a right to manage their business any way they wish. It just seems to be counter-productive to have a website and NOT offer content to their visitors. When there is no blog, I lose interest fast. Unless the business employs video, an array of eBooks or some other “reason” to explore their site, I am simply moving on to a competitor of theirs. When people come across your site, the same will happen to you.

Blogging for business is not about letting everyone know what you had for lunch, it is about telling compelling information that interests him or her and wants them to get to know you better. It’s about sharing information so that something you offer them helps make their lives better in some way. Besides, business that blog regularly (minimum 3 times a week) get 5 times the number of leads than those who choose not to have a blog or bloggers.

The core truth about blogging is that the search engines locate your site when new content is posted. This may not sound compelling, but it is. Getting found by search engines will help in search rankings, which help those searching for a particular topic or keywords come across your well crafted blog. Getting found is the key to success, so blogging is the key for the search engines, and the search engines are key to your business. It isn’t an overnight process, so get started and get going.

But I Don’t Write...

If I had a nickel for every time I have heard that excuse, I would have already sold my business and moved to Tahiti. You don’t have to be Ernest Hemingway or John Joyce, you merely have to put on paper in what you think your ideal customers would have interest. As long as the sentences are sensible, the grammar acceptable and there are no punctuation bloopers that change the meaning or context, you’ll be fine. It’s the information that is important; it will carry the day. Write as you talk, and talk as if you were coaching a student. Everything else will take care of itself.

The smart businessperson would be learning and teaching blogging to their entire customer support and sales teams. It is said that everyone is involved in the sales process, so everyone should be actively blogging for the sake of the company. Sure, you may need someone to administer and govern the content. So what? You can hire someone if you cannot find a suitable person on staff. The easiest way to locate a pro is to contact an inbound marketing agency like Zen Marketing. What is important is to remember that lead generation is the all important goal, and each time new content is generated, your search rankings improve over time, and so will your readership; it is a do it to yourself project.

Simple Solutions

Blogging two to three times a week may sound like an insurmountable task, but it really is not. There are more ways to skin a cat, so to speak, than just one. You can start by contracting with an inbound marketing agency than can provide sufficient content, or by locating and contracting a freelance writer. You should quickly build an inventory of 15-30 blog entries or articles, covering specific industry related keywords or key industry phrases. In the “business” we refer to them as keywords, so identify those keywords and key phrases (long tail keywords) and establish a rotation schedule. Once the foundation is prepared, find staff members that can contribute to the TEAM (together everyone achieves more) effort and simply double check their output. You could even supplement existing staff with a contract copy writer; we can show you how.

Obviously, choice number one is what I recommend, but if not Zen Marketing, find an inbound marketing agency to help get you started.

The above information is merely a glimpse into the world of effective blogging, so don’t think it is as simple as I make it sound. Next time I will attempt to delve deeper into the topic of effective blogging, so please check back. If you have yet to do so, please sign up for our RSS feed or leave your email address so you don’t miss a single post.

Happy Marketing!

DIY Marketing & the Top Website Mistakes Most SMB's Make

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Most businesses, even solo-preneur’s have taken the time and invested in a web site. Any
small business that wants to be noticed stake their claim on a domain name and put up a site.

It is more or less how business is done these days. The vast majority of business feels a certain obligation to have an online presence. A web site after all, is a corporate brochure at a minimum. The simple fact is that nearly 80% of product or service research is now performed online. Those with marketing awareness generally use the corporate site to produce leads for the business entity.

The sad truth is however, that quite a lot of small to medium sized businesses lack the critical eye of the marketer; that is, they are unaware of the true potential a website possesses.

These seem to be the most frequent of website mistakes.

Website is static and “us too” in style.

While many company sites are full of all sorts of information, they look and feel like their competitors. Similar graphics, loads of “buy me” statements, and all sorts of features and benefits about company products or services. Without specific calls to action, optimized content and search engine tweaking, a static site is nothing more than a billboard in the desert, akin only to a sale sign in the middle of the Atlantic. Unless someone accidently comes across it, the site will never be discovered. You need to be very specific how you are different than all of your competitors, and what you so special. You have to stand out from the crowd and assert your differentiation, rather than be Just Like Mike.

Photos are generic in nature.

No one really cares what your widget looks like. What people are interested in are images that evoke emotion, and you want to provide stories about successes your customers have achieved, with photos to match. Emotion is, after all, why people buy things, well ahead of the statistics, data and blah, blah, blah that typical sites convey. People relate to people, not company widgets. They also like to trust what is being told to them, and nothing builds trust than emotional success stories. Telling a story in pictures or video is the best use of web page space. Doing so will capture the attention of visitors much better than your “new and improved” widget.

The marketing message is garbled (or unavailable).

You only have a few seconds to hook a visitor. Those few seconds will make or break your company, so the message must be clear and convey your marketing message without distraction. The fewer words the better, or so say the experts. The Weibull Hazard Function (in this case) is a measurement of how long people stay on a web page, and you need every second to make an impact. If your message is unclear, you will certainly lose in the war for customers.

Lacks content sharing.

Beyond the ability to share content by way of email, social media or otherwise, there is a real need to provide content to your visitors. That is, if you ever wish to develop a relationship based on trust. The ability for visitors to “take away” a piece of valuable information is the path to relationships with your visitors. CTA’s, or what is known to the public as a Call to Action is nothing more than the ability to gather names and email addresses in exchange for the visitor’s action to share their information for yours. In exchange for your eBook, special report or guide, the visitor is saying, “sure, your information is worth the price of privacy to me.” They have taken the first step toward treating you as a trusted advisor, and allowing you to email them with other informative content.

Having the ability to share with their social media friends and associates is a super way to get your message to a broader audience, yet, to my dismay, many businesses still don’t get the value of social media sharing. Having the ability to share your valuable website to others cost nothing, and can yield great results.

How does your website stack up against your competition? Do you suffer from any of these website mistakes?

Don’t Get Fleeced! Use the LOU Principal!

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Our company, and many of our client companies, relies on the services of outside providers, consultants, coaches, and salesmen. These outsourced providers make many promises and while most deliver on those promises sometimes a services falls short of expectation. Owners and managers should regularly review the performance of their services, especially those on a subscription or contract. But, the demands of business operations sometimes makes fulfilling that a challenge.

Here is a tip on the fastest and easiest way to measure the success of every service subscription. We refer to it as the LOU Principal, or Lack of Up-sell Principal.

A Powerful Measurement

Have you ever been on the fence about a service provider’s effectiveness (or lack thereof)? Have you ever inquired about changing or cancelling a service contract, only to be informed that you already renewed it? Ordinarily this means the provider is counting on a lack of engagement when they process the auto-renewal, but just to make certain they don’t bother to notify you your renewal is upcoming. Why? Because, they know that if they ask your permission there is a high probability that the response from you will be to cancel the subscription.

This is especially true when you hibernate or suspend any service. It is very common for the monthly charges to resume without any prior notification. “We have a 60-day suspension term limit” or “the representative must have informed you that our policy is to automatically resume accounts after 30 days”.

The LOU premise is simple: if their service or product was truly effective wouldn’t a professional account executive attempt to up-sell you at time of renewal? I’d imagine the representative having charts and data to show you how their service drove this metric and that data-point, and the results just scream that you should move from their silver level to their gold one.

Jeez! Where do I sign?

Instead, you learn your contract has just been renewed after the lack of engagement forces you to question the renewal dates! Funny how often that timing scenario plays out.

So How Can You Avoid This?

The LOU principal only works if you play by the other side of the table’s rules and need to make a determination for the future of the relationship. Here is a process that has proven effective for us and our clients.

With every service subscription we schedule a quarterly meeting with our account executive. We record the meeting dates at the actual signing. Today’s providers offer great analytics backed by the latest in technology but they hide it deep in websites and, frankly, business owners are too busy to diligently do the analysis.

Our policy is to make the account executive a stakeholder in the success or failure of their service or product, and to make the contract a shared investment, rather than an annuity for them.

In addition, we also set up a reminder for 30-days prior to the end of the term. Then we set up another one for 12-days later. This helps us insure the vendor is contacted before the auto-renewal is acted upon.

But, by the third meeting with the account executive it’s pretty clear whether or not we will be renewing, and this gets communicated well before the term ends.

So, make a list of your third party suppliers and check off those who aren’t trying to up-sell you. It might teach you something important and save some capital.

And for any service providers reading this post take note- the word of mouth about these tactics is killing you!

The Definition of Insanity (as it pertains to inbound marketing)

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It doesn’t matter at what stage of growth your business resides; napkin idea, start up, emerging enterprise or seasoned business, it will always need your attention.  When it comes to growing your business, are you insane?  What I mean by this query is there is a saying (attributed to Albert Einstein, by the way) that doing the same things repeatedly but expecting different results is akin to insanity.  So, when it comes to marketing your business, are you insane or are you innovative and creative? Do you repeatedly implement the same marketing and sales tactics expecting an upturn in lead generation and new business creation, or are you varying your approach?

It wasn’t that long ago we were all summing up the successes and shortcomings of 2012, with an eye toward the future, and the hopes for improved business success.  Now we have reached the middle of the year 2013, and there are some mid-year questions you should be asking yourself and your interested stakeholders.

In a nutshell, here are a few to consider:

• What were the marketing and sales strategies and tactics that worked last year?
• What were the marketing and sales strategies and tactics that failed or produced only marginal results?
• Are any of either list above part of your plan this year?
• Why or Why not?
• Did you perform A/B testing on every advertising and marketing tactic deployed?
• Why or Why not?
• Which strategies and tactics produced an ROI that met your pre-established goals?
• What size investment will you make to reach your pre-established goals for the remainder of the year?

Obviously, the answers to these queries are critical to the overall success of the remainder of the year, if you are good with strategic planning (especially as it relates to marketing).  Your analysis of your actions and their results are the only scientific method of gauging success or failure, and hopefully you don’t fall into the group that uses the WAG analytical modeling method.  Wild-Ass Guessing simply doesn’t work in any professional organization.  Using goals and objectives, combinbed  with some analysis, is the proper way to run a business regardless of size or scope. 

There are several other thoughts and observations that come to mind

When speaking about mid-year strategies and tactics there are several mother thoughts and observations that come to mind and I thought I would enumerate them for you.  This may be surplus information of which you are deeply aware, but it’s worth mentioning.

Are you aware that as many as 93% of adult U S consumers are actively utilizing Facebook?  It would seem to me that unless your target audiences fall into the 7% that are not on social media, you should have an active presence on Facebook.

Marketing evolution is at a rapid pace, and therefore marketing strategies and delivery methods must evolve rapidly as well, lest we fall behind and out of mind.  Are you aware that search online using a hand-held device like a Smartphone or tablet is outpacing desktop search?  Online search by mobile device is changing the way marketers are attracting leads.  As many as 86% of all CEO’s use a Smartphone as part of their every day lives.  Whether B2C or B2B, marketers must adapt (see image below for a complete breakdown by age).  By the year 2016, as many as 80% of all U S consumers will use a Smartphone.

Recent studies by CMO magazine reflect the statistic of as many as 25% of all email addresses on the typical business database become invalid every 12 months.  Consumers will change their email access based on several factors, which include excessive messaging, changing vendors, too much spam and other considerations. 

Companies without a written and actionable marketing plan that is monitored and adjusted based on results have a significantly higher failure rate than those with planning in advance.  Due to the deployment of cross-channel marketing tactics, those companies who have pre-established goals and objectives tied to strategy and tactics will generate significantly more leads and revenues than their “fly by night” counterparts.

I thought I would share some additional questions whose answers will impact your goals and objectives, mid-year strategy shifts and provide opportunities to shore up your success rate for the remainder of the year. 

• Are you incorporating social media marketing in the marketing mix?
• If not, Why not?
• Are you maintaining an updated and active email database?
• What are you doing to increase lead generation?
• What mobile marketing strategies are you presently incorporating into the marketing mix?
• If you have yet to incorporate mobile strategies, why not?

Start Planning Today

If you have yet to think strategically about your marketing, or if you need a sounding board for what you have planned for the remainder of the year, contacting Zen Marketing (or any reputable marketing firm) for a no obligation consultation may be in order.  As for Zen Marketing specifically, we are happy to evaluate your recent and present marketing against your goals and assist you in the development of a strategic inbound marketing plan to finish the year at a more profitable and successful outcome. 

Feel free to call us today, and we will happy to help.

Closed Loop Marketing for Professional Services Firms

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With time to focus on things other than late tax filings, closed loop marketing is a great follow up to last week’s article, Customer Relationship Management. Remember the discussion about data, and how it can be utilized? Closed loop marketing is the best way to take data and create revenues. The more data you collect and segment, the more you can understand behaviors of targeted groups. Dissecting and segmenting small bits of data can create a large picture of what your customer types really look like.

Closed loop marketing; using internal and external customer data to personalize marketing campaigns, to tie every bit of visitor activity to the marketing initiative is the step to take to make that data collection produce and ROI. Closed loop marketing is the way to develop deeper, more meaningful relationships with existing and newly acquired ones, improving advocacy and building referrals.

Last week we also discussed how a CRM software solution can automate parts or all of your online marketing efforts. This can be as simple as email campaigns to elaborate online ad placement for re-advertising (automated method for moving your ads to similar product/service offerings) your spot on multiple sites as the viewer scans the net.

Everything can be automated!

Because of automation life is less stressful and more productive.

Automation for closed loop marketing is a bit more intricate than an email campaign, but is equally as effective. Your marketing can be set to recognize certain triggers, so that delivered content is personalized. This can automate some of the segmentation, or provide yet more data as visitors to the site seek more information.

Remember, our goal should always be to convert website visitors to customers, but like everything, there is a defined process for this to happen. The ancillary payoff besides a new customer from a visitor is the collection of data; lots of data. As mentioned, the more data we can glean from everyone that interacts with us, the better our marketing can evolve. 
Let’s take a look at a simple explanation of how closed loop marketing works.

• Your website has been optimized, contains tracking “cookies” to log the page which the visitor enters the site (they might just be surfing, brought in from a link somewhere else, through a specific keyword search, or from your email campaign). With the ability to track and record this information, you can glean specific behaviors and effectiveness of your other marketing efforts. 
• We can learn where the visitor originated, what pages they visited, how long they remained on each page, and if they clicked on any specific “more information” tabs, and things of that nature.
• Capturing this type of data can lead to the development of more customer-centric offerings for the future, streamlining the effectiveness of the advancement steps and bringing about conversion more quickly. Time is money and the easier and quicker we can make the buying decision happen, the better. Getting the visitor behavior tracking integrated with the lead once they have gone from a visitor to a lead to a customer is difficult, but not impossible. We use and recommend HubSpot®, which offers a superb reporting tool for just that. Implementing a closed loop reporting system as part of your marketing can be a boon to your overall success.
• The use and collection of contact details is critical to conversion, so you will need an opt-in strategy. The visitor will (or will not) leave their contact information signaling that they have some level of interest. This information will be the tip of the spear so to speak when it comes to tying data to customers (potential, existing or former). As another part of the marketing automation, this data form can be created in-house with a variety of software, but it is easiest to be created within your email opt-in service. It should contain name and email address at a minimum, but be careful. Asking or making information beyond that required can dismay some, thereby losing potential opportunities.
• This data collection offers a variety of services for the visitor; downloading information, requesting contact or enrolling in further communications like a newsletter or promotions listings. The contact information is logged into the system and categorized according to some form of lead scoring, for future follow up.

Diversify From Tradition

Without the ability to collect, segment, score and otherwise utilize data, marketing falls back to the traditional form. As we all know, the consumer has grown tired of messages thrust in their face, and has turned to the Internet instead. By embracing technology and what it offers, we can effectively grow our business in to grow our businesses by relating to today’s consumer.

Closed Loop Marketing for Accounting Firms

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With time to focus on things other than late tax filings, closed loop marketing is a great follow up to last week’s article, Customer Relationship Management. Remember the discussion about data, and how it can be utilized? Closed loop marketing is the best way to take data and create revenues. The more data you collect and segment, the more you can understand behaviors of targeted groups. Dissecting and segmenting small bits of data can create a large picture of what your customer types really look like.

Closed loop marketing; using internal and external customer data to personalize marketing campaigns, to tie every bit of visitor activity to the marketing initiative is the step to take to make that data collection produce and ROI. Closed loop marketing is the way to develop deeper, more meaningful relationships with existing and newly acquired ones, improving advocacy and building referrals.

Last week we also discussed how a CRM software solution can automate parts or all of your online marketing efforts. This can be as simple as email campaigns to elaborate online ad placement for re-advertising (automated method for moving your ads to similar product/service offerings) your spot on multiple sites as the viewer scans the net.

Everything can be automated!

Because of automation life is less stressful and more productive.

Automation for closed loop marketing is a bit more intricate than an email campaign, but is equally as effective. Your marketing can be set to recognize certain triggers, so that delivered content is personalized. This can automate some of the segmentation, or provide yet more data as visitors to the site seek more information.

Remember, our goal should always be to convert website visitors to customers, but like everything, there is a defined process for this to happen. The ancillary payoff besides a new customer from a visitor is the collection of data; lots of data. As mentioned, the more data we can glean from everyone that interacts with us, the better our marketing can evolve.
Let’s take a look at a simple explanation of how closed loop marketing works.

• Your website has been optimized, contains tracking “cookies” to log the page which the visitor enters the site (they might just be surfing, brought in from a link somewhere else, through a specific keyword search, or from your email campaign). With the ability to track and record this information, you can glean specific behaviors and effectiveness of your other marketing efforts. 
• We can learn where the visitor originated, what pages they visited, how long they remained on each page, and if they clicked on any specific “more information” tabs, and things of that nature.
• Capturing this type of data can lead to the development of more customer-centric offerings for the future, streamlining the effectiveness of the advancement steps and bringing about conversion more quickly. Time is money and the easier and quicker we can make the buying decision happen, the better. Getting the visitor behavior tracking integrated with the lead once they have gone from a visitor to a lead to a customer is difficult, but not impossible. We use and recommend HubSpot®, which offers a superb reporting tool for just that. Implementing a closed loop reporting system as part of your marketing can be a boon to your overall success.
• The use and collection of contact details is critical to conversion, so you will need an opt-in strategy. The visitor will (or will not) leave their contact information signaling that they have some level of interest. This information will be the tip of the spear so to speak when it comes to tying data to customers (potential, existing or former). As another part of the marketing automation, this data form can be created in-house with a variety of software, but it is easiest to be created within your email opt-in service. It should contain name and email address at a minimum, but be careful. Asking or making information beyond that required can dismay some, thereby losing potential opportunities.
• This data collection offers a variety of services for the visitor; downloading information, requesting contact or enrolling in further communications like a newsletter or promotions listings. The contact information is logged into the system and categorized according to some form of lead scoring, for future follow up.

Diversify From Tradition

Without the ability to collect, segment, score and otherwise utilize data, marketing falls back to the traditional form. As we all know, the consumer has grown tired of messages thrust in their face, and has turned to the Internet instead. By embracing technology and what it offers, we can effectively grow our business in to grow our businesses by relating to today’s consumer.

Your Customer Relationships Require Management

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The summer is approaching and you may be considering taking some time away to regroup and refresh. Why not use the momentum to further develop new clientele relationships? Your existing customers and those who will join you deserve a great relationship with you, don’t they?

You can manage it.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is not just about a software program to keep your data organized, it is more about ensuring that you constantly nurture your existing client base as you add to it. CRM is more about a customer-focused philosophy and strategic operations plan. The CRM business strategy can assist the entire company operate for maximum customer loyalty, profitability and creating a lead generation machine through referral development.

Customer relations management may have started out as a software tool, but that is merely the initial step toward an entirely new way of looking at your customer assets. By collecting customer data from internal and external sources, this data can be utilized to learn about customers, their behaviors, likes and dislikes, and much more. CRM data can inform leadership and the team what works, what doesn’t and what should be eliminated or improved, to better serve the customer. It is a philosophy of putting customers at the pinnacle of everything; the reason a business exists. Each team member must fully adopt this winning philosophy, or it will forever fail to deliver all of which it is capable.

Customer-faced employees must possess the skills to quickly assess and act on opportunities to provide great customer satisfaction and must be fully empowered to do whatever is necessary for a successful outcome. Also, customer-centric staff must be capable of taking advantage of opportunities to drive revenues through up-sell whenever possible; thereby driving sales and improved customer relations.

A CRM database must be easily accessed, containing all data from within and external sources, so that a knowledge base on each customer the company possesses receives consistent care, maintenance and marketing. And it must integrate into your inbound marketing plan.

Customer Relations Management CRM uses three components every company possesses; people, processes and technology (to varying degrees). Through an effective use of all three, companies can drive profitability through up-sell and cross marketing, streamline processes and much, much more.

Here’s what your customer relationship management strategy should provide:

• A customer database chock full of useful information from all points of view and interaction
• An ability to quickly learn and adapt to each customer’s unique position 
• Customer retention by a company-wide focus on customer relationship and satisfaction
• Accessibility to segmented customer data for targeted ongoing nurture marketing
• An increase in profitability as a result of a deeper customer relationship, loyalty and advocacy
• A decrease in contract disputes, slow payment and customer dissatisfaction 
• A referral source from utilizing the full relationship; people recommend companies they like and respect
• A decrease in customer turnover, lower overall customer management costs

The Potential Benefits of an automated system out-perform the spreadsheet model small firms (and some larger) have used to keep track of important customer data. Here’s what you can experience:

• Customer interactions become personalized, improving loyalty and advocacy
• Operations become customer-centric, streamlined and planning made easier
• The ability to segment customers and the marketplace via data flows
• Predictive Analytics
• Identifying customer behaviors, insights and buying habits

Inbound Marketing Integration

These are just some of the benefits using an automated CRM system. If you don’t think you can afford an enterprise platform, there are affordable solutions from companies such as Salesforce.com©, infusionsoft©, and with HubSpot© marketing software, more than twenty solutions can be integrated with little to no downtime, thereby affecting both internal and external customers.

From a technology view, the reports a CRM software platform can offer are nearly endless, but with all that data, it may be difficult to understand which reports are most useful. Each company possesses uniqueness and therefore reports will vary widely. There are three reports on which every company on which should focus;

1. DOA Report
2. Quality Problems Report
3. Most Profitable Report

These reports can be useful whether a product or service company, or a combination of the two. Regardless, these reports can prove to be invaluable in determining what products or services drive or hold back the business. If negatives impact customers as well as positives, the ability to quickly assess finite detail can make all the difference in customer retention and customer referrals.

I am sure you will agree that the more we can know about our customers, the better we can serve them. Through the use of some form of customer relationship management system, automated or manual, it behooves every business person to utilize this leading edge concept. Strategic planning can be improved through the use of data, and there is no better way to plan operations than through effective, in-depth information that CRM can offer.

The time is now!

You may very well be tired, having worked diligently on taxes and other deadline reports, filings and the like. You may have even scheduled a short vacation or planned take a well-earned, long holiday weekend. The truth is, there is no better time than right now to focus your energies, momentum and improve your customer relations through a CRM strategy.

If you need help understanding how an integrated CRM platform can truly benefit your customers and your business, and fit within your marketing plan, feel free to call us at Zen Marketing; you will be astounded how great your relations with your customers can grow.

Email Marketing for Accounting Firms

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Email marketing is a great way for you to attract or shore up some of the client base, and accounting firms know that once the April rush begins, there will be no rest until it is all put aside. It won’t be long until tax filing season comes into focus; no sooner than the holiday decorations are returned to their resting place. It’s a vicious cycle familiar to those in the world of tax preparation and unique to that industry.

The CPA’s and EA’s we work with strive to build up their rest over the period between holidays, and avoid drinking too much bubbly on New Year’s Eve. You know you are going to need your strength once the pressure builds and the back and forth of communications starts with your clients and your staff.

Marketing is probably not even on your mind, especially email marketing. If it isn’t in your wheel house, you just may be in deep water. Not to worry, we at Zen Marketing have life safety devices nearby to bring you back on dry land.

We all know that competition is stiff under normal standards, and 2013 will be no exception.

Competition combined with the never ending changes in the Tax Code, expiring incentives and the rush to get it all done can make your head spin off your shoulders. Add marketing to that mix and some service professionals may be considering moving to a desert island. 

Having said that, utilizing email marketing can streamline the process of getting or staying in contact with your client base, as well as nurturing existing leads that have yet to commit. Getting some of that work done now can put your firm in good stead once the filing season restarts. Normally, clients rush in, and then rush away almost as quickly. Generating some leads and nurturing them with an automated email marketing campaign is a great way to smooth out the bumps and dips in clientele once the madness of April is behind you.

Email marketing is one of the most affordable methods of new business generation, so why not exploit it. Scheduled content delivery builds reputations, relations and keeps your potential client in the loop. Utilizing a pre-planned and coordinated email marketing campaign can be automated, so you can focus on matters at hand.

Your Firm Can Afford This

The affordability is one of the most attractive aspects of lead generation through email marketing. Still considered the best form of lead nurturing, when you compare it against snail mail, email wins hands down. With the postage rates in a constant upward motion, it has become cost prohibitive for most accounting firms and other small businesses.

As for other forms of marketing, the costs for television and radio ads have skyrocketed, mainly because of lagging usage. Revenue targets must remain so even though usage has declined, the average cost per ad has gone skyward, and will remain in an upward climb. Even more reason for email.

You can cross-sell targeted batches of your overall database by segmenting them into their position in the sales process. Sending get acquainted email content to seasoned prospects is not productive, and may even offend or disenchant prospects. Using data culled by what we refer to as “lead score” will allow for targeted messaging to the right group of prospective clientele. The same holds true for delivering a buying decision email message too soon in the process, which may cause you to lose that prospect all together. Targeted lead nurturing is a tactic that works well, if implemented correctly.

Another worthwhile tactic is to personalize the email marketing messages so that the information is deemed “just for me,” which builds your brand and the relationship. Using the prospects name in the salutation and in the body of the content makes you get noticed, and it can be done through technology rather than individually creating each message.

Email Marketing easily integrates into other marketing tactics

If your budget allows for it, the use of landing pages and personalized URL’s in tandem with email marketing has been shown to generate very high conversion results (also known as KPI’s or key performance indicators). They are easily tailored to the specific segment of the audience you wish to speak to and can actually allow you to extend the reach of your marketing campaigns, because they are searchable and found in organic online searches.

Email marketing is a great tool for accounting firms of all sizes. You know the big boys use it, and you can as well. All it takes is a bit of knowledge, effort and someone to help guide you toward a successful campaign.

Don’t Speak Jargon to Your Buyers- Use Plain English

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If you want to get your point across and make a friend, use plain English. Industry jargon may be fine for working around your coworkers, industry friends and associates, but it should not be used in sales presentations. Jargon is one of the greatest frustrations for a buyer. The inability to grasp what is being said when speaking to a sales person will kill a sale every time. Your job as sales pro is to close the deal, but your success rate depends on building rapport and a relationship with your prospect. If they cannot “get it” you are wasting your time. Your presentation should be easily explained in layman’s terms so that even a high school student can understand clearly. The same holds true for your written communications.

One of my closest friends, a District Attorney, used to tell me that when he would compose his closing argument to the jury he would try to write it at the eighth grade level. That way he felt that he wouldn’t be speaking above or below anyone on the jury and that his argument would be perfectly understood.

In the inbound marketing world, we refer to this concept as communicating by “persona”.
By speaking to an audience, or writing for that matter, communicate in a language they can understand and relate. Your message will be received without delay or suspicion if they can clearly correlate the information. This is nothing new; the concept has been around for as long as story telling. It is a skill however, that must be practiced and mastered to be effective.

The great author Oscar Wilde is known to have stated,

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."

Persona is Latin word for the word Mask, when in ancient Greek dramas the actor would change a mask for whomever he played. Although the actor was the same person, the change of mask, and the change of voice and inflections got their point across without difficulty. When someone speaks about a particular topic and is well versed but fails to reach the audience, said person is referred to as an unreliable narrator. Trust does not ensue nor does belief. This can be on the stage of performance or the stage of the sales presentation. Your message must resonate and not repel. The term a writer’s voice (metaphor) is a clear example of speaking to the audience for maximum effect and acceptance of the message. It may be turn of phrase, tone, tempo or language. Jargon is part of the language that should be avoided when your audience is the general public.

A great example of persona is when a friend calls on the phone, and within a word or two, you know exactly who is on the other end of the line. The sound of their voice, tone and language are clear and defined, making them instantly accepted and acknowledged.

When speaking to an audience either in person or in writing, you should do so from a perspective other than your own. That said, this is not to deceive but to relate. Enter the mind of your audience, and create a being that mirrors the tone, tempo and language of them so that your message will be instantly received. From a selling standpoint, your prospect has certain expectations and a particular perspective, so speak to them rather than merely regurgitating facts and figures and canned jargon.

If your marketing is at the point where developing the message through the use of persona and you can’t seem to make headway, contact Zen Marketing Inc. for some assistance. We’ll get you started on the road to successful communications that appeal to your prospects, or we can handle the entirety of your persona writing needs.