Email marketing for accounting firms can be intimidating.
I get it.
As an accountant by profession, you likely didn’t receive formal training in marketing.
But don’t worry.
In this article, I’ll share everything you need to know about email marketing for accounting firms so you can use it to consistently bring in ideal clients in your target market.
Let’s go!
Why Is Email Marketing Important in Accounting Firms?
Email marketing is actually one of the simplest ways to start growing your accounting firm.
Here’s why it’s effective:
- It helps build trust. Consistent, valuable content in your emails shows prospective clients you’re knowledgeable, reliable, and someone they can work with now or in the future.
- It converts prospects into clients. Potential clients may know they need accounting services, but they won’t automatically know why they should work with you. A good email marketing campaign helps them understand why you’re the right fit for their needs.
- It’s cost-effective. Compared to traditional marketing strategies, email marketing gets results for a fraction of the cost, especially with affordable (and in some cases, free) email marketing software.
But what does that mean in numbers?
According to data on email marketing ROI from Litmus, email marketing, on average, generates $36 for every $1 spent.
How to Create an Email Marketing Plan for Your Accounting Firm
Step 1: Define Your Target Audience
The most effective email marketing campaigns focus on connecting with the right people — your ideal accounting clients.
These are the small businesses, individuals, and everyone who aligns with:
- The services you provide
- The prices you’re comfortable charging
- The way you want to work
This determines a large part of how your accounting firm will run.
This will also be the core of your email marketing strategy.
Imagine two scenarios:
- Scenario A: You’re juggling ten clients, each paying $50 to $100 a month. They all need different things, and some throw random requests at you that are hard to plan for. You’re working endless hours and feel stuck.
- Scenario B: You’re working with three clients, each paying over $500 a month. They fit neatly into service packages you control, and you’re working fewer than 40 hours a week while growing your business.
See the difference?
When you’re not intentional about your target audience, you’ll attract clients who don’t fit your services or expectations. That leads to overwork, frustration, and stagnation.
But when you define your audience clearly, you’re much more likely to connect with clients who are a great fit.
This makes it easier to pitch your services, close deals, and build a firm that actually works for you.
Just take it from one of our Future Firm Accelerate members who upgraded one client from a $500/month package to their $3,500/month package.
When you understand your target market, it’s easier to define the value you provide to clients.
(When you don’t, you waste all your email marketing efforts in advance.)
As a result, they also understand the true value of your services — making it easier to charge more.
This is a much more ideal scenario than if you were catering to clients in different niches and industries, where it becomes difficult to truly understand your clients’ needs.
Step 2: Build Your Email List
Start with your existing clients & contacts.
They already know who you are, and if they find you great to work with, they’re likely to agree to sign up for your newsletter.
Send them a quick message asking them if they want to opt in. Keep it simple and focus on the value they’ll get, like exclusive insights, tax tips, or updates that’ll make their lives easier.
Here’s a two-sentence email you can use.
“Hey [NAME], I’m launching a newsletter that shares tips to help you save on taxes and stay up-to-date on big news in the XYZ industry. Want me to add you?”
This approach does two things:
- It shows respect by asking for consent.
- It sets the tone for future communications — helpful, not pushy.
Opt-in is very important.
Adding people to your list without consent might seem like an easy way to grow your numbers, but it can backfire. If recipients don’t remember signing up, they might flag your email as spam.
(Plus, this can even client relationships you worked hard to build over time.)
And once your emails start landing in spam folders, it hurts your sender reputation.
That means even the people who want to hear from you might not see your emails. The worst case?
Your email platform could suspend your account for repeated spam reports.
When you’ve finished building your initial list, the next step is growing it.
My favorite way to do that is through lead magnets. Lead magnets are free resources that your ideal clients will find valuable, such as:
- A downloadable checklist for year-end tax prep
- A simple guide to small business bookkeeping
- A free consultation offer
Promote your lead magnet on your website, social media, and even in-person conversations.
Here are a few of the lead magnets I use to add people to my Future Firm newsletter.
When people sign up, you’ve got their clear permission. And given their interest, there’s also a chance they convert into paying customers in the future.
Pro tip: Use This Email Marketing Hack That Takes One Minute to Implement
One of the smallest yet most impactful email marketing tactics I’ve used is the P.S. email signature.
It’s free advertising every time you’re speaking with someone over email. Best of all, it’s non-intrusive.
Here’s a simple template you can use:
P.S. Spending too much time on your books? We’ll take care of that for you, so you can focus on your top priority – growing your business. Book a complementary 30-minute consultation here.
(Insert the link to your booking page or contact page in “Book a free consultation”)
Go give it a try!
Step 3: Develop a Plan to Share Content
Many firm owners get stuck on the fence thinking about what to write.
Good news: you don’t have to come up with brand new ideas all the time.
Not all content in your emails needs to be original. If you come across content you think your audience would find valuable, share it!
Curated content can be just as effective as original content when it’s relevant and useful, which is why I recommended it in this post about marketing strategies for accountants.
In fact, I regularly do this in my Future Firm newsletter. Here’s a previous newsletter in which I shared helpful, relevant content with my readers.
If you liked that — you can subscribe to my Future Firm newsletter here.
We also have more in-depth email marketing templates and prebuilt monthly newsletters you can swipe and use for yourself in the Future Firm Accelerate program.
A good strategy is to curate useful resources based on what’s happening at the time. For example:
- During tax season: Share IRS updates, tax tips, or links to tools like tax deduction checklists.
- Specific months of the year: In January, focus on topics like year-end bookkeeping and organizing financial records. In September, provide guidance for businesses preparing for Q4 tax planning.
- Off-season months: Remind clients of tax payment deadlines, share insights on preparing for audits, or discuss best practices for organizing financial records ahead of the next tax cycle.
Building trust is far more important than sharing perfect content. Be consistent, whether you run a weekly or bi-monthly newsletter.
Think of your emails as a simple way to keep in touch and remind your clients why they chose to work with you and to remind leads why they should work with you.
Step 4: Set Measurable Goals
Start with the basics, like the number of people you want to add to your list each month and the percentage of subscribers you want to click through your website.
Here’s a concrete example:
If your goal is to gain 5 new clients per month and your average conversion rate from email to client is 5%, you’ll need to grow your email list by 100 new subscribers each month to hit that target.
From there, you can refine your approach as you gather more data on your specific audience and results.
Don’t stress if you miss your targets in the first few months.
Early on, it’s less about hitting targets and more about setting them. Over time, you’ll learn what works and find your groove, and those initial metrics will guide you toward refining your email campaigns.
Tracking these metrics also helps you adjust your approach. For instance, if your email frequency is too high and people start unsubscribing, you might want to scale back.
Or, if you’re not seeing enough engagement, you can experiment with different email templates or tweak your subject lines.
Email marketing is a long game. Here are key metrics to pay attention to:
- Open rate. The percentage of people who open your email. A good benchmark is between 20-30%, but I like to shoot for 40-50% or more, which are the typical open rates I see with my Weekly Top 5 newsletter. Going below 15% indicates your emails may be ending up in Spam.
- Click-through rate (CTR). The percentage of email recipients who click a link within the email. Aim for a CTR of at least 2% as a good benchmark, although this can be much higher (I often see CTRs near 15% in my Weekly Top 5 emails).
- Conversion rate. The percentage of recipients who perform a desired action, like booking a consultation or signing up for a service.
- Unsubscribe rate. If more than 0.5% of recipients unsubscribe after each campaign, it might signal that your emails are too frequent or not relevant enough.
- Bounce rate. The percentage of emails that couldn’t be delivered. A high bounce rate (over 2%) could mean your list needs cleaning to remove invalid addresses.
A successful email marketing campaign isn’t one where you score extremely high in these metrics, but one where you get consistently good results.
What Marketing Emails Should Accounting Firms Send?
Educational Newsletters
Educational content is an excellent way to pull potential clients toward becoming paying customers. Clients appreciate content like:
- Tax updates
- Financial planning tips
- Regulatory news
They don’t always have the time to stay on top of this information, so it’s very helpful when this information comes to them.
Like I mentioned earlier:
You don’t necessarily have to produce all the content you share in your newsletter. The goal here isn’t to teach them new things all the time. It’s to establish your authority and keep your firm top-of-mind.
Time-Sensitive Reminders
Emails about upcoming tax deadlines, financial planning sessions, regulatory requirements, or reminders for quarterly reports show your readers you’re looking out for their businesses.
But just because you’ve converted leads into clients doesn’t mean you should stop staying in contact with them.
Clients love working with proactive and engaging firms.
It’s much better to give them gentle reminders of things they need to stay on top of than waiting for them to get overwhelmed by busy periods because they didn’t know to prepare.
Re-Engagement Emails for Leads
Have your leads gone cold? Unless they’ve explicitly told you not to contact them, it’s always a good idea to reach out again.
According to Marketing Wizdom, 80% of prospects say “no” four times before they say “yes” — so persistence definitely pays off.
Don’t be afraid to open up your dormant contact list and reach out with updates about your services or special promotions to spark interest again. Sometimes, all it takes is the right message at the right time.
Re-Engagement Emails for Clients
Even existing clients can go quiet sometimes. If you haven’t heard from them in a while, don’t assume everything’s running smoothly — reach out.
A quick check-in email offering an additional service or simply asking how things are going can reignite the relationship.
Here’s an example of a re-engagement email you can use:
Client Success Stories and Testimonials
Nothing builds trust like real-world proof.
Got success stories or glowing testimonials?
Share them.
Nothing resonates with audiences as well as seeing something amazing and realizing they can do it too.
For example, you could tell readers about how you helped a client save thousands in taxes last year or how your planning advice helped a small business survive through tough financial times.
Testimonials are equally powerful — I use them all the time in my newsletters, like in this previous newsletter.
A simple quote from a satisfied client about the difference your services make can do wonders for your reputation and credibility.
All of that said, the most important thing is to provide a clear next step for your readers.
Whether it’s booking a consultation, visiting your website, or replying to your email, every message should guide them toward action.
For example, you could offer a limited-time package for year-end financial planning.
Here are some tips to make a sale work within your newsletter:
- Be clear about the value. (e.g., “Schedule a call before [date] to receive a complementary tax strategy session. ($300 value)”)
- Create urgency with deadlines or limited spots.
- Use a strong call-to-action. (e.g., “Book your complementary tax strategy session now.”)
Email Marketing Tools for Accounting Firms
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a simple starting point for those just getting started with email marketing.
It is user-friendly, has plenty of email templates, and, most importantly, offers a free plan with:
- 500 contacts
- 1,000 emails per month
- Basic automations like welcome messages
- Basic email performance reporting
As your firm grows, Mailchimp offers paid plans with advanced features like multi-step automations, A/B testing, and enhanced analytics to support your growth.
Kit
Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is another straightforward tool for accounting firms who want to keep their email marketing simple.
Even with just the free plan, there are a lot of things you can accomplish with it:
- Up to 1,000 subscribers
- Unlimited email broadcasts
- One email sequence
- One basic automation
Kit is designed to help businesses connect with new clients and build stronger customer relationships without a tech background.
It has a lot of good features, but more importantly, it isn’t complicated to use. That’s honestly a big reason why we use it at Future Firm.
ActiveCampaign
A lot of people recommend ActiveCampaign for email marketing, and I understand why.
It’s a juggernaut in terms of features. It has no free plan, though — only a 14-day free trial.
But if you’re willing to pay, it has:
- AI-powered automations
- 900+ automation recipes
- A/B testing
- CRM integrations
It lets you do a lot of impressive things, particularly with its AI capabilities.
I think it’s a solid, all-around tool, but unless your firm is a large enterprise with an already well-established marketing system in place, ActiveCampaign might feel like overkill for an accounting firm just getting started with email marketing.
Zoho Campaigns
The first thing I’ll say about Zoho Campaigns is it potentially offers a unique advantage for accounting firms.
If you’re already using Zoho Accounting, you can seamlessly import the contacts on the platform to Campaigns.
Otherwise, Zoho Campaigns offers a quite generous free plan:
- Up to 2,000 contacts
- 6,000 emails per month
- Basic email templates
- Reports and analytics
It’s worth noting that many users have reported that Zoho Campaigns’ user interface, while packed with tools, can be overwhelming.
Zoho Campaigns brings a lot to the table for sure, but simplicity may not be one of them. Keep this in mind when choosing between these tools.
AWeber
One of AWeber’s standout features is its intuitive drag-and-drop email builder, which lets you design professional-looking emails without needing any technical skills.
Combine this with their Smart Designer, which can create email templates based on your website, and you’ve got a tool that helps even the least design-savvy users look polished.
AWeber’s free plan includes:
- 500 subscribers
- 3,000 emails per month
- Sign-up forms and landing pages
While AWeber is excellent for building emails, some reviews point out that its automation capabilities are relatively basic compared to other platforms.
If advanced workflows or conditional triggers are a priority for your firm, you might find these limitations restrictive.
Tips for Writing High-Converting Emails
The emails that get opened, read, and acted on aren’t the most flashy ones. Instead, it’s the ones that are easy to understand and leave no ambiguity.
Here are tried-and-true tips to get you started with writing good marketing emails.
Tip #1: Write Compelling Subject Lines
Your subject line is the first thing your readers see, and if it doesn’t grab their attention, they won’t bother opening your email.
It doesn’t have to be flashy or riddled with big words — it just needs to be straight to the point and relevant.
Focus on actionable phrases that speak directly to your audience’s pain points.
Your subject lines don’t need to be witty or loud. They need to be clear, and they need to be something that your readers care about.
For example, you could use subject lines like “Did you overlook these tax deductions?” and “Important tax information” when tax deadlines are coming up.
Here’s an example of an eye-catching subject line that got a 55% open rate:
Not bad, right?
Always think about what the most important thing is to your audience, and use your open rates and click-through rates to understand what works for you and what doesn’t.
Tip #2: Be Relevant
Ask yourself:
Is this the content my target audience actually cares about right now?
For example, during tax season, your accounting emails should focus on urgent tax deadlines or helpful reminders. Your readers will not appreciate getting general advice or promotions for additional services when their primary concern is meeting tax obligations on time.
Put yourself in the shoes of your client. Ask yourself:
- What are their specific pain points right now?
- What is their main focus?
If your content is relevant, client engagement naturally happens.
Tip #3: Use Simple Language
Your emails don’t need to sound fancy to be effective.
In fact, using straightforward language is one of the best ways to keep your subscriber list engaged.
I recommend using the Hemingway Editor to simplify your writing. Generally, I recommend aiming for a readability score of Grade 6 or below…
Although, admittedly, this article is written at a Grade 7 reading level. 🙂
Accounting concepts can be complex, but your audience probably doesn’t want or need a lecture. Break things down into easy-to-understand terms and focus on what’s immediately useful to them.
For instance, instead of saying:
“We assist with financial reconciliation to optimize fiscal health…”
Try this instead:
“We’ll organize your finances to help you save money.”
If you’re checking in on their business, don’t beat around the bush. Be direct and to-the-point, like in this six-word email:
Simple language is a very effective tool. Try it out — your clients will appreciate it more than you think!
Tip #4: Optimize for Mobile Devices
Did you know that 85% of professionals use smartphones to check their emails?
Source: Statista
Now, imagine being a busy person with only a few minutes to catch up on your emails. Would you spend time looking at, let alone reading through, a poorly formatted email that’s hard to navigate on a small screen?
Your emails don’t have to be flashy, but they do have to be clean. Follow these tips:
- Stick to simple layouts
- Keep paragraphs short
- Use easily visible and clickable buttons or links
Many email marketing platforms, including the ones I listed earlier, offer mobile-friendly email templates. You can preview your emails before you send them, and I strongly recommend doing so every single time.
Tip #5: Include Clear Calls-to-Action
A call-to-action (CTA) is what you’re asking the reader to do next. This could be:
- Scheduling a consultation
- Replying to your email
- Downloading a template or any other document
Use visual elements like buttons or bold links to make your CTAs stand out. Use direct messaging that leaves no room for confusion, like “Schedule your free consultation now.”
It doesn’t even have to be a professionally designed button. Here’s one of my previous newsletters that got a 15% click-through rate.
See that? Simple, text links.
A strong, well-placed CTA turns passive readers into active participants and helps move new leads closer to becoming clients. Test different CTAs to see what drives the most responses and make the next step as simple as possible for your readers to take.
Common Mistakes to Avoid in Email Marketing for Accountants
Obsessing Over Perfection
As an accounting firm owner, your expertise is in numbers and client services — not marketing.
So, if your email campaigns aren’t perfect, that’s alright. Spending hours trying to get every detail flawless can actually slow you down and prevent you from seeing results.
Besides, many accounting firm owners aren’t even doing email marketing to begin with. Simply showing up in your clients’ inboxes with helpful, relevant content puts you ahead.
Instead of obsessing over perfection, focus on progress. Remember, a good email sent today is more valuable than a perfect one stuck in drafts forever.
Not Being Consistent With Emails
Not sending enough emails is a problem for a lot of accounting firm owners new to email marketing.
Many start strong but quickly lose momentum, letting weeks or months go by without any communication.
You don’t have to send an email every week, but aim for at least one email per month. This keeps you top-of-mind with your audience and shows that you’re reliable.
When clients and leads notice you’re consistent, it reinforces trust, which can improve retention for existing clients and make it easier to turn leads into new clients.
If you’re worried about what to send, keep it simple.
Share a useful resource, an industry update, or a quick tip. Don’t overthink it — just focus on delivering value regularly.
A steady rhythm, even once a month, is far better than starting strong and fading away.
Trying to Do It All Yourself
This shouldn’t be a surprise.
Running an accounting practice is already a full-time job. Adding email copywriting, list management, and creating informative content on top of that quickly becomes overwhelming.
The good news? You don’t have to do it all alone.
In fact, one of the things I teach in my Future Firm Accelerate program is the concept of “Who, Not How.”
You don’t have to do this all yourself.
Instead, you can start with hiring a freelancer or part-time copywriter to craft engaging emails…
Or an email list manager to set up automations, clean your email list, and ensure you stick to your email marketing schedule.
These roles aren’t always cheap, but when you find the right person, they’re well worth it.
Alternatively, you can work with a marketing agency. But it’s better to wait until you’ve established clear goals and gathered data on what’s working for your firm.
Agencies can be expensive, so having a baseline of performance helps you evaluate whether they’re delivering results you couldn’t achieve on your own.
Start small and build gradually so you can scale your efforts without overspending.
Hiring the right people also puts you closer to the goal of having a business that can run on its own — meaning you can step away from the day-to-day operations and focus on strategic growth, or simply enjoy more freedom in your schedule.
Time to Put This Email Marketing Knowledge Into Action
You’ve done a lot of reading.
Now, it’s time to take action — but you can bookmark this blog post and come back to it later.
What type of emails are you going to send first?
Do you have a favorite tool we forgot to mention?
Let me know in the comments!
