Why a content plan should be central to your communications and how to create one
When you’re establishing a great business or building your dream home, things can often go wrong or fall entirely off the rails without a robust plan. Similarly, growing your accounting or bookkeeping firm with email marketing is much more effective and easier to keep on top of with a detailed content plan to follow. It gives your communications a decisive direction – whether that’s nurturing prospects or building a solid reputation and relationship with existing clients.
Here, we look at how a content plan helps your email communications hit the bullseye every time and how to create a plan that will keep your firm on track.
The importance of a robust content plan
Without a plan, you’re bumbling along. You might strike it lucky and occasionally resonate with your audience, but your content will likely be more miss than hit. When that happens, your subscribers quickly turn into unsubscribers. A great plan needs to:
- Help you hit business goals – you need to have clarity on the business goals you’re trying to meet with email marketing – for example, are you trying to drive enquiries or gain new clients?
- Have your clients’ needs at the forefront – email marketing is nothing without your emails being read. A content plan ensures you deliver helpful content and add value to your clients’ lives. Businesses often make the mistake of using email marketing purely as a sales opportunity – this will likely head straight to their virtual bin.
Creating a plan for your firm
By understanding your goals, who you’re talking to and what you can offer them, a content plan will quickly fall into place. Here’s how to get started in three easy steps:
Step 1 – do some homework
Before you dive into creating a content plan, you’ll need to do a bit of background work to steer you in the right direction:
- It all starts with goals – whether you’re trying to expand into a new specialisation or prompt enquiries for the end of the tax year, knowing which goals you want to achieve from email marketing will not only help you measure your success, but also inform your choice of content.
- Remember your ideal client – as we covered in ‘Writing for your ideal client’, think about exactly who is reading your content. What are the needs, goals, pain points, key drivers and challenges they face?
Step 2 – get dreaming
Once you’ve got goals firmly in mind, know who you’re communicating with and what they want to hear, it’s time to dream up some content ideas. Keep a list of topics on hand so you’ll never be stuck scrambling for ideas the day before you’re due to hit send. It will also ensure your content stays laser-focused on your business goals and clients’ needs. Here’s some topic inspiration to add to your arsenal:
- Share your expertise with tips, advice or guidance on topics of interest.
- Remind and support clients with key dates – things like tax deadlines and paperwork requirements.
- Share any industry (or general) news that may affect your clients.
- Share news from your firm and your people.
- Share testimonials or case studies that showcase how your firm has helped existing clients.
- Run a survey to find out exactly what your clients want to hear from you.
Step 3 – schedule it in
Finally, put that plan into action and put some dates in the diary. Decide how often you want to communicate with your clients (make sure it’s achievable with your current resources) and stick with it. Remember, it’s best to start with a manageable frequency that you can build on later.
Plan + action = results
Keeping your client’s needs and your firm’s business goals front and centre makes it easy to develop a succinct and focussed content plan that gets results.
Got a great plan but struggling to keep the content fresh and relevant? Using BOMA saves time, headaches, money and writer’s block. With a vast content library, templates, scheduling tools and analytics, BOMA has everything you need to make a successful email marketing strategy simple. Find out how.