Marketing the firm within the ethics rules
What professional ethics rules mean for an accounting firm's marketing e-mails, web forms, newsletters and automatic replies to prospects.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Accounting firms market themselves far more than they used to: a web form on the site, a monthly newsletter, an automatic reply when a prospect enquires, follow-up e-mails that go out on a schedule. None of that is a problem in itself. Professional ethics do not forbid marketing; they require it to be honest, professional and respectful of the people it reaches.
The difficulty is that automation multiplies whatever is in the message, good or bad. One careless claim in an e-mail template reaches every prospect the firm captures. This article covers honest claims, consent on forms, unsubscribe links, automatic replies and guardrails on proposal wording, and how Achekam's tools behave in each.
Honest claims about services and fees
The ethics codes that bind professional accountants, most of them built on the IESBA Code, expect a firm's marketing to be honest and truthful. In practice that means:
- no exaggerated claims about the services offered, qualifications held or experience gained;
- no disparaging references to, or unsupported comparisons with, other firms' work;
- no suggestion of outcomes the firm cannot control, such as a particular result from a tax authority;
- care with any statement about fees, which must not mislead about what is included.
Firms marketing audit and assurance work should also take care with terms reserved by law or by their professional body, and never imply registrations their signing practitioners do not hold.
In Achekam, AI can draft a proposal's sections or an engagement letter's clauses, never fees, and a person saves the draft. Achekam will not send a proposal whose wording breaks the professional guardrails or, for audits and reviews, before a partner has reviewed it. That is a useful safety net, but it is no substitute for the firm's own judgement about what it claims.
Consent on web forms
A web form is often a prospect's first contact with the firm, and it collects personal information. A firm can design web forms for its website, each with its own public address, and a submission creates a lead or adds to a recent lead with the same e-mail. Forms start paused, suspected robot submissions are logged as spam, and the submitter must accept the firm's consent wording.
That consent wording is the firm's to write, and it matters. Say what the information will be used for, whether the person will receive marketing, and how to withdraw. South African firms will find the Information Regulator's guidance note on direct marketing under POPIA useful: it explains how POPIA regulates direct marketing, including consent for electronic marketing and marketing to existing customers. Nigerian and Kenyan firms should check their own data protection laws, which carry consent rules of their own.
Unsubscribe links in every newsletter
A firm can keep a mailing list, design newsletters and send or schedule campaigns with an unsubscribe link in every letter. That link is the minimum: honour it promptly, and never re-add people who used it.
One behaviour to know about: a lead marked "Not interested" is added to the mailing list automatically. Someone who has just told the firm they are not interested may not expect a newsletter. Decide as a firm whether that fits your consent wording and your local law, and review the list before each campaign rather than assuming everyone on it agreed to receive it.
Automatic replies sent without a reader
Three of Achekam's tools send e-mail without a person reading each message:
- The lead auto-responder. A firm can switch on an automatic acknowledgement, written by AI from a fixed preset and sent without anyone reading it first, to each lead a connector captures. It is off until an administrator switches it on, and by default sends at most one per address per day.
- The welcome pack. Once switched on, it sends each new connector lead a welcome letter and a service proposal that names no fee, tailored by AI from a template a person approved once for that industry and service. A partner must approve audit and review templates, and the send is stopped if the tailored text adds a date, amount or percentage not in the template or the lead.
- Follow-up sequences. Sequences of tasks and AI-written e-mails, once switched on, enrol leads and stop when the lead replies, books a meeting, is won or lost, or says it is not interested. A new sequence starts paused.
Each stays off until the firm turns it on, which puts the decision where it belongs. Before switching any of them on, read the preset or template as the prospect would, and ask whether every sentence would be acceptable from a partner writing personally. Because nobody reads each message, the template is the only point of control. The settings are covered in the lead auto-responder and welcome pack.
Guardrails on proposal wording, and the firm's own rules
The tools give a firm several safeguards: consent on forms, unsubscribe links, templates a person approves, sends stopped when AI adds unsupported figures, and partner review for audit and review proposals. What they cannot do is decide what the firm should say.
A short marketing policy agreed by the partners closes that gap:
- Who may approve marketing templates and automatic messages.
- Claims the firm will not make, such as promised outcomes, comparisons with named firms and unqualified superlatives.
- How consent is obtained and recorded, and how withdrawals are honoured.
- A review of every automatic message when it is first switched on and whenever it changes.
Forms and the mailing list are covered in more detail in web forms and the mailing list.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
