As April gets closer, more and more people will begin their search for a tax preparer to help them file their state and federal taxes. Approximately 51% of all taxpayers use a preparation service to file their annual taxes. If you want to get in on some of that business and set your company apart from the competition, it’s time to start marketing! Here are seven highly effective marketing strategies to promote your tax preparation services.
Hang tax flyers around town
Even in the digital age, some old-school marketing methods still prove effective. Since your tax prep service typically wants to attract local clientele, hanging flyers around town is still a great way to promote your services.
By hanging informational flyers in local businesses and public areas, people can learn about your tax preparation services and how to get in contact with you. In many cases, people may even forget it’s almost tax time, and your flyers will act as a reminder that they should get in touch with you to get the process started.
Since you’re likely busy getting ready for tax season, you might not have time to design a professional eye-catching flyer. To simplify the process, go online to find free tax flyer templates. Then, all you have to do is choose the template that works best for your business, input information about your services, and you’re ready to print. Just make sure you have permission before hanging any flyers.
Build up your website
Google processes around 40,000 search queries every second. Around the start of the New Year, many of those searches are looking for local tax services. If you want to get some of that business for yourself, you need to show up at the top of the search results, and the first step is building a great website.
You can’t rank in the search results if you don’t have anywhere to send customers to! Work on building your website so that it’s user friendly, showcases all the essential information potential customers might need, and provides specific details about your various tax preparation services. The more information you have, the more likely you’ll rank in the search engines.
Once you have your website up and running, it should be the home base for all your other marketing efforts. Whether you make a post on social media, hang a flyer around town, or hand out a business card, they should all have your website URL. That way, potential customers can simply visit your website to learn more about your business and reach out when they’re ready for tax prep services.
Start a PPC campaign
Optimizing your website for search engines takes time. Since tax season is almost here, you need quick results. That’s where PPC comes in.
PPC stands for pay-per-click marketing. It’s where you pay search engines to promote your website in the search results. They’ll put your ad at the very top of the search results, and in return, you pay a small amount every time someone clicks on your ad.
The best PPC ads link to a dedicated landing page. For example, if you want to promote your federal tax filing services, create a specific landing page for your federal tax filing services and link it to your PPC ad. That way, when someone clicks your ad, they’re taken to a webpage with the exact information they want, not just a generic homepage.
It’s relatively easy to start a PPC campaign. Simply create a business profile on the search engine of your choice, set up your ad, and enter your PPC bid. The highest bid gets the top spot in the search results, so you want to bid higher than the competition but not more than you have to — which can be tricky.
Once your ad goes live, your tax prep service will be sitting at the top of the search results for specific queries, just waiting to attract all that online attention!
Generate positive online reviews
Tax preparation is a serious endeavor. You can’t trust just anyone with your sensitive information, and if something goes wrong, it could mean liens on income or even jail time! Because it’s so serious, customers aren’t going to just trust you to provide high-quality services. They’ll want to see what others have to say in online reviews.
Over 90% of users say that online reviews had a major impact on their buying decisions. This is especially true for something as sensitive as tax preparation. Not many people will want to hand over their social security number and tax information to a preparer with a two-star review!
Because online reviews are so important, part of your marketing strategy should be to generate as many positive reviews as possible. Encourage your customers to leave reviews on the major review websites, including:
- Yelp
- Better Business Bureau
- Yellowpages online
- Manta
Many businesses offer incentives for customers to post reviews. For example, offering a free gift like a pen or office set to anyone who leaves a review can be enough to entice people to leave a review online. It might come at a slight cost to your business, but having hundreds or thousands of positive reviews promoting your tax prep services online will more than make up for the expense.
Encourage referrals
Some of the most powerful marketing tools are sitting right in your office: your clients! Your clients have friends and family, all of whom need to file taxes by April. Why not encourage your existing clients to promote your services with a referral program.
Referral marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies. People put more trust in the word of those they know, which is why referral marketing generates three-to-five times higher conversion rates compared to almost any other channel!
Typically, referral programs consist of a discount for customers who bring you more business. For example, a percentage off their next tax filing if they bring in two more clients. You could also offer a “friends and family” discount on your services for anyone who brings in their friends and family.
Of course, the best way to get referrals is to simply provide outstanding service. People always love to sing the praises of companies they love. Create raving fans, and you’ll have more clients than you know what to do with!
Send marketing emails
Much of a tax preparer’s business comes from repeat clients. And since they really only need your services once per year, some of your regular customers might not even realize it’s tax season. A well-timed email reminder is a great way to drum up some extra business.
Email marketing is one of the most effective types of marketing. The average email marketing campaign generates an incredible 3,600% return on investment (ROI). All you need to do to make a powerful email marketing campaign is to keep past clients’ email addresses and send a reminder about tax season just before the new year.
Putting tax season on your clients’ radar is a great way to remind them that they should contact you to start the process — or at least put it on their calendars. Don’t forget to include a tax prep checklist and your contact information to make the process go smoothly for everyone.
Of course, one email likely won’t be enough. Send regular email updates up until the end of tax season to keep your company top-of-mind for potential clients. Most marketing professionals suggest sending about one email per week, but you can send more during prime tax season to really build the urgency.
Two marketing campaigns are better than one
The best marketing campaigns send the right message, to the right people, at the right time. In many cases, this means there need to be several marketing campaigns to achieve one goal. In the case of tax preparers, you may need one marketing campaign to target people who like to do their taxes early and another to target people who wait until closer to the deadline.
The messaging for these two customer groups is very different. For example, saying “tax deadline is two months away” won’t have any impact on people who like to wait to file taxes, but it could get interest from early filers.
Think about your marketing campaigns from the perspective of your ideal audience, and you may find that it’s best to run two (or perhaps even more) marketing campaigns over the course of the entire tax season.
Get more clients this tax season
Just like with filing your taxes, it’s never a good idea to wait until the last minute to start your marketing campaigns. If you really want to get more clients this tax season, start working on professional flyers, build your website, start some PPC ads, generate more online reviews, encourage referrals, send plenty of emails, and design campaigns for all types of taxpayers.
By implementing these marketing tips to promote your tax services, you’ll be filing more returns than ever before this season!
