This is a special blog post dedicated to all the highly talented accountants, CPAs and tax attorney lawyers out there. Your work is often valued only right before we all have to file our taxes. Each year, the question I hear most at the beginning of February is, “Do you know a good accountant?” I presume that question will get even more prevalent this year since many people became entrepreneurs in 2008.
So, for all the tax accountants out there that make good money doing everyone else’s taxes for tax preparation, I have one big question for you: How are you letting people know that you’re available to do their taxes this year? After all, if you were a retailer, this would be your holiday shopping season and the time of year to really make some big money.
I have a feeling you’re smart enough to realize you can’t wait until March to start building your portfolio of clients for tax planning. By then, most people have already found an accountant. Therefore, you should be launching your personal marketing/PR plan right now in January.
Let’s assume you wisely took valuable time in October and November to build a well thought-out marketing plan for the 2009 tax season. On the PR side of things, you should be developing a series of press releases filled with tips on things to keep in mind when getting ready for tax time. Another great PR tactic is to write all kinds of articles with tax tips for people, placed in various personal finance blogs and regional metro magazines like Charleston and Naples Illustrated (which are often read by local people with wealth). You should also be lining up podcast, radio and even television interviews to position yourself as an expert on the subject.
On the marketing front, you should develop helpful and enticing emails that are sent out to people you’ve placed on an email list of potential customers. This list can be developed throughout the year when you come across an email of a person you would like to do taxes for. Now that everyone can have their own blog or Web site, you should be taking the time to direct people to your site where they will find a lot of great news and tips ahead of tax season. If you haven’t set up your own newsletter for your customers and prospects, there’s still time to begin one and send out with all kinds of information, tips and resources.
As for people you’ve serviced in the past, you’ll want to make sure your loyalty program is in full swing. After all, your easiest customer wins should be from customers you’ve serviced in the past. They deserve extra special treatment, so make sure you’re marketing to them in a way that offers incentives to entice them to come back to you and not the competition. After all, much of marketing is about building a level of trust with someone. And these are people that hopefully now trust you - and only you - to do their taxes each year. But even with these people, you must remain somewhat aggressive at marketing to them because I can guarantee that another tax specialist is also trying to steal them away from you this year.
Share your comments here about what other marketing/PR tactics you’re using to drum up business ahead of tax season.
