Discussion:Income Tax Marketing
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Discussion Forum Index --> Business Growth Community --> Income Tax Marketing
| 14 May 2009 | |
| Now that tax season is over and I'm working through extensions, I'm re-evaluating marketing tactics for next season. My target market has always been small business owners because they have year-round needs, with tax season being the icing on the cake. Networking, drop ins, phone calls, top notch service, client referrals, etc.,etc have been used to generate business with these clients. However... I'm finding that 1040 returns are much more profitable, and less time consuming, during tax season, compared to 1120S, 1065, and Schedule C small business returns. So.... I'd like to target individual taxpayers, and I'm wondering if some of you more expert and experienced Almanacers have had some success you'd be willing to share in attracting straightforward 1040 returns via an AFFORDABLE direct marketing effort (ie., direct mail, post card marketing or the like) to individual taxpayers in surrounding zip codes.
One of our industry experts is holding a seminar nearby next month... but I'm gun shy at the prospect of spending 2-3 days at a seminar submitting myself to an prolonged presentation/invitation to invest several thousand dollars I don't have into a sure-fire, extensive, 'proven' system that can turn my little office into a million dollar tax practice in 30 days or less. Thanks in advance | |
Wonder Woman USA (talk|edits) said: | 15 May 2009 |
| I've never used direct mail -- maybe because I have never responded to those sorts of offers. I started my business with 25 tax clients, and within six years I had 180 clients, without hardly trying.
My city has small neighborhood newspapers; these range from 8 pages to 60 or more. When I was first getting started, I chose three of these and ran classified ads. It was quicky apparent that 2 of those neighborhood papers produced only flakey clients, so I dropped those, and now only occasionally run an annual ad in the third paper. Instead, I run an annual classified ad in a newsletter produced by a local hardware store with a reptutation for fine customer service. The store has four branches, so I actually hit several zip codes with this ad, and these generate a dozen phone calls each year... enough of these turn into clients to justify the low cost of the ad. | |
Ksnoopytax (talk|edits) said: | 15 May 2009 |
| Other guys on here have much more experience than I do at generating business but i'll chip in. First off, 1040's can be quite profitable because if they aren't complicated, you can whip them out rather quickly. However, that also means more people can do those returns and you have more competition for clients. Personally, I like small business clients more because you can generate quite a bit of business, even off peak, with them AND probably do the owner's return too.
With that being said, I haven't had much luck on direct mail. I would say you get about a 1 to 2% return out of 100 mailed if i'm lucky. The best way to attract individual tax payers is getting out into the community and getting involved from my experience. Another way would be to buy a practice but that maybe another topic. I've advertised on craigslist and have gotten some solid clients that way. It's hit or miss. | |
| 15 May 2009 | |
| 1 to 2% response from direct mail is phenominal. Anyone expecting more hasn't studied direct marketing. You can't make it work by sending out 100 letters. You can make it work by sending out 2,000 to 3,000 letters. I have for many years, and built a practice from 49 returns my first year to 450 this (my fith) year, after having sold a practice that I built from scratch to 1,200 returns in another state. | |
Fort Wayne CPA (talk|edits) said: | 2 June 2009 |
| In our practice we have found that small business clients are more profitable than straight 1040's. We have a fairly large advertising budget and on average we have grown 30 - 50% per year since 2001; however, this year our growth rate will be smaller. This year I think we will only grow our bookkeeping business by 10% (As far as billable hours) and our tax practice by about 18% (As far as billable hours).
The phone book does not work for me nor do local newspapers or radio ads. What does work for me is referrals and direct mail. I am also getting a few new clients from my website/blog. I do a lot of direct mail and my response rate tends to be about one out of every three hundred. In years prior to this I expected to get a first year return on my direct mail of between 2:1 and 4:1. I have not crunched the numbers for this year; however, I am expecting my direct mail only generated 2:1 or less. My advertising did not work very well this year. Mike Sylvester, CPA/ABV | |
| 3 June 2009 | |
| Agree with Fort Wayne especially on focusing on businesses. I've steady built my practice from nothing using a variety of marketing. As much as direct mail is smacked around by marketing gurus it has brought me some of my biggest accounts. Some of it is good fortune (right client at the right time) and a lot has to do with the list, message, and presentation. I went through times where I got 1 response out of 1000, but looking back I went quick and dirty on the outside presentation, and the inside was no better. Worse yet I was targeting clients that I thought would make good prospects but in actuality had little time to read my message. | |
| 5 June 2009 | |
| TRcpa- you said that you had been targeting clients that had little time to read your message. Maybe you are referring to medical professionals?
I have tried direct mail targeting doctors, dentisis etc. and have had an awful response rate (i.e. zero!) Any other thoughts on how to get the message out to this group? Pete | |
| 5 June 2009 | |
| Doug-tax......bingo! I believe the final tally was 1 out of 1000. Honestly after that experience I gave up sending it to them. In retrospect most of these types of practices had gatekeepers screening all the mail regardless of who it was from (at least that is my opinion) and thus it never really made its way to the owner. The presentation was also a problem. Had double window enevelopes to speed up the envelope stuffing time but thinking back this really just made it look like an invoice and thus the gatekeeper would open it and trash it.
Lately I've been targeting professionals in other fields whith much better success. | |
| 5 June 2009 | |
| Concentrate on the tax needs of the obscenely wealthy. You can't go wrong! | |
| 5 June 2009 | |
| TRcpa- did you have any luck targeting other medical professionals like chiropractors, physical therapists, accupuncturists etc.? Just wondering if these folks are easier to get in front of... | |
| 5 June 2009 | |
| No I really stopped with medical at that point and started targeting other industries. However I could certainly see a lot less gatekeepers with those. | |
| 8 June 2009 | |
| Have you tried postcards? Are they as efficient?
With direct mailing are you hitting them up for 1040 returns or business returns? Thanks My single best source of clients has been classified ads. The key finding the paper people actually read. I've tried multiple different advertising routes and none worked as well as the classified ads. | |
| 10 July 2009 | |
| I am staring up at home targeting 1040 clients. I was thinking of sending out 3000 - 5000 over sized post cards to close by apartments and condos. I figured that if I give a good price via a coupon to get them on my books and follow up next year with post cards it will bring them back. any thoughts. | |
| 10 July 2009 | |
| Charge your friends for tax prep. Ask them for referrals. Go to breakfast lead generating networking groups. Team up with a real estate agent, insurance agent and loan agent and put on a free financial seminar for a group. Try to do this monthly. Tell your neighbors what you do for a living. Hand out business cards wherever you go. Save money on the post card mailings. It is costly and not results poor. | |
| 10 July 2009 | |
| When I started, there was nothing that worked better than a gorilla suit. Nowdays, you pretty much need to go with a half-naked woman (or man) depending on what area of the country you are in. If you get a lot of sun in April, make sure you provide them with sunscreen to cut down on the worker's comp. claims. Have them march up and down in front of your establishment with a placard during tax season. | |
| 10 July 2009 | |
| How about a mannequin?
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/07/07/bbq.html?sid=101 | |
Wonder Woman USA (talk|edits) said: | 10 July 2009 |
| Dwayatt, a bus runs down my street. One of my neighbors did taxes at home for many years; in January she'd hang a big sign advertising "Tax Preparation" and her phone number in the window facing the bus stop. She'd get a dozen calls each week, many of which turned into paying tax work. Not very classy for a person with letters after her name, but it worked for her! | |
| 10 July 2009 | |
| There's an old saying in marketing: Get a Big Sign.
There's a lot of truth to that, if you have an office that is amenable to it. | |
| 8 October 2009 | |
| here's a variation of the seminar: This is sometimes called using the Law-of-Naturally-Occurring-Economic-Relationships
Say you have an orthodontist client. He's looking for referrals from general dentists. He sponsors a seminar for his dentist/referrors entitiled, "The 8 Tax Strategies Most Overlooked by Dentists." He buys the food too (subways or better). You put on the talk. You offer the backup material (IRS Pubs, Regs, etc) to anyone who signs the signup sheet** you pass around, mentioning they can take this to their own tax preparer adn save cost of her research. Get e-mail address, mailing address, fax number and permission to send info from time to time. You now have a warm list to drip on. I've never gotten zero clients from one of these. But actually to differentiate me from other CPAs, I emphasize not only tax strategies, but also principles of RUNNING A BIZ to "have a great biz AND a great life." All biz have one of two problems: Cask flow or taxes. Target accordingly. **this is the most important list you can develop, virtually free variations on the orthodontist/dentist model are ANY specialist/generalist or any biz where referrals come from a narrow population, such as title companies/realtors. Can also position this as a "Client/Referror Appreciation Event" for ANY biz owner: Realtor/New Homeowner, etc Costs you nada to implement. | |
Lmcdon9822 (talk|edits) said: | 15 October 2009 |
| Kevin - When and where are you doing another seminar? How would I get my hands on the valuable information you have on growing a tax practice? | |
