As you look ahead to tax season, and beyond, here are seven inexpensive marketing tips to get the year started on the right foot.
- Secure fresh online reviews in Google and Yelp – Regardless of how many online reviews you already have for your accounting practice, it helps to replenish your online reputation with some fresh new reviews. As a rule of thumb, prospects do look at the dates of your reviews just like the rating and what’s said about your firm. Don’t let your online reviews become stale.
- Update your profiles in Google My Business and Yelp – To maximize the number of leads during tax season, please triple check your profiles within Google My Business and Yelp. Everything from your hours of operation during tax season to new images to methods of payment. Google has established new standards for your photos and many photos no longer meet their requirements. If this happens, your profile will be less prominent. Simply go to Google and type in “Google My Business image standards” to comply. It pays to comply with Google’s new standards.
- Window Sticker – Given the inflow of traffic to your office during tax season, it pays to have window stickers for Google and Yelp. It’s a subtle reminder that your business welcomes feedback and online There are vendors who sell these window stickers online, inexpensively.
- Refresh your email newsletter list – Now is the ideal time to update your email newsletter list by adding new prospects, fence sitters, and social friends who may need your services in a couple of months.
- Respond to positive online reviews – As you receive some positive online reviews, it pays to engage and thank the client online. This is natural and will make your profile more visible. If the online review is nasty, then take this dialogue offline (resist the urge to respond online) and accept their negative feedback, even if it is not constructive. Show empathy and thank them for their feedback.
- Outreach to your top fence sitters – Within any business, there are always a few people who have a hard time pulling the trigger and hiring you. Identify your top 3-5 fence sitters and make a genuine attempt to engage with them to overcome their objections. Seek to find out why they haven’t taken action, remove this objection, and make the move easier for them to proceed.
- Post a thought provoking article on your LinkedIn feed – Identify one topic that you learned from CTC and write an article on it. Post it onto your LinkedIn feed so others who may or may not know you read it.
Written by Hugh Duffy, CoFounder of Build Your Firm and marketing partner with Certified Tax Coach. Hugh is also hosts a podcast called Accounting Marketing Doesn’t Suck, which is free. Learn more at buildyourfirm.com or contact him at [email protected].