Successful tax professionals build a business around a specific target market. While you might offer tax services to a wide variety of types of clients, the most effective tax preparers will hone in on specific types. That doesn’t mean you reject business that doesn’t fit your target market, of course; but it does mean you should spend some time defining that market properly, and devote your marketing resources learning how to target your market.
There are several sorts of target markets you can choose from. You can define your target market based, for example, on business versus personal clients. From there, you can more narrowly define your market, too. You might focus on small businesses, or you might focus on high-end personal clients.
Here are some tips that will help you learn how to target your market for your tax business:
Choosing a target market doesn’t limit your client base.
- One of the fears that many tax professionals have is that, by choosing a target market, they’re limiting their potential client base. This is a mistake. Choosing a target market doesn’t prevent you from having customers that don’t fit the normal profile, it just means you’re trying to focus in on your area of expertise.
Having a target market makes your tax business more efficient.
- Chances are pretty good you don’t have an unlimited marketing budget. By focusing your marketing efforts reaching out to the clients that you most want to work with, you’re making more efficient use of your resources. Learning how to target your market can help you save resources.
Your target market will normally be defined along a couple of lines.
- First of all, you’ll need to figure out whether you want to work with businesses or individuals. If it’s businesses, you need to decide on what kind of business structures you most want to work with, as well as business size, and other details such as whether you primarily work with service-based businesses. Further, you might decide to more narrowly define your market by working with businesses in a specific industry. This allows you to drill down on a certain type of knowledge that a general tax professional might not readily be experienced with. Learning how to target your market can help you give even better service to those clients.
Feel free to get very specific.
- Deciding on how narrow of a market to choose depends on a number of factors, not the least of which is the overall marketplace in your area. However, you’re better off trying to define your market in a very specific fashion at first, and then widening the burst in concentric circles to include more and more possibilities. Again, you’re not going to refuse work from those outside your target market when you need it, but you do want to hone in as directly as possible on the ideal client base.
The target market you choose will determine how your business works.
- Specifically, it will determine how much you work, how much revenue your business generates, how you market, and more. In fact, your target market in many ways will shape the way your business operates on a daily basis.
Choosing your target market will be an ongoing process.
- It takes some time to figure out exactly which market segment will work best for your business. In addition, because markets regularly change, you might need to reevaluate your target market every couple of years. The key is to remain open-minded throughout the process, and to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in your business.
Different target markets require different marketing methods.
- If you’re trying to reach out to upper-middle class individual tax clients, you’re going to need to use a very different approach to marketing than if you’re reaching out to businesses. Reaching a target market means reaching out where they’re at, speaking their language, and using whatever medium they’re using. That can vary greatly from one market segment to the next.
Choosing your target market is an important decision. It will shape the way your business operates. It will determine what kind of work you do. It will directly impact how much money you make. Choose your target market carefully, taking these principles into account, and you’ll be able to put your tax business on the road to success
Want to learn more about how to target your market? Become a certified tax coach.
