A Comprehensive Guide to Marketing for Tax Professionals

Tax season is here again! As another round of W2s hit mailboxes, the timing is perfect to kickstart your next campaign if you’re responsible for marketing for tax professionals. If you don’t know where to start when it comes to marketing for tax prep services, mailing campaigns are a great launching pad. They’re affordable, proven and they can be frictionlessly intertwined into additional marketing efforts. Let this guide serve as your instruction manual to tax season marketing success.

What to Know if You’re New to Marketing for Tax Professionals

Getting started with marketing for tax professionals means familiarizing yourself with the different audiences you want your messaging to resonate with. For tax prep services, you’ll likely benefit from prioritizing a few key audiences first: leads (who may be guilty of procrastinating), clients that have used your services in the past, and ones that may have used your tax prep services a few years ago, but not since. A few strategies for leveraging direct mail to connect with these audiences include:

• New Leads:

Suppose you have an ideal customer profile drafted that describes the exact clientele you’re hoping to attract. In this case, you can use your ideal customer profile to construct a mailing list that consists only of recipients that fulfill the characteristics of your ideal customer profile. Using GrowMail’s targeted direct mail software, you can build mailing lists based on recipients income levels, age, home ownership status and more.

• Lapsed Clients:

While going after new clients is important, don’t neglect your past clientele. Crafting marketing materials geared towards bringing back clients that may have gone elsewhere for tax prep services could go a long way. That’s especially the case if they’re searching for a provider at the last minute.

• Referral Incentives:

Your tax prep postcards can also be used to spread the word about referral incentives you might be offering. If you’re unaware of the potential of using postcards to spread the word about your referral program, picture this: you’ve just completed taxes for one of your long-time clients. Then they go home after work one day to find your postcard offering a cash bonus for referrals. Then the recipient takes a picture of your postcard and sends it to a coworker who just expressed the need for tax prep services earlier that day. Afterwards, that person books an appointment and voila, your referral postcards have resulted in a new client!

How Can Marketing for Tax Professionals Result in Lower Customer Acquisition Costs?

Making mailing campaigns a mainstay of your marketing strategy could drastically reduce the amount you spend on customer acquisition costs. If you aren’t tracking the amount of money you’re spending to attract new customers, you should. To calculate your cost per customer, take the amount you spent on marketing costs during your campaign and divide it by the number of customers gained. 

A few mailing solutions from GrowMail that are capable of reducing your customer acquisition costs include:

• Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM):

Let’s say for instance that you’re attempting to connect with more clients in a specific neighborhood. In that case, you could use GrowMail’s EDDM map tool to identify mailing routes that contain a high population of residents that fit your ideal customer profile. And you can send postcards sent using EDDM for as low as $0.23 per piece.

• Discount Zones:

Exclusively offered from GrowMail, Discount Zones enable recipients to send postcards to select households for just $0.20 per piece. And similar to EDDM campaigns, mail sent to Discount Zones go to each address on your selected route. The big difference is that they’re first come first serve. This means if you’re intrigued by the prospect of sending mail to a Discount Zone, reserve it today.

• Targeted Direct Mail:

Spending your marketing budget presenting your message to audiences who may not be receptive will almost assuredly increase your customer acquisition costs. That’s where targeted marketing campaigns enter the picture. GrowMail’s targeted direct mail software makes sending direct mail to recipients you know will be responsive to your messaging easier than you can imagine.

Why Are Postcards Essential to Marketing for Tax Professionals?

There are lots of marketing initiatives to choose from nowadays. This could make the idea of skipping out on postcards seem enticing. But the benefits of conducting a mailing campaign are too impactful to pass up. Some of the main benefits of relying on postcards this tax season include:

 

• Sending Postcards When Marketing for Tax Professionals Gives Audiences a Break From Digital Overload:
  

Don’t underestimate the fatigue audiences are dealing with when it comes to digital marketing. Overloading email inboxes, social media feeds and search engines could result in audiences avoiding your marketing efforts altogether. But sending postcards allows your audience to consume your message and act on it at their own convenience. Additionally, postcards provide you with an opportunity to add a personal touch that’s tough to replicate using digital methods.

• They Answer Key Questions Audiences Often Have:

You never know how many leads you have that may have questions about your tax prep services. Postcards that contain testimonials from previous clients could provide insights capable of clearing up any of the confusion a lead might have about using your tax prep services. Another idea you could use for your postcards is to include relevant statistics, like how big the average refund is when filing alone vs. when filing with a professional.

• They Enable You to Implement a Multichannel Marketing Strategy:

It’s a mistake to assume that your audience only engages with marketing on one or two platforms. The reality is saturating your marketing message across multiple channels is the best way to make sure your message reaches your desired audience. And using postcards to implement a multichannel marketing strategy allows you to easily integrate your digital marketing efforts into your mailing campaigns. This ensures that your offline audience doesn’t miss out on the engaging messaging your online audience consumes.

What Should You Include in Your Marketing Materials to Achieve The Results You Desire?

Postcard design doesn’t have to be a heavy lift. If you can provide your recipients with the basics, you’re already halfway home. Think about the basics as things like your hours, address, contact information and call to action. Now, it’s time to top it off with elements that align with your personal brand like a color scheme consistent with your logo.

Fortunately, the recipe to a winning marketing postcard is likely easier than you think to put together. But suppose you’re too busy to work on your own postcard design. In this case you may benefit from working with GrowMail’s expert design team. For years, tax prep pros all over the country have used our creative services to implement campaigns that deliver clients. And if you do have the resources to design your postcard, you can use our library of free direct mail templates to get started.

Begin Marketing for Tax Professionals By Using Battle-Tested Techniques From GrowMail

Millions of Americans are preparing to search for a tax professional to help them file ahead of the April deadline. In order to begin attracting them, start sending postcards as early and as often as you can. And remember, you won’t find a better partner when it comes to marketing for tax professionals than GrowMail. Our friendly, reputable marketing professionals are eager to share their expertise with you. To make this tax season your best yet, request a free consultation today!