Category: 30-Day Tax Marketing Challenge

941 Marketing Challenge Day 15

Our theme for the past couple days has been where you should be seen.

Yesterday, we discussed where you should be seen physically. The day before that we discussed where you should be seen digitally.

Today, we’re going to discuss where you should be seen in the media.

You may not think of yourself as a media darling, and you certainly don’t need to be. What we’re really talking about is being visible in some way, shape, or form in the media that your target market reads, watches, and listens to.

So that’s the first piece of today’s task. You need to sit down and figure out what stations your target market listens to locally. What local TV station do they watch? What publications do they read?

Since we’re primarily targeting business owners in this challenge, take into consideration the industry that they are in. Are their trade publications that they read? Perhaps you’ll be the only tax professional that ever writes articles for and whose ads appear in Architectural Digest, making you the go-to 941 resolution practitioner for architecture firms.

Whether local, regional, or national, do a hard analysis of your chosen niche market and catalog the print publications, podcasts, radio and TV, and other media that your target market pays attention to.

Then, call a few of them. Can you get to an editor and ask to write a monthly column? Do they need a tax professional to come on to the 30-minute drive-time business radio talk show in your local area? Can you get cheap local ad rates in the Home Builders Association newsletter?

This is what you’re doing today. Find media outlets that your target market pays attention to, and get into those media outlets by contributing time and content or paying for advertising.… Continue reading

941 Marketing Challenge Day 14

In yesterday’s challenge task, we discussed the two most important places that you need to be “showing up” digitally in order for your 941 tax resolution services to be found.

Today, we’re going to talk about the one place you need to show up physically.

If you’re already a subscriber to The Profitable Accountant, you saw me write heavily about this in the November issue.

Where do you need to physically appear?

Ready for it?

On your feet, standing in front of your target market.

Nooooooooooooooooo!” I hear you scream.

Yep, I’m talking about public speaking.

You already know that you need to be niched. I’d like to think that I’ve sledgehammered that point home enough around here.

And now I’m telling you that you really, really need to be the person standing in front of groups of people in that niche, lovingly talking to them about payroll taxes.

Today’s challenge is, therefore, pretty straightforward: Call ONE business or organization in your niche than you know does events, meetings, or seminars, and ask to be on the program.

It doesn’t matter if they can give you 5 minutes or 5 hours.

It doesn’t matter if you have a presentation prepared.

It doesn’t matter if you’re scared to death of public speaking.

That can all be sussed out later.

Today, just make the call. Go speak at a seminar, trade show, or other industry event. Go speak in front of the only four people that show up for the Western Valley Independent Gift Shop Association annual meeting. Whatever your niche B2B industry is, find a thing, any one thing, and call somebody to arrange to speak at it.

Don’t think. Don’t fret. Just call.… Continue reading

941 Marketing Challenge Day 13

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. -Desiderius Erasmus (1500)

Translated into marketing-speak: She who bothers to be even slightly better than average wins the business.

Since we now live in a world where average equals mediocrity, it doesn’t take much effort to be better and do better than your peers. A lot of people are very uncomfortable with this assessment, but I stand by it.

Another way of looking at it, through the lens of another common expression, is that “80% of success is showing up” as Woody Allen put it.

So that’s what we’re looking at for the next few days. Take an inventory sometime:

  1. Where do you show up now?
  2. Where should you be showing up?
  3. What are some things that YOU do in your practice that makes you better than average?
  4. What else can you do in your practice move beyond being seen as “mediocre”, e.g., just another practitioner?

For the next few challenge tasks, I really want to focus on that second one: Where should you be showing up?

Even better, let’s break it up into a few more pieces:

  • Where should you be seen digitally?
  • Where should you be seen physically?
  • Where should you be seen in media?

Let’s start with your digital footprint. Again, if you’re not showing up in the right places, then the right people won’t be able to find you. Since we’re talking about 941 work, there are certain places online that you should be.

First among them is probably LinkedIn. Have you looked over your LinkedIn profile lately? Is it complete? Do you have a photo? Do you have a bio describing the kind of client you’re looking for, and an offer for a lead magnet? Are you posting occasionally? Do you write articles on the LinkedIn “blogging” platform?

Take a few minutes to spruce up your LinkedIn profile today. Don’t end the day without at least a photo and a link back to your website in your bio. While you’re on there, post a single status update offering a lead magnet to your B2B connections that might have 941 problems. For what it’s worth, your elevator pitch makes a great bio or status update item.

The other place that you absolutely, positively need to be seen online is Google Maps. I guess more appropriately it would be Google My Business. At this moment, there is no more important … Continue reading