Category: Advanced Tutorials

Today it’s called content marketing, but the reality is that it’s one of the most effective marketing strategies in the history of capitalism.

The core idea behind this strategy is to create engaging content that entertains and educates your target market, while simultaneously reminding your prospects that you possess the solution to their tax problem.

That problem can take numerous forms, from the frustration of completing their tax return to the nightmare of owing millions in back taxes.

In my tax resolution practice, ALL of my marketing leverages the concept of content marketing, in one way or another. Everything from my free reports offered in response to letters and postcards, to 24 hour recorded information lines, to my books written for consumers — all of this is content marketing.

What’s this about writing articles?

Despite the prevalence of video on the Internet today, the fact remains that the Internet is a platform built with and for the distribution of the written word. We still use words to search for things on Google, and Google must still use words on pages to determine the relevance of web sites.

On top of that, direct mail is still one of the most effective means available for reaching new prospects, reactivating lost clients, and keeping existing clients coming back. From reaching out to new movers in to the neighborhood for tax prep season, to tax lien marketing, to client newsletters, direct mail, and it’s inherent use of the written word, is something that should be part of every tax professional’s marketing arsenal.

The written word, despite the audiovisual world in which we live, is still a remarkably valuable form of communication. Aside from being a tool for appearing high in search engine results, the written word is a vehicle for attracting new prospects and converting prospects into clients.

Why is this? Never forget that, no matter what services we actually provide to our clients, we are in the people business. People do business with other people, something that some really big accounting, legal, and consulting firms seem to forget.

Before a new client ever gives you a dime, three things in particular must happen:

1. They must come to know who you are (which is why we do marketing).
2. They must come to trust you and your ability to address their needs.
3. They have to like you (this is the step that … Continue reading

I have long advocated that marketing needs to be a daily priority within your tax practice. In fact, unless the building is burning down, it’s your absolute, number one, top, nothing-else-matters priority for running your business.

Never forget: Without marketing today, you have no new clients tomorrow.

The point of this checklist is to provide you a tool for accomplishing your marketing tasks with laser-focused efficiency. This checklist should be completed during the time of your day when you are at peak performance. Your marketing deserves the best you can give it each day.

For many practitioners, the nature of running a busy practice makes it difficult to do these tasks during the regular work day. Certain items on this checklist can (and often should) be delegated to staff members, with you verifying their completion. But some items require your undivided attention, and I’d encourage you to consider arriving to the office before any other staff each day in order to accomplish these important revenue-generating tasks.

Do note that this is not a marketing startup checklist. Rather, it assumes that you already have the referenced systems in place, and this is your daily roadmap for operating those systems. If you are focused on doing the tasks, and have systems in place, then you can easily hit the by-the-minute markers indicated.

The “bonus points” section of this checklist, which includes tasks that can take several additional hours each day, helps you to achieve ideal tax practice growth. Finding ideal clients, creating marketing systems that feed long-term lead generation on autopilot, and tapping into more complex and lucrative lead generation channels.

To get this checklist, which is combined in the same PDF as our fee quotation guide, sign up for our email list here and it will be sent to you automatically.… Continue reading

May 2013 Advanced Tutorial

Over the weekend, I discovered an Enrolled Agent that is simply rocking it with the simplest marketing plan on the planet.

In fact, it’s an even more simplified version of the simple plan that I’m always talking about for solo practitioners.

This EA asked not to be named, but he allowed me to share with you the details of how he’s building his practice. In short, he has the simplest marketing plan in the world, and it’s working very, very well for him.

He is a solo practitioner that does ONLY collections representation work. He doesn’t have a large practice, but more than adequately supports his family on three new clients each month.

His fee model is also simple: Hourly billing with a $2500 minimum retainer. Most of his cases exceed the initial retainer by at least $1,000.

Here’s his entire marketing plan:

1. Every month, purchases 800-1000 tax liens for 941 debtors across the country, with debt amounts between $50,000 and $200,000.
2. Runs the contact info from the lien through a separate data service to obtain the home address of the business owner, from which he will obtain at least 500 home addresses.
3. Using the 500 best results, send a simple, one-page, no frills letter of introduction in a stamped, hand addressed envelope (his wife and two children help with the addressing).
4. In the letter, he does nothing but mention how he found them, how he can help, and offers both a free consultation and invites them to sign up for his email newsletter.
5. Every other week, he emails out a helpful piece of tax advice.

Between the mailings themselves and the email newsletter follow up, he generates $7500 per month in new retainers.

That’s it. That’s the entire secret sauce. Let’s look at his costs:

Liens: $200

Address lookup service: $160

Paper: $20

Toner: $60

Envelopes: $20

Stamps: $230

Email service: $50

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Total: $740



That’s just $740 per month to generate $7500.

Of course, this doesn’t count the value of the time that goes into preparing the mailings. It’s basically a weekend project once a month for the entire family, he said.

The most amazing part of this, to me, is that he’s been doing this, month in and month out, for over 10 years. This is what he was doing when he first obtained his EA license, and it still works, so he keeps doing it.… Continue reading