Tax Resolution Academy

“It’s the day before Thanksgiving. You can’t possibly think we’re going to do anything today. Or tomorrow.”

Oh, yes. Yes, indeed, I do certainly think that.

The next few days will be linked, as some past tasks have been. And they’ll be short. Nice and simple. Today is a research task.

One of the most cost effective paid advertising modalities in existence is to advertise on niche industry websites. I’m talking banner ads, paid text links, maybe even co-registration lead generation opportunities on the websites for media outlets that service your target vertical, big companies in that industry, online discussion forums, and trade organizations.

So that’s what I want you to do today. Spend some time searching on Google, thumbing through trade journals, and perusing sites of companies in your target market looking for popular websites in your B2B tax resolution niche.

For example, let’s say you’ve identified small medical practices and local homebuilders as your two target markets for your 941 marketing efforts. (Please note that these are just examples for the sake of illustration, do not email me asking if these are good/bad niches).

So, you’re going to hop online and start looking for:

• Industry media sites
• Trade organizations
• Publication websites

On Google, I’m going to do the following searches that encompass the two example niches:

• medical practice management
• medical practice trade journal
• medical practice association
• independent physician association
• medical practice discussion forum
• [county] homebuilders association
• [state] contractors association
• construction trade groups
• construction industry media site
• new homebuilder websites

Hopefully you get the idea, and that starts your search in the right direction.

Tomorrow, we’ll discuss how to approach these websites about advertising opportunities, and Friday we’ll actually make some calls.… Continue reading

Remember our whale hunting expedition last week?

Well, we’re not quite done with that. Today, we’re taking the next step in that “Dream 100” style marketing campaign.

Last week, you mailed them a cover letter with some news articles, and made a follow up phone call.

Today, we’re taking the whale hunt to LinkedIn.

Working with the same list that you generated last week, initiate connections with the leaders of those companies on LinkedIn. Once they are connected, send them a message about being able to help them with their financial issues — your message is basically your elevator pitch.

I’d suggest aiming for at least two connections per company. The CFO/controller type person for sure, and then either the president, CEO, or founder. Look for other C-level executives and try connecting with them as well. This is much easier to do at these regional mid-sized companies that it is at Fortune 500 size companies.

Will many of these people decline your connection request? Yes, absolutely.

Will some of them accept, then unconnect after receiving your message? Yes, absolutely.

It is what it is. This is the grind. It’s part of doing account based marketing (the fancy modern term for old fashioned sales prospecting).

Enjoy the whale hunt!… Continue reading

Yesterday, you went about creating your first marketing video to be added to your new YouTube channel.

When you save your YouTube video, you’re going to be presented with several different settings that can be optimized to help you get traffic and leads. Today, you’re going to optimize yesterday’s video listing.

First, the title of your video should be relevant to the topic, obviously, but also include keywords that people will search for. For example, yesterday’s video script could have a bunch of different title options, but “FTD Penalties” would be a bad title. Most people aren’t searching using our acronyms and jargon. “What You Need to Know About IRS Payroll Tax Penalties” is a better title.

Second, the description box on YouTube is your opportunity to shine. I suggest putting your full website or landing page URL that you want people to visit as the first item in the description. Then, insert a keyword-dense description of the video, and perhaps even your script if you’re using one. YouTube will transcribe your video for you, but it’s not necessarily accurate.

Third are the video tags. These are a “word cloud” of keywords that help people find your video. Here you might want to include the industry jargon, such as “federal tax deposit” for this example, but you also want to include keywords people use.

After these basic text settings, your next task is to select the thumbnail to use in your video. YouTube will give you a couple options, but you can also drag and drop a file on to the page and YouTube will use that. I recommend using a thumbnail that shows you mid-word, looking engaging.

Lastly, toggle the “Transcriptions” item and enable the automatic transcription feature if it’s not already on by default.

These are the basic steps to optimizing a YouTube video for maximum effect. Do these things for the video you posted yesterday, and tomorrow we’ll continue with more digital marketing.… Continue reading