Advertising & Marketing Tips for Businesses in the Tax Industry

By the time tax season arrives, it’s already too late to plan your seasonal advertising and marketing strategy. While your business will be swamped with time-sensitive tax preparation and other tax services, you’ll have already missed the window to attract new clients in time for the April filing deadline.

This means there’s no time like the present to develop campaigns targeted to prospective clients seeking out your tax services. To get your business started off on the right foot, we’ve put together a list of recommended tips designed to optimize your campaigns and maximize your ROI.

If you like these suggestions, consider connecting with a Cox Media expert to find out how these strategies can be incorporated into your digital ad strategy.

Lean Into Your Tax Specialties

The tax industry encompasses a broad range of businesses, many of them targeted to specific audiences or taxpayer niches. While some companies offer a wide range of tax services, some may only offer tax prep for businesses or individuals—not both—while others may specialize in tax counseling, bookkeeping for businesses, or even tax planning for retirement.

Your business should identify the specific services and specialties you want to prioritize in your advertising and marketing. A more narrowly defined audience will improve your ability to target advertising and marketing to those prospects, allowing for more cost-effective spending and more relevant ad exposures.

Highlight Recent Tax Changes Affecting Your Clientele

Every year, the IRS makes updates to U.S. tax code, and these changes may carry significant implications for both individual taxpayers and business clients. Recently, for example, the IRS announced changes to its tax bracket structure that will reduce the amount of taxes paid by the vast majority of Americans.

These elevated tax brackets are designed to account for inflation, and they come with an increased standard exemption. The IRS also increased 401(k) and individual retirement account (IRA) contribution limits, among other implications.

While these changes are set to go into effect for the 2023 tax year, tax businesses may be able to use the impending changes to improve tax planning for their clients today. The changes also underscore the importance of working with a tax professional who understands these changes and can use them to maximize savings for their customers.

Identify Geographic Areas You Want to Target

If you operate a local tax business, make sure ads are being delivered within the geographic area served by your business. Whether you know the locations where your customers typically come from, or you want to restrict ad delivery to within a select radius of your business locations, geotargeted delivery helps you cut out spending on far-flung prospects who are unlikely to seek out your services.

In addition, you can consider using geotargeted ads to concentrate your advertising and marketing to locations where you want to grow your company’s presence. A tax prep company serving individual taxpayers, for example, may want to build campaigns targeted to local neighborhoods that have a high average household income, but where the company has failed to build a strong presence in the past.

Promote No-Risk Consultations With a Tax Expert

Businesses in the tax industry can get a foot in the door with prospective clients by creating campaigns that feature a strong CTA focused on setting up a free consultation with one of their team members. Many tax services prospects have questions about the types of tax services they need, the cost of those services, and/or what kind of tax savings and other value a tax company can offer.

A free consultation can help your business connect with prospects face to face, answer their questions, and collect lead information to check in with them as they consider their tax service options. If your business enjoys strong customer retention rates across its clientele, this up-front investment of your free time can help drive new customer growth backed by a high customer lifetime value (LTV).

Distribute Thought Leadership Through Paid Promotion

A company blog can be a great asset for demonstrating thought leadership and building trust with existing and potential customers. This is also a great outlet for answering common or topical tax questions your clientele may be asking.

A blog about recent IRS tax code changes, for example, could offer a timely opportunity to highlight the most important changes and reinforce the value of working with a tax

professional. As you create and publish this content, though, a paid distribution strategy can help you maximize the ROI of this content.

Blog posts can be shared via social media as both organic content and as a promoted piece. Search engine marketing can also be an effective option when keywords are properly targeted. A digital advertising partner can help you review these possible paid promotion options alongside organic distribution channels, including search engine optimization and distribution through a company newsletter.

As tax season approaches, your business needs a polished advertising and marketing strategy to maximize lead generation and customer conversions to grow your clientele. Cox Media’s experts can help you plan and optimize these campaigns while being mindful of the seasonal trends affecting demand for your services.

Contact us today to find out how we can help.