Tax season isn’t just about compliance and paperwork—it’s a great opportunity to attract, engage and convert prospects into clients. Tax guidance is a top interest for people seeking financial help—in fact, according to Edelman Financial Engines’ 2024 “Everyday Wealth in America” report, people are even more interested in the subject now than they were last year.
In this article, I’m sharing some tips that can help you turn tax season into a marketing advantage.
What’s On Your Website?
Your website is one of the places where you can explain your tax expertise and clearly communicate your value as an expert. Here are some things you can do on the site to guide clients and prospects:
- Create an FAQ page: You’ll want to anticipate the top tax-related questions and list them here. Not only will that help prospects find you, but you’ll also be ranked in AI-driven search results. The more comprehensive your answers, the more likely you are to be discovered by those seeking guidance.
- Talk about your tech: When you’re discussing your expertise with taxes, talk about the tools and software you use to streamline tax preparation and financial planning.
- Use video: You can also add a short, engaging video that explains the value of your service and makes prospects feel more confident working with you.
- Capture leads: By using “lead magnets” such as tax checklists and webinars (more on that later) you can collect the email addresses of your prospects. Your follow-ups will keep them engaged and nurtured beyond tax season.
An Email Strategy
Your email marketing strategy should go beyond simple tax reminders—you should use these communications to demonstrate expertise and build trust. You’ll want to explain to clients and prospects how you help them manage their assets in a tax-efficient manner and incorporate tax planning into broader financial strategies. You’ll also want to send them timely updates, giving them checklists and information about when to expect their 1099s, insights on topics like tax changes, warnings about what the common mistakes are, and things they can learn from a tax return. The bottom line is that tax time offers you an opportunity to share valuable information with clients and potential clients while positioning yourself as a trusted resource.
Social Media
Tax season is often stressful for clients, and you can address their pain points in your social media content while promoting your services and attracting the right audience. You’ll want to acknowledge their stress in your messages and show how you can make their lives easier. But it helps to target specific niches—tailoring your content to business owners, executives, freelancers, high-net-worth individuals, or some other defined audience to address their tax concerns and opportunities more directly.
It helps to use video. Educational posts are great for engagement, but short explainer videos on tax-saving tips or industry-specific tax strategies will drive even more engagement and help you establish yourself as an expert who can help them.
Generate Leads By Hosting Events
The events you host could be in-person or virtual, but they’ll offer you an excellent opportunity to educate your prospects, deepen client relationships, and position yourself as a knowledgeable resource.
For instance, you could host a webinar or hold in-person Q&A sessions—perhaps partnering with a local CPA so you could take advantage of both your client lists and the expertise from both your backgrounds.
At the end of tax season, you could host a “Shred Day”—in which clients come to you with sensitive documents they no longer need and have them destroyed. For assistance with this, you can call a local shredding company to bring a truck to your office for a few hours and then invite your clients and their guests to shred their documents while mingling with your staff. You’ll want to take this time to tell them what they can dispose of, which tax paperwork they should save and how long they should hold on to some of those documents. This is a low-cost, high-impact event.
If you don’t have the specific email addresses of people whom you’d like to attract as clients, you can use LinkedIn to invite prospects to these events. At the very least you’ll increase your connections and reach. Use these events to collect and nurture leads, capturing your attendees’ information and following up with value-driven content to keep them engaged.
Turn Tax Season Into A Marketing Win
Tax season isn’t just about number-crunching. It’s an opportunity to add value by delivering content about a topic on the minds of your potential audience. By enhancing your website, crafting strategic emails, engaging on social media, and hosting events, you can turn this season into a growth opportunity.
