5 Non-Intuitive Marketing Strategies for Your Tax Practice

Recently, Patti Newcomer, vice president of marketing for Intuit® ProConnect™, spoke with Authority Magazine about how businesses can deliver on their brand promises. Below is a segment of that interview with five tips about how small businesses, including tax and accounting practices, can better market to current and prospective clients:

1. Be responsive to potential new business. There’s  nothing worse than reaching out to a small business for a service and not hearing back, or setting an appointment and having the small business owner not show. It’s crazy, but this can often be a true differentiator for a small business.
2. Always ensure the customer is satisfied. At the end of the service, ask and confirm that the customer is satisfied, and keep going back until the customer is satisfied. A happy customer is a referring customer, and referrals are the backbone of a growing, young small business. They are also nearly free marketing for your business, which can be critical, especially in the early stages.
3. Have a user-friendly website. Enable your customers and prospects to learn about your business and services, and interact with you in some way. This also can be a tool for your customers to use to refer new business. Ensure that the site is structured to have good SEO results; when searched for the appropriate business, your site will come up in the results of the search.
4. Have a social strategy. Consistently post about your business, and be responsive to customers and prospects that communicate via these channels. You can pick one channel or do many, but only add social platforms if you can keep up with each of them. Don’t just post “sales messages,” but post content about your expertise and your business.
5. Find ways to give back to your community. This provides a terrific platform to gain awareness about your small business in a positive way, and gives you an opportunity to network with others that have similar interests.

Read the full Authority Magazine interview for more tips from Patti Newcomer, or follow Patti on Twitter at @pattijns.