Tax season business development.

• Author: Crisler, Michael W.

Whether a firm's busy season tax practice resembles a well-drilled marching band or a bustling herd of cats, tax season presents practice leaders and staff with an opportunity to interact with current and prospective clients at a time when interest in the firm and its services is at its peak. While the primary goal of the season for the tax practice is and should remain delivering high-quality and profitable services to clients, the firm can and should take advantage of this yearly marketing opportunity to win new business.

Making the Best Use of Your Resources

While there should be little argument that current and prospective clients are uniquely well-primed for a firm's business development efforts during tax season, there is also likely broad agreement that the resources to make those efforts are thin at that time of year. Accordingly, balancing a firm's scarce resources against its need to strike while the iron is hot is a common thread in the marketing activities discussed in this column.

Advertising

While advertising can yield collateral benefits with current clients and staff (e.g., by reinforcing the client's choice of the firm or the employee's understanding of the firm's market position or culture), the primary purpose of advertising is to inform a prospective client of the firm's identity and its services, that is, to position the firm as a top choice. Ideally, this can occur precisely when that prospective client is choosing a service provider.

On the downside, an effective advertising campaign is not created overnight and will not yield benefits overnight. However, if the firm has laid some of the groundwork, tax season may be a good time to initiate or increase efforts to be top of mind for prospective clients.

Advertising in traditional media, such as by running firm profile ads in newspapers, business journals, and trade publications, is good for positioning and awareness, but online and social media advertising, such as through Google AdWords and Facebook advertising campaigns, can be finked to specific services offered to yield immediate (and highly measurable) results, making this a better place to concentrate resources during tax season. Since the time commitment of the firm's professional personnel during busy season is likely to be minimal, developing and monitoring an advertising campaign, especially a digital media-based one, may require a marketing consultant.

Public Relations

Much like advertising, the primary role of public relations is to create awareness of the firm and its services in the minds of prospective clients and to position the firm as one of the top few choices a prospective client should consider when choosing a service provider. A CPA firm's public relations initiatives typically take this process a step further, however, and couple general information about the firm with specific content that may promote the firm's practice by demonstrating expertise in a particular industry or technical service area.

Public relations efforts may take the form of books, newspaper columns, magazine articles, blog and social media posts, radio and television interviews, speeches, webinars, podcasts, and event sponsorships, to name a few. CPA firms may have a seemingly unlimited assortment of venues for publicity, but a...