Demystify the Digital Marketing Process

For Tax Advisors, marketing may seem like a daunting task, especially for those who are new to it. However, it doesn't have to be complicated or overwhelming. You can simplify the entire marketing process by devising a straightforward strategy that yields results. As your business expands, your marketing strategies will also grow and develop.

There are no quick fixes or strange tricks; instead, there are timeless marketing principles that have proven to be effective. By putting in some effort and exercising patience, you can create a marketing plan that is both easy to follow and effective in promoting your Tax Advisory business.

Understand Your Brand’s Identity and Voice

Having a well-crafted marketing plan is crucial, but it is often overlooked. To begin, you need to establish a clear understanding of your brand identity and how to communicate it effectively. Start by developing a crystal-clear brand message that will serve as the foundation for your marketing efforts. This message should be the driving force behind every marketing campaign you undertake and should inform every aspect of your business communication. In short, your brand messaging should be at the core of your marketing strategy.

Ask Yourself:

• What do I want to be known for?

• What are my non-negotiables?

• What are the things that I value?

• What is the change I want to see in my industry?

• How do I want to serve my audience?

• What is my brand promise?

Deep Dive Into Knowing Your Customers

If you try to sell to everyone, you’ll end up selling to no one.

It is important to establish an emotional connection with your audience. To do this, you need to speak their language and address their core values and beliefs, as well as their deepest fears and desires. You must understand what motivates them and what could be holding them back. By doing so, you can get to know your audience better and make the process of selling to them much easier. Remember, forming a connection with your audience is critical to the success of your efforts.

Identify Your Positioning Strategy

When building your positioning strategy, the first thing you must do is conduct thorough research. Yes, I know, it's not everyone's favorite thing to do, but trust me, it can be pretty enjoyable, even if it takes up some of your time. Nonetheless, it's a crucial step that you can't afford to skip.

Understanding what your target audience is searching for and figuring out how you can provide a unique solution that sets you apart from the competition is what defines your Unique Selling Proposition. This is the key to standing out in your niche and capturing the attention of potential customers.

Conducting simple keyword research is an excellent starting point. It provides you with valuable insights into your target audience's search patterns and helps you stay ahead of the competition. By identifying the best keywords to use, you can understand what your audience is searching for and craft content that is relevant and engaging. This way, you can not only meet their expectations but also outperform your competitors by providing better content.

It's important to keep in mind that just because someone else is selling something similar to what you offer, it doesn't necessarily mean that your product or service is inferior. In reality, it's proof that there is a demand for what you have to offer, which is a positive thing. Additionally, by using the right keywords in your marketing, you can improve your Google ranking, which is a valuable benefit.

Create a comprehensive list of all the things your business does or represents. It's okay to use common keywords, but don't rely solely on them. Since these keywords are highly popular, other marketers are also using them, making it challenging for you to rank and stand out against the competition. To address this, you need to research and gather a list of other relevant keywords and questions that your audience is interested in. Find out what they search for and what matters to them the most.

The Best Free Keyword Research Tools:

• Google Keyword Planner for finding related keywords

• Google Search Console for finding declining keywords

• Google Trends for finding breakout keywords

• Moz Keyword Explorer is the best keyword research tool for more approachable data presentation

• Ahrefs Free SEO Tools is the best free keyword research platform for a broad suite of SEO tools

• Semrush is the best free keyword research tool for advanced SEO

And then, there’s a good old classic Google search. Simply type a keyword or phrase and check the related search results at the bottom of the screen. Understand your audience and what they're searching for. Also, explore the top-ranking websites on Google to gain insights into your competitors' strategies:

• What are they doing?

• What kind of content do they share?

• What offers do they have?

• What can you do better or differently?

This valuable information is going to equip you with the best starting point for your next step.

Establish Your Content Goals

To ensure that your content is both searchable and valuable to your audience, start by mapping out the primary topics and their related subtopics. While it's essential to consider your keywords, your content's primary objective is to provide high-quality and engaging information to your readers. So, take your time, brainstorm, and craft content that will be both informative and appealing to your target audience.

The other thing to remember is that people don’t only want to know what you do, they want to know who you are.

Educational how-to type of content is just one aspect of what people are interested in. It's a good idea to brainstorm a list of topics and sub-topics that you're passionate about and can share insightful stories and anecdotes from your personal experiences. This will help make your content more engaging and relatable to your audience.

Be fresh and interesting! That is what people want today.

Now that you have a content strategy in motion, it’s time to consider the subsequent phase of your marketing plan.

Build A Marketing Funnel That Converts

So far, we've focused on your front-end marketing strategies. Even though it may not directly generate leads or sales, it will greatly increase the efficiency of your funnel.

When it comes to creating a funnel, there are countless options to choose from. You can experiment with multiple combinations of upsells, downsells, and everything in between. However, you only need a single, straightforward funnel to begin testing and expanding your strategy.

The basic funnel that Alex Cattoni of the Copy Posse recommends looks something like this:

Step #1: You Need Traffic

You can go about it in two ways - organically or through paid methods. Organic traffic is the result of the hard work you put in earlier when you did your keyword research and strategically planned your content. On the other hand, you can pay for traffic through advertising as well.

Step #2: Generate Leads

The next step is generating leads. There are several ways to do it, but I have found that offering a valuable freebie in exchange for an email address works best. This is commonly known as a "lead magnet" that can be used to create an opt-in on a landing page.

Step #3: Nurture Your Leads

After acquiring leads, the subsequent stage of the funnel involves nurturing them by building strong relationships, increasing awareness, and fostering loyalty toward your brand. This process requires consistent efforts to keep the leads engaged and interested in your products or services. By following through with effective lead nurturing strategies, you can convert those leads into valuable customers and grow your business.

Step #4: Keep Them Engaged

It's crucial to keep them engaged with your brand. You can achieve this by crafting a series of welcoming emails that introduce and familiarize them with your brand's offerings, and create excitement about what to expect from you. The key to building a lasting relationship is to stay top-of-mind by consistently showing up in their inbox, so make sure to keep a regular schedule of sending out emails. This way, your email marketing efforts will be effective in keeping your leads engaged and interested in what you have to offer.

Step #5: Promote Your Offer

It's important to remember that the ultimate goal of our efforts is to sell. While we don't want to come across as pushy, the fact remains that we're all in business to make sales. One effective way to promote your offer to create a sales page and email sequence or to use a webinar or other sales tools.

During the promotion period, you could consider sending out daily emails to your list and running the offers for about a week at a time. It's also a good idea to continue nurturing your relationship with your email list and promoting your offer on social media channels throughout the promotion period. There are many different frequencies and cadences to consider, so it's important to find what works best for your specific situation.

Now we are moving on to the next step of your Marketing Plan.

Track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) & Test

It's hard to overstate the importance of this step. When it comes to marketing, there's no one-size-fits-all approach. It's a massive experiment, and your goal is to make decisions based on data. So, keep an open mind, try different strategies, and see what works best for your business. At the end of the day, data-driven decision-making is what you're after.

At the outset, it is natural to have limited data to rely on, but don't worry, everyone starts from somewhere. The moment you get an opportunity, start monitoring your metrics. This will help you determine what's working so that you can replicate it. Also, you'll be able to identify what's not working, which will allow you to pivot or alter your approach accordingly.

What Metrics to Track?

Here are some important digital marketing metrics to track across various channels:

• Website Traffic such as unique visitors, page views, bounce rate, and average session duration

• Conversion Metrics, cost per conversion, or conversion funnel drop-off rates

• Email Marketing Metrics such as open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, and bounce rate

• Social Media Metrics, including engagement, reach, and follower growth rate

• SEO Metrics such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, or backlink profile

• Paid Advertising Metrics such as CPC, conversion rate, and return on ad spend

When working with Tax Marketing Pros for digital marketing services, we track metrics beyond ROI to measure the success of early-stage of digital marketing efforts.

All this valuable information will assist you in narrowing down and devising more focused offers for your customers, which is what the ultimate aim should be!

It's important to keep in mind that marketing is a constantly evolving field, and what worked for you last month may not be as effective this month. But that's okay! The reason you conduct tests is to adapt to these changes and determine what strategies work best for your brand. Just remember, marketing is not a linear process, so it's important to stay flexible and keep experimenting to find the best approach for your business.

Stay true to yourself and regularly revisit the plan you created in Step 1. With so many people offering advice on what to focus on, it can be difficult to stay on track. While it's tempting to explore every opportunity that comes your way, it's essential to create your path and remember your purpose for being here. So, keep your head down, stay focused, and stay true to your goals.

Conclusion

Individuals and businesses often ask us, “How do you help Tax Advisors build a recognizable brand and make it successful?”

To sum it up, our success can be attributed to a combination of factors. We trusted our creativity, listened to the valuable feedback from our community, and merged what is currently working in the market with timeless marketing principles that we have consistently employed over the past few years. If you are ready to leap into digital marketing, schedule a free consultation with our Team of Experts.