Real Tax Business Success
Lesson - 10
Fundamental (And Most-Often-Missed) Copywriting Techniques For
‘Best Response’ Tax Business Marketing
(PART 3):
Author: Chauncey Hutter Jr.
Two Is Better Than One…
Now that you know about guarantees and their importance to growing your tax business, what’s stopping you from having two? Two bold, gutsy guarantees will out sell one. Three out sells two.
I would analyze the three or four areas of your business your target client is the most concerned about -- speed, accuracy, no waiting or not getting audited, just to name a few -- and offer “irresistible selling” guarantees to back them up! (Remember, you’re trying to get your potential client to say, “I’d have to be crazy NOT to give this tax practitioner a call!”)
One IMPORTANT point: Keep as many “conditions” off your guarantees as possible. They “water down” the salesmanship of the offer, number one; and, two, you can get into trouble with unsatisfied clients!
For instance, look at this guarantee:
“I Promise Your Complete Satisfaction With My Tax Service Or I’ll Give You ALL Your Money Back, Plus A Clean, Crisp $50 Bill For Your Time And Trouble -- I GUARANTEE It!”
Now if you start putting CONDITIONS on “satisfaction” etc. you will not only water down this bold guarantee, you’ll get in a “nickel & dime” fight over the particulars of your guarantee with your client (and that’s NOT where you want to be.)
Yes, you are going to have a few clients come into your office and waste your time and rip you off for some tax knowledge. They will say, “I’m not happy with the amount of taxes you say I owe the IRS, I want to go to another accountant.”
The next guy is going to tell them the same thing, but the problem is… with your guarantee, she can take her w-2s, 1099s and whatever else with her and not pay you for your time you spent with her.
Don’t worry about it. Remember the BIG PICTURE! This kind of guarantee could land you 100 new clients that you wouldn’t have gotten if you didn’t promote it. So what if you had five guys waste your time! (You made an extra 95 sales which should translate into five figures of extra gross sales for your office.) That’s the number you should be focused on!
So let’s keep talking about MORE guarantees and how the “multiple effect” increases your response. Why do multiples work so well? Mainly because you keep beating reasons into the client’s head as to why you are the best option for them this tax season. And don’t forget, the more guarantees you have, the more chances of hitting one of those HOT BUTTONS!
Here are some examples of guarantees you could use for different target markets:
- 24 Hour Tax Preparation Service - GUARANTEE
- No-Client-Waits - GUARANTEE
- Prepared Correctly Or You Don’t Pay - GUARANTEE
- No IRS Agent Will Ever Hassle You - GUARANTEE
You’ll be offering multiple guarantees and your competitors will offer none or one weak guarantee. Taxpayers will have to make a choice … just make sure you have someone answering the phone that will do a good job making the appointment!
“Just Prove It To Me Baby!”
What will many of your potential prospects automatically think of when they see your advertising? What’s one of the top reasons someone will not use your services? How come some people will be stubbornly reluctant to “believe” any word you say?
The answers to these questions have to do with people’s natural SKEPTICISM towards promotions, which exists when they see ANY ad. This is ESPECIALLY true in our fast paced, social media and online video news age.
How do you increase your odds when you’re dealing with a skeptical public that may or may not believe any word you say? The answer lies in the PREPONDERANCE OF PROOF you add to all of your advertising!
What do I mean by “preponderance of proof?” It basically means showing your prospect beyond a shadow of a doubt you are who you say you are. Or you can do or follow through like you say you can.
And the best way to “prove” to your client you mean what you say in your guarantee or in your promise to your clients IS TO HAVE SOMEONE ELSE SAY IT FOR YOU!
That’s right! Strong testimonials, giving specific “testimony” to the benefits of your tax services.
(Not: “Joe is a really nice guy and he did a good job preparing my tax return.”) Instead get testimonials from your best clients that say, “Joe bent over backwards to make sure our tax return was completely correct. We came into his office Tuesday morning and he took care of all the tax forms and filed our return electronically before five o’clock that same day!”
Do you see the difference between regular ol’ plain Jane, “He’s a really, really, really good guy,” compared to saying specific details and benefits that the client remembers and enjoyed? Not only do the specifics sell better, the “believability” factor goes up and you do a better job pitching your preponderance of proof case in your advertising.
How do you get good testimonials? Ask for them! And if you want even more, interview your clients, write down what they say and then write out the testimonial for them. After you have a paragraph or two, email your clients saying, “This is about what I heard you say over the phone, could you make any changes on this sheet of paper to make sure it is an accurate testimonial?”
(You do this because people will procrastinate and not write you a testimonial when they said they would. This is a good way to help them do it, by almost doing it for them!)
Now you’ll have one more base covered to help increase your overall response rates in your promotional plan.
What Works For Best Buy Can Work For You Too…
Why would you try to “reinvent the wheel” when you could use TESTED AND PROVEN MARKETING MESSAGES to increase the sales of your tax services?
This one may surprise you:
“I have never made the slightest effort to compose anything original.”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
And I bet you thought this guy sat up nights trying to be “creative or original” when he was composing new music?
Like most successful artists (and more importantly--successful business owners), you can take different ideas, formulas or services and combine them; then switch them around in a different order and PRESTO! Many “parts” of other successful projects rolled together as one make an “another original” message of its own.
How do I come up with successful ad headlines, unique ways to advertise for employees or write a “selling formatted” letter? Simple. I look at other industries, see what is working and doing well for them and see if I can apply it to our tax business.
Don’t get hung up on having to have an original marketing message. Hey, if saying FREE Electronic Filing helps increase the response of your headline, then use it! (I see too many tax businesses trying to get “cute” with ORIGINAL headlines and the ad falls flat on its face.)
As long as you are not breaking copyright laws you are fine.
The whole point of you going through this Crash Course is for you to take what we’ve learned over the years and mold and shape different parts of our success to fit your tax business so you do NOT have to reinvent the wheel promoting YOUR tax business!
Chauncey Hutter Jr.
Tax Marketing Expert
Chauncey Hutter, Jr, is a best-selling author and leading marketing consultant and success coach to the tax industry. Mr. Hutter grew his father’s $50,000 per year tax preparation business to a multi-million dollar empire with 24 locations, 400+ employees and over 27,000 tax clients all coming from his marketing campaigns.
For more info on Real Tax Business Success, go to www.taxmarketing.com
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Real Tax Business Success
205 2nd Street S.W. Charlottesville, VA 22902
Phone (434) 293-2707 Email chauncey@taxmarketing.com Fax 1 (888) 794-5712
©RTBS / Chauncey Hutter, Jr