Ensuring Your Marketing FAILS

I hope you had a chance to take a look at last week’s blog post. When I ran it by my Operations Director, Troy Lakey (as I always do before I post the good stuff), he mentioned to me: These are the answers to some of the most common questions we get during tax season! And, well, I knew that.:)
“So what do I do to market to these different lists, Nate?”
It’s a great question, and I’m glad you, er, asked it. Everyone’s firm is different, and I highly recommend you do some careful consideration about your particular USP (Unique Selling Proposition). In every marketing piece you put out, you need to clearly and distinctly answer the question sure to be bouncing around your prospect’s mind:
Why should I choose to have my taxes done with YOU, as opposed to anyone else out there? 
Too often, tax pros don’t answer that question, and thereby you leave to fickle chance whether or not someone will actually act off of your marketing.
Leaving aside the USP, though, there are some serious “killers” I’ve seen in far too many marketing pieces which come across my desk from tax professionals. So, I’ve compiled some of these killers as a simple checklist you can use to make sure your marketing  actually makes sales!
Remember–what counts MOST is effectiveness. These are proven principles, in EVERY service professional industry.
1) Being Boring
*Cardinal sin for tax pros. You can avoid it! Hey, just add a descriptive picture at LEAST!
2) Not telling your reader how to take action
*MANY, many ads or letters bomb because the reader doesn’t know what to do next!
3) Writing from “Me”
*The best way to form a relationship (or make a sale): talk about YOUR PROSPECT.
4) Underestimating the difficulty of the task
*In the age of internet and media saturation–you better not expect one sales letter to do it all! Follow-up with multiple steps to qualified leads (using different media). 
5) Too much “White Space”
*Riddle me this: when did white space EVER make a sale?
6) Failure to tell your “story”–why you do what you do
*Believe it or not, your prospects and clients want to be reminded of your story!
7) Logo/Business name/Address at the top
*Why not turn your “letterhead” into “letter-footer” and use headlines that actually work?
Avoid these all-too-common mistakes, and your marketing will be MUCH more effective.
God belss you and your firm!