• During the hectic tax season, it’s especially important to project an air of calm efficiency. Have your entire staff do a general housecleaning now to remove accumulated clutter. Move noisy printers to an area where they won’t distract staff members or clients, and turn down the sound on telephone ringers.
• Hold a brainstorming session with your entire staff on how to perform at top efficiency during the height of tax season and maintain personalized client service.
• Keep clients coming back year after year with reminder cards and prescheduled appointment cards. A quick, eye-catching postcard alerts clients to call your firm for an appointment.
• Display your newsletter, brochures, and other printed material in an attractive display rack. Invite clients to take extra copies for friends and associates. Place some client referral cards next to your display, too, with a note saying a client newsletter will be sent to friends or associates upon request.
• Have a tax-smart website with up-to-date tax, business, and financial information. Let the viewer know that your site is updated frequently, and remind them to bookmark your site and come back often.
• Put your website address every place you can — on your stationery, business cards, newsletters, yellow page ads, etc., — in order to direct clients and prospects to your site as they seek information and services this tax season.
• Present a luncheon talk on tax planning to groups in your community. This is an inexpensive, effective way to impress potential clients. Hand out a brochure or newsletter with your firm’s name, address, and phone number on it.
• Put a marketing message in the same envelope with the monthly bills you send out to clients. Suggest services you provide such as financial and estate planning, year-end tax consultations, conferences related to buying and selling a business, a home, or real estate.
• If you publish newspaper ads or an information column, include topics on financial matters besides taxes during tax season. Use a mixture of topics that appeals to a variety of interests. At a time when everyone else is running articles on taxes, you’ll appear more well-rounded, and readers will realize that you do more than just tax work.
• Avoid running ads or articles on days when the newspaper is unusually large. Your article or advertisement will be in competition with all the other ads.

I invite your comments and questions. Contact me at mostad[at]mostad[dot]com or 1-800-654-1654.