4 notes on tax preparation marketing worth reading

What to take away

This is general business information for tax practice owners and managers. It is not tax, legal, or Circular 230 advice. Filing requirements, credential scope, and deadlines vary by tax year, return, and jurisdiction. Confirm current rules with the IRS, your state tax authority, and a licensed CPA, enrolled agent, or attorney.

What "4 notes" means here

The title promises four notes, so here are four, each with the source behind it and the decision it forces. They are the four places where tax preparation marketing breaks in ways general marketing advice never mentions: who may sign a claim, who owns the profile, how a referral is disclosed, and what the schedule can absorb.

Everything below assumes a practice that already files returns. If you are still choosing software or a location, the same four notes apply, but the order changes.

Note 1: only a credentialed person can sign the claim

A marketing sentence is a representation about your practice. In tax work, some of those sentences can only be made by someone with the credential to back them.

"Enrolled agent on staff" is a claim about a person. "We handle IRS representation" is a claim about scope. "We can amend that" is a claim about a return position. Each one needs a PTIN holder, a CPA, or an enrolled agent to confirm it is true before it runs.

The practical fix is a sign-off line. Every service page, ad, and profile description carries a reviewer's initials and a date. The reviewer is the person whose credential the claim rests on.

Keep the roster current. A preparer who leaves in January takes a claim with them, and the page will still say it in March.

Note 2: one owner for the profile, not a committee

Your Google Business Profile is the page most clients see first. It also goes stale faster than any other asset, because hours, services, and staff change at exactly the moment nobody has time.

Name one owner. That person holds the login, updates hours before every deadline shift, and keeps a log of what changed and when.

The profile should carry the practice's real name, location or service area, phone, and hours. It should also carry categories and current services. Photos should show the actual office and the actual people. Accessibility details and seasonal hours belong there too.

When results soften, check the profile before you check the ad budget. Wrong hours on a deadline week cost more inquiries than a weak headline ever will.

Note 3: review requests go to everyone, at the same point

The FTC's guide on soliciting and paying for online reviews sets the line clearly. A request that reaches only the clients you expect to be happy creates a misleading picture, and that is a deceptive practice.

So pick a defined completion point and ask every client who reaches it. For most practices that is the filed return, not the first appointment. Asking at filing means the client has an outcome to describe.

Do not gate, do not offer a discount for a review, and do not filter by expected satisfaction. Answer every review without naming a client or describing a return.

Reviews mentioning a specific refund amount or a return position need a careful reply. Thank the client, move the conversation offline, and never confirm details in public.

The FTC's advertising guide for small business covers the same ground for testimonials and endorsements. If a client is paid, related to staff, or given anything of value, the relationship has to be disclosed where the reader sees it.

Note 4: referrals need disclosure and a scope check

Referral relationships are the cheapest growth channel a tax practice has, and the one with the most paperwork behind it.

Write down four things for each partner: what fits, who hands off to whom, what the client is told, and whether money or anything else changes hands. If it does, the client hears about it.

Then check scope. A bookkeeping partner who sends payroll clients may send work your reviewers are not set up to sign. Accepting a referral outside your credentialed scope creates a client problem, not a marketing win.

Track referrals by source and by repeat contribution. A source that sends volume but no repeats is telling you something about fit.

The capacity ceiling

Marketing can only sell what the schedule can deliver. A campaign that fills the last week of March with returns you cannot review by April 15 buys complaints, extensions, and refund-status calls.

Before any push, confirm you have the reviewers, the software seats, the e-file capacity, and the cash to fund the work. Then promote only the return types and dates that survive that check.

Two numbers tell you whether a push was safe: returns completed on time, and complaints per hundred returns. If either moves the wrong way after a campaign, the campaign was too big.

A worked example: a four-line marketing budget

You do not need a benchmark to budget. You need four lines and your own figures.

Set the paid line last. Practices that set it first end up buying traffic into a schedule that cannot absorb it.

Common questions

Can a non-credentialed staff member write the service pages?

They can draft them. Someone with the credential the claim rests on has to approve the wording before it publishes. Keep the approval in writing with a date, because the claim is only as good as the person who signed it.

Does asking every client for a review actually lower the average rating?

It usually produces a wider spread rather than a lower average, and it is what the FTC expects. The alternative, asking only likely happy clients, is the practice the guidance treats as misleading.

What if a partner pays us for a referral?

Disclose it to the client in plain words, in writing, before the client engages. Check any professional conduct rules that apply to your credential and your partner's, and ask a licensed attorney if the arrangement is unusual.

How do we know a marketing push was too big?

Late returns and complaint volume move first. Track both per hundred returns for the month after the push. If either rises, cut the next push before you change the message.