Struggling to bring in new clients? Not sure what to do next in your marketing plan? There’s one simple answer you probably haven’t considered:

Write a book.

It’s true. This one thing—especially if it’s an actual printed book rather than a Kindle or eBook—has the power to grow your business beyond your expectations. You’ll experience a whole new world of opportunities simply by having your name on the cover of a book.

Writing and self-publishing my first book, Tax Resolution Secrets, back in 2012 enabled me to create an entire new marketing process that brought in leads without significant effort or expense. Inbound leads, while usually slower to come in and of reduced quantity, will usually be of better quality than outbound leads.

Writing that book, and becoming an Amazon category best seller in the process, created a special kind of leverage that helped me to grow my tax resolution practice. A book, by itself, is a great lead generation piece. But even more than that, it becomes an excellent lead magnet, conversation starter, and unique addition to your “shock and awe” box.

Here are five specific reasons why you should write a book.

Authority

Imagine you’re at a conference or local networking group and you meet two consultants who both specialize in practice management efficiency — something you know you need help with right now.

One consultant says all the right things. She’s been in business for years and has worked with several top-notch accounting firms in your area. She has great ideas for how she can help you operate a more efficient … Continue reading

This week, through Saturday, all of my titles published on the Amazon Kindle platform are available at no charge. Whoot, whoot!

For the rest of the week, the following titles can all be downloaded to your Kindle reader, your smartphone, even your computer (Amazon has apps for every platform).

Tax Season Profitability Guide: 8 Big Ideas For a More Profitable Tax Season (all 8 ideas also apply to every other service you offer)
Effective Copywriting for Accounting Professionals
Tax Resolution Secrets (written for consumers, not tax pros, 2011)
How To Build A Million Dollar Tax Resolution Practice In 12 Months Or Less
The 80-Hour Workweek: A Practical Guide to Escaping the Bonds of Mediocrity and Getting More Out of Life (not really about tax resolution, but it has some useful ideas if you’re interested in a non-traditional, virtual, or semi-retirement type of practice)

In addition to that, I’ve temporarily dropped the prices on all print books in my Amazon catalog by 50% or more, including The Tome:

The Complete Tax Resolution Practice: Uncovering the Lucrative Opportunity Hiding Inside Your Tax Practice (released in 2013, but not much has changed)

If you don’t already have these, I encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity. Again, the Kindle book promotion ends on Saturday (Amazon has a 5-day limit on these). After reading, I’d appreciate you taking 30 seconds to leave a review on Amazon.

I’m a big fan of the Pareto Principle, which says that 80% (or more) of your outputs are generated by 20% (or less) of your inputs. The 80/20 rule is well known and has been demonstrated to be true across many arenas, from the income gap to agriculture to marketing results.

One area where I have long espoused an 80/20 rule viewpoint is in the field of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is a marketing strategy in which you seek to be at the top of the Google search results for a particular search term. For example, this blog floats around the top five in the search results for keywords such as “tax resolution marketing”. Today, I’m at #2 for that term, and #1 is an article I wrote for Canopy.

This ranking is not an accident.

At one point, my tax practice site ranked in the top three on Google for many search terms related to tax relief, tax resolution, and the IRS Fresh Start program. I gave up those positions several years ago when I stopped doing the activities that maintained the position, but I’m confident I could reclaim them with a little bit of work.

SEO in particular is one of those marketing strategies that has a well defined Minimum Effective Dose (MED). This is a Tim Ferriss term, and describes the bare minimum work you need to do in order to see the majority of positive results. Note that this isn’t about being lazy, but rather about being efficient.

Now, while I encourage tax professionals to utilize a service such as TaxProMarketer for your complete website, SEO, and social media marketing, there are plenty of people that either don’t want to commit the financial resources to a service provider, or that just enjoy the process of doing this stuff themselves. So, … Continue reading