Let’s build a Q1 2022 marketing plan for your business

With the new year fast approaching, now is the perfect time to think about your marketing plan for the first quarter of 2022.

If you specialize in taxation, this probably hasn’t been far from your mind. If you provide other services, tax time is a great time to promote them because people are already looking for CPAs and accounting firms.

Here are some things you should consider putting in place now before the year starts slipping away from you.

Prepare busy season advertising campaigns

If your business has a personal income tax service line, get ready to launch your campaign in January. Remember that the cost of tax terms increases exponentially the closer you get to the filing date. So run your campaign from mid-January to mid-March to control these costs.

If you ran Google, Bing, or social media ads in Q1 2021, review the costs and identify what worked and what didn’t. Reuse ad creative that worked well. Then prepare to increase your budget by up to 12% for Q1 2022, says AdAge.

Revise Website Analytics 2021

This data can help you formulate a plan for 2022. Here are some things to check:

• Demographics: This will help you gauge whether the people attracted to your website are your target market. Otherwise, adjustments must be made to hit your target.
• Geography: This also supports your target market. Are the visitors coming from the places you are targeting?
• Acquisition channel: How do people find your site and which tools generate the most traffic, for example, email, social media, advertising, search engines or referrals from other sources?
• Site Content: What are people most interested in on your site? You might be surprised by the data. It might help you create new content.
• Site Speed: How fast your website loads impacts your search engine rankings. The slower the site, the less a search engine, such as Google or Bing, will put it on the first page.
• Search terms: Search terms on the site also help you create content for the new year.

According to Website Builder Expert, even a one-second difference in load time can have a huge impact on performance. Web pages that load in less than two seconds have an average bounce rate (in and out of the same page) of 9%, while pages that load in five seconds see their bounce rate jump to 38% .

Create a 12 month content calendar

In an Excel file or similar product, identify at least one area each month that your business needs to focus on to help it achieve its business goals.

For example, January – Google Text Ad Campaign; February – Promote webinar reading series; Mars – Share eBook Download. Each of these elements is designed to generate leads. Include the topic, industry, and/or department in your timeline so it looks like this:

Complete the rest of the year based on your business goals. Once this activity is complete, you will need to consider additional website content, such as landing pages (e.g. pages with forms), and the method by which you will promote the content, such as social media , print/online advertising, emails , etc.

Inventory content

If the first quarter is your busy time, now is the time to store content and schedule it for your social media profiles. Avoid standard tax-related posts. Liven things up with accounting humor (Pinterest and Robert Half are great resources), sprinkle in some tips from your staff, and incorporate quizzes into your social media schedule.

Filler content is also a good way to keep social media engaged when you’re busy. Try using jokes, like Ageras’s.

Happy Birthday!

Is your company celebrating a milestone in 2022? If so, ensure that email signatures are updated, web pages are created on company history, birthday emails are sent to customers, and celebrations are scattered throughout the year. Encourage media coverage by alerting local reporters to your events once the schedule is set.

Get ready for Q2

Before you know it, the first quarter will be over…hence the 12-month calendar. In the first trimester, you should plan for the second. If you don’t have time, you should start planning now.

• Prepare landing pages.
• Prepare emails and newsletters for distribution.
• Ask to speak at a spring or summer conference.
• Schedule team members to record one or two short video segments to share on social media.
• Contact business owners for a post-season event, such as a document shredding party.

In short, here is your checklist. Get ready, the ride is about to get bumpy.

• Prepare busy season advertising campaigns
• Review Website Analytics 2021
• Create a 12 month content calendar
• Inventory contents
• Happy Birthday
• Get ready for Q2

If you need help, contact an accounting marketing consultant who can help you achieve your goals.