Marketing by filing dates... any thoughts?

Posted by maxxy PM | on Tue, 01/06/2010 - 12:55 650 11 comments | report

Hi,

I am just after thoughts and feedback on experiences people have had with marketing around filing dates for year end accounts and annual returns, either when they are about to become due or when they are already overdue.

It's something that we offer but I am wanting to fine-tune this and improve this further to give better value for money on marketing spend.

The feedback that I have had so far is divided. Some say that it is a good opportunity for a conversation, to get known with a local or other market, and works well for them. Other accountants say that it doesn't work so well as clients that struggle to get things done on time are probably not the clients that they want anyway.

So just after your thoughts :)

Thanks

Comments

Marketing by deadline dates

Anonymous | Tue, 01/06/2010 - 13:12 | Permalink

It certainly seems that on the face of it , you could plan a marketing strategy around the known cut off points and deadlines in the tax year, and the compliance schedule for a client.

This would give you general deadlines for use with a wider audience, and specific deadlines for a client

It would then be possible to organise both information and service related topics, and these may focus your clients minds at the up and coming opportunities.

I think there are some dangers in consistently using "Fear" and "Pain" in marketing; it could end negative; although it is a motivational factor for some clients. There may be a balanced approach where tax planning opportunities can be balanced with Fear and Pain.

What best for clients to get a reaction ? Fear or Opportunity ?

Mixed results for me

HudsonCo | Thu, 03/06/2010 - 17:44 | Permalink

I tried it in December and ended up getting limited companies with December year ends who were thinking ahead rather than tardy self assessments. Obviously much better for me but quite unexpected.

I am sure I am being really dumb here, but...

chatman | Thu, 03/06/2010 - 19:19 | Permalink

...how do you know when people's filing dates are if they are not your client?

Filing Dates

jpointon | Fri, 04/06/2010 - 13:43 | Permalink

Because the self assessment filing dates are fixed, 31 October for papedr returns and 31 January online.

For private limited companies, the Companies House filing date is usually 9 Months after the close of the accounting date.

Me being dumb

chatman | Fri, 04/06/2010 - 15:16 | Permalink

I am aware of the SA100 filing dates, and the companies house filing periods, but the OP mentioned year-end accounts and annual returns, and if you do not know when the potential client's year-end is, you don't know when his filing date is.

You could trawl through Companies House web site records for due dates, but that seems very labour intensive. Is that what the OP is envisaging?

Companies House disc

petersaxton | Fri, 04/06/2010 - 16:15 | Permalink

You can get a disc which give the names and address and I assume the year end dates.

Companies House data

Toni Hunter | Fri, 04/06/2010 - 16:43 | Permalink

Yes, the previous contributor is correct, it is possible to buy data from Companies House and subscribe to alerts. I believe that as a very thorough marketing and data researcher this is what the author is doing.

Thank you Peter and Toni

chatman | Fri, 04/06/2010 - 18:07 | Permalink

CH Disc

zarathustra | Fri, 04/06/2010 - 20:31 | Permalink

the 30 quid disk disappeared at the time of all the CA2006 changes. Has it reappeared ?

Data

maxxy | Fri, 04/06/2010 - 20:31 | Permalink

Thanks Toni :)

Yes data is available either from companies house webcheck where the next accounts due date and annual return due dates are displayed or via other co's house data products with exportable data fields (however it's quite expensive especially for alerts and doesn't have marketing info such as names and phone numbers). I did some research a while ago that showed that not many accountants were using the companies house data products for this purpose but they were using workarounds such as manually looking the information up, and I just wondered what kind of results from this people had got.

If you did conduct marketing activity in this way was it by letter, phone call, email, and was it after the filing dates or just before, and was it fear based as Phil referred to or opportunity to help?

Thanks everyone :)

-- www.maxxy.co.uk www.find-me-an-accountant.com Twitter:@maxinemaxxy

Yes the CH £30 has reappeared

maxxy | Fri, 04/06/2010 - 20:32 | Permalink

It was unavailable for a time but is now available again :)

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Marketing by filing dates... any thoughts?

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