Successful marketing campaigns require an understanding of the human condition and effective strategies. These seven marketing secrets will aid you on your journey to build brand awareness and make impactful conversions. TARGET AUDIENCE Market to the audience most likely to buy your products and return. But if your target audience is “everyone,” reconsider. When you try to market to “everyone,” you dilute your message. Narrowing it down allows you to focus. IDEAL CUSTOMER AVATAR (ICA) An ICA is the person to whom you’re going to sell. Generally, you should know the following information about them: • Demographics: What’s their age, gender, and job title? • Location: Is your customer base in town, in-state, or international? • Psychographic: What are their values, political beliefs, and lifestyle? 7 Marketing Secrets Every Business Should Know
A 6-Figure Tax Nightmare
HERE’S HOW I FIXED IT
There’s plenty of room for the IRS and business owners to disagree on whether workers are employees or independent contractors. If you assume yours are independent contractors, as one of my clients did, and your assumption turns out to be wrong, you could be looking at a six-figure tax bill on income you never even received. This client — let’s call him Bill — owned a staffing agency that provided temporary staffers to companies. Bill never collected payroll taxes on people he placed in these jobs because employers aren’t required to do so for independent contractors. However, the IRS took issue with Bill’s decision. After a 2018 audit, the agency determined that workers Bill had placed in 2014 and 2015 were actually employees and that he should have been collecting payroll taxes from them all along. The IRS hit Bill with an $800,000 assessment for unpaid payroll taxes and civil penalties. Add to that an additional $80,000 in personal income taxes the agency said Bill owed, and he was looking at a total IRS tab approaching $1 million. That began Bill’s long IRS nightmare. An unusual aspect of this case is that unlike most people embroiled in tax disputes, the issue wasn’t that Bill had collected money and neglected to give the IRS its share. He had never even collected the payroll taxes in the first place, believing he was under no obligation to do so. The net effect was that Bill had to shut down his business — but that’s not all. Based on rules requiring employers to hold employees’ payroll taxes in a trust fund, the IRS has the power to assess a Trust Fund Recovery Penalty against the individual the agency holds responsible for noncompliance with payroll tax rules. These penalties can’t be discharged in bankruptcy, so Bill was left holding the bag. He tried to fight the IRS by himself. Back in September 2020, he sent the agency an Offer in Compromise, attempting to settle his tax liabilities for $43,000. The IRS rejected the offer. In February 2022, Bill contacted us and asked us to get involved, and we represented him during his appeal. We finally got word earlier this year that the IRS would accept a revised Offer in Compromise for $137,000 to cover both the employment tax penalty and Bill’s personal income tax bill. In effect, the IRS reduced his Trust Fund Recovery Penalty by nearly 90%. Bill’s long IRS nightmare was finally over, and he was thrilled with the result. Reaching a reasonable agreement with the IRS took perseverance. But it was gratifying to be able to carve hundreds of thousands of dollars off the tax debt hanging over our client’s head.
After determining how best to market to your ICA, put ads on their favorite blogs, social media sites, and media outlets.
BE THE SOLUTION Research customer challenges and develop a message
emphasizing how buying your product will solve their problems. Provide evidence and explanations whenever possible to show you understand and relate to their issues. ‘MERE EXPOSURE EFFECT’ People tend to trust familiarity. If they keep coming back to their internet haunts and notice your brand repeatedly, they’re more likely to trust you and convert. Keep pushing those ads; you’ll build a loyal clientele over time. DO MORE Businesses often get discouraged when they start social media marketing to attract new leads without success. However, they can try posting multiple times every day, making a daily video, or using SEO more effectively. Developing a following takes time and perseverance. ‘RULE OF 7’ Customers generally have an issue to solve or a pain point to alleviate by coming to your business. They will typically require seven touchpoints before making a purchase. So, optimize every moment of the customer journey. SELL BENEFITS The most successful marketing typically explains why potential customers need something, not what it is. It targets customers’ emotions because they compel action. Marketing is always challenging. However, you can always accomplish your marketing goals through a carefully structured approach leveraging these secrets.
–Toph Sheldon
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