Planting the Seeds for Ag Client Growth
Similar to the tax season, agriculture clients have busy seasons too – planting and harvesting. It’s tough to reach clients, and it’s even tougher to gain new clients, during that time. What’s a practitioner to do?
Here are a few seeds you can plant to help increase ag client growth and harvest new clients along the way.
Create a busy-season text messaging campaign that sends a text message to your ag-related clients to remind them of upcoming tax payment schedules. You’ll be sending a reminder once per month, which isn’t a lot of communication during busy season, but offers a great point of contact they will appreciate. You can find a list of dates from the IRS at https://www.taxact.com/reference/library-calendar-farmers.
Partner with another company, such as an insurance agency, to share tips on how ag clients can implement health care plans for themselves and their employees. In the April 3, article “Farmers Face Soaring Health Care Costs[1],” it states that farmers are strapped with finding reasonable health care for themselves and their employees. By partnering with another local company (maybe another client of yours), you could host a series of in-person workshops to help answer questions ad clients have. Record those sessions and post them to your website; then, share them on your social media channels. Also, consider creating a Q&A document that can be downloaded when someone completes a form. That would require a landing page and form on your website, with additional communication like email and social media to drive visitors to the page.
Another way to harvest new clients is with events. Again, don’t go it alone if you don’t have to. The more you can offer a client, the better off you’ll be as a business advisor. For example, host a post-planting season barbeque with speakers, food, activities, and more. Make it a family-fun day so you can mingle and talk one-on-one with clients, leads, and their families. That provides you with insight into the pain points your clients are facing and how you can develop programs to help them.
Consider an environmental day at your firm with shredding parties and tree-planning events. At the event, share tax-break tips for environmentally-friendly home improvements. In fact, you might consider a fund-raising event that helps a local farmer or donates the money to a local charity, such as a food bank. That effort demonstrates your commitment to the community, as well as desire to focus on the land and how your firm is being environmentally conscious.
Finally, just prior to spring, do a seed-mailing campaign. There are a lot of organization that offer biodegradable products like flower packets that could be planted at your client’s home. The message on the packet could be, “Planting Ideas for Growth!” include “Compliments of [insert your firm’s name]” and your logo. Choose a flower packet for plants that thrive in your geographic area. Remember, farmers will know what grows and what won’t. Be sure to demonstrate your knowledge in the space as well.
You goal is to keep in touch with hard-to-reach clients, harvest new clients, and increase your community exposure. Becoming involved is one of the best ways to plant the seeds of growth.
[1] https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/news/12321934/farmers-face-soaring-health-care-costs
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Tags: Small Business
