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Prepare for Tax Season

Published 4/6/23

Tax season is quickly approaching, and the best way to ensure smooth payment collections is to prepare your customers in advance. Educating customers on their payment options and promoting online payments helps increase the number of customers choosing electronic payment methods and decreases the workload on your frontline staff. Below are our recommendations for preparing and ensuring a stress-free tax season.

  • Make sure marketing is included in your budget:
    You’ll want to use multiple communications channels to communicate with customers, but to make sure that’s possible, verify that you have budgeted for marketing-related expenses. While there are several low or no-cost marketing options, incorporating higher-value channels into your communications plan (such as direct mail or envelope teasers) can help reach the broadest number of customers possible. If you don’t have any additional room in your budget for marketing, don’t stress! Focus your efforts on free marketing options (such as social media, website content, and invoice messages) and plan to increase your marketing budget for the next tax season.
  • Start early:
    Don’t wait until the last minute! Make sure you have plenty of time to plan your communications calendar and coordinate with print vendors. We recommend planning your marketing schedule at least two to three months in advance.
  • Use In-Office Signage:
    During peak season, well-placed office signage can redirect in-person payments to online payments. Consider printing posters, counter signs, or banners to help catch customers’ attention. Adding a large sign on an easel viewable to any customers standing in line to make a payment, will prompt them to scan the QR code to make an online payment rather than continuing to wait in a long line.Log in to your account in the Marketing Resource Center to find several poster and counter sign templates you can use to quickly create fully customized signage, such as the 11×17 poster below.

  • Add messaging to your tax bills:
    Use your tax bills as a marketing tool! Make sure that your bills include a message about paying online (ex: Pay this bill online at yourwebsite.com). If you have space available, we also recommend adding your custom QR code to your invoice to give customers quick, direct access to the payment portal.
  • Maximize the effectiveness of your mailed bills:
    Including a bill insert with your mailed invoices can draw attention to online payments and helpful features such as AutoPay. Bill inserts are a cost-effective way to incorporate direct mail into your communication plan without the need for additional postage. Maximize the effectiveness of your mailed bills by using an envelope teaser. Envelope teasers help mailed bills stand out against other envelopes and can encourage customers to make an online payment when they receive their bill in the mail. And, using a QR code means they don’t even need to open the envelope!

Log in to your account in the Marketing Resource Center to find full-page inserts, buckslip inserts, and envelope teasers you can customize for your tax bill mailing.

Need access to the Marketing Resource Center for poster templates, bill insert templates, sample bill messages, and more? Email us at customermarketing@invoicecloud.net.