Integrating tax planning into your financial planning practice may help grow your business, but it must be marketed effectively and consistently.

The key elements in developing a winning marketing plan are positioning and using the basic communication channels.

Are you positioned?

Your challenge is not only to communicate your new services to clients, but to differentiate yourself from the competition. Differentiation leads to top of mind awareness, which leads to business growth and financial success. However, before you get to the end result, you must start with aligning your value proposition with whats important to the target audience. In this case, affluent clients need help with understanding taxes and tax planning and you need to communicate how you can help them deal with these issues.

How important is positioning yourself as an expert or as a problem solver? Over 73% of affluent investors want to consult with an expert, said John Bowen, Founder and CEO, CEG Worldwidea leading research, consulting and training firm for financial advisors. Many advisors may be uncomfortable with the concept of being called the expert. Keep in mind that you dont have to know everything to be called an expert. In fact, many experts only have a very narrow range of information that they tout, but they exude such confidence that they are perceived as experts.

Whats the payoff?

Being perceived as an expert in your targeted audience will create magnetic marketing opportunities. These opportunities translate into more income. Heres a stark contrast for you: among advisors earning less than $75,000 less than 5% of them were positioned as technical experts and less than 5.4% were positioned as problem solvers, said Bowen. However, among advisors earning more than $150,000 almost 38% were positioned as experts and almost 40% were positioned as problem solvers. More experts made more money, said Bowen.

What other tools should you use to announce your tax planning? There are three basic communication channels relationship, credibility and direct response. If used properly, these channels can produce an abundance of highly qualified leads and clients.

Relationship

The relationship communication channel is characterized by strategic alliances and referrals.

For strategic alliances, many advisors are taking advantage of referrals from CPAs. CPAs tend to be very good at tax planning, but few have mastered financial planning. Thus, they are generally eager to find a reputable advisor for their clients that wont jeopardize their tax preparation business and can serve as a source of referrals.

For referrals, try building from within your client base. By approaching your best clients with the tax planning concept you will gain insights and experience. As you demonstrate the value of your new service to those clients you are perfectly positioned to initiate an aggressive referral program.

Dont be afraid to spread your strategic alliances over various industries that might be of interest to your target audience. For example, depending on your practice it might be prudent to form relationships with real estate agents, mortgage lenders, insurance agents and even travel agents. At some point in your clients life, they will probably need one or more of these individuals. If you have a professional friend that you can send them to, it makes you look like an expert.

To determine who you should target for strategic alliances, look no further than your target audience. Choose demographics like age, wealth and activities to determine what these groups are most likely to be interested in. For example, affluent retired seniors might be interested in doing a lot of traveling or purchasing a vacation home. You would certainly want to have a real estate and travel agent on speed dial for them.

Credibility

In the credibility channel, the name of the game is getting published. Creating articles and white papers related to tax planning issues within your target audience is essential. They can be distributed from your website, a sponsored e-zine, or through professional journals read by members of your target audience.

Direct Response

The direct response channel includes vehicles like public or sponsored seminars and direct response mailers. Targeted seminars continue to be effective marketing tools if done properly. Direct response mailers in different formats or in organized campaigns are also extremely effective.