Tax preparation marketing for a tax office's season

The three campaigns. The three campaign concepts for this vertical are a tax-season local postcard offer campaign, coordinated Facebook tax-preparation offer ads, and an opt-in prior-client tax-season appointment and deadline reminder SMS campaign.

What the evidence supports. Evidence supports repeated, local tax-season postcards carrying a discounted-service or refund-related offer.

USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.5 provides that, except for mail bearing an alternative address format, each address in a mailing at commercial First-Class Mail presorted or automation prices or USPS Marketing Mail prices is subject to the Move Update standard, and that each address and associated addressee used on the mailpieces in a mailing must be updated within 95 days before the mailing date with one of the USPS-approved methods, which include Address Change Service and the National Change of Address Linkage System (NCOALink).

USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.5

direct mail marketing services →direct mail mailing lists →targeted direct mail →

One team. MBI plans, produces and delivers direct mail, print and digital campaigns from a single team in DeLand, Florida, and data, print and delivery have been in-house since 1989.

FTC advertising guidance for small business states that advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive, that advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims, and that advertisements cannot be unfair; an ad is deceptive when it contains a statement, or omits information, that is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances and is material to a consumer's decision to buy or use the product.

FTC, Advertising FAQ’s: A Guide for Small Business

postcard mailing services →direct mail cost →

What the case records. The cited tax-office case ran matching Facebook ads alongside the postcard drop to reinforce the same tax-season offer.

Meta's advertising standards state that advertisers are responsible for understanding and complying with all applicable laws and regulations, and that ads must not promote products, services, schemes or offers using identified deceptive or misleading practices, including those meant to scam people out of money or personal information.

Meta, Advertising Standards

digital advertising services →direct mail and digital marketing →

CTIA's Messaging Principles and Best Practices state that message senders should support opt-in mechanisms and that messages should be sent only after the consumer has opted in to receive them, and list entering a telephone number through a website, clicking a button on a mobile webpage, sending a message containing an advertising keyword, initiating the text message exchange, signing up at a point-of-sale or other on-site location, and opting in over the phone using interactive voice response among the mechanisms by which a consumer might demonstrate opt-in consent; senders should also document opt-in consent by retaining, among other data, the timestamp of consent acquisition and the consent acquisition medium.

CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, May 2023, §5.1.2

CTIA's Messaging Principles and Best Practices state that message senders should ensure consumers have the ability to opt out of receiving messages at any time, should support multiple mechanisms of opt-out including phone call, email or text, and should acknowledge and honor all consumer opt-out requests by sending one final opt-out confirmation message per campaign; and that message senders should not use opt-in lists that have been rented, sold or shared to send messages and should create and vet their own opt-in lists.

CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, May 2023, §§5.1.3–5.1.4

digital advertising services →financial services marketing agency →

The format. Direct-mail postcards.

In house. Printing at MBI is commercial and variable-data printing produced in house.

USPS Domestic Mail Manual 201.1.2.1 sets the card-price physical standards at not less than 3-1/2 inches high, 5 inches long and 0.007 inch thick, with cards more than 4-1/4 inches high or 6 inches long, or both, required to be a minimum of 0.009 inch thick; at not more than 4-1/4 inches high, 6 inches long or 0.016 inch thick for each stamped card and each half of a double postcard; at not more than 6 inches high, 9 inches long or 0.016 inch thick for each postcard; and within an aspect ratio (length divided by height) of 1.3 to 2.5, inclusive, which the same standard states and cross-references to 3.7, excepting the 11-inch by 8.5-inch sheet a mailer may use to create four identical-size postcards.

USPS Domestic Mail Manual 201

printing services →direct mail cost →