Demystifying numbers: How Tax Shop SA is changing the accounting game

The company

The Tax Shop, a well-known tax accounting firm in South Africa, has solidified its reputation as the go-to solution for the residents for years. Known for making taxes and palatable, they stay true to their tagline: "Make Life Easier". With over 100 franchises across southern Africa, Tax Shop's aim is to alleviate the trouble of doing finances by offering comprehensive accounting, bookkeeping, and tax-related services to both individuals and businesses.

Join us as we sit down with Bernard Schoeman, the Executive Director and Founder of Tax Shop South Africa. In this insightful conversation, he takes us through the remarkable journey of building the brand and discusses the challenges of making numbers comprehensible for people. (Note: All statements within quotation marks are directly from Bernard himself).

A chartered accountant by profession, Bernard started the company in the early 2000s. After successfully running the business for a few years, he decided to extend his services across the region. "The idea of franchising our concept intrigued me and in 2007, I decided to introduce the Tax Shop franchise in South Africa. Fortunately, it turned out to be a resounding success."

Tax Shop's clientele boasts of international clients, small and large businesses, with a particular interest in high net worth individuals. Their focus is to strive to go beyond the ordinary accountant and incorporate technology and innovative approaches to fulfill their vision.

The challenge

Because of the profession's unique nature, which is based on trust and relationships rather than conventional marketing, it means that building a strong client base takes time and cannot be achieved through generic advertising tactics. The team is also aware that marketing accounting services is not as straightforward as selling a tangible product. The biggest challenge is to make talks around numbers palatable. "First, to help people make sense of numbers, we keep our communication concise and straightforward, ensuring information is easily consumable. Secondly, we explain concepts quickly, avoiding unnecessary complexities and more importantly, we use simple language that even someone from a non-accounting background understand it. The goal is to prompt readers to take action and reach out to the Tax Shop for further discussion and assistance.

The solution

The Tax Shop employs various marketing approaches to reach and engage its target audience. "We pay a lot of attention to content marketing, where we share valuable information and insights with clients and prospective clients free of charge. By pushing out relevant content on topics like offshore taxes and investment advice, the intent is to build credibility and gain a foothold in the marketplace. Emails come handy here."

Most of their marketing ideas come from their franchise owners, who frequently inquire about new laws or seek clarification. "This interaction leads to the creation of training materials and blog posts, allowing us to address important topics and provide valuable content to their audience. We sometimes draw inspiration from external sources, such as magazines, to explore new topics for our marketing efforts."

However, word-of-mouth remains a powerful driver of new business for Tax Shop. "Satisfied clients are our best advocates, referring friends and acquaintances to experience the exceptional service we provide. This organic growth has been instrumental in the expansion of our franchise network."

Benefits and ROI

With a vast database of tens of thousands of followers, including accountants and prospective clients, Tax Shop effectively harness the power of emails s for a multitude of objectives. "In fact, emails play a crucial role in addressing our marketing challenges heads-on. For our franchise owners, we use email communication and conduct regular team or video calls to keep them updated on various topics. These interactions foster a sense of community and allow us to address their questions and concerns promptly,"

Tax Shop attributes their ability to create visually striking emails and seamlessly import a large volume of contacts to the capabilities provided by Zoho Campaigns. "Zoho Campaigns provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of our communication efforts. We can track the open rates of our emails and analyze the click-through rates on the links we include. This data helps us fine-tune our messages and tailor our communication to resonate with our audience better. While the frequency of campaigns varies based on the content and events within our industry, we typically send out 10 to 15 campaigns per month."

Looking ahead

"By continuously improving our communication strategies and leveraging the insights provided by Zoho Campaigns, we strive to maintain a strong connection with our franchise owners and clients, making sure they stay well-informed and engaged with Tax Shop South Africa."

As the team at Tax Shop plans for the future, one of their key focus areas is expanding our presence across the country. "While we have already established ourselves with over 100 offices, we believe there is immense potential to grow even further. By increasing our footprint, we can better serve our clients by being more accessible and facilitating face-to-face interactions, which are sometimes invaluable in building strong relationships."

To know more about Tax Shop, click here.