Challenge

Liberty Tax faced challenges in managing its digital presence across thousands of locations:

“First and foremost, we had to get a wrangle on all of our listings. We had a bunch of rogue listings out there both from the previous provider, and we didn’t own a lot of those listings. We also had such a bifurcation of content, tone, and voice on what we were talking about in our channels, and consistency of our data across listings. So those were the biggest business challenges and why we were looking to consolidate under one platform,” explained Kyle Sawai, CMO of Liberty Tax.

• Inconsistent Listings: Many locations had independent, outdated, or incorrect information, impacting SEO and customer trust.
  
• Disjointed Branding: A lack of centralized tools led to inconsistent content, tone, and messaging across franchisee channels.
  
• Review Management: Responding to and generating new reviews was labor-intensive, and many franchisees were not actively engaging with this critical aspect of the customer experience.
  
• Content Scalability: Limited team resources made it difficult to create localized, engaging content that resonated with diverse client bases.

To manage its 2,200+ franchise locations, Liberty Tax partnered with SOCi’s Genius Suite to streamline digital marketing, ensuring accurate listings, improved SEO rankings, and stronger customer engagement. Key components of the solution included:

Solution

• Listings Management: SOCi centralized control of all listings, ensuring accurate and consistent information across platforms.
  
• Review and Reputation Management: SOCi provided tools to easily generate and respond to reviews, enhancing SEO rankings and visibility.
  
• Content Localization and Automation: SOCi enabled Liberty Tax to create persona-based, localized content while maintaining consistency across national and local campaigns.
  
• AI-Driven Tools: The Genius Suite introduced AI-generated review responses and customizable templates, reducing manual effort and improving engagement.
  

SOCi empowered Liberty Tax to consolidate its digital marketing efforts, scale its operations, and create a consistent and engaging customer experience across its 2,200+ locations. By leveraging SOCI Genius Agents and automation, Liberty Tax enhanced SEO rankings, increased review generation, and established itself as a leader in customer engagement in the tax preparation industry.

Meet the Customer

Kyle Sawai is the Chief Marketing Officer of Liberty Tax and a marketing trailblazer with more than 27 years of experience. He brings an accomplished record of developing customer and digitally centric strategies with brands such as The Home Depot, Pulte Group, Metro by T-Mobile, Chick-fil-A, Farm Bureau Financial Services, and Travelocity. As the Chief Marketing Officer of Liberty Tax, he created new positioning and strategy for the brand, which enabled persona-based audience insights to deliver the first omnichannel effort for Liberty Tax, and more.

Meet the 

Visionary

Meet the Customer

Summary

Summary

Kyle Sawai

CMO

SOCi provided centralized listings management, correcting outdated information and giving Liberty Tax control over its online presence. AI-powered review management helped franchisees easily generate and respond to reviews while maintaining brand consistency. With SOCi, Liberty Tax’s content strategy enables both national and localized messaging through automation and persona-based content.

Results and Impact

Improved SEO and Local Visibility:

• Google rankings increased from 4.4 to 4.86.
  
• 90% of locations now rank in the “local 3-pack,” compared to just 60% before SOCi.
  

Review Growth and Engagement:

• Review volume increased by 120% in the first year and 46% year-over-year thereafter.
  
• Review response rates improved from 69% to 93%.
  
• Review response time improved by more than 30 days.
  
  

Enhanced Franchisee Satisfaction:

• Liberty Tax’s “Do It For Me” program enabled 95% of offices to stay active with localized content tailored to their needs.

• “Tax Consultant” saw an increase of 847%, resulting in top 3 over 80% of the time
  
• “Tax Consultant near me” resulted in top 3 90% of the time
  
• “Tax Preparation near me” resulted in top 3 95% of the time

Top 3 Positioning for Keywords Saw Large Increases Year Over Year: