Business BuildersPrepared for Five Stone Tax Advisers by Business Builders
Session held in Austin, September 22, 2026
Five Stone did a lot of things in 2026, but the results weren't as successful as desired because the pieces weren't connected into campaigns. Here's what the numbers show, and why. Findings describe how systems were built and configured, not the people who run them.
Each gap in the audit maps to a phase of the plan. The phases, and when each one is done, are in the year at a glance.
A composite of SEO, analytics and market research, with every number sourced. Open any topic for the detail.
"Five stone tax reviews" and "is five stone tax legit" return a Reddit "still worth it?" thread, Ownwell's "Ownwell vs Five Stone" page, an AppealDesk fee explainer, a 2020 KVUE story and a non-accredited BBB profile. That's what a homeowner finds when they check.
Google shows an AI Overview on most protest searches. AI tools reading raw HTML see zero counters, no estimate, no schema and no pricing page. ChatGPT referrals are small but highly engaged, and AI tools tend to suggest Ownwell first.
Searches sit near zero from July to February, rise through April and peak the week before May 15 at double the prior week, every year from 2022 to 2026. The 2026 rise began February 22. Austin indexes at 80, Dallas and Fort Worth at 63.
| Platform | Five Stone |
|---|---|
| 4.5 stars, 539 reviews, owner replies | |
| Yelp | 4.3 stars, 267 recommended; #1 on Yelp's Austin protest list |
| BBB, Tax Advisers LLC | A+, accredited since 2013, 1 complaint in 3 years |
| BBB, Property Tax LLC | A+, not accredited, two 1-star reviews |
| 86 percent recommend, 54 reviews |
For scale: Ownwell has 4.7 stars from about 3,800 Google reviews, O'Connor 4.8 from 8,191.
Complaints about the work itself are rare. On r/Austin, homeowners self-reported a 2026 median cut of 13.0 percent with Five Stone (19 posts) vs 11.7 percent with Ownwell (21 posts).
| Channel | Spend | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Direct mail | $0.52 per piece vs $0.21 planned | 0.33 percent response vs 2.0 percent planned |
| Mail, Tarrant and Denton | 66 percent of households mailed | About 700 clients, about $1,100 to $1,250 each (estimate) |
| Mail, Travis | Not broken out | About $170 per client (estimate) |
| Google search, property tax | $12,817, April and May | About $28 per client |
| Branded search | In the above | 68 to 85 percent impression share; 47 conversions on 2,588 clicks |
| Term "ownwell" | In the above | 90 clicks, 0 conversions |
| IRS resolution search | $46,502, Feb to Aug | 115 forms, 222 calls |
| Meta | $0 ($66,812 in 2024 for 890 leads) | None |
| Billboards | $81,845 | 8 attributed clients |
| Community Impact insert | $63,525 | 10 attributed clients |
| Referrals | $0 | 35 percent of new clients |
| Issue | Effect |
|---|---|
| Portal creates HubSpot deals by API after the web visit | 93 percent of deals "OFFLINE"; self-reported channel blank on 62.5 percent |
| Mail sessions tagged "dm" aren't mapped to a channel | 31,400 sessions filed "Unassigned," the "45 percent mystery traffic" |
| Portal traffic counted as site traffic | 29,800 portal sessions inflate site numbers |
| Key events are mostly logins | 96 percent are portal logins; Google Ads optimized toward them in 2025 |
| Site and portal use separate GA4 properties | The visit and the sign-up can't be joined |
| One generic QR code for every county | 18 QR sessions recorded all season |
The fixes are configuration, not new tools. GA4, HubSpot, CallRail, Clarity and PostHog are already installed.
Sources: TCAD and county data; Five Stone mail, spend, registration and portal data, 2020 to 2026; HubSpot, GA4, Google Ads and Meta accounts; Business Builders SEO, site, claims, tag and Lighthouse audits, Sept 4 to 22, 2026; Google, Yelp, BBB, Facebook and Reddit, Sept 4, 2026; competitor sites and filings; the Tax Code, Occupations Code 1152.232 and TDLR rules.
One audience, on purpose: a Texas homeowner. This is the source document. Website, mail, ad, video and email copy all derive from it.
It's the part of the bill you should never have been charged, and it hides inside a number nobody checked on your behalf. It never sends a receipt, and it takes a little more every year you leave it alone.
JP: "They have an impossible job... They're not the villain, right? Taxes is the villain." Five Stone sits across the table from the district every spring and needs that relationship. Say "the county's number." Never say the county is "guessing."
Most homeowners don't know they can protest. Jay: "That's actually the primary competitor. I call it apathy." Five Stone agreed: "Most people don't protest. 100% correct."
Brand note: Five Stone's own story frames excess tax as Goliath. The homeowner is David, the hero. Five Stone hands over the five smooth stones. Five Stone is Obi-Wan, never Luke.
Home worth roughly $300,000 and up (the average client home is about $800,000). Under 65, in a county that appraises aggressively (Travis and Hays are the strongest). Didn't protest last year, has no agent, isn't a tax person and doesn't want to become one.
Wants: to pay only their fair share, without becoming an expert or giving up their spring to do it.
Jay: "They do not want a tax advisor. They do want lower taxes."
External: property taxes keep going up every year. The appraisal notice in late March or April is the trigger, and the bill in October is the reminder.
Internal: frustrated, powerless and stuck, and quietly suspicious they're overpaying. Many are numb to it, especially escrowed homeowners who never see the bill directly.
Philosophical: it's just plain wrong to pay more tax than the law requires.
Empathy (always first): "We hate seeing people spend more on property tax than they should. We've watched taxes climb on good people every spring since 2008. We're Texas homeowners too, so we pay these bills every year right alongside you."
Authority (always second, always countable):
Claims we don't use: "98 percent success," "Texas' #1," "2X industry average," "world class" without a source. If a claim can't be footnoted, it doesn't ship.
Agreement plan (risk reversal): our fee is 40 percent of what we save you, with a $149 annual minimum. You see your estimate before you commit. We tell you before we refile next year, and one click stops it. Needs client input: when the minimum applies, and renewal notice timing
Direct: Get your free estimate. Same words on every page: the nav, the hero, the sticky bar and the final CTA. Never "Learn more" or "Sign up now."
Transitional:
Capture email and phone right after the estimate and before the service plan screen.
Keep failure "like salt," as Jay said. Enough to make it real, never "FINAL NOTICE" fear.
Chris: "Imagine what you could do with an extra $10,000 over the next 5 years."
Less tax, more good. Trademarked, and it stays as the brand anchor. It isn't the homepage H1.
Homepage H1: Pay what you owe. Not a dollar more.
The giving story, placed correctly: a third of profits to charity, and clients vote on where it goes. It's a retention and delight story, not the opening hook, so it comes later in the relationship and further down the page. Needs client input: giving totals and "profits" vs "income" wording
JP liked "exposed to protected" and wants strong advocacy words ("aggressively represented"). Rejected: "taken advantage of" (points at the government) and "undertaxed."
Out of scope for this blueprint: investors, commercial owners, homeowners over 65 with a freeze, and people who protest on their own. IRS resolution, income tax and lending get their own blueprints.
Problem, then solution, then outcome. It passes the grunt test: a stranger understands what Five Stone does after hearing it once.
Most people are overpaying on their property tax. We help solve that so you pay only your fair share.
Agreed in the Austin session. Use it exactly as written on property tax pages, email signatures, the About page and staff scripts. About 7 seconds to say.
None of these replaces the agreed line on the website.
JP, Brian or a consultant at a party, a realtor office, a podcast. About 20 seconds.
Most Texans are overpaying on their property tax and don't even know they can do anything about it. At Five Stone we check your number every year, build the evidence and fight it for you, so you pay only your fair share. Most people are done with their part in about three minutes.
Ads, social bios, the mailer envelope.
Most Texans overpay on property tax. We fight it so you pay only your fair share.
Homepage hero.
Pay what you owe. Not a dollar more. Most Texans overpay property tax. We find it, we fight it, and you keep the difference.
For existing clients to repeat.
I use Five Stone. They protest my property tax every year and I pay only my fair share. The more homes on our street they represent, the stronger everyone's case gets.
Passes all seven StoryBrand tests.
One core PEACE plus three versions for the moments when the homeowner is actually thinking about property tax. Each line is quotable in a video, a mailer, a sales call or a landing page.
Your property taxes keep going up, and most people have no idea they're paying more than they should.
You shouldn't have to become a tax expert just to pay what you actually owe. We hate seeing good people spend more on property tax than they should, and as Texas homeowners, we pay these bills too.
Five Stone checks your home's value every year, builds the evidence and argues your case with the county, so you never sit in a hearing. We've done it since 2008, with local consultants who know your county and neighborhood, and 4.5 stars from 539 Google reviews.
Stop leaving it to chance. Get your free estimate, and be the one on your street who pays only their fair share.
Your number gets checked every single year without you having to remember. The difference stays in your pocket, and over five years that can add up to real money. You finally have someone in your corner.
Your appraisal went up again.
It's frustrating to open that envelope and feel like there's nothing you can do. There is, and you don't have to do it alone.
Enter your address and see your estimate in about three minutes. We file before the deadline and handle every step from there.
The deadline is May 15, or 30 days after your notice. Don't let this year's number go unchallenged.
You finish your part before your coffee gets cold. The rest of the season is our job.
That bill is bigger than it should be, and it's too late to change this year's number.
Nobody likes finding out after the fact. You shouldn't have to wait until next spring to do something about it.
Get your free estimate now and we'll be ready the day your 2027 notice arrives. We also check your exemptions, so you stop missing money you were already owed.
Make this the last bill you pay without anyone checking it.
Next spring, while your neighbors are scrambling for the deadline, yours is already handled.
A lower percentage looks cheaper, until you see what you actually keep.
You're right to compare. It's your money, and you want to know you're not overpaying twice.
What matters is the dollars left in your pocket after the fee. Five Stone shows you that math plainly: 40 percent of what we save you, a $149 annual minimum, and local consultants who argue your case in person. You won't be routed through a national queue or charged to talk to someone.
Choose the firm that shows its work.
You know what you paid, what you saved and why, every year.
The property tax side of fivestonetax.com: the principles, the sitemap, the homepage and the three landing pages that catch campaign traffic. IRS resolution and business and income tax keep their pages and routes; their messaging comes in their own blueprints.
Mail, paid, social, billboards and video all drive back to a specific page, never to the generic homepage.
The property-level estimate is the front door, with a real address field on the homepage.
Get your free estimate. Top-right nav, the hero, the sticky bar and the final CTA.
50 to 54 percent of season traffic, and 60 percent at peak.
They answer the local search Ownwell currently owns, and give language models a sourced answer to cite.
Faster, easier to crawl and manageable with AI. The portal and estimator are separate services and aren't affected.
Empathy before authority, a visible three-step plan, social proof near the top, stakes and success, and a video.
Routing: every visitor lands on the page that matches where they came from, so mail QR codes open the pre-filled /save/ page, typed URLs, billboards and non-brand search open the county page, brand search opens the homepage, and referral links open /refer/.
Most Texans overpay property tax. We find it, we fight it, and you keep the difference.
Free. You see the number before you commit to anything. Not ready? See what homes like yours saved over five years →
Meta title: Texas Property Tax Protest | Five Stone Tax Advisers, Austin. Description: Most Texans overpay on property tax. Five Stone protests your appraisal every year so you pay only your fair share. Get your free estimate.
Purpose: the template for every county page. PEACE, localized.
Pay the least property tax the law allows.
Your appraisal is an opinion. We challenge it for you, every year, with consultants who know Travis County.
Purpose: keep the promise the mailer made with zero typing, and capture name, email and phone before anything else.
Here's what your home could save.
Prepared for [First name] at [Street address], with a pre-filled property card and estimated savings range.
noindex. Never show owner names or account numbers of any other property.
Purpose: handle the price objection head on for homeowners already weighing options.
A lower percentage isn't the same as more money in your pocket.
You're right to compare. Here's the math that matters, with every number sourced so you can check it.
The one page where a competitor may be named, only with sourced, dated facts. Needs legal review
The transitional CTA agreed in the BrandScript, plus the five emails that follow it. For homeowners who aren't ready to hand over an address yet, but will trade an email for a clear answer to "Is this worth my time?"
Enter your county and home value. See what homes like yours have kept over five years.
The rule that keeps it honest: the headline number shows on screen with no gate. Only the full report is gated, so nobody feels tricked. Every savings figure carries its method and "an illustration, not a promise."
| Subject | Its job | |
|---|---|---|
| Email 1 | Your five-year property tax report for [county] County | The report, plus one thing to know |
| Email 2 | Why your value keeps going up | The problem, gently |
| Email 3 | What happens after you say yes | What it's actually like |
| Email 4 | What it costs, and the questions people ask us first | The honest answers |
| Email 5 | [County] County's deadline is [May 15] | The deadline, and an easy out |
"Your estimate for [address] is saved." One button: Finish my estimate. Nothing else.
Answers the pricing-step worry: the fee, the $149 minimum, no upfront cost, one click to stop renewal.
A testimonial plus "Questions? Reply to this email and a person in Austin will answer."
Get the message right, wire the house, then run real campaigns. October 2026 through September 2027, Texas residential property tax. The 2026 figures are from Five Stone's own spend and mail workbooks unless noted, and estimates are labeled.
One approved message, used everywhere, with no claims we can't back up.Done when Every live page and every piece in production matches the voice card.
Every scan, call, visit and sign-up tracked to the household and the piece.Done when A test QR scan, call and registration all show up in HubSpot with the right household, piece and county.
Target list, touch sequences, budget, tests and content calendar signed off.Done when Five Stone signs the plan, the mail schedule is booked with the printer, and the shoots are scheduled.
Website, estimate and a shorter sign-up live and tested by January 31.Done when Every page and flow in the funnel passes a live test, by January 31.
Target households recognize Five Stone before their notice lands.Done when Content is live by February 1, and mail touch 1 has landed with Tier A and the DFW test.
Turn awareness into registrations during the notice-to-deadline window. Late-notice counties run into early June.Done when Cost per client is on target, and the last cold mail is in homes by May 8.
Keep the clients we won and turn results into referrals, through invoicing and the October bill.Done when Retention after a no-change year reaches 80 percent.
Runs alongside Phases 1 to 5.Done when 3,000 of the 15,000 are registered before April 1.
| Phase | Key work |
|---|---|
| 1. Message cleanup |
|
| 2. Plumbing |
|
| 3. Plan finalization |
|
| 4. Conversion optimization |
|
| 5. Attract |
|
| 6. Capture and convert |
|
| 7. Keep and refer |
|
Each source does a job at every stage, from a stranger who has never heard of Five Stone to a client who hands a card to the neighbor. Every path ends at the same action: get your free estimate.
Every source has its own phone number, URL and QR per campaign target, so each row is measured on its own. Stage by stage, the numbers roll up to the scoreboard in "How we'll measure it."
A pre-season early registration program that signs up warm and top-scored homeowners before notices land, so the May window builds on a head start instead of carrying the whole year.
"Sign once now. We file your protest the day your value posts."
Needs client input: confirm operations can file within one business day of values posting, county by county
Where the 3,000 comes from (estimate, drawn to scale)
When the season's registrations came in, January to May 15. Bars are drawn to scale, each full bar is 100 percent of that year.
Source: Five Stone property tax registrations export, January to May 15 each year.
What the data doesn't support: expecting cold ads to move many homeowners in December. Intent is low before notices. So the ramp is warm-first, and cold spend starts in February.
| Month | Objective | Who | What runs | Number to watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | Build the warm pool | Existing clients, cancelled clients, stalled estimates | Bill-season savings recap, referral ask with neighbor cards, exemption check launch. PR: "Is your $140K exemption applied?" | Exemption checks completed |
| Nov | Win back | The 5,250 cancelled, never-registered contacts | Win-back email and letter with the First Filed offer | Win-back registrations |
| Dec | Convert the leads | Everyone who got an exemption check | Email and text: "Your check is done. Want us to file for you in April too?" | Check-to-registration rate |
| Jan 2027 | Warm push before bills are due Jan 31 | Warm, lapsed, clients' neighbors | One warm mail piece in early January, a "New year, file first" email, SB 1801 explainer content | Registrations to date vs 2026 |
| Feb | Registration launch, and cold starts as search lifts | Warm, plus Tier A and the DFW test | A launch moment to past clients and referral sources by mid-February. Mail touch 1 lands Feb 10 to 20. Matched digital from Feb 1. Non-brand search at low bids from Feb 15 | Tier A registrations vs holdout, cost per registration |
| Mar | "Notices are coming" | Tier A and B, warm | PR: "Values post in weeks." Text-reminder sign-ups. Search scales by county. The Tier A letter goes out with notices | Registrations before April 1 |
Then Phase 6 runs as planned, fully funded, with deadline-week search never limited by budget.
About 40 percent of attrition happens just before the season (often a home sale), so early sign-ups need care.
Leading indicators, weekly from November: exemption checks, forms signed, cost per pre-season registration (ceiling $100), text-reminder opt-ins, branded search vs 2026, and the share of Tier A registered by March 31.
No single piece is expected to do the job alone. Touches are spaced 10 to 14 days apart. Each moves the homeowner a step, from "who is this?" to "I trust them" to "I'll get my estimate," and every one points to the same action: get your free estimate.
Meta, YouTube and streaming to the matched list: "Most Travis homeowners never protest."
Asks: watch the explainer"Sign once now. We file the day your value posts." Offers a free text reminder when notices go out.
Asks: get your free estimate, or text me a reminderThe county's number for their home, their deadline, the fee in a box with an example.
Asks: scan for your pre-filled estimate"We represent [212] homes in [78704]. The more neighbors, the stronger the evidence."
Asks: get your free estimateA testimonial naming the consultant, the three steps, top worries answered, and a pre-filled Form 50-162 with a postage-paid return envelope.
Asks: get your estimate, or mail the form back"May 15. Takes three minutes. Register by May 12 and we file on time."
Asks: get your free estimateThroughout: search, retargeting and email if known, carrying the countdown and testimonials. Tier B skips touches 1 and 3. Tier C gets touches 3 and 5.
Personal numbers only go inside a sealed letter. A home's value or savings never appears on the outside of a postcard. Nothing looks like an official county notice, and we never use "FINAL NOTICE."
| Tier | Who | Households | Mail pieces | Also gets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Top-scored cold homes, Travis and Hays | 45,000 | 5 | Matched digital all season, a consultant call if they scan and stall |
| High value | $1M+ homes in Tier A | 5,000 | Premium package added | Personal letter |
| B | Mid-scored cold homes, core counties | 120,000 | 3 | Matched digital from notice week |
| C | Lower-scored cold homes | 80,000 to 150,000, sized after the DFW test | 2 postcards | Address-level digital |
| Warm and lapsed | Stalled estimates, never-registered contacts, cancelled clients | 30,000 | 2 to 3 | Email-led |
| Scan follow-up | Anyone who scans or starts an estimate and stops | As they happen, about 25,000 | 1 triggered postcard | Email, text if consented, retargeting |
| DFW test | Tarrant and Denton, top-scored only | Capped at $60,000 to $75,000 | 2 to 3 | Digital from February |
| Total | About 275,000 to 345,000 households, all within the $600K mail budget | |||
In 2026 these two counties took about two-thirds of the households mailed and returned about 700 clients (roughly 0.12 percent of households). In 2027 they get a capped test with holdouts, not more money.
Stop rule: if fewer than 0.3 percent of mailed households have registered by April 20, cancel the remaining drops and move the money to Travis, Hays or search.
On the table as part of the larger campaign, not on their own. The 2026 data is honest about the risk: $81,845 spent, with 8 clients attributed. Billboards can't show the fee or an estimate, and they're hard to measure by household.
If we use them: one battleground corridor in Travis, April 1 to May 15, with the same look and message as the mail, a vanity URL, geofenced digital around the board, and a similar area with no board to compare against. Capped at about $30,000 from the in-season reserve.
Decide in Phase 3 Revisited when the reserve is released on April 15.
Referrals were 35 percent of 2026 new clients, with nothing spent on them. JP put the reason plainly: "the more properties in the neighborhood and on the street we represent, the stronger our evidence is." So every signed client gets a short run of letters and postcards through the year. Each one lands when their neighbors are thinking about property tax, and each one makes it easy to pass Five Stone along.
| When | Piece | Goes to | The message | The ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| At sign-up | Welcome piece (P9) | Every new client | Next steps, your consultant, the fee in plain numbers | Two neighbor cards: "Hand one to a neighbor" |
| October, when the bill arrives | Bill-season recap letter (P15) | All active clients | What you kept this year, next to the fee | Two neighbor cards, plus First Filed for neighbors: "Sign now and they're filed first" |
| December | Thank-you card and charity vote results (P16) | All active clients | Thank you, and where the giving went | One neighbor card |
| Late March to April, the week notices post | Notice-season neighbor postcard (P13) | All active clients | "Your neighbors are opening their notices this week. You're already covered." | Two tear-off neighbor cards |
| June to August, once the case settles | Results letter, sealed (P14) | Clients whose protest won a reduction | "Here's what we did for your home this year," with their own result and a short evidence summary | "Know a neighbor who's never protested?" plus two neighbor cards |
Referral reward: a $50 Perry's Steakhouse & Grille gift card for every neighbor who becomes a client. A local thank-you, not a fee discount. About $90,000 at roughly 1,750 referral clients, inside the referral and retention budget.
Homeowners have questions before they trust anyone with their taxes. The firm that answers them most honestly, on video and on the website, earns the trust, the search results and the answer AI tools repeat.
The BrandScript in order, from the problem to "Less tax, more good," hosted by one senior consultant, with three 30-second cutdowns and a silent captioned version for Meta.
Written the way homeowners actually ask. The six to film first:
Each video also becomes an FAQ answer, an article, two vertical clips and a nurture email. The cost video plays at the pricing step of sign-up.
Shoot 6 to 8 to end up with 4 to 6, ideally at least one per core county, with signed releases and counsel review before release.
The 2027 media and hard-cost budget stays near 2026. The Business Builders retainer is separate (see Investment).
| Bucket | Share | About | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct mail sequences | 40% | $600,000 | About 85 percent to Travis and Hays tiers, plus the $60K to $75K DFW test |
| Paid search (Google and Bing) | 12% | $180,000 | Up from $12,817 in 2026, the best cost per client of any channel |
| Matched-audience digital | 8% | $120,000 | Meta, YouTube, streaming, aimed at the mailed households only |
| Referral and retention | 15% | $225,000 | Seasonal neighbor referral mail to every client (about $80,000 to $95,000), referral rewards paid per result, plus results-day and invoice programs |
| Website, tools and content production | 10% | $150,000 | Part of the build may be a one-time cost outside media |
| Community Impact insert | 4% | $64,000 | Already committed. Tracked this year |
| First Filed early program | 3% | $45,000 | Exemption check promotion, win-back and warm mail, January push. Moved from the reserve |
| In-season reserve | 8% | $120,000 | Released April 15 to whatever is working. Billboards, if approved, come from here |
| Total | 100% | About $1.5M |
Bars are drawn to scale (5px per percentage point). October to February goes from 17 to 29 percent of the budget, about $180,000 working earlier.
The money comes from Tier C April postcards, the fifth mail touch for Tier B (the 3 vs 5 touch test already questions it), $45,000 of the in-season reserve, and summer spend (5 to 3 percent). Deadline-week search isn't touched. Print is paid three to four weeks before the mail lands, so cash goes out earlier than this chart shows.
These thresholds are starting points, confirmed in Phase 3 once the 2026 match-back gives real baselines.
| Measure | Today | Target | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| New clients | About 5,000 | 15,000 | Definition to settle: registrations, deals or paid clients |
| Blended cost per client | About $300 | $100 on the current budget | 15,000 clients on about $1.5M works out to $100 each |
| Deals with a known response channel | 7% | Over 80% | Reported next to mail exposure |
| Estimate-start rate | Not tracked | Baseline in January | Replaces bounce rate |
| Sign-up completion rate | About 71% of starters (2,096 of about 7,200 quit) | 85% or more | A rate, so it holds as traffic grows |
| Extra registrations per 1,000 mailed | Unknown | Measured, with a range | From the holdouts |
| Referral clients | 35% of 2026 new clients | Up in count | With a "How did you hear about us?" field |
| Retention after a no-change year | 66% | 80% | Measured after invoicing, around Q4 2027 |
Not tested in mail: postcard-first vs letter-first (too small to detect) and fee messaging (tested on /save/ and in ads instead). Most cold registrations arrive in May, so the full answer comes after the season.
| If this happens | What we'll do |
|---|---|
| The shorter sign-up isn't ready by January 31 | Top priority in Phase 4, with weekly portal check-ins. Fallback: campaign traffic goes to the /save/ pages, which capture contact info first |
| JP hasn't decided the fee terms | Nothing prints and the cost video doesn't get filmed until he does |
| Tracking isn't working when mail is ready | No mail drops until the test scan, call and registration all show up correctly |
| No three-year savings data | Use the proof we can source today; the comparison page waits for the data |
| A tier or county isn't performing | The April 10 and 24 checkpoints and the DFW stop rule move the money first |
| We try to do too much at once, as in 2026 | Seven phases, one outcome each, and nothing launches that isn't in the signed plan |
The hard milestone is the one the county sets: everything in the conversion funnel is live and tested by January 31, 2027, ahead of notices in late March and the May 15 deadline.
| System | Priority | Effort | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Website (custom build) | Critical | High complexity | Mobile LCP under 2.5s (from 18s), under 2 MB (from 9 MB+). Templates for every page type, server-rendered stats, full schema, redirects from 46 pages and about 214 posts, a CMS the team and AI can update. |
| Estimate and registration | Critical | High complexity | Property-level estimate range, private autocomplete, a shorter flow than today's eight steps with contact written to HubSpot at step two, one registration path, tokenized /save/ and /refer/ pages. Portal team builds, BB on UX. |
| HubSpot | Critical | Medium | Attribution to over 80 percent known source, lists, eight workflows, dashboards and results-day review requests. Needs client input: HubSpot tier |
| Analytics | High | Low | One GA4 property across site and portal, key events per funnel step, ad conversions tied to registration, a monthly scoreboard. |
| Paid media and direct mail | High | Medium | Google Ads restructure with a May surge plan; Meta and YouTube cutdowns and retargeting; an OTT test in two ZIP clusters. Propensity-scored mail list, variable-data printing with per-piece QR, seasonal neighbor referral mail to clients, match-back reporting. Media is client-paid at cost. |
| Tools | High | Medium | Five-year savings calculator with a method note and emailed report; exemption check. Needs client input: county savings data |
Every marketing asset the 2027 plan needs, grouped by category. Must Have means live before the notice window (by March 1, 2027).
Owner key: BB Business Builders, FS Five Stone, Joint both, Portal Five Stone's portal team or vendor.
| Asset | Priority | Target | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| P15Bill-season recap letter | Must Have | Lands mid-Oct 2026 | BB + FS |
| D3Pricing page | Must Have | Nov 2026 | BB + FS approval |
| V5Client testimonial videos | Must Have | Shoot late Nov to early Dec 2026 | BB + FS recruit |
| P16Thank-you card and charity vote results | Nice to Have | Lands early Dec 2026 | BB + FS |
| D7Comparison page | Must Have | Jan 2027 (after legal) | BB + FS legal |
| D15Giving page refresh | Nice to Have | Feb 2027 | BB + FS |
| D22Email: renewal notice | Must Have | Feb 2027 | BB + FS |
| S1Objection guide | Must Have | Mar 2027 | BB + FS |
| S2Phone and chat scripts | Must Have | Mar 2027 | BB + FS |
| D24Email: no-change conversation | Must Have | Jun 2027 | BB + FS |
| P11Invoice insert | Must Have | Jun 2027 | BB + FS |
| S5Reputation response playbook | Nice to Have | Jun 2027 | BB + FS |
| P14Results letter (sealed) | Must Have | Jun to Aug 2027, as cases settle | BB + FS |
| D14Results page | Post-Launch | When data lands | Joint |
Next: Five Stone to name an owner for each FS item, and to confirm the Community Impact commitment (P10) and the billboard decision (P12).
Plays per quarter: a play is one focused campaign or build, run for a full quarter, such as Google Ads, Meta ads, a landing page, lead nurture, a video shoot, print design or CRM automation. Grow and Scale follow the standard Business Builders plans (2 and 3 plays). Accelerate adds a fourth.
Everything in Scale, plus our senior leadership inside your business: every week, in Austin every quarter, and with the media budget the 15,000 goal really calls for.
The complete 12-month plan, with all 50 Must Have assets and a fractional CMO who owns the scoreboard.
Fixes the front door and runs the core campaigns. It doesn't cover the full 2027 plan, and we'd rather say so now than in April.
President, Business Builders. Your fractional CMO on Scale and Accelerate, leading our team and owning the scoreboard.
CEO, Business Builders. On Accelerate, joins every monthly review and every quarterly in-person strategy review and planning session.
The Business Builders team doing the work week to week, on every plan.
We recommend Accelerate. The 2027 goal is 15,000 new clients, three times 2026. Accelerate is the only option built for that number: the full plan (First Filed, multi-touch mail to personalized pages, nurture, and seasonal neighbor referral mail to every client), our senior leadership inside the business every week, and a media plan sized to the goal.
It also settles the question the diagnosis raised. Reaching 15,000 on the 2026 budget would mean cutting the cost per client by about two-thirds. Accelerate plans media up to about $2.25M, the level the "under $150 per client" target allows, and puts the extra where it works first: deadline-week search, the fifth mail touch, and DFW only if the test earns it.
And it puts people in the room, not just a plan: Chris as fractional CMO leading our team and working with your team every week, Jay in every monthly review and every quarterly in-person strategy and planning session, and on-site sessions in Austin every quarter (or a team visit to St. Augustine for one of them).
Scale runs the full plan on the 2026 budget, and it's the right fallback if Five Stone wants to hold media flat. Grow fixes the front door on $250K to $500K of media, which is too little to reach 15,000, and leaves the mail rebuild, referrals, retention and multi-channel paid on the table.
Media is paid by Five Stone at cost; the full breakdown is in the budget framework.
Review the agreement and sign it online. It takes about two minutes.