Marlins tips for maximising your Tax Appeal
— Written by Marlin Communications team.
With a combined experience of over 100 years in fundraising, we asked our Marlin Team to share their top tips to help you maximise your tax appeal.
“Ensure your value proposition for your appeal is very clear on your landing page, you still have to ensure your donors connect with your cause and impact as they complete their online donation.”
– Samara, Head of Digital Fundraising and Marketing
“Set yourself up to be able to review how your audience responded to the entire appeal.. not just channel by channel. You will have some donors who receive your appeal in the post, then use their search engine to find your organisation, and from the home page click on the generic DONATE button. If you only measure whether they actually used your mailpack donation form to respond.. you won’t know how important it is to keep investing in mailpacks.”
– Dan, Strategy Director
“Use technology to work smarter, not harder. Whether that is using integrated PURLs that pull personalised giving handles and data out of your CRM or creating dynamic content within communications for specific audiences – make sure you are focused on personalising the supporter’s experience. Also look for ways to guide and nudge donors throughout the process to reduce friction and increase conversions – sometimes the simplest of changes can have a big impact.”
– Jason, Digital Director
“Be brutal; put your creative efforts and related budget into the supporter segments that give the best returns. Don’t waste your precious time on the things that yield no income.”
– Karl, Founder & Idealist
“Don’t forget about your mid-value donors. Is there something different that you can be sending them, perhaps an extra special lift, a handwritten comps slip or a personalised donation form? These little personal touches and special treatment can go a long way…”
– Jasmine, Strategy Advisor
“Make sure you have a cohesive journey no matter how your donors find you. For example, the landing page should make sense to cold audiences who click through on a social post or ad, but you also have warm audiences to consider. This might mean having the same imagery or case study featured across touch points, having a cohesive value proposition. You could even test dynamic content to make a landing page even more relevant to warmer audiences.”
– Nicole, Digital Campaign Specialist
“Don’t let your powerful message and creative fall on deaf ears. Make sure you’re mailing (or emailing) the right people with the right ask at the right time. Audience selection is key – especially with direct mail. And if you aren’t sure how to segment your donor database, please reach out and ask – we owe it to our donors and beneficiaries to make our fundraising as effective as possible.”
– Margaux, Account Director
“Personalisation is key. Fundraising letters should feel personal – even if they’re from someone the donor has never met. Thoughtful variables can be the difference between a letter that speaks to a donor as an individual, and one that says, ‘I don’t know you…but I’ll ask anyway.”
– Laura, Senior Copywriter
“Be organised! This is a key factor to a smooth appeal. Ensure you have thought about the topic holistically, with content that is available to you and that your supporters will resonate with – this includes case studies that demonstrate the need, dollar handles for tangible responses and program or research information to show solution and impact, and consider how this all chunks up to your organisation’s value proposition. Have past results and key learnings front of mind so you can be sure you are responding to and building upon what has resonated with your supporters in the past.”
– Amy Story, Group Account Director
“Create & tailor communications that are relative to your audience, not your organisation. Communications targeted at potential supporters should first and foremost articulate the proposition and create an emotional connection with the audience.”
– Leanne, Design Director
“Pursue a creative framework that speaks to the identity and values of your audience. If you can make them feel personally aligned, and evoke their affinity with you and your beneficiaries, it will go a long way to them prioritising your ask, over an organisation who treats them as a wallet with an address.”
– Clayton Thomas, Creative Director
