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Giving Back E-Tips

Volume 1, Issue 21 — June 9, 2009
- Preventing Writer’s Block
- Optimize Your E-Appeals with a Creative Brief
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Optimize Your E-Appeals with a Creative Brief

Back in the day, when I started out in advertising, we were given generic creative briefs to help guide our efforts. But over the years, I’ve found that the real secret to success is to create a creative brief that is specific to your industry — and the communications medium you are working with.

Right now, I’m developing an email creative brief for the fundraising industry — and am in the middle of “beta testing” it with my clients. While I work out the kinks, here's a basic guide for creating a creative brief for your own organization.

To generate optimum revenues and results, these types of questions should be answered in your creative brief:

Whose name will appear in the “from line” of the email? Is this an easily recognizable name? Most often, the from line will feature whoever signs the email — such as your organization’s president. But ask yourself if a celebrity from line would help increase the open rate — and donations.
What subject line will get the reader to open the email right away? Are there “hot button” words that readers tend to respond to? Is there a deadline for action?
When is the email being broadcast? Does the broadcast date coincide with any major holiday or a day when people might be less likely to read or give — such as April 15, tax day in the United States?
Who is receiving the email? Your members? Your leadership circle? Online activists? Donors or non-donors? Will there be versioning?
Will the email be HTML or Text? If it is HTML, find out what graphic assets you will have at your disposal, such as banner treatments, photos, etc.

For fundraising emails …

Determine the amount of money you want to raise — and whether you want to mention the fundraising goal in your email. Also, can you tell the reader specifically what you will be doing with their money: running an ad, funding a court case, etc?
Is there a matching grant? And if so, what’s the deadline?
Are the donation pages in place on your website? How about the thank you screen and thank you email? Do these need to be updated?
Will there be follow-up emails? If so, what is your follow-up strategy and creative approach?

For advocacy emails …

What’s your desired action? Is there a petition in place on a landing page?
What’s the deadline? Are there any time constraints or black-out dates associated with the action — such as congressional recesses or federal holidays?
Are thank you screens and emails in place? Will there be a “donate” link in the thank you — since donation response rates tend to be high for thank you note recipients? Do your donation pages and donation thank you emails need to be updated?
Do you want action-takers to tell their friends? How will that work? It can be as simple as asking recipients to forward a text version to their email circle. Or you can set up a dedicated “Tell a Friend” page. Or you can offer social network “sharing” functionality.

For email renewal reminders …

What postal renewal effort does the reminder coincide with? What copy from the postal version do you want to reiterate? What email-specific copy can you add to make the reminder actionable? An example would be: “Click to renew now and you will be immediately reinstated as a Member.”
Is your renewal donation page active? Does it need updating?
Is there a monthly sustainer option available?

For informational emails …

What’s the news?
What do you want your recipients to do after they read it? Can they donate? Take action? (If readers really care about your news, it is likely they will want to do something about it.)

Once you have answered all the above questions, be sure you have all the reference information you need, including:

Previous emails on the same subject: Be sure to note open rates, clickthrough rates, and revenue/actions generated.
Direct mail and other communications written on the same subject: Note response rates and revenue generated.
Winning email and direct response efforts on different subjects: Give your writer successful approaches to emulate.
Recent news on the subject: Provide links to news reports and relevant blogs.
Competitive emails or direct mail on the subject: Provide samples.
Multichannel efforts: What other communications will the reader be receiving from you on the same subject at the same time as the email? Should a direct mail package be referenced in an email — or not? Do you need a new website splash page to reflect your new email campaign?

Another helpful section in your email creative brief would be an area that outlines “what tends to work for us in email — and what doesn’t.” As we’ve discussed before, some organizations have found that slideshows work better than online videos. Some organizations have found that an urgent tone ramps up revenues — while others find that their members don’t respond well to urgency. Letting your creative team know what works with your audience will help them succeed on your behalf.

Finally, some other really good need-to-know information to include in your brief is a list of people reviewing the copy — their preferences, how to reach them, and whether they have any blackout times when they can’t review copy (you don’t want to miss an important deadline due to a reviewer being unable to approve your messages).

When the beta testing phase is complete, you'll be able to purchase our creative brief template for $15. Contact Karen at 718-680-1627 or at kg@karengedney.com to get on the waiting list. Or if you prefer, send Karen a sample of your current fundraising email creative brief, and we'll send you our template when it’s ready — on a complimentary basis.