This blog article is dedicated to anyone who’s ever found themselves neck-deep in their revision of version 17, desperately wondering where the light at the end of the tunnel went…
All fundraisers have been there at some point. The never-ending revisions. Those tricky appeals that just refuse to die. But the danger is that once you hit version 17, you’ll have entirely forgotten where you started in the first place. And no. This is (sadly) not an exaggeration. In fact, it happens so frequently that most fundraising agencies will charge you an extra fee after two or three rounds of revisions. Because after you’re sucked into an endless feedback vortex, there’s genuinely no telling where you’ll land.
Honestly? We get it.
Putting things in print can be scary. After all, you can’t put the toothpaste back in the proverbial tube! Once your letter is mailed, it’s final. So it’s natural that you want to make sure that your copy is as near to perfect as possible. But when your feedback isn’t also as effective as possible, then chances are you’ll never come close.
Accounting for feedback is one of the bugbears of copywriters everywhere. And it’s not because we’re all over-sensitive creatives who can’t handle the criticism. At Creagivity, we’d always rather you tell us when you aren’t satisfied with our copy so we can work on solving the problem. But if the feedback we receive is simply not actionable, then that’s another problem entirely.
Imagine that someone has hired you to prepare a meal for them. You do your research and find out that they love curry, so that’s what you suggest. They give you the go ahead and mention they usually prefer white meat. You ask them if they like seafood (yes). If they have any other dietary requirements (no). So you settle on a nourishing green fish curry – zesty lime, fragrant herbs, bold spices, and flaky morsels of fish. (The author acknowledges she really should have eaten before sitting down to write this article.)
When you serve it to them, they take a bite and then tell you, “I don’t like how it tastes. It’s not really what I expected.”
Armed with this feedback you rush back to the kitchen and… do what exactly?
Is it too spicy? Too sweet? Too salty? Were they expecting an Indian curry instead of a Thai one? Maybe it’s just that they don’t like the type of fish you used. Or the consistency. Or the veggies you’ve thrown in.
Sure, this example is a little heavy handed (not unlike your liberal use of garlic in the curry paste, which is where it all went wrong by the way) but you get the picture. There is no guarantee your next attempt will be any better without specific feedback that you can action. So without any further ado, here some of our top tips for ensuring that your feedback is actionable!
Tip 1: Don’t give abstract feedback
Most people know that it isn’t enough to tell their copywriters, “I don’t like this copy”. They understand they need to qualify why they don’t like it, too. But this, unfortunately, is where the wheels come off. Because all too frequently, the qualifying information offered is still very, very abstract.
Need some examples?
“This needs to be in the CEO’s voice.”
This feedback seems clear and direct, but if you haven’t given us examples of what that voice sounds like, then it’s not actionable. Sure, we could research and hunt for samples online ourselves, but if they aren’t the gold standard, there’s a chance we’ll still get it wrong.
“We can’t say this due to child safety.”
Sure, the general problem is easy to understand… but is the feedback itself actionable? Only in part. Although you’ve told us what we can’t say, you haven’t expanded on why we can’t say it. Or what we should say instead. And without knowing the specifics of the problem, there’s no way to make sure we avoid repeating it in our edit. That means the only course of action we are left with is to write around it or to delete this part of the story entirely.
Now, it could be that this is the right approach. However, without that missing information, we can’t guarantee that these changes are your best option. Maybe we’re really throwing the baby out with the bathwater and we’ll never know. Revisiting our meal analogy, what if you were to toss that curry in the bin and start over because your client said they couldn’t eat it… only to discover it had nothing to do with the flavour or recipe choice. You just hadn’t given them a knife and fork.
“The emotional style is a little too much, we’ll need to tone it down.”
Are you beginning to get the picture? As with the example above, you’ll need to offer more specifics to ensure your feedback is truly actionable. Single out the phrases or words that are bothering you and (if you can) explain why. Or provide another example of heartfelt fundraising copy that sits more comfortably with you. Again, see if you can put into words why that might be.
Explaining your feedback with specific information and or illustrating it with examples can save you and your fundraising copywriters lot of time in the long run.
Tip 2: Help your appeal approvers to provide actionable feedback too
Yes, we hear you. Your feedback game is already strong. You are the reigning and undisputed world champion of feedback. You care about your copywriters so much that those you’ve worked with still speak your name in reverent, hushed tones… but what about your charity’s other approvers?
The best fundraisers we’ve worked with are the ones who nail the role of interpreter in the foreign land of fundraising. They prepare the approvers for the initial culture shock, taking time to explain the local customs of emotional storytelling, bold formatting, ellipses, and seemingly near-obsessive use of the word ‘you’.
Then they explain what’s expected of the approvers during their visit to fundraising land. That it’s best if they don’t suggest changing those local customs, simply because they don’t like them or understand them. They make it clear that the focus of their review is fact checking, rather than style or tone.
Finally, they interpret visitor feedback for the natives of fundraising land where comments are unclear. This could mean following up and asking for further clarification to include in the comment before sending. Or where they understand the problem, providing specific information that helps to explain it or linking to illustrative examples.
Tip 3: Consolidate feedback (please… we beg of you! Have mercy!)
Even when your feedback itself is actionable, it’s possible that your method of delivery is undoing all your good work.
We’ve seen it all. Feedback and comments spread across five different versions of the same draft document. Staggered delivery, resulting in feedback on an earlier version arriving after the edit is complete. Feedback which conflicts with someone else’s feedback in the same document.
So as you review comments from your other approvers, resolving contradictions and providing clarity as you do, it’s also worth organising it in a way that makes it easy for your fundraising copywriter to action. They’ll love you forever if you do!
Tip 4: Keep track of resolved comments and sources on your end
In busy seasons like tax and Christmas, the days have an uncanny way of merging into a single amorphous blob. So if you mark a comment as resolved… we’re going to take your word for it!
One recurring issue this has caused lately concerns referencing. If our writers include a statistic in your letter, then they’ll usually cite its source in a comment.
Why not a footnote, you ask? Good question. Many times relevant stats come from your peer organisations and we’d rather leave them out of your appeal for obvious reasons. So we include source citation as comments only, allowing you to fact check the information. This also helps mitigate the risk of a footnote being accidentally or mistakenly carried over to your letter design.
However, we’ve lost count of the number of times a client has asked us the source of a statistic – which was included in a comment that has been resolved or deleted in an earlier version of the copy. And yeah… remember that amorphous blob? We usually don’t remember.
After losing hours of her life to poring through lengthy reports and early research on the hunt for statistics used in appeals (that were often supplied by the client), June now reminds herself that earlier versions of appeals usually have sources for stats.
Tip 5: Don’t sweat the small stuff
Here’s one thing that no copywriter in the history of fundraising has ever said: “Gee. I wish this document had more comments!”
More than once, we’ve had copy returned to us with “minor changes” that literally turned out to be a missing full stop and a comma. That’s it. Nothing else. Honestly, that doesn’t need to come back to us. If you spot a typo, a punctuation error, or a missing word in the body of your letter, you can just change it. Trust us. There is not a fundraising copywriter in the world who is going to think you’ve gone rogue because you added an oxford comma to make it super clear that little Jilly isn’t really saying that she loves cooking her pets and her family. It’s just that she’s listing three separate things she loves: cooking, her pets, and her family.
Nor will we ever get upset that we were not the ones to insert that missing full stop on page three, somewhere in the middle of paragraph seven. But there is a caveat. Your headline is off limits. There will always be missing full stops here – and that’s intentional – because full stops in headlines and subheads reduce response.
Other watch outs include your PS, dollar handles, response device, and the formatting of your letter. It’s definitely worth checking in with your fundraising copywriter or agency if you’re thinking about making changes to any of these. Otherwise you really would be going rogue.
Tip 6: Make it timely
For anyone who is part of your approvals process, try to be realistic in your estimation of how long it will take for them to get their feedback to you… then add an extra day or two on top of that in your schedule! Have your approvers block out time for reviewing copy in their work calendar. And please, please, check when your approvers are going on leave. There are few things more frustrating than busting a gut to meet a tight deadline only to have feedback held up because a key person who needs to approve is away for three weeks.
And remember that any delays in getting started only put more pressure on your timeline for approval.
These six tips might seem a little simplistic. You might even wonder whether they’re even necessary when confusion is easy to resolve with an email or two. This might be true, but that back and forth can also add days – sometimes weeks – to the process. And when all is said and done, your feedback is only actionable if we have time to make the changes. With these six tips, that’s exactly what you’ll give us!
If you started reading this article hoping to learn ways to provide actionable feedback on more significant issues with your pack (for instance messaging, strategy, or story) we’re sorry to tell you there is no simple fix. Especially not at the time of feedback. These sorts of challenges really begin much earlier than you might think – a clear sign that something has gone wrong with your briefing. But the good news is, Creagivity has a tip sheet to help you with that too. Download it here.
Keen to engage Creagivity to work on your next appeal (not to mention put those shiny new feedback skills to good use)? Get in touch to book an obligation-free meet and greet with our fearless leader, June, at a time of your choosing!
