The Client
The Canadian Tax Foundation (CTF) provides a unique forum for lawyers, accountants, academics and other tax professionals to work together to better the Canadian tax system and the overall tax profession.
Major Deliverables
Digital Marketing Campaign, Online Event Marketing
The Challenge
Let’s face it, the subject of tax can be a little dry. But to the 13,000+ members of the Canadian Tax Foundation, tax is their lifeblood. Since 1945, the CTF has become the voice of the Canadian tax community. The foundation has a faithful and passionate audience that values the wealth of material provided to them through their membership. But some members didn’t know or had simply forgotten about the resources available right at their fingertips.
Forward Level Marketing’s main goal was to make people excited about tax and the CTF. We wanted to remind members of the available benefits and promote these same benefits to tax professionals looking to join. To borrow the classic slogan from American Express, we wanted to reinforce the message that “membership has its privileges.”
The need for improved membership engagement also extended to the CTF’s conference schedule. There was a pressing need to upgrade the user experience for their four regional events and the annual national conference that brings out the ‘who’s who’ of the tax world. Their marketing materials (signage, conference materials) had not changed since the 90s. We needed to rethink the conference experience and bring the CTF into the digital age.
The Strategy
First impressions are crucial. Our approach to the conference experience was to create a focused online event marketing push, make the brand more visually engaging, prove to members that the CTF was evolving, and provide presentation templates to maintain consistent branding.
Through email and social media campaigns, we were able to remind members they had access to valuable resources including TaxFind (a voluminous database of tax scholarship) and the Research Centre, Canada’s premier library of current and historical materials on taxation, public finance, and fiscal policy.
Regardless of whether you are a firm of one or one thousand, members can get quick access to thousands of tax documents and blogs and get immediate assistance from a CTF librarian.
The Results
Our building of digital assets would ultimately help the CTF successfully pivot to online conferences during the pandemic. The 2020 event schedule allowed more members to attend and provided them with an opportunity to connect with one another using social network platforms. Despite the lack of in-person events, the CTF was very pleased their four regional conferences brought more than 3000+ attendees. Forward Level Marketing’s ongoing event marketing campaign reinforces the value of CTF resources and their delivery of an excellent membership experience.