New marketing materials launched to help raise council tax collection rates

A range of new marketing materials, aimed to help local authorities increase their Direct Debit council tax payments, has been launched by Bacs Payment Schemes Limited (Bacs), the not for profit organisation responsible for managing Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit in the UK.

In an attempt to help improve council tax collection rates, which have witnessed a decline for the first time in 12 years (1), the suite of marketing materials, unveiled at this year’s Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation (IRRV) annual conference, will support local authorities in the delivery of more targeted and tailored Direct Debit communications.

Bacs research suggests that 74% of the UK adult population have a positive attitude to Direct Debit, but that 22% of these people are ‘selective’, i.e. positive about Direct Debit but selective about which bills they pay this way.  

The new Bacs marketing materials focus on enhancing Direct Debit council tax communications with this ‘selectives’ market and range from bill stuffers, leaflets and cash office display items to web imagery and press, online, radio and bus advertisements.

All materials come with a choice of: ‘ease’, ‘time saving and hassle free’ and ‘no worries’ benefits messages, considered as specific motivations for ‘selectives’ to use Direct Debit as a payment method.  This approach aims to enable local authorities to assess and utilise messages that are most motivating to their particular audience, according to the customers’ experiences and the local authority’s marketing objectives.

Talking about the new integrated marketing support offered by Bacs, managing director Michael Chambers said: “Despite the challenges presented by current economic times, Direct Debit is still widely accepted as the most efficient method of collecting council tax payments. 

“Our aim is to support local authorities in the planning and delivery of targeted and tailored Direct Debit promotional activity, which will enable them to reap cost savings and revenue efficiency benefits.

“The new range of marketing materials have been developed on the back of our own research with the ‘selective’ audience specifically in mind.   By acknowledging that people respond in different ways to different marketing tools with different messages, local authorities will be able to utilise our materials and target consumers with greater success. 

“We will also encourage and support all local authorities using the materials to carry out market testing and evaluation activities.  This will enable them to asses what has and hasn’t worked and the results of which can be used to refine Direct Debit messaging and make marketing activities even stronger in the future”. 

For more information on the new marketing materials from Bacs please contact Dawneth Perry, Event and Communications Manager on 07980 797 356 or via e-mail: d.perry@bacsservices.co.uk .


(1) Figures from the Communities and Local Government department show authorities in England collected £20.9bn in council taxes by the end of March 2009 out of a total of £21.6bn collectable with a national average collection rate for council tax in England of 97.0% in 2008-9, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points over 2007-8.