Utilising the strength of mail to engage your audience

Find the connections

Our advantages

People want to TALK about our brand and SHARE their experiences

The nature of our business means we get media exposure – we work very hard for it but the reward is high

Accessible TALENT available to lend faces and names to our campaigns

Our risks

People want to TALK about our brand and SHARE their experiences

Football gets a bit of FREE media, sometimes not in a good way

Accessible TALENT available to lend faces and names to our campaigns

Engaging in Retention

Knowing your audience

It’s not just about formal research…• Spend time with your front line staff • It’s not just about what’s generating traffic but what’s causing confusion or issues

Utilise anecdotal evidence – don’t dismiss it as the vocal minority• Blogs• Social Media• Talk to your customers directly

Analyse your data• Results of former campaigns• Demographics• Purchase history and engagement history – not just what they bought but when• Response by channel

Engagement = Retention

Be smart about how you use your data and about which campaigns you need to use mail for

Information about match days needs to be immediate so email / social media works

Rewarding loyalty has a higher perceived value if that reward is physical so we use mail

If something has gone wrong – dependent on volume that’s personal so we’ll call

Where we see mails strengths

It’s visualIt’s personalisedIt’s personalIt’s reaches people in their timeIt can help tell your storyIt’s relatively cost effective even though it expensive in the context of other direct channels

Leveraging your story to drive sales

Your story and who it’s told by is relevant to your customers

Utilise talent to increase the cut through with your message

Direct channels working together

Channel vs investment vs responseCertain demographics and certain products in our range react better to some channels than others but most of our campaigns at minimum use three direct channels

We find EDM and DM work really well together to achieve results particularly for products that have a strong online purchase history

Small budgets, big results

Tips:

Test it out – don’t over invest on a massive campaign if you’re not sure, try a segment or create a modified pack to litmus test the channel.

Use mail houses that match the execution, it’ll save you $$

A Case Study

Case Study: Improving retention through communication

In the 2009 Season we saw a significant churn in our membership base well above industry averageOur aim in 2010 was two fold: 1. reduce the churn to industry average or below (representing at least a 7% reduction) 2. WINBACK 10% of our churn from the year before

Step 1: Mea Culpa In analysing the campaign of 2009 and the reaction of our members we looked closely at areas of improvement. Our first step was to put our hand up and say we’re sorry, we’ll do better next time.

Step 2: EngagementNot only did we ask our members where they wanted to see improvement we let them know where we were at on the journey and we were transparent

Case Study: Improving retention through communication

Step 3:Reviewed our research and the members’ feedbackWhat we found is most of the issues came directly as a result of not communicating or not communicating well.

Step 4: Changed our product range to make jumping back on board more appealing and create a step in the range to reduce churn

Step 5:ExecutionHired more staffInstalled an improved phone system

We executed the campaign the “old fashioned way” in three segments:• RENEWALS• LAPSED• WIN BACK

and EVERYONE we targeted received a mail piece. We complemented the campaign with everything else too including:• SMS• email• social media• outbound phone sales

Case Study: Improving retention through communication

The results

10% reduction in churn YOY

800% ROI on the acquisition and win back elements of the campaign

We won back 10% of lapsed members from the year before

Reversed a 5 year downward trend in member numbers

Questions?

Presented by: Natalie FaggTwitter: @natfagg | @sydneyswans | @swanssupportLinkedIn: http://au.linkedin.com/in/nataliefagg