Birmingham City Football Club, who recently won promotion to the Barclay’s Premier League, has expanded their e-marketing and enhanced relationship marketing strategies with the help of Communicator Corp (www.communicatorcorp.com); who already manage their email communication. By integrating Communicator® enterprise email management technology with their existing CRM system, Birmingham City FC delivers an online platform that represents the voice of the club which delivers greater online accessibility and engagement with their fans.
The combined systems communicate targeted messages and newsletters to fans and then guide them to the club’s online portals for information, offers, merchandise and ticket sales. Email communications use rich content such as videos and interviews embedded into the emails enabling users to click through and visit www.bcfc.com, the Birmingham City FC site. This new approach has seen click through rates rise by a factor of 4.
Amongst the wide range of email content for fans to enjoy are, updates from managers and players, opinion pieces and exclusive video footage, including celebrations from the last day of the season at the Madejski stadium. As the club’s emphasis is based heavily on fan interaction, there are also frequent fan surveys such as goal or player of the month, polls to decide the opening music to matches and a chance to input on club direction. Fans are also thanked, by email, for attending particular games; with the added benefit of exclusive post match content. This two way communication allows the club to build strong individual relationships with fans.
Next season will see the introduction of the new platform which will provide the club with considerable behavioural data on different types of fans allowing emails to be segmented, modelled and tailored to the differing needs of each group. By this means, emails can be specifically targeted to season ticket holders, away supporters or corporate sponsors for example. Full preference management empowers fans to control and define the online relationship they have with the club including what kind of messages they wish to receive and how often they receive them.
Karen Brady, Managing Director of Birmingham City Football Club believes that the combined email strategy is a real result for the fans noting, “Communicating with the fans is always at the forefront of our minds and over the last season we are doing this more effectively and efficiently through Communicator Corp. We look forward to working with Communicator Corp during the Premier League season and being even more innovative with our communications to our fans through email marketing.”
Chris Wilds, Managing Director of Communicator Corp welcomed Karen’s comments adding. “Birmingham City Football Club has got it right on the pitch and off the pitch with their emarketing techniques to communicate to fans. We look forward to working more closely with them on communicating and giving the fans even more in the Premier League.”
