A presentation Outlining Direct Marketing "best practices" in the leisure and retail sector. Also including an Overview of CFL Mar

1. 2011 THE DETAIL, ARTWORK AND INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION REMAIN THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF CFL UNAUTHORISED COPYING OR REPRODUCTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, WILL RESULT IN PROSECUTION CFL MARKETING Direct Marketing Best Practice

2. Contents Strategy Best Practice – Data Data Collection Method Best Practice – SMS Best Practice – Email Best Practice – DM Hierarchy of Messaging

3. Strategy Data Design Offer If any of the sides of this square are missing or ineffective, the activity will fail Timing Success

4. Strategy Data Does the activity profile match your customer base? What age are you targeting? Where do they live? Male/female even split? Areas to avoid? Birthday or general data If business data – what’s the profile? Design Have you picked the right media – Email/SMS/DM Have you picked the right format – postcard/letter? Will the design appeal to your profile? Is the artwork impactful enough? Can you see what the key message/offer is Can you tell where the communication has come from? Keep it simple! Offer Is your offer a strong enough incentive to stimulate action? Is it easy to redeem the offer? Is it relevant to your mailing profile? Can I get a better offer elsewhere - even in the unit? Are you recording who redeems the offer? Timing What kind of promo is it - birthdays take less time to arrange than hen/stag Send it too early and people will forget about it. Send it too late people will have arranged something else Seasonal promo’s need to be timed - no point sending Easter offers in December

5. Strategy Direct Mail - Seasonal promo’s & birthdays Email - Newsletter, monthly SMS - tactical offers, weekly (where appropriate) Strategic Tactical Frequency

6. Best Practice - Data Your data is the foundation upon which any activity will be based so, the building of an effective database of warm records should be priority number 1 If you data is not up to scratch your activity will fail – FACT Data collection can be tough, but an effective database will always be the easiest way to drive business through your door Data collection is an ongoing process, you will always get people who become inactive – either by moving away or unsubscribing – they will need to be replaced by new customers

7. Best Practice - Data People are now much more aware of the value of their data than they used to be It is very rare for someone to hand over their details without receiving something in return Thus all data collection initiatives should be incentivised Ideally whenever we are giving something to the customer in the form of an offer we should be asking for their details in return E.g. in newspaper ads – cut out and bring with you etc... On all printed promotional material, leaflets, postcards etc

8. Best Practice - Data Ideally you want to be collecting as much information as possible on your customers If you ask for everything (name, address, DOB, email, phone) people can fill in the parts they want and leave those they don’t Don’t fall into the trap of just collecting email & phone on the assumption people won’t complete the rest See over for eg data capture form

9. Voucher Insert Data Capture

10. Data Collection Methods Feedback forms – are an ideal way of collecting data, but they MUST be incentivised to maximise the response Biz card fishbowl – great way of collecting business data. Place an empty fishbowl on the bar, ‘put your biz card in here to enter our monthly draw’ and give away a monthly prize – make it a decent prize and word will soon get round! Newspaper ads – piggyback any press ads with a data form to turn an awareness mechanic into a response mechanic Privilege/Locals cards – sign up for a card and get cardholder only deals

11. Best Practice - SMS SMS is a enables you to contact your customers immediately, and is a great way to get tactical offers out quickly The older generation can find SMS quite invasive, so it needs to be used appropriately Ideal for a younger, town centre, wet-led business to get offers into the hands of their customers as and when they want e.g. On a Friday at 6pm just as people are getting home from work and are deciding to go out – ‘Don’t forget it’s Karaoke night at the Crown, 4 pint pitchers only £10, show this text before 8pm and get a free shot’

12. Best Practice - SMS SMS is virtually immediate so it can also be used as a competitor defence mechanic If the venue next door has a good offer they’ve just started to promote you can counter almost immediately with an offer of your own to you customers In terms of timing, SMS works best if you time the message to be delivered as close to the point of decision making as possible e.g. to drive business for the weekend, ideal time would be Thursday or Friday afternoon

13. Best Practice - Email Email is the most cost effective way to communicate with your customers on a regular basis A monthly newsletter should be enough to keep your customers up to date with what’s on and also give you an opportunity to drive any offers you have on Don’t fall into the trap of bombarding people with emails every day/week as they are relatively cheap, people will just get bored and unsubscribe Get a good HTML template put together with a balance of offers and information, and deliver it at the same time every month This is important as you are trying to condition people into expecting your newsletter

14. Best Practice - Email A good subject line is critical – Don’t just say ‘August Newsletter’ tell people what is in it e.g. ‘This Sept at the Crown – Quiz night every Wed and we’ve got the Big Fight Live on the 12 th ’ People will make the decision to open the newsletter based on the subject so your best content should be highlighted here You need to be aware that some words are flagged and will increase your SPAM score if inserted into the subject, the word FREE being the most obvious offender – CFL can advise on this

15. Best Practice - Email In terms of timing the delivery there are a few things to remember A high proportion of people read their emails at work, even if it’s in their lunch break, so sending in work hours will get a better response Avoid Monday mornings and Friday afternoons as people are still either warming up or warming down The advent of smartphones means that more and more people are able to read email on the move, so timing is not as critical as it used to be, but you will increase your response by following the above

16. Best practice - DM Obviously you have to factor in the extra cost of the postage, so DM is too expensive for your day to day communication However, DM is still the best contact method where you either need to make a good impression or when it is a special occasion When it comes to birthdays or Xmas an email will never generate the same impact as a fully personalised printed card DM is also still the best contact method for business communication

17. Best practice - DM With DM, as the communication is a physical card it is much more tactile, therefore the critical elements here are design & format In order for the design to be impactful, we need to get the hierarchy or messaging right (see slide 15)

18. Hierarchy of Messaging What are the key messages you want to communicate? These then need to be prioritised What is vital to success? What can be sacrificed to ensure the best communication? Less is very often more!

19. Hierarchy of Messaging 1: Who’s it from 2: What’s the offer 3: What’s the sub offer 4: Response mechanic 5: Support copy You have a very short length of time to get from message 1 to 4 before the decision is made to respond (or not) to the mailing Window of opportunity

20. About Us Having been around since 1984, there isn't much we don't know about direct marketing and to the leisure industry in particular. We've seen the industry go through some major changes in our time. CFL have provided unique, effective and relevant direct marketing solutions to our customers, using a product portfolio covering all aspects of direct marketing - from Direct Mail to Digital Marketing. We have developed an extensive client portfolio by adapting our marketing solutions for industries as varied as Recruitment Consultants, Charities and Retail Chains - consistently providing outstanding response. Possessing that rare combination of operational experience, marketing flair and industry knowledge, our dedicated client services team will custom build a solution to fit any given brief or requirement.

21. Clients - Pub/bar Chains

22. Clients - Nightclubs

23. Clients - Independent Venues

24. Clients - Leisure

25. Clients - Enterprise Brands

26. Clients - SME’s/Charities

27. Web: www.cflmarketing.co.uk Email: sales@cflmarketing.co.uk Phone: +0044 (0)1225 705582 Contact Us