1. Utilising the strength of mail to engage your audience

2. Find the connections

3. 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

4. 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

5. Engaging in Retention

6. 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

7. 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

8. Where we see mails strengths It’s visual It’s personalised It’s personal It’s reaches people in their time It can help tell your story It’s relatively cost effective even though it expensive in the context of other direct channels

9. 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

10. Direct channels working together Channel vs investment vs response Certain 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

11. 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 $$

12. A Case Study

13. Case Study: Improving retention through communication In the 2009 Season we saw a significant churn in our membership base well above industry average Our 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:  Engagement Not 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

14. Case Study: Improving retention through communication Step 3: Reviewed our research and the members’ feedback What 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

15. Step 5:   Execution Hired more staff Installed 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

16. 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

17. Questions? Presented by: Natalie Fagg Twitter: @natfagg | @sydneyswans | @swanssupport LinkedIn: http://au.linkedin.com/in/nataliefagg