Birmingham City FC extends e-marketing strategy

A Communicator Corp product story

Edited by the Marketingweek Marketplace editorial team Jun 17, 2009

Communicator Corp has helped Birmingham City Football Club's e-marketing and enhanced relationship marketing strategies.

By integrating Communicator enterprise e-mail management technology with its existing customer relationship management (CRM) system, Birmingham City FC delivers an online platform that represents the voice of the club, delivering greater online accessibility and engagement with 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.

E-mail communications use rich content such as embedded videos and interviews, enabling users to click through and visit the Birmingham City FC website.

The company said this approach has seen click-through rates rise by a factor of four.

E-mail content includes: 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 e-mail, 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 e-mails to be segmented, modelled and tailored to the differing needs of each group.

By this means, e-mails 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.