This campaign is specifically for use by clubs on 1st of the month billing cycle.
Every year we face the same old pre-Christmas lull. Everyone is bracing themselves for overspending, overindulgence, and overstressing. They can’t even begin to think about shoe-horning another activity into their already busy schedule, or parting with any more money.
So, the question is, how can your club make sales at this time of year?
We recommend offering free membership until 2016. Here’s why it works…
- On a very basic level, you’re offering a good deal. Not only that, by choosing your wording carefully, Free membership until 2016 rather than Get the rest of the year free, you create the impression of a long standing, high value offer. (Even though the time scale is actually the same, 2016 sounds further away than the end of the year).
- It makes people feel organised. At a time when everyone’s brains are increasingly intoxicated by sleigh bells ringing and snowflakes glistening, family politics and last minute gifts, what if you made them feel one step ahead? Because, let’s face it, the first resolutions in January will be 1. Eat better and 2. Exercise more.
- You don’t actually lose any revenue. By offering the end of the year free, you in fact defer the beginning of the paid 12 month membership until January. Therefore, your overall revenue generated by this member remains the same.
Promoting the offer
There are several ways you can do this through ClubWise, we’d recommend using the full mix to generate the best results.
- Call your current hot prospects. Still the most effective way of conveying a message. Simply run the report called Hot Prospects (default type) and use this information to find their record and call them. Don’t forget to leave a note on the record to say you have introduced them to the offer and set a follow-up date.
- Send an email campaign. Email campaigns allow you to use images to visually appeal to prospects. It also provides the opportunity to contact someone through a less intrusive method, so if they seem unresponsive to a call, this still provides all the information they need. We’ve created some templates for you in campaign manager to get you started called End of year offer 1, End of year offer 2 and End of year offer 3. These are fully editable to accommodate your logo, and for you to replace whichever images, text and links you see fit. Learn more
- Send an SMS campaign. Whilst people can often miss an email, very rarely do they miss a text message. Whilst SMS has a cost associated, it is often worth the spend to know that your message has a 98% chance of being read*.
- Update your digital assets. Think about what action your prospect is likely to take after receiving a call, email or SMS message… It’s most likely to be your website and your social media. Make sure that the offer is visible and accessible on both these platforms and that the phrasing is almost identical to that used in the email/SMS, creating a familiar point of reference. It’s also worth ensuring you have some eye catching images. Images are particularly powerful on social media, with tweets getting 35% more retweets when containing an image,** while photos on facebook receive 53% more likes and 104% more comments than the average post***.
- Tie in your outreach. By tying in your outreach, you create a 360 degree marketing campaign with all bases covered. Ensure your outreach is as effective as possible by using the ClubWise demographic tool. This enables you to understand your current membership and prospect base, informing you who your typical customer is. This enables you to take that demographic information and find out where these type of people primarily live, and target these areas accordingly. This could be in person, for example, outreaching with flyers at a supermarket near that area. Alternatively, a full postcode list can be generated and used for leaflet drops.
Setting up in ClubWise
Creating an online promo code:
Step 1:
In your ClubWise system, go to Back > Set up
Step 2:
Under the Members and Prospects tab, you’ll see the Promotion management Select this.
Step 3:
Select the +New button at the top to create a new promotion
Step 4:
Name your promotion and create a suitable promo code with 10 characters or less, for example FREETIL16, and then save.
Step 5:
Find your new promo code in the list of promotions and make sure that the Online Include and Force Online options are ticked. This means that the promo code will work online, and the new price will be forced to show when the code is entered.
Step 6:
Now, select the promotion again by clicking on the text.
Step 7:
Set the start and end dates in the General tab, then select save.
Step 8:
Select the promotion again, go to the Special tab and, if your code only applies to a specific company or source, select the applicable ones from the list.
Step 9:
You also need to determine the discount to apply. To create the recommended promotion (free membership until 2016) you need to…
Step 10:
You then need to apply your discount to the correct products and sale types. Go to the Products tab and under the Product drop-down list, select the right product. For example, a DD Full membership, DD corporate membership.
Step 11:
Then select the correct sale type. In this instance, we’ll assume that you only want to apply the offer to new members, not renewing members. In which case, select New (Joining). Then save.
Step 12:
Your promo code is now live!
We recommend that this promotion is set up AFTER cut off this month, which is Wednesday 25th November to ensure your promotions work effectively and that the right pro-rata is deducted.
Signing new members up in-club:
Now that you’ve set up a promo code, this can be used at the point of sale in-club too. The advantage of creating a membership in-club is that further modifications can be made to the offer, for example, online joiners may pay a joining fee (but no membership) but this can be waivered in-club if needs be.
If you’re looking to create an end of year campaign for your club, and would like some assistance with setting up in ClubWise, please do not hesitate to contact the friendly support team on 01844 348300 or email clubsupport@clubwise.com
**Source: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/visual-content-marketing-strategy
***Source:http://www.ragan.com/Main/Articles/Infographic_Photo_posts_get_120_more_engagement_on_46290.aspx