After the last home game, I received an email from the club asking why I had not attended, even though I did so and wrote a Minority Report of the game. I saw from contributions on here that I was not alone. I have now received another email asking me whether I plan to attend on Saturday. I shall be in my seat as usual, all being well. Marketing is fine, provided it is based upon accurate information. If it is not, it is just irritating. The club has clearly decided that the way to improve home attendances is by nagging fans to turn up. It implies that the good people of Barnsley do not have a mind of their own and cannot work out whether they wish to attend or not. It implies that their habits can be changed at the casual whim of some clever marketing company through targeting and asking the right questions. It implies that there are reasons for not attending football matches that are not to do with the entertainment offered and the win/loss record. Marketing in football is a waste of money and resources.
Yes - I've had similar. It seems that the club's systems don't differentiate out season ticket holders. Marketing is all very well if you've something to market. For season ticket holders who will already be in attendance, they haven't. So I'm afraid these emails go on the pile with those exhorting me to play online casino/bingo games (which I don't), pursue old PPI payments (which I haven't had) or increase my prowess in other areas (about which the less said the better!)
Yep. These marketing departments of clubs who make millions in the Far East. Waste of money. I think you are overreacting to a misinformed e-mail. Nothing more.
Massively wrong imo. It implies nothing of the sort and your OP reinforces the Barnsley stereotype of "I've made my mind up don't bother wasting your breath" mentality. The club do plenty of things it could do better, they also get plenty of things right they often don't get credit for, an email is a cheap way of mass communication whilst it might not be the most targeted marketing strategy it's certainly the most cost effective. How could they do it better, use a program that analyses who actually didn't attend and email specific people? Possibly, why not email everyone and word the email slightly differently, possible also. Either way I'm glad the club is attempting to engage with its customer base.
Im actually annoyed that i haven't received one of these emails. Do they not value my support as much as others, god dammit.
Matchday football does not operate in a vacuum. Its competition for revenue stretches far and wide across TV, other sports, other leisure activities, and so on and so forth. A provincial club like Barnsley cannot take anything for granted. The fact their processing of information could be improved is a side issue. Anyone with a modicum of interest in the clubs future should be happy that they are venturing into different ways to communicate with its fanbase.
Fairly easy these days to do a mailsort which sends a slightly different version of a communication to existing season ticket holders, who are already on their database. If I was BFC I'd throw in an occasional "bring a mate for £xx" offer. That might get us bringing more folk down from time to time.
I recently had an email inviting me to enjoy the hospitality for a future game, presumably because I have a birthday coming up this month. I filed it in the trash folder almost straight away but then, having had a brief exchange with Andy White, I decided it was a genuine offer after all, rather than spam. However......the follow up email, some days later, invites me to pay £xxxx plus VAT. Errrrr - no thanks. I'll stick to my season ticket paid for seat.
I'd be interested to know if they are putting the same effort into pursuing season ticket holders who have not renewed in the last few years? Partly to encourage them to give oakwell another go, but mainly to understand why they let it lapse. I understand that in many cases it's down to individual circumstances and the club can do nothing about it, but I guess there are others that the club can learn from and take action to rectify.
I'm sure a few misdirected emails from Oakwell make worthless the millions that the likes of Barcelona, PSG, Chelsea, Real, et al make overseas.
Interestingly, I take the opposite view, and it's to be encouraged that finally the club are doing something on this front - albeit they need to find a better way to target their marketing so that season ticket holders don't receive non-appropriate stuff Five years ago I decided to let my season ticket go, having had one for over 25 years, since the age of 6. The decision was partly based on family circumstances, partly on travel required, partly on the standard of football at the time and being a bit bored with football but mostly because I was still upset at something which had happened previously with the ownership. I got nothing from the club recognising that I was leaving or trying to entice me back - no letter (other than the usual renewal document), no email, no contact of any sort. At the time if I'd felt the club gave a monkeys about it's fan base - which I think it is significantly improving on - I may well have been tempted to stay. Conservatively, the club doing nothing about it has cost them about £1.5k since that day - season ticket costs less the relatively few matchday costs that I have paid.
Sadly, I hear this sort of story all too often. I think in a lot of cases football clubs will think it's not worth the effort to pursue lapsed supporters because they take the opinion that, as soon as they are successful, they will flood back. But in the 50 years I've been going to Oakwell I can count those type of seasons on one, maybe two hands, so there's a lot of fallow years in between, where you have to work hard to grow your customer base. So putting a bit of effort in to retaining a few, might just be the easier option, or a complementary one at least.
You are right, it makes sense to compare a list of current season ticket holders with similar list for a previous season, and to target those who have not renewed. It is going to establish their reasons for not renewing if nothing else. However, that is not what has happened here is it. A new season ticket was issued for this season and that was after an update of the ticket readers a couple of seasons before. My guess is that these updates were required so the club could collect information about people who had actually attended. That information is clearly inaccurate because many of us were asked why we did not attend when we did. Inaccurate information is worthless information. Furthermore, we have been emailed again and asked whether we will be attending this week. WHY? We have already bought our season tickets, so what marketing opportunity is there in nagging us to attend. Those who say that an email costs very little are right of course. However the systems that allow the club to identify targets for their email campaigns do cost money. The time of a person to analyse that data and produce the email also cost money. The time of the marketing people behind the scenes or perhaps the cost of sub-contracting this function costs money. All these are cost that must be set against the revenue generated from the marketing campaign before it can be said to have generated additional revenue, and that is before the direct cost of providing the service are deducted to arrive at a gross profit. It looks to me like the club has incurred significant additional cost on marketing itself. How does this cost compare to the effect of actually winning a home game? I'm sorry, but I dislike marketing and I never ever respond. I just do not like anyone telling me how I should be spending my money. I never have and I never will.
I didn't renew and didn't hear a peep. If it were me managing that i'd be deffo putting a deal together to offer half season tickets to those that had not renewed both this season and any other long time lapsed supporter (run through the bereavements register of course) - perhaps with an incentive too of a 35% discount on a shirt when bought with said ticket seen as the season is half way thru. That woudl be a better way to get people back on board then why they missed one game. Also it would help if they were in reach of the top 6 by the time comes around - so get some points on the board!
