The English Football Association (FA) yesterday revealed the results of a new study examining how Premier league football clubs are engaging with their fans through digital marketing communications.

The inaugural FA Email Marketing Study, which was carried out by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), surveyed 13 of the 20 clubs playing in the Premier league in the 2010-2011 season to find out how they are using digital marketing to reinforce fan loyalty, increase revenue from branded merchandise and provide platforms for sponsors to engage with their fan bases.

According to the findings, the average club retains a database of 360,000 email addresses, the sector’s monthly contact rate of 4.9 is double that of typical B2C brands, and 42pc of clubs’ marketers plan to increase their email marketing over the coming year.

The majority of clubs rated mobile SMS and social media marketing as being more important to them than email marketing.

“Football clubs are unique B2C brands; they have devoted, loyal fan bases that are passionate about the clubs they support,” said Ross Caddy, head of media channels and research for the DMA. “While they are fans, they are also consumers through buying tickets and club merchandise.

“This study reveals how brands that are fortunate enough to have fans, rather than just customers, are using digital marketing to transform existing relationships with their followers to reach their sales goals.

“It’s particularly interesting to see so many clubs focusing on mobile communications over the coming year. This reflects the fact that more and more people are switching to email-friendly smartphones.”

Source: www.businessandleadership.com

Related Articles

1. English clubs marketing strategies Shirt sponsorship changed the face of English football forever as Liverpool quickly followed with their Hitachi sponsorship deal....
2. English Football clubs’ Direct Marketing fails to score Opportunities to exploit the thousands, millions in some cases, of eager, passionate fans around the world willing to part with their hard-earned, therefore, are being...
3. English clubs overtake German rivals for Europe’s most lucrative shirt sponsorship The English Premier League has overtaken Germany's Bundesliga for attracting Europe's most lucrative shirt sponsorship deals, according to a study published on Thursday....
4. Measuring the brand impact of an English Premier League sponsorship The core argument of football clubs is always about the positive impact of a sponsorship on the brand of the sponsor. This post purely focuses...
5. English Premier League Attracting More Diverse Crowds Premier League CEO Richard Scudamore hails the inroads made by English football towards attracting more diverse crowds as new research shows that the EPL’s fastest...