Top 10 Marketing tips for Christmas.

      1. Start Planning Early

The Earlier you start planning the better, don’t leave it to the last Minute. One of our clients started their Christmas campaign in May!

2. Early Bird Discounts

Offer a discount for booking before a certain date. However remember don’t just offer a discount to the whole group – but also incentivise the party organiser. People are more likely to organise a party if they know they are personally getting something in return – This could be money off their meal or even a bottle of fizz!

3. Identify your targets!

Think about what types of people will book a party at your venue, where do they live?, where do they work?, how old are they?, How much do they earn?

Here at CFL  Marketing we have  access to 49 million records nationwide, CFL can compile a list to fit your campaign, given pretty much any profile you can think of. We have access to CAMEO profiles which can be used to further analyse your data, providing you with highly targeted campaigns. Don't think this just applies to consumer data - we can also supply business data at the same level of detail, if not more!

Whether it's topping up your own data or a complete list, we've got what you need.

4. Who Booked last year?

This is a good place to start!! Did you capture the details of the guests from last year – if not…do so this year. Capturing details is not as hard as you think especially if you use it as a January bounce back promotion – this is a notoriously quiet period.

For more tips on data capture, take a look at the following presentation - 

Data Capture - 12 tips from CFL Marketing

5. Why should people book?

What are you planning that others are not.. Is there entertainment included, what’s on the Menu, is there an after meal party. Make sure you communicate your USP quickly and easily…Remember the 3 second rule!

6. Utilise Business data.

Contacting local Business is a great way to attract larger bookings. Combining direct mail with a follow up phone call can be very effective. If you have a contact name this works even better…if not address the mailing to “Party Organiser” or “Social Secretary”.

We would suggest the business should have between 10 – 100 employees and be no further than 10 miles of your venue.

As mentioned above, CFL Marketing can supply the business data, in your area at a high level of detail or profile.

If you send 500 mailing packs at say £1 per pack, and you achieved a 5% response rate (25 Bookings) each booking had 10 people each spending £10, this equates to £2000, and a ROI of £1500. CFL have achieved a response rate of upto 25% in some cases!

7. Combine and integrate your Marketing effort.

Don’t just use one marketing method and think it will work. Combine your efforts across a number of media such as email, Direct Mail, web based, Social media,  and advertising. Remember to keep the theme and branding the same across all media.

8. Be Creative!

Christmas is not just about bells, holly and Santa. Try and be a bit more creative with your designs and artwork.

One tip is NOT to use photos of food. Unless they are professionally shot, with airbrushed food, it never looks nice!

CFL’s design studio can work to deliver any supplied brief - that's a given. Where our talent and flair really shows is when we deliver on a brief you didn't know in the first place!!

From mailing packs, to posters, banners, t-shirts and pretty much any other piece of print or collateral out there - we deliver on the strength of our ideas.

9. Make the most from viral activity and Social Media

Social Media is a great way to reach many people at low cost. Think about combining and linking your social media. However, remember don’t solely rely on it and don’t just use one platform.

CFL have Social media managers that can advise you on the best way to utilise Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in, Youtube and many more.

10.  How do they book?

You need to make it as easy as possible to book a party, using a variety of different methods – A booking line, text in number, web forms, booking forms with return address, even a fax number.

Make sure all enquiries are responded to at the earliest opportunity.

Follow all of these tips…and you will have a very Merry Christmas!.

www.cflmarketing.co.uk   01225 782669

Please see below some of CFLs Christmas designs from last year.

Students are going out more, says new research

Students are going out more often despite the difficult economic conditions, according to a new study from CGA that says they spend up to £3.2bn per year on nights out.
The survey of 2,500 students also found they consume more than 10% of all on-trade serves during term time alone.

According to the CGA Student Report 2012, more students surveyed said they are going out more often than a year ago than those saying they are going out less.

The report dismisses the stereotype that their purchase decisions are based on price alone. It also points to a growing demand among for outlets beyond traditional student-focused venues.

Kylie Poole at CGA said: “Students are a critical market for many pubs but their attitudes and behaviours are notoriously fast changing, especially at the moment given the trend towards living at home, the growing number of mature students and the impact of increased tuition fees.

"Our report confirms that students today are very different to the old stereotype: their tastes and preferences are highly sophisticated and they are demanding more from their on trade experiences than ever before.

“Students are traditionally painted as a fairly basic bunch only interested in the cheapest products, but our research found quite the opposite. The modern student population is increasingly diverse with a growing proportion seeking to indulge their luxury tastes on a limited budget.

“Our research suggests that certain student types will trade up whenever they can and have a sharp awareness of premium products, often seen as occasional treat.”

So what are you doing to target these students? - We have put together a presentation in 2011 (in conjunction with a current Media Student) to show you how to access this hard to reach market.

Please see the presentation below.

Accessing students

View more PowerPoint from CFL Marketing

UK Population is growing......and we have their names!

The UK Population is growing year on year and is now up to over 63 million.. that's up over 3 million in the last decade.

One the the biggest increases has been in the 18-30 age bracket with just under 10 million people in England and Wales alone at the end of 2011.

The good news is we have access to their names, addresses, their birthday how much they earn, and even how often they go out!

CFL can compile a list to fit your campaign, given pretty much any profile you can think of. We have access to CAMEO profiles which can be used to further analyse your data, providing you with highly targeted campaigns. Don't think this just applies to consumer data - we can also supply business data at the same level of detail, if not more!
 

Whether it's topping up your own data or a complete list, we've got what you need. Just simply ask us how many people are in a 5 or 10 mile radius of your venue and what age groups you are looking for and we will provide you with a detailed breakdown!

but it does not stop there...

We can also create the Direct Mailing activity to send them!. From our most famous product, targeted birthday mailings to opening campaigns and launches, loyalty mailings, newsletters, events, promotions and memberships - if you want to mail it, we can handle it. We can target your audience, design your mailing pack, supply stock, help you produce the right message, print, personalise and with both machine and hand enclosing.

Aside to this we can also help you build and maintain your own database of warm customers.

From a database of hundreds to a database of hundreds of thousands, CFL have both the knowledge and capacity to handle all your database requirements. 

Even if you have no database, our skilled client services team will custom build a solution to meet your needs. All our databases are run through PAF software to clean any incomplete addresses, and regularly checked for duplications to minimise wastage. They are checked regularly against the MORT file, which removes deceased records, the MPS and TPS file (mailing/telephone preference service) which removes those who have opted out of specific lists, and the Goneaway Suppression file.

We do all this to ensure you have the best data possible at your fingertips for your marketing campaigns.

Simply call us on 01225 782669 or log on to www.cflmarketing.co.uk/offer to request a count or sample pack.

Advert Design for Pubs

Are you thinking of putting an advert in a local magazine or paper?... Who is doing the design for you?

People think of CFL as a Direct Marketing Agency or Database Specialists...however we also have a full Design Studio.

Our creatives can work to deliver any supplied brief - that's a given. Our talent and flair really shows when we deliver on a brief you didn't know in the first place!!

We specialise in the Leisure and Retail Sector, especially for Pubs, Restaurants and the Licensed Trade

From as little as £25 we deliver on the strength of our ideas.

We can even place the advert for you whether it's a local trade magazine advert through to a National newspaper.

With expert knowledge of advert formats, sizes and layout, we can also help with type setting and even copy writing and editing.

We can also create artwork for HTML Emails, Web banners, Facebook Images or any other Social Media Profiles.

Call Phil on 01225 782669 or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Please see some examples below of our pub advert designs.

The CFL Media Console - Dynamic Database Management

From a database of hundreds to a database of hundreds of thousands, CFL have both the knowledge and capacity to handle all your database requirements.
Even if you have no database, our skilled client services team will custom build a solution to meet your needs. All our databases are run through PAF software to clean any incomplete addresses, and regularly checked for duplications to minimise wastage. They are checked regularly against the MORT file, which removes deceased records, the MPS and TPS file (mailing/telephone preference service) which removes those who have opted out of specific lists, and the Goneaway Suppression file.

We do all this to ensure you have the best data possible at your fingertips for your marketing campaigns.

Using one of our latest products - The CFL Media Console - we can handle all aspects of E-Marketing. The Console gives the user online access to their venue database form which they can choose to:

• Input and view your data
• Mass Data Upload
• Segment and catagorise your data
• Send an SMS broadcast to all or selected parts of their database.
• Set up two-way interactive campaigns such as text-to-win competitions.

CFL can also send out 1 off high volume SMS broadcasts from a given database using the console.

The console is a complete online database management system covering all aspects of direct marketing

www.cflmarketing.co.uk

5 Ways to Engage New Social Media Followers

Getting new social media followers is always a good sign for a company that is trying to grow their influence and reach new customers. However, there’s a right way and a wrong way to engage social media followers. If you don’t do anything but add followers to your list, approve comments and give “likes” on your own posts, you’re missing out on all that social media can bring your organization. There are five ways to engage new social media followers across the board. No matter what social media platform you’re concentrated on, you can use these tips to get better engagement levels and build a community.

Listen
Social media isn’t just about broadcasting your message. You also need to listen to your followers as well. This will help you figure out what they are interested in so you can share accordingly. Make it a point to create lists on Twitter or Facebook that target specific types of ideal clients. Use those lists to monitor conversations and take note of what your market is actively discussing. Not only will this help you engage with your audience, but you’ll find new opportunities to share and connect with them.


Use surveys to target social content
Surveys can be a wonderful tool in engaging social media followers. Everyone loves to share their opinion! By using surveys as part of your social media activities, you can get your followers involved with your company and pinpoint exactly what they want to know. Direct new social media followers to a standard (and short) survey. Not everyone will participate but there will be enough people responding that you’ll get a good idea of what will help keep and engage your audience.

 Actually be social
So many business use social media as a broadcast medium only. By being social with your followers, you’ll make an impact and set yourself apart from the competition. Engage in a dialogue! Ask questions of your followers and respond to their comments and questions. Don’t ignore what they have to say – or they won’t be fans and followers for very long.

Curate and share
No one wants to spend time with a person in real life who talks about themselves all of the time. The same goes for social media usage. You’ve got to vary your own social media updates with content from other people. Re-Tweet and Share content that comes from other sources. Not only will your followers appreciate the broad variety of content that you offer, they’ll also be more likely to share your content.

Build a strong content marketing foundation
Your social media usage is just a small part of what you have to offer. It’s a tool – not a be all and end all platform. Twitter, Facebook and Google+ usage are going to be a whole lot more useful if you have some great content to back it up. Blog posts, email marketing newsletters, videos and infographics will round out your social media marketing efforts and give your followers the value they are looking for.

For more information on Online and Digital Marketing please log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Mapping Out the High Street

Consumers are increasingly happy to receive marketing messages via their mobile phones, as long as they offer something of specific, targeted value. Location-based marketing is a great way for brands to do just that

The first stage of the web was about ‘what’, and the second stage was about ‘who’.  The Third stage will be all about ‘where’.”

This is the view of Diana LaGattuta, marketing director of Nokia’s Location & Commerce business unit, which powers location-based marketing for brands.

There’s plenty of evidence emerging to back her up. Google figures show 40% of searches already have a local intent, and mobile search is growing dramatically. Morgan Stanley predicts the number of searches done on phones will overtake those done on desktop PCs by next year.

The retail sector is on the frontline of these changes, for a number of reasons. The high street needs to respond to changing behaviour that is seeing customers researching purchases while they’re in store, comparing prices between onand offline outlets. It’s also an opportunity to add location-based information to existing demographic data, allowing for much better targeting. And location gives retailers a way to link their onand offline messaging.

Figures suggest there is much enthusiasm for location-based services, with 19% of mobile users worldwide already using them, mainly via maps. That amounts to 15.2 million people in the UK, according to ComScore.

More importantly for marketers, O2 Media figures suggest seven out of 10 smartphone users are positive about receiving location-based messaging. This is backed up by research from location-based marketing specialists JiWire last year, which discovered that 69% of UK users would be happy to share their location to receive relevant content.

For brands that have experimented with location-based marketing, results have been encouraging. Now comes the need to understand how the approach fits with their other marketing activities.

Brands will need to consider an insight from the US that redemption of vouchers is surprisingly time dependent.

Most location-based marketing has been focused on ‘nearby’, so time is an interesting factor, If you’re trying to catch people near your venue, you’re not going to get them to change their behaviour in the moment. It’s more about awareness so they come back the next day. Ultimately, retailers will use mobile as a loyalty tool; vouchering will still be present, however i may not change behaviour in the moment very often.”

For more information on Mobile Marketing contact CFL Marketing on 01225 782669, whether it integrating SMS into your marketing mix or for more information on the CFL Media Console.

Firms failing to integrate their marketing

Companies are failing to integrate email with other channels, according to Econsultancy’s Cross-Channel Marketing Report, published in association with Responsys.

Only 29% are integrating email with direct mail, 24% with search engine marketing, 14% with display advertising and 14% with mobile marketing.

And, while around half (49%) of companies integrate mobile into broader marketing campaigns, of these, 35% say integration is very basic.

Most businesses are still in the early stage of developing an integrated approach to marketing, with 25% of companies saying that a lack of a clearly defined strategy was the greatest barrier to developing an integrated approach to their marketing.

Marketers are most likely to be integrating on-site content management (44%) and search engine marketing (37%) with display advertising.

Integrating display advertising with online channels increases conversion rates – 70% of companies integrating search engine marketing saw a rise in conversions while 55% said mobile led to an uplift.

The report is based on a survey of more than 650 companies and agencies, carried out in April and May 2012.

For more information on how CFL can aid you in integrating Email Marketing with other channels, please see the presentation below.

Integrated Email Marketing Best Practice

View more PowerPoint from CFL Marketing

Strike gold during the Olympics 2012

As you will know the Olympics is fast approaching (Friday the 27th July)

Whether you are a London venue expecting extra footfall or you are thinking of putting on an Olympic themed promotion, its an excellent opportunity to drive extra custom through your business.

CFL Marketing can help you build a custom promotion to bring the crowds in.

Whether its sporting based games or promotions, Olympic club discounts, fancy dress, themed parties and events we have it covered.

Call us on 01225 782669 or log onto http://www.cflmarketing.co.uk/offers to request a sample pack

Please see below some ideas -

Are you set for the big Kick off?

As you will know the European Championships is fast approaching (8th June - 4th July)

WIth games being played at either 5pm or 7.45pm it is the perfect opportunity to drive the after work trade to your venue.

The key dates are the 11th, 15th and 19th of June when the 3 Lions are playing (and hopfully a few more dates after that!)

CFL Marketing can help you build a custom promotion, to bring the crowds in.

Whether its in game promotions, supporters club discounts, WAG parties, or themed parties and events we have it covered.

Call us on 01225 782669 or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk/offers to request a sample pack

Please see below some ideas -

The single most effective way to drive party bookings into your venue...FACT!

Thirty years ago when disco was in it’s prime I started a promotion which years later became a must have weekly campaign in every nightclub in the UK.

It became known as the birthday mailer and this is how it works.

We have in our extensive database the date of birth of every young person in the UK aged between 18-30.

A fully personalised digital mailer is sent three weeks before the young person’s birthday inviting them to a free night out with up to twelve of their friends.

In addition other offers such as free drinks, queue jump are essential to get maximum returns.

In the age of Facebook, Twitter and the like it’s a promotion, which the younger generation of nightclub managers haven’t used or seen the success that a good birthday mailing can bring.

Even today there are well known night-clubs who rely on the footfall that the mailings can bring in, a well known Midlands night-club is getting returns of over 200 people a week at a cost of £70.

Depending on your spend per head that can mean an extra weekly income of up to £800.

A recent addition is the use of text response, the customer is invited to text the size of the party they are bringing, when they do this you will have captured their mobile number*

This is the opportunity for the night-club to upsell the night with extra incentives.

We have a great range of designs for the mailers, go to www.cflmarketing.co.uk to see some examples, phone Bruce, Mike or Phil on 01225 782669 for sample packs which we can post to you.

Give this promotion a try, as an incentive we will not commit you to anymore than four weeks mailers, with a minimum of 100 packs per weeks.

In the current economic climate it is difficult to get people out but for sure they will go out on their BIRTHDAY.

And this is something the social networking sites cannot do, and that is putting a well designed birthday card in their hands, with their name on it, arriving in the post.

Kindest Regards

Bruce Bronson

* Ask about our media console for text transmission.

Our birthday mailing examples below.

How to Set and Track Your Marketing Budget

Setting a marketing budget for your business is one of the most critical factors in your success. Although most businesses would love to spread their influence and message as much as possible, time and money limits can keep them from doing so.

Setting a specific budget for your marketing activities has a number of benefits. It will help you steadily grow your business without overtaxing your resources or your staff. It will help you build a consistent marketing plan that will grow your list of prospects. It will also help you keep your spending in check. You are less likely to jump on the next big thing if you have already created your marketing budget and know how much you will be spending on a particular set of activities.

Finding Your Sweet Spot
In order to set a marketing budget that works for your business, you need to spend time crunching the numbers. The general rule of thumb is that your marketing budget should be between 1 and 10 percent of your total sales. However, this can vary depending on several different factors. If you are a brand new business, you should probably spend more in order to get more exposure.

Look at your total sales for last year and then look at what a budget of 1 to 10 percent would look like. Pick a range that makes the most sense to your business and your industry.

Spending Your Budget Wisely
Once you have created a number to work with, it is time to determine where that money will be allocated. There are many different choices. With the rise of web marketing, the choices have become even more diverse.

Traditional marketing and advertising costs can include:
•Print

•Radio/Television

•Direct Mail

•Trade show booths

Web marketing options are:
•Email Marketing

•LinkedIN

•Twitter

•Facebook

•Content Marketing

How you determine where to spend funds over these categories?

It can be helpful to look back to the previous year and determine which channels produced the most results. If you are expanding to incorporate a new channel – like email marketing – look to the best practices of the industry and expected ROI figures in order to determine if it will be a good move for your business.

As you spend your marketing budget, be sure to leave some room for the unexpected. Keep in mind that training for your team and others, hiring experts for specific projects and website improvements should all fall under your marketing budget.

Tracking Your Spending
No matter how you decide to spend your resources, it is important to keep track of your spending. Be very mindful of where your new clients are coming from. If you are using a newsletter or ebook on your website to track leads, be sure to ask how the website visitor found you on the opt in form. Have your sales people and customer service representatives ask clients how they discovered your company.

Then compare your leads to your marketing efforts and see what is giving you the best results. If you find that your email marketing newsletter is bringing in more leads than your print ad, allocate your print budget to marketing your newsletter. By tracking your results and fine tuning your budget as you go along, you can make the next business year a profitable one.

5 Steps to Cleaning Up Your List

Cleaning up your e-mail marketing list is a task that needs to be looked after at regular intervals. Taking the time to ensure that is up to date means that you will be communicating with prospects who are interested in hearing from you and are motivated to become buyers instead of browsers.

1. Identify Typos in E-mail Addresses
One thing you will want to avoid in your prospect list is having too many “unknown user” messages bouncing back to you, since this can lead to your account being blacklisted. To avoid this issue, you will want to make sure that obvious spelling errors are corrected in the e-mail addresses you have collected.

2. Find Duplicate E-mails on the Subscriber List
To ensure that your subscribers are not receiving multiple copies of the same message, ensure that you do not have any duplicate e-mail addresses on your list. Sort your list of database by e-mail. If you see more than one e-mail for the same person or company, remove them.

3. Remove Distribution E-mail Addresses
Make a point of removing any e-mail addresses which have the word “spam” in them. You also want to take e-mail addresses listed as “sales@” or “postmaster@” off your list. These distribution e-mail addresses are rarely used by companies and are often given just to grab a freebie or other incentive.

4. Ask List Members to Confirm their Interest
To make sure that your messages are reaching interested prospects, send out a message to everyone on your list asking them to reconfirm they would like to remain on your list. Be sure to thank everyone for their initial interest in participating; everyone likes to feel appreciated.

5. Make it Easy for Subscribers to Opt Out of Your List
When you are cleaning up your list, make sure that your members understand very clearly what they need to do to either confirm their continued interest or to have their names removed from it. Make it easy by offering a simple Yes or No choice, and tell your scribe subscribers exactly what you want them to do.

Use simple phrases like “Click Here to Stay on the List” or “Please Update My Subscription” for list members who want to continue to receive your messages. Clicking on the link should immediately take them to a page where they can see the information which is been uploaded to your list. At that point, all they would need to do is confirm that it is correct or make any necessary changes and then hit the “Submit” button.

Someone who indicates that he or she would like to unsubscribe from the list should also be taken to a page confirming that the request has been received. The message should also indicate when the subscriber can expect his or her name to be removed. If it will take 24-48 hours (or longer), indicating this to the subscriber means you will not be accused of spamming someone who specifically asked to be removed.

By taking these 5 steps to cleaning up your list, you will find that your e-mail marketing efforts are being used more effectively. You will be able to reach subscribers will find your messages interesting and relevant to their needs.

Three Ways to Improve Deliverability with Your Content

Getting your messages through to your list members is just as important as building your list. Deliverability is affected by a number of different factors – from the reputation of your email marketing provider to the quality of the email addresses on your list. Another important piece of the puzzle is the content of your email messages. By paying attention to specific sections of your email marketing messages with regards to content, you can boost your deliverability rates and see better results from email marketing.

Here are the three key content areas that you need to focus on with regards to deliverability:

1. Subject lines
Subject lines are the first exposure that your audience gets to your message and they can significantly improve your deliverability rates. People are busy and no matter how excited they might have been to receive your information when they first signed up, they will resist opening your emails without a compelling subject lines. Subject lines should provide a teaser for the content inside of the email and encourage the recipient to open up the message.

Subject lines are also evaluated significantly in terms of the spam content of a message. Having the right subject line can help you avoid spam filters and be sure that you’re actually reaching your intended audience.

2. Newsletter content
Deliverability rates are affected by your previous open rates. This means that the more that your messages are sent out and opened, the more trustworthy you are seen as a sender and the more likely your messages will be delivered and opened in the future. You can effect this directly with your newsletter content.

Focus on sending your list members helpful, targeted information in pre-set intervals. Your sales messages should be spaced out with helpful content in between. This will help your list members see you as a valuable resource rather just a company that is focused on the sale. By planning out targeted content that answers major questions for your audience, you can see an increase in your open rates and a boost to your overall deliverability rate.

3. List segmentation and targeted content
Besides sending helpful, informative messages and newsletters at regular times, you can go a step further with your targeting and improve your deliverability rates with list segmentation. If you know that certain members of your list are more likely to open and read messages, you can segment these members and send messages to them regularly. You can also segment your list by buying behavior, click-throughs and a number of other factors. Using segmentation you can get ultra-specific with your list and see a better result from your email marketing efforts.

Deliverability rate is an important metric that deserves your attention if you want to excel with email marketing. There are many ways that the quality and nature of your content can affect this metric. Just like with other forms of online marketing, understanding what your customers want to know and delivering it to them in a helpful and targeted way is a key to deliverability and overall email marketing success.

For More information on CFL HTML Email services please call 01225 782669 or or log on to www.cflmarketing.co.uk

How to Determine Where to Spend Your Marketing Budget

Establishing a marketing budget is only the first step in making sure your business is marketed effectively. Once you know how much you have to work with, it is important to make wise choices about where that money will be spent.

By considering a few key criteria, focusing on your most pressing marketing needs and evaluating what worked best in the past, you can determine where to best spend your marketing budget.

Marketing is changing and smart companies are keeping up with these changes. With web marketing, it’s become possible to reach more customers than ever before, but you need to keep a few important principles in mind when you are looking for marketing activities.

As you look at the next year of spending, keep the following four criteria in mind:

1) Trust
Which marketing methods and practice will help build trust in your company?

2) Targeting
Do the marketing methods give you the ability to approach a small segment of your audience?

3) Engagement
Are your marketing methods getting you in front of active enthusiasts of your product or service?

4) Social sharing
Do these marketing methods make it easy for your audience to spread and share your content to their social contacts?

With these criteria at the forefront of your decision making process, you need to look at where you are going to get the most bang for your marketing buck. What are your main goals for the next month, the next quarter and the next year? Which practices are going to help you meet those goals? Marketing activities and methods can help you meet a number of different goals but some are better than others for specific goals.

Here are five few possible ideas:

1) Increasing website traffic and conversions:
Web re-design, copywriting, SEO and PPC advertising.

2) Increasing sales:
Targeted email marketing messages, sales pages and web design.

3) Building a community and increasing your reputation with that community:
Email marketing, social media and community management.

4) Increasing exposure:
Trade shows, press releases, white papers, email newsletters and guest blog posting.

5) Boosting credibility:
Regular email newsletters, authority blog posts, press releases and white papers.

Your marketing spending should reflect your goals. Looking at your most immediate goals for your business will help you identify which marketing activities you should invest in. Give priority to those tactics that will help your reach your goals in the next few months.

Finally, you need to look at your past performance before you invest in marketing for the new year. Which marketing activities had the biggest ROI for your company in the past 12 months? Which efforts were disappointing at best or complete failures at worst? Just because a technique or method is an industry standard or works well for another company does not mean it is a good fit for you. Always rely on your company’s experience with a marketing method to make your final decision.

With these criteria, goals and experiences in mind, you can spend your marketing budget wisely and effectively.


However you decide to spend your budget, CFL Marketing can advise you and help execute your plans – contact philm@cflmarketing.co.uk for more details or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk

3 Best Practice Rules for Email Timing

In a perfect world, your email marketing list members will open up each of your messages immediately, read each line and take action right away. But as you know, your list members are busy, may not recall why they signed up for your list in the first place or may be receiving your email at a time when there are dozens of other messages coming their way.

That is why it is important to time your email messages just right. Timing relates to two different decisions:

-What days and times are best for my email messages?
-How frequently should I send out my email messages
-When you understand the timing and frequency rhythms that are right for your list, you can send out messages that have more impact. Here are three best practices rules to follow to boost your success.

1.) Find a schedule and stick with it.
The most important key to having email marketing success with your own list is being consistent. Find a schedule that works for your company (and gets a good response from your list) and then repeat it week in and week out (or month in and month out). Of course, this does not apply to special discounts or deals, but with your email marketing newsletter you should have a consistent schedule. Weekly or bi-weekly works best for most companies.

2.) Consider your users and their lives.
Your email marketing messages are more likely to be opened when your audience is not overwhelmed with other messages or checking in quickly. If your target market is busy moms, sending them a message at 10 am is not going to work. If you are marketing to small business owners, messages on a Friday afternoon are not going to have an impact. Think through the day to day life of your prospects and then pick a time when they are most likely to have time to open and read your message. Once you have decided on a time and day for your newsletters and messages, then you can look at your open rates, track your effectiveness and make adjustments.

3.) Give list members the power to select their own frequency.
One of the best ways to succeed with email marketing is to make sure your users get exactly what they need when they want it. You can do just this by allowing your subscribers to tell you how often they’d like to be contacted. For example, if you are sending a weekly blog update newsletter and a monthly in depth newsletter, your subscribers can indicate whether they would like to be contacted each week or each month. You can use this information to segment your list and send content at the right times to specific email list members.

Although these are important industry best practices, each email marketing list is unique. Your subscribers will respond best to a specific frequency and timing of content. Once you select what you think will work best, look at your analytics and results and make adjustments as need be.

Leisure visits are up but spending is down

UK consumers are visiting pubs, clubs and restaurants more often - but spending less - as “austerity fatigue” kicks in.


That’s according to a survey of 3,000 consumers, which found that visits to pubs/bars, restaurants and late-night venues increased by 2.2%, 4% and 10.5% respectively compared to a survey one year ago.

Monthly visits to pubs and bars increased from 4.3 in summer 2010 to 4.6. Visits to restaurants increased slightly, from 2.5 to 2.6 per month, and for late-night venues they also crept up from 1.9 to 2.1.

It’s the first time that each sector has seen an increase.


However, the latest report shows that average spend per visit in pubs and bars fell 9.5% to £14.69. For restaurants, the decline is 8% to £15.90, and for late-night bars it’s 12.4% to £24.04.

According to the survey, 48% of consumers said their disposable income has fallen in the last six months, while just 6% said it had increased. Over the past year average national household income fell £640 to £30,584, the survey found.

The survey also highlighted big differences in spending patterns across the country.

For pubs and bars, the biggest spenders are in the north west at £999 per year, compared to £490 in the East Midlands.

Londoners are the highest spenders in restaurants, spending £889 pa, with consumers in the capital spending at least £200 more per year than any other region. Again, spend was the lowest in the East Midlands, at £332.

Even though consumers continue to keep close watch on their spending, this is good news for operators with strong propositions because ultimately no leisure business can survive without customers coming through the door. - Its the perfect opportunity for operators to market to consumers and promote offers on site.

For operators, this more budgeted approach to leisure still presents opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell, and more people coming through the doors shows that operators’ sales initiatives and marketing plans are starting to work.

Need help promoting your venue? www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Half of new licensees can't find specialist advice

Half (49%) of new publicans and club owners admit they are struggling because they don’t know where to go for specialist advice and guidance on setting up and running their own business.

That’s according to a survey from People 1st, the sector skills council for hospitality, passenger, transport, travel and tourism.

Its findings also highlighted that having access to expert support – in particular financial, marketing and business planning – would have made a “critical difference” to four out of ten of those interviewed.

The survey questioned 418 pubs, bars and nightclubs, of which 61 had been open for less than three years.

Publicans, in particular, have unique issues and need access to specialist professionals who really understand their business.

CFL Have been helping Pubs, Bars, Clubs, Breweries and Licensed Leisure companies with all their marketing needs for the last 3 decades

Throughout all of this CFL have provided unique, effective and relevant direct marketing solutions to our customers, using a product portfolio covering all aspects of direct marketing - from Direct Mail to Digital Marketing.

Possessing that rare combination of operational experience, marketing flair and industry knowledge, our dedicated client services team will custom build a solution to fit any given brief or requirement. To find out how we could be growing your business, give us a call. - 01225 782669 or email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk

Paddy's big party!

Are you aware St. Patrick's day in on a Saturday this year? - What do you have planned for the 17th March?

The January sales are over... Valentines has been and gone so St. Patrick's day in the next big weekend in the calendar.

We all know its tough out there...so its the perfect opportunity to use the luck of the Irish and drive custom to your venue.

Let the Guinness flow and enjoy the craic! - not to mention the Six nations rugby!

So why not contact CFL to build a targeted promotion?

Whether its Design, Posters, Flyers, Mailings, Door Drops, Banners, Emails,Web Sites, Social Media, Data Capture or SMS text messages, we can help!

CFL posses that rare combination of operational experience, marketing flair and industry knowledge, our dedicated client services team will custom build a solution to fit any given brief or requirement.

Take a look at some examples of our work below

Remember – don’t just leave it and hope things will pick up.. drop us a line 01225 782669 - or email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk

Need artwork for an advert??

Are you thinking of putting an advert in a local magazine or paper?... Who is doing the design for you?

People think of CFL as a Direct Marketing Agency or Database Specialists...however we also have a full Design Studio.

Our designers can work to deliver any supplied brief - that's a given. Where our talent and flair really shows is when we deliver on a brief you didn't know in the first place!!

We specialise in the Leisure and Retail Sector, especially for the Licensed Trade

For a very competitive rate we deliver on the strength of our ideas.

We can even place the advert for you whether is a local trade magazine advert through to a National news paper.

We can also create artwork for HTML Emails, Web banners, Facebook Images or any other Social Media Profiles.

Call Paul or Clare on 01225 782669 or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Please see some examples below of our advert designs.

Discount vouchers remain popular for eating out.

Two-thirds of people have used a discount voucher when eating out, although just 18% say they go out more often as a result of the vouchers, according to new survey from Deloitte.

The Taste of the Nation survey of 3,000 people found that 59% have used a special offer voucher when eating out, with 48% of people claiming they use vouchers in a bar or pub.

However, 25% say they go out more often than they otherwise would as a result of an outlet offering vouchers and only (18%) would stop visiting an outlet if vouchers were no longer provided.

Jon Lake, corporate finance director in the licensed retail group at Deloitte, said: “Vouchers have proved an effective tactic by some operators for encouraging consumers to eat in their outlets, and have risen in popularity since the recession.

However, the popularity of some of these schemes has raised concerns some operators are now reliant on them.

“In the run up to Christmas, voucher offers were removed by some operators. Other outlets offered a different deal, such as three-for-two, instead of the more generous two-for-one and buy-one-get-one-free offers, or a gift with every main course.”

CFL Have been helping many pubs and restaurants with their pre and post Christmas discount voucher promotions both online and offline. Please see some examples below.

5 email marketing insights for 2012

MarketingSherpa recently published the 2012 edition of its Email Marketing Benchmark Report and once again, it’s full of really interesting insights.

Yes, it’s a report that focuses mainly on the US market (only 16% of the 2,735 respondents are based in Europe) but I still think we can learn a thing or two from the findings of this report. I’ve chosen these five findings to share with you:

1. Relevance and timing issues
Only 28% of marketers report their messages contained relevant content, are sent on time to targeted subscribers, and had a clear conversion goal.

What does this mean? To stand out in today’s overloaded inboxes, you need to consistently provide value to your subscribers. You can’t just continue to send everything to everybody. Instead, make sure that each and every message is well targeted and relevant to the person that receives it. Otherwise, your messages will get deleted, even before they were opened.

2. Marketers confident in email ROI
More than a quarter of senior marketer executives felt email is producing ROI, and almost half believe it will eventually produce returns.

What does this mean? It’s obviously crucial to get management buy-in if you want to increase your email marketing budget/resources. The best way to get their buy-in is by showing them the impact of email on the marketing-sales funnel. If you can’t measure how much money your email programme is contributing, focus on how many (sales-ready) leads you are generating, rather than reporting only on the opens and clicks of your campaigns.

3. Wise list growth tactics
37% of marketers say their organisations shared premium or educational content in exchange for an email address. Sweepstakes (used by only 10% of marketers) and gift cards (used by 6%) are not very popular when it comes to growing your list.

What does this mean? Incentives are often used by marketers to persuade web visitor to give them their email address.

The trick is to find the right incentive. You don’t want to get just any email address; you want to get email addresses from people that are likely to buy your products or services. You’d probably get a ton of email addresses if the incentive is something that attracts to the general population (like the ubiquitous iPad giveaway), but will they also be interested in your products?

Experience has taught me that email addresses collected using sweepstakes, giveaways and contests typically don’t perform very well in terms of open and click-through rates.

4. Email budgets on the rise
67% of marketers plan to increase their email budget in 2012, with 20% planning to increase it more than 30%.

What does this mean? Email marketing is still a crucial component of your online marketing strategy and, if executed well, it will drive a lot of business and revenue at a low cost. But marketers need to invest in strategy, expertise, integration of systems and resources.

5. Value of automated, triggered emails
90% of marketers found that sending emails automatically to a subscriber based on triggers like planned dates, events or behaviours are the most effective tactic to improve relevant communications.

What does this mean? The great thing about automated email messages based on triggers is that you typically set these messages up, optimise them and then sit back and watch the results come in while you focus on getting another automated message set up.

Quick wins in email marketing
If you don’t have a lot of resources to dedicate to email marketing, focus your efforts on automating email campaigns where possible. The top four automated messages include welcome emails, thank you emails, transactional emails and post-purchase emails.

Text is best for mobile promotions European consumers chime, new report reveals

Mobile-owning consumers in the UK, Germany and France prefer receiving SMS-based promotions as opposed to other mobile channels, new research published by theDirect Marketing Association (DMA) has revealed.

The study conducted by Toluna QuickSurveyson behalf of the DMA and report sponsor Velti, shows that 38 per cent of UK mobile owners prefer receiving promotional offers via SMS, compared to 15 per cent who favour mobile web.

For consumers in Germany and France, 58 per cent and 60 per cent respectively opt for SMS as their preferred channel for receiving mobile-based offers, whereas 21 per cent of consumers in both countries prefer mobile web.

In other findings, the research reports that 40 per cent of UK consumers are interested in being contacted via mobile by advertisers – four times as many consumers who said they would rather receive offers from their mobile network operators.

How do you limit unsubscribes?? - 10 top tips...

2012 is here, I, like many, will be thinking about customer retention. You don’t want your customers to have to unsubscribe from your emails.

Once a consumer unsubscribes from an email, the majority will not re-subscribe. Admittedly, unsubscribing from email lists per se would not make the top 10 list of resolutions, but enough people have the will to un-clutter their lives and get organised. And this can translate into reassessing which brands they engage with.

Here are some top tips on how to stop people unsubscribing in the first place. And, if they do, I’ll show you how to make it a positive consumer experience and take back control of the unsubscribe process.

1. Be relevant
The first and most obvious tactic is to make your ongoing email communications the most relevant you can. The more engaged your consumers are, the less likely they are to unsubscribe from your emails. The focus for this article is not around how to achieve this, but just to highlight one of my best pieces of advice when it comes to developing relevancy. As my American colleagues say “don’t try and boil the ocean any small steps you can make will improve relevancy and make a difference”.

2. Listen
Make sure you remember that email is there to help foster a relationship and all good relationships are about listening to the other person. Demonstratively acting on the information a consumer gives you, be it on frequency of email or type of offers, will make your consumers feel more engaged with the brand and email programme.

3. Sell the benefits
One best practice that brings great results when subscribing consumers is to clearly articulate the benefits of subscription. This messaging should continue, especially as those benefits should change over time as you refine the programme. So make sure your consumers know what those benefits are

4. Manage your email subscriptions
Creation of a subscription management page (SMP) also acts as a powerful tool in reducing unsubscribes for a variety of reasons.

The SMP page gives the consumer an easy place to update information. At its simplest (for example, a change of address) there are numerous stories of customers unsubscribing because they had changed email address and not seen an easy way to update. The other mainstay of the SMP page is allowing you to collect preference information that can then be used to make the content more relevant

5. Be flexible
Try offering changes in frequency. If the buying cycle for a product or service is infrequent, a monthly communication may be too much but quarterly would be more appropriate. Remember that the consumer will only be engaged with five to 10 brands at any one time. So, unless you happen to be an Apple or an Amazon, the chances are your consumers engagement will wax and wane over time. However, if there is still an ongoing periodic engagement, then you have a much greater chance to interact when the time is right for the consumer.

6. Respect people’s channel preference
Brands need to collect and understand their customers’ channel preference. I am a firm believer in the effectiveness of email and, as reports such as the DMA email benchmarking report H2 2010 http://www.dma.org.uk/toolkit/national-email-benchmarking-report-h2-2010 show, email is a powerful and relevant medium. Your consumers, however, live in a multichannel world so if they’d rather hear from you via social or mobile then you should be aware of this and act upon it. Again, having an ongoing relationship means you still have the opportunity to get them engaged with the email channel at a later date.

However it should also be understood that whatever options and data you collect make sure that this is used to enhance the consumers’ experience so that they feel there was value in giving up that information in the first place.

7. Take control of unsubscribe process
Make it easy for your consumer to unsubscribe and help reclaim the process from the spammer. This may sound counter-intuitive but consumer engagement is built on trust. Obviously, having a robust unsubscribe process is essential but so is making it clear in each email where people have to click to unsubscribe. And, of course, I would make it just as easy to change address!

Also if, for whatever reasons, your unsubscribe process is not going to be instant then make sure you manage the consumers’ expectations. Explain that it may take a few days and that they may receive an email in the interim.

8. Inspire trust with your unsubscribe process
Consumers have become increasingly wary of using the unsubscribe button because it was the way that spammers could confirm a real email address and creating distrust for all. As responsible marketers, we have a vested interest in being transparent and honouring expectations not only for the success of individual email programmes but for the overall health of the channel.

9. Use unsubscribe as a listening opportunity
If the consumer does decide to unsubscribe use this as an information/ listening opportunity, ask them why they are leaving. This information can then be used to better develop the programme. Done sensitively, asking why is not obstructive and also has the added benefit of helping stop unwanted unsubscribes. There have been numerous occasions we get requests from clients asking us to re-subscribe a customer because they were just clicking the links to make sure they could unsubscribe if they actually wanted to.

10. Avoid the spam button
Taking back control of the unsubscribe process is also important from two aspects. For many years, there was a trend for people not to unsubscribe but to hit this is spam button even though at some point there had been a genuine opt-in. With the increase of reputational deliverability filtering this can have a negative effect for the rest of your consumer programme and have a detrimental effect on the overall programme. Also the rise of functions such as the Yahoo unsubscribe folder – do away with the ‘this is spam issue’ but you lose the opportunity to understand why or to offer the frequency or channel options discussed above. So make sure you keep control of your unsubscribe process

CFL have the knowledge and experience to build a custom email campaign for your business - please email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk for some examples or call us on 01225 782669

DMA Report: Promoting to the Mobile Consumer

A recent study conducted by DMA and sponsored by Velti surveyed consumers across four countries and indicates that promotional marketers face both opportunities and issues when tackling the mobile consumer.

Consumers are generally open to promotional offers, but they have very clear preferences about where they want to receive them and the type of offers that they like. Getting the right pitch into the right channel will therefore have a positive uplift on marketing performance.
Key findings from this research indicate that there are both opportunities and issues facing promotional marketers as they look to tackle the mobile consumer:

• British and American consumers are different to those in Germany and France. In the UK and the USA, there is a strong appetite for preference-based offers (75 per cent and 72 per cent respectively) and very low levels of resistance to getting offers (5 per cent in both countries). In Germany and France, offers based on likes and dislikes also have the greatest traction, but at a lower level (46 per cent and 50 per cent respectively). There are also far more consumers in these countries who want no offers at all (22 per cent).

• Three quarters of consumers regularly pass on offers to friends and family - this would rise even higher in the UK and USA if there was an incentive to do so.

• Online promotional sources have been widely adopted, with Groupon taking the highest share (60 per cent of consumers in France use it, 52 per cent in the USA and 45 per cent in Germany). In the UK, My Voucher Codes maintains an advantage, at 42 per cent using compared to 35 per cent for Groupon.

• Printing vouchers remains the primary mechanism for redeeming offers in the UK and USA (71 and 75 per cent), but using discounts in online shops has overtaken print in Germany (56 per cent compared to 49 per cent). Half of British and American consumers are also redeeming offers online.

• Mobile redemption is growing steadily, at between 16 per cent in the UK, 17 per cent in USA, 18 per cent in Germany and 24 per cent in France. Mobile consumers are still principally using email to opt-out of promotional marketing (77 to 80 per cent) rather than SMS (18 to 28 per cent).

• There is still a task for brands and network operators to demonstrate to consumers the benefits of receiving promotional marketing and gaining permission to do so. In the UK and the USA, acceptance rates for promotional marketing received over mobile are lower than for promotions in general. Over time, willingness for these offers to be promoted via the mobile channel is likely to rise.

• While advertisers have a significantly higher level of preference over network operators when it comes to sending offers, this may be because networks have left a promotional gap - at best, only half of consumers in France have been promoted to by their operator in the last month, falling to one third in Germany and less than a quarter in the UK and USA.

Click Here to see the full Report - http://www.dma.org.uk/sites/default/files/tookit_files/velti_report_2011.pdf

Back to work and back to reality!!

Christmas is over, it’s a new year…its back to work and back to reality!!


Now is the perfect time to start over and think about driving more custom back to your business after the busy festive period.

January sales should be in full swing…but before you know it February will arrive…so its not too soon to start promoting Valentines.

So why not contact CFL to build a targeted promotion?

Whether its Design, Posters, Flyers, Mailings, Door Drops, Banners, Emails,Web Sites, Social Media, Data Capture or SMS text messages, we can help!

CFL posses that rare combination of operational experience, marketing flair and industry knowledge, our dedicated client services team will custom build a solution to fit any given brief or requirement.

Take a look at some examples of our work below


Remember – don’t just leave it and hope things will pick up.. drop us a line 01225 782669 - or email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk

Top retailers need to focus on email basics

There are many areas of email marketing that retailers need to work on, according to Silverpop’s 2011 Top 100 Retailers Study.

More than 20% of the UK’s top retailers send no emails in the first 30 days after opt-in. This could lead to new subscribers forgetting about the retailer and why they wanted to interact with them in the first place.

Silverpop also found that UK retailers are not making the most of opt-in and opt-out opportunities.

Although 97% of retailers who have an email programme placed the opt-in on the homepage, half of them placed it at the bottom of the page.

Email opt-ins should appear throughout the website, according to the study. New site visitors coming from search engines or social media sites won’t necessarily land on your homepage.

Marketers need to go where their customers are, says the study and encourage opt-ins in all those places. For example, SMS opt-ins from offline advertising and billboards or email opt-in forms on the retailer’s social media pages.

Only 27% of UK retailers offer consumers the choice to receive fewer emails or messages through other channels at the opt-out stage. Giving the subscriber more options could help avoid them hitting the unsubscribe button.

CFL are experts in building Email Marketing campaigns for our leisure and retail clients

Please see our best practice guide below

Integrated Email Marketing Best Practice

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