How to... generate income from your database

An established and flourishing database will bring value to the club in many ways:

Each individual who is connected to the club, from the person who comes to the Blues night event to the social member, has a value to the club. They are a 'customer' and their data needs to be collected - with their permission. Collected data can be used as many times as required, as long as the Data Protection Act is adhered to, and it must be used responsibly. The data cannot be given to a third party to use without permission from the individuals on the data base.
It costs six times less to retain a customer as it does to find a new one.
Therefore, for instance, if all of the names of the people who came to the summer school last year are on a data base they can be contacted directly about this year's summer school.

Collecting Data

The club should aim to collect data whenever it comes into contact with a customer.

This isn't always possible, but the club should

a) have a designated volunteer to lead in this area

and

b) it should use some of the following techniques:

Membership - the Pitchero membership function, as an example allows all club members to join on line and their data is automatically collected.
Events - if the club sells tickets for an event (such as a family day), data should be collected 'at the point of sale'.
Holiday courses - make sure that there are registration forms which need to be filled out and returned.
Competitions - to enter a free competition for a free shirt, fill out this form.
Newsletters - individuals should be encouraged to sign up for the club newsletter through a data portal on the website.

Collected data could increase the value of sponsorship packages.

An example of this might be the local butcher who wants to increase his business through sponsorship at the local club.
The club has 1,000 local people on its data base, but cannot give the data to the butcher unless everyone on the list has agreed to it being distributed to other businesses. However, the club can send a letter saying "one of our main sponsors, WD Thompson the butcher, is offering 5% discount to anyone who takes this letter into his shop this Saturday." (Even then the customer can opt out of receiving a similar correspondence in the future).
The fact that 1,000 individuals can receive this letter increases the value of sponsorship.
You can also be accountable to the sponsor through the feedback of email statistics i.e. how many people opened the e mail and/or what percentage of the people who opened the email clicked through on the web link.

What data should you collect?

Name and address
Postcode and email address
Telephone Number/mobile number
Family Status
Date of Birth
Twitter account
Occupation
Favourite Food

If they are under 18 years of age, you will need parental consent to keep data

If you have any questions on data, there is a Government-run helpline - 01625 545745

Email Marketing

The real 'power' in e mail marketing is through the ability to segment the club's database to send out emails to groups of individuals that have a common interest/want/need.

The Pitchero email marketing tool will allow the club to achieve this and will result in much more effective marketing campaigns.

Examples of segments could be:

Customers who attend events
All playing members or all social mem
Businesses who buy advertising or sponsorships

Case study - Thatto Heath Crusaders

The Value of Data

Thatto Heath Crusaders ARLFC has focussed not only on collecting data of all individuals who are members of the club, but they have used this data in a bespoke subscription 'monitoring' package.

Anyone who joins the club is expected to fill out a membership form and a Standing Order form which will take out £10 a month from their account.

Every one of the 450 members needs to do this, or they won't be eligible to play for the club.

This information is then imported/loaded into their bespoke subscription system.

This system

a) holds all of their data

b) holds all of their standing order information

c) is integrated into their bank details to update/check the payments each week

d) tracks each individual and provides simple to view information for each coach

Each week, the coach can see whose payments haven't gone through the system and can directly contact the individual concerned to find out if there is a problem or not.

The benefits to the club as numerous, the data allows for more effective communication and the subscription system provides the club with efficiencies in terms of payments, cashflow and membership.

Data protection

Data Protection

You can get any detailed information on data protection from the helpline shown below but the basics that you should remember are;

The individual you are adding to your data base should know that you are collecting their data. You aren’t able to collect it from a directory or from a third party.
The process needs to be open and transparent
They need to know what you are using it for. This is usually for club marketing and administration purposes.
It can’t be passed on to a third party unless the individual agrees
There needs to be an opt out on all e mails
Children under 18 - you should have parental consent