Posts Tagged ‘rewards club management
3 Tips for Writing Better Newsletters
Writing a newsletter to your customers seems straight forward, easier than cooking an omelet. However, most people struggle. They write boring, long drawn out, verbose newsletters that don’t really connect with their readers. Here are three easy tips to producing better newsletters.
Personalize
Write your newsletters from your prospective and not that of a major corporation (I vs We). You want your readers to feel like you are their pal. You do want them to be your pal, right?
The goal is to build an emotional connection with the reader so that they feel like they have an “in” with your business. You need to be that “in.” The more loved the reader feels the more likely they are to pick your business over a competitor next time. Here are a couple other easy tips:
- Sign the letter from yourself at the bottom
- Address the recipient/reader by name when you can (Hello Jeremy)
- Have a conversation with the reader by asking engaging questions.
Craft a Good Subject
First off, stay away from words that will trigger spam filters such as “Cash”, “Free”, “Help.” Unfortunately those aren’t the only popular words that trigger spam filters, there are a bunch of words/phrases that you should be aware of otherwise your delightfully crafted newsletter will end up in a place that no one visits. A few other things to be cautious of are repeating characters such as the “!!!!!” or all caps “FREE MATCH PLAYS!!”
What makes a good subject line you ask? Well, the best thing you can do is be direct with your subject. A wise man once told me, “Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them.” By consuming something three times it increases the probability that it will stick to the reader. Your subject line should tell the reader what they are going to read in the body before they open the email. Here are some good examples.
- “Artisan Pasta to Die For” (www.foodzie.com)
- “Someone has to earn a 2012 WSOP seat, why not you?” (www.wsop.com)
- “3 Tips to Improve Your Social Media Measurement” (www.simplymeasured.com)
These were all great subjects because I knew what the email was about before I opened it.
Keep it Short by Using Visuals
Using visuals is a great way to keep a newsletter short. Let’s take a play from Apple’s playbook. They use very little text, basically just a headline, sub header and one line of copy to tell you when and how you can get a new iPad.
If you have more to say, why not use this as an opportunity to get the reader to visit your website? Foodzie and Apple both link back to pages on their site with more information about the product.
In ending, keep your newsletters simple. By being personable, crafting a good subject and using visuals where possible, you’ve made it easy on your reader to consume your message.
Jeremy
Yes, iPads are sexy … introducing AnteUpdates
It’s easy to for us to talk about our new iPad application, AnteUpdates, but we’ll do the smart thing and just show it to you. Check out our new app for casinos and card rooms:
Our focus at RewardsForce is markets that are underserved in the loyalty and rewards space. Local card rooms are a perfect market for our first product for a variety of reasons:
- Outdated hardware systems and / or paper-based systems are used to maintain a simple CRM system. Maintaining these systems can take up to 40% of a floor manager’s time.
- The IRS and state gaming commissions require certain compliance reports to be kept on file. These reports are filled out frequently enough to warrant an electronic system.
- A lack of fruitful information about their most valuable customers. Their largest customers make up 80% of their revenues, but only represent 20% of the customers. There’s a huge opportunity here to increase customization to those customers.
AnteUpdates is specifically designed to help fix these problems and also administrate a rewards club.
The app makes it easy for floor managers to collect customer information and provide customized customer service to their best clients.
Specifically, the application also helps a floor manager keep track of:
- comps given out to a player
- a player’s reward points
- a player’s description and picture
- a player’s previous playing history
- a player’s buying preferences, and
- gambling commission compliance reports such as MTLs.
The app helps card room casinos overcome the unique customer service challenges of their industry. The best part is that the app is only part of the platform that is available to casinos. Our back-end system stores the information and the dashboard provides all the analytics and administration in one place.
This makes it easy for any general manager with a computer connected to the internet to get a clear picture of customers and the health of their rewards club.
