Ipswich Town Football Club increased Facebook engagement by 340% and amplified their reach 150x for every interaction after realizing that success on social media comes from brands being loyal to their fans.
Football is a saturated market with immense competition. Clubs must be on the cutting edge of marketing strategies and technology to stand out. Ipswich Town FC noticed their competitors lacked engagement when they incessantly posted only about their team. These struggling clubs were so focused on convincing fans to be loyal to their brand, that they forgot about the importance of their loyalty to their audience.
"Social media is our way of giving fans a chance to interact with us” said Neil Hawes, Marketing Manager at Ipswich Town FC, who understands the importance of dialogue with fans for developing authentic, lasting relationships.
The Goal:
Only focusing on increasing Facebook Likes sends the message that your already-engaged, loyal fans aren't important. Like-baiting is a trivial and short-term social media strategy, and Ipswich wanted long-term growth. The club never forgets their loyal fans: the ones who come to their games, paint their faces and scream their support from the stands. So how could they translate fan enthusiasm from the stands to social media?
By being loyal to their existing fans and giving their passionate audience something of value.
When looking for the perfect reward for their fans, Neil Hawes noted that "fans love to show to their friends that they are an Ipswich Town supporter." Therefore, a great gift would easily allow fans to sport their team colours online, while making them feel special by giving them exclusive access to a team-related item.
The Champion:
Ipswich's marketing team designed several high-resolution branded cover photos and offered them to fans with a one-click upload app. Information about Ipswich and a link back to their Facebook Page automatically appeared in the description any time a fan uploaded one to show their support, which virally propagated the brand. As Neil explained, "the Cover Photo app helped our fans show their support for the club" by using Facebook's biggest billboard - the Cover Photo - as a way of showcasing their love for the team.
Within a month of launching their Cover Photo campaign, engagement increased by 340%. Every time a fan interacted, an average of 150x more new people saw the story which was automatically generated without the fan or the brand having to do anything. Just by providing a few cover photos for their fans to upload, these stories about their fans' support received 1,000+ impressions per day for the entire first month.
The Ipswich marketing team also learned more about their fans every time they interacted with the branded app. When fans authorized Ipswich, they explicitly granted the team permission to access their name, Facebook ID, profile picture and email. This allowed Ipswich to reach out to them with even more rewards, further developing those essential fan relationships. "We know that the fans using the apps are loyal supporters and our loyal supporters deserve to be rewarded," said Neil.
With so many people installing the cover photos as their own, Ipswich didn’t need a fan gate to increase their followers. Just by giving back to their fans and thus increasing news feed visibility, their Likes increased substantially through organic engagement and awareness about their club. As Neil Hawes concluded: "Tradable Bits apps helped us increase our social media presence and deliver our marketing campaigns to our fans across the world," creating a win-win situation for their club and their fans.
Learn how to develop real relationships with your fans by downloading our "Why Facebook Marketing Matters" white paper or contact us for a free social strategy consultation.
