Information from the club

[leedsvaliant]

I'm a marketing consultant. Unfortunately, very few business owners understand the importance of marketing...it's often the first thing to get cut. But it's actually imperative. You need to be constantly engaging with both customers and potential customers, otherwise they turn away and spend their money elsewhere. Yes, you'll get the blind loyalty within football but that will only take you so far.

I don't always get a season ticket, but they have my email and home address on their CRM system. Where is my 3 to 4 touchpoint reminders? My invite through the post? Why don't I ever know about special nights at Vale? Why isn't someone from the club involved in some of the online outlets such as OVF and some of the Facebook groups? Why don't I get regular emails about nice bits of kit on sale in the club shop? I do get the odd email but it's usually that newsletter that tells me nothing new.

Where is the engagement with fans? Survey? Not having a player of the year awards is unforgiveable really.

There needs a marketing strategy and plan in place, a calendar of events and a plan for how to promote them, as well as a communications plan. It's basic stuff that I do with clients much smaller than Vale. Perhaps there is, but the evidence suggests otherwise.

I get that there is a lot of different priorities, but this is where delegation is key. Whoever is in charge of commercial/comms/marketing really needs to get a handle on this quickly.

[Vale Ball]

Chris Birchall complaining on twitter, all the good people have left the club volunteer's leaving complaining the soul has gone from the club.
Says the club has 147 years of history but is it acknowledged ?

Bit of a weird post ......Sproson statue, one planned for Rudgey,

Sent from my SM-A217F using onevalefan mobile app

[Wrex]

1 hour ago, leedsvaliant said:

I don't always get a season ticket, but they have my email and home address on their CRM system. Where is my 3 to 4 touchpoint reminders? My invite through the post? Why don't I ever know about special nights at Vale? Why isn't someone from the club involved in some of the online outlets such as OVF and some of the Facebook groups? Why don't I get regular emails about nice bits of kit on sale in the club shop? I do get the odd email but it's usually that newsletter that tells me nothing new.

The same things were said under Smurthwaite. We always had a Player of the Year award under him though, despite there being barely any players worth giving the award to.

This engagement stuff sounds fairly basic to me but there must be some kind of complication to it with it being missing from the club for most of our recent history.

Maybe the person or persons responsible have been laid off and nobody who is left has figured out it needs doing yet. I dunno, that's my Occam's razor explanation.

[Warren]

9 hours ago, Guitar Ray said:

Is this a joke?  If not then where’ve you been hiding?  Please take a look at the current structure within the club.  We’ve got more staff than ever, who ought, in theory, be taking all the burden (stress) away from Carol, if they do their jobs properly.

I think communication is very good. It has a less is more quality which means what does come out is well written and directed. Carol leads on the radio when there is something important to say. At the operational level I can buy and collect my season ticket and other tickets easily enough.

[Wrex]

17 minutes ago, Warren said:

I think communication is very good. It has a less is more quality which means what does come out is well written and directed. Carol leads on the radio when there is something important to say. At the operational level I can buy and collect my season ticket and other tickets easily enough.

Yeah it's not like Flitcroft and Carol spew waffle and corporate babble in the rare moments we're told anything 

[Frank Mustard]

Valiant 2001 II

[The man in the pub]

If you are the likes of Man U then the brand sells itself. Clubs like the Vale have to work extra hard to get any exposure. I agree that our Commercial dept is failing in fan engagement . As a season ticket holder they have my email address and they don't use it, a wasted opportunity. If they are having a Sportsman's evening at the club why aren't I hearing about it via an email in my inbox. Just a simple example of very basic communication that unexplainably seems beyond us. Surely it can't be that difficult to send the same flyer out to our fanbase, push of a button ?

[Santa]

DFFC

[jasmart02]

People are upset and feel let down that the club have not arranged a social evening for the fans  with a group of player who at various times since January have been accused of "downing tools", should never wear a Vale shirt again and not good enough for the league they are in. Also that a Player of the Year vote has not been taken when popular sentiment was that the only players that could win it all left in January. That is a pretty difficult sell to the playing staff.

[Phil500]

15 hours ago, The French Connection said:

I think Vale's communication has been poor since Shanahans took over. You'd have thought with Tideswell being around for a couple of years there'd have been a steady stream of stuff coming out, but there wasn't. And there isn't now.

And the odd waffling interview from Carol doesn't make up for it either. If Vale want commitment and involvement from fans, they need to realise it cuts both ways. Regular information coming out of the Club ought not to be beyond the people there. It really isn't that difficult!

Was sat next to Martin Tideswell once at a supporters meeting during a V2001 era . Seemed very good at his then job with the Sentinel, and a Vale supporter through and through

Must have been a dream job at the Vale, but turned into a nightmare. Suspect he composed plenty of press releases, only to have them vetoed by the ones above. Must have made his job very frustrating and pointless.

[The French Connection]

27 minutes ago, Phil500 said:

Was sat next to Martin Tideswell once at a supporters meeting during a V2001 era . Seemed very good at his then job with the Sentinel, and a Vale supporter through and through

Must have been a dream job at the Vale, but turned into a nightmare. Suspect he composed plenty of press releases, only to have them vetoed by the ones above. Must have made his job very frustrating and pointless.

Yes, that would explain it.  I knew he was a Vale fanatic from his Smith Davis days prior to the Sentinel. 

[eh up nah]

Bit surprised at where we've ended up engagement wise.

 

I thought this sort of thing would be a huge area of improvement under the Shanahans.

 

I'm very disappointed with how Carol comes across now. We are all incredibly grateful for what she's done, but fans cannot just be expected to buy into something when they simply don't know what that something is.

Folk like me will always go, regardless.  But i feel like that's being taken for granted at the moment, something I thought was gone as I say.

The extra fans that have returned following success are the ones we need to be bending over backwards to sell something to.

For that, we need a plan/identity.

As a club, Vale doesn't know its arse from its elbow at the minute.  At least that's how it looks.

I'm disillusioned with it, and I never expected to feel this way 9 months ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valeblue]

Can always give Smurf a ring see if he wants to come back? 
And the soul Birchill is on about, is that the soul that has kept Vale in the 3rd and 4th division for over twenty years? 

[valeparklife]

35 minutes ago, eh up nah said:

Bit surprised at where we've ended up engagement wise.

 

I thought this sort of thing would be a huge area of improvement under the Shanahans.

 

I'm very disappointed with how Carol comes across now. We are all incredibly grateful for what she's done, but fans cannot just be expected to buy into something when they simply don't know what that something is.

Folk like me will always go, regardless.  But i feel like that's being taken for granted at the moment, something I thought was gone as I say.

The extra fans that have returned following success are the ones we need to be bending over backwards to sell something to.

For that, we need a plan/identity.

As a club, Vale doesn't know its arse from its elbow at the minute.  At least that's how it looks.

I'm disillusioned with it, and I never expected to feel this way 9 months ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She will always have credit in the bank forever for rescuing us from Smurthwaite.

However, she isn't immune from a bit of flak.

And I think saying that "we had a good January" was really disrespectful to Vale fans. We all know we didn't.

That felt very "politician like".

Let's go back to being honest.

"January could have been better, but we've learned from it" would have been better placed.

[Playa Amodores]

IMO, OVF has been the most entertaining thing about the club, since the Burton game.