BEST PRACTICE FROM PROFESSIONAL SPORT

Joint start to a masterful season

This case study shows how Bayer 04 Leverkusen mastered a successful email campaign with voucher code for the jersey launch of the 2023/24 season - in the truest sense of the word. Congratulations on winning the German Football Championship and the DFB Cup 2023/24. This customer success story confirms that strategic email marketing and targeted offers are successful measures for launching products and increasing sales.

Case Study Bayer 04 Leverkusen: Herausforderung

Challenge

Increase sales: New home jersey for the new season

Bayer 04 planned the launch of the new home jersey for the 2023/24 season. The primary goals were to maximize sales of the premium product and at the same time show appreciation for the most loyal fans. To achieve this, a targeted email marketing campaign with a special voucher code was initiated.

Solution

Successful jersey launch with customized email campaigns

The campaign comprised several steps to achieve maximum reach and effectiveness:

Initial push to fans with season tickets
Fans with season tickets received a discount code by email the day before the jersey was launched, which reduced the price of the jersey in the online store and fan store. As the premium product home jersey is never part of discount campaigns, this exception was a special appreciation for the most loyal fans. The discount code was implemented using the voucher add-on on the Inxmail platform. Anyone in possession of several season tickets was able to forward the code. To do this, the forwarding platform sent a trigger to the Inxmail platform, which then sent an automated email including the discount code.
Marketing to members and newsletter distribution list
The marketing of the new jersey began with a mailing to the members of the soccer club and the entire newsletter distribution list. In this first phase, the use of voucher codes was deliberately avoided.
Automated reminder mailings
At appropriate times, an automated reminder mailing was sent to fans who had not yet used their code - for example, at the opening of the season, at the first competitive match or shortly before the voucher code expired.

“Our online store and our campaign system work perfectly with our email marketing platform. With the voucher add-on, we were able to set up our campaign easily and intuitively. The fans benefit from this solution in the form of an attractive discount and we benefit from the smooth processing.”

Luis Schmitz

CRM & E-Commerce, Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH

Achievements

Bayer 04 increases sales and fan loyalty with Inxmail

The collaboration with Inxmail and the use of the email marketing platform in combination with the voucher add-on proved to be extremely successful. The soccer club was able to achieve its goals while building a closer connection with its most loyal fans.

The campaign achieved remarkable results in terms of open and click-through rates and increased sales:

∅ 60.72%* open rate
∅ 19.07 %** click rate

Thanks to the targeted approach and the use of personalized discount codes, Bayer 04 Leverkusen was not only able to increase awareness of the new jersey, but also significantly boost sales.

^{* Inxmail email marketing benchmark 2024: ∅ open rate 23.3%}
^{** Inxmail email marketing benchmark 2024: ∅ click rate 3.5%}

Solutions used

Newsletter & Campaigns
Voucher add-on

Reasons for Inxmail

About Bayer 04

Bayer 04 stands for attractive top-class soccer - both nationally and internationally. The club was promoted to the Bundesliga in 1979, and seven years later the Werkself qualified for the European Cup for the first time. The team has been a guest on the European soccer stage for decades, has been first-class for more than 40 years and was crowned German soccer champions for the first time in the 2023/24 season.

www.bayer04.de/en-us

Industry:
Professional sports
Company size:
Large company
Location:
Leverkusen
Use case:
Increase of sales in e-commerce