Boost Your Cinema Newsletter Performance With Showtime Engage
Newsletters - How to Craft a Compelling Template
Your weekly newsletter is your virtual foyer showcasing your weekly screenings, so make it something your customers look forward to opening every week! Your newsletter should be visually appealing, consistent and easily navigated.
Styling
Use your own brand style guide to set up your Master style and save you having to manually do it each week. Your background colour, heading and body font style, link colour and button colour and shape should all be set so that the drag and drop widgets you use fall within your brand guidelines and ensure a consistent experience for your customers.
Layout & Content
When deciding on content, a good rule of thumb is to start with your new releases for the week at the top using a Headline Image, Text Block and Call to Action Button e.g. ‘Book Tickets Now.’ You can also include a trailer video link that takes readers either to YouTube, or ideally your own site if you have it embedded there. You can do this more than once depending on how many new releases there are that week and which of them you want to shout most about.
New This Week With Headline Image & CTA
Trailer Video Embedded After Text Block
Next you can include a visual layout of what else is showing that week, using either a similar format to the above, a Showtimes Grid widget, an Image Group, a Showtimes widget or a combination of them all. A clear header such as ‘See What’s On’ or ‘Also Showing’ is a good practice to help break up the sections of the newsletter for your reader. Once you decide on the format you’re going to use try and adhere to that logic each week for the sake of consistency.
The best way to lay out your newsletter will vary depending on how big your circuit or site is and how many movies you have playing. For example, a multiplex site is best not using the Showtimes widget as there will be multiple movies and multiple showings, which will take up too much space and make the email too long, so a Dynamic Showtimes Grid widget or an Image Group with rules that links to the individual movie showtimes on the website could be used instead.
Play around with the layout of the image, text and button to see which format you think works best, and make sure to preview on both Desktop and Mobile view - just remember if you’re using an Image Group to set your Rules for each one correctly so that only the people you want to see this content will receive it. For example you might have a movie playing in only 2 of your 5 sites, so set the Rule that only those whose preferred site is one of those two will see this movie listing, whereas everyone else won’t get it as part of their newsletter.
Make sure to also include any special offers you want to promote, ideally using an image asset that links to anywhere you want to provide more information or where the customer can avail of the offer. Remember to again use the Dynamic content rules so that only those the offer applies to will see it. For example, if you have a Loyalty programme and only want to show the offer to those who sit within the Gold tier of the programme, set the rules so that those who are in the Silver and Bronze tiers don’t see this offer - you might have an alternative offer or piece of content you want to show these customers instead.
Image Group Widget Single Column Mobile View
Image Group Widget Desktop Layout With Special Offer Image
Last Chance and Advance Bookings 3 Image Group Widget Desktop View
Another section you might want to break out is the ‘Don’t Miss’ or ‘Leaving Soon’ or ‘Last Chance To See’ movies that alert customers to the fact this is their last chance to book before it leaves your cinema. Did you know that on average, 33% of customers who want to see a given film in the cinema fail to make it, and of that cohort of customers 57% of them said that receiving an email saying a movie is soon to leave the cinema would help them not miss the movies they want to see.
‘Advance Bookings’ for soon to be released movies are another great way to drive awareness and build excitement for upcoming movies while also maximising ticket sales windows.. Pick 2 or 3 that you want to include that tickets have gone on sale for and include visuals/trailers/copy and the date they are released.
Finally, another section you might want to include in your weekly newsletter is ‘Coming Soon’ to showcase upcoming or future releases that have not yet gone on sale but that you want to build audience momentum for.
You can link to a trailer and/or the listing on your website (using the Caption section) where customers can sign up to receive a specific notification when tickets go on sale. This will help you build a targeted segment for future communications to those who intend to go and see the movie to help you maximise the conversion rate.
2 Image Group Widget Desktop View Edge to Edge Layout
If you are unsure how to access or use any of these new features or need help with any of your Showtime products simply get in touch with our Support team via the Support chat function in your Showtime account.