Foursquare begins sending weekly stats emails to venue managers
Yesterday I touched a little on the problem of abandoned venues — those that have been claimed, but aren’t being actively monitored by the venue manager. Foursquare has begun a new email campaign that should make it much more difficult for a venue manager to simply abandon their venue. Each week they’ll get a personalized email recapping the activity and stats at their venue for the past week.
The email shows the number of checkins and how that’s changed month-over-month and year-over-year. A stats recap, containing much of the same information as foursquare’s stats dashboard, comes next. It’s followed by a reminder to update the venue listing and statistics on any currently running specials. The mayor is listed next, along with the top customers for the past 60 days, including a link to their profile where managers can find links to Facebook and Twitter profiles.
If users have added any photos or tips or placed the venue on a list, they will show up in the next section. If not, foursquare includes reminders to encourage users to add them. A series of “pro tips” shows up at the bottom of the email. There appear to be many different tips available. Some of the ones I received include [I removed the links since they pointed to my account]:
- Remind your customers to check in by putting up a complimentary window cling.
- Ready for some new faces? Attract new customers with a Newbie Special. Add a Special now.
- Choose from a variety of different Specials to help you attract new customers or reward loyal ones. Add a Special now.
- Four customers are better than one. Set up a Friends Special to get groups of friends to check out your business together. Add a Special now.
Let’s face it, foursquare is easy to “set it and forget it.” Many venue managers, especially those in small businesses, are wearing a lot of hats. Marketing is, of course, important, but with so many different avenues to attract customers, it’s hard to sit down once a week, log into your foursquare account and monitor the stats, much less be able to process what they all mean.
That’s why these emails are a great way to reconnect venue managers to their foursquare presence. They come right to the inbox, so no one must remember to regularly visit their foursquare profile and include insight into ways managers can get more out of the service.
Venue managers who don’t want the emails can opt out by visiting their foursquare settings, navigating to notifications and unchecking the box next to “Send me weekly reports on how the venues I manage are performing.”
What do you think of the new emails? Will they lead to more interaction from foursquare venue managers?
