Quick post for you all on this Monday morning, but it’s an important one. I wanted to share with you a letter that I recently received from the salesperson who sold me my car:

Dear Russell,

Hello!  I hope you do not mind my staying in touch with you!  It has been about six months since you purchased your new vehicle and I just want you to know I am here, at your service.

I hope you will give me a call any time you, your family or your friends have any automotive needs or questions.  I am here to help.  Remember, my commitment is to be of service to you.

Sincerely,
– HIS NAME HERE –
– HIS COMPANY –
– HIS PHONE & EMAIL –

There’s nothing fancy here, no sales pitches or angles. Just a simple message to say hello and see if there’s anything I need. Yes, there is a subtle reference to potential referrals, but that’s an important part of sales, and most of the time, people do need a little prodding before they’d refer a personal contact.

To me, a letter like this is a critical component on maintaining a valuable relationship with your customers, and this can easily be applied by sales and service staff for any sports organization. You don’t always need a reason to reach out to your season ticket holders. Sometimes just saying hello is enough to make them feel valued and important. It’s also a great way to casually remind them about your product, and that alone can lead to incremental sales and increased customer lifetime value at practically no cost to you.

One of the things I love about minor league sports is that they have so much freedom to try different things, and ultimately, all their promotions revolve around creating a fun atmosphere for their customers. They realize that they have a very wide spectrum of customers, from the local die-hard baseball fans to families looking for affordable entertainment. For many, minor league sports are the only alternative for those that want to attend live sporting events, but cannot afford the prices that come with tickets to major league games.

Here is a great example that I just stumbled upon from the Trenton Thunder, one of the local minor league teams here in New Jersey. They decided well before the season starts that they want to have something special to offer on any given day of the week, so why not let everyone know about it now and get their fans excited about what days they want to come to the ballpark. Their plans breaks down as such:

• Kids Eat Free Mondays – great for bring families out to the game
• $1 Dog Tuesdays – A favorite marketing tactic for any cost-conscious buyers
• Wacky Wednesdays – Theme nights designed for those that want more than just baseball entertainment when they come to a game
• Thirsty Thursdays – Beer specials and fireworks, who doesn’t enjoy that?
• Family Fun Fridays – Giveaways and fireworks, again geared toward family consumers, but without any discounting involved
• Fireworks Spectacular Saturdays – Another way to generate excitement for the less baseball-obsessive customers (who would come to games anyway)
• Kids Rule Sundays – Giveaways, youth entertainers, opportunity for kids to run the bases, and a free ticket incentive for Kids Club members (which can boost sales of their $15 kids membership club

This is an excellent mix of tactics that should help the team reach a wide customer base beyond the team’s core fan base. In addition, all of these promotions can be successful individually , but without a schedule, it is much more challenging for the team to try and promote each separate event or offer. By taking this approach, the Thunder can really plan our their marketing efforts for the season knowing that each of these offers occurs on a consistent schedule.

Yesterday I received an email from the Arizona State Athletic Department, announcing that all students would be given free admission for the next three home games. That got me to thinking about what other teams were offering to their fans this holiday seasons.

In Miami: You get to take your pick, the Panthers (up to 7 games, a puck and free parking), the Marlins (one ticket to each home series in 2010) and the Heat (too complicated to even get into here).

In Cleveland: The Cavaliers have a holiday ticket plan that includes two Cavaliers games and a Lake Erie Monsters game (hockey) with the choice of either the Harlem Globetrotters, Disney on Ice or a Mid-American Conference (MAC) tournament game. The Plan can cost as little as $79 and you get a FREE Cavs basketball. Not too shabby for anyone within shooting distance of Lake Erie.

In Atlanta: The Falcons’ Holiday Package includes two tickets to the Buffalo Bills game on December 27 (who wouldn’t want to see the Bills play? I would!!) and a $50 gift certificate to hhgregg.com (an online appliance and electronics store). Package of two tickets starts at $98.

In Los Angeles: Chivas USA is offering tickets to four games for as low as $45. The interesting thing about this one is that they are offering tickets to games that traditionally sell well. Games include the home opener versus the Colorado Rapids and match-ups with in-town rivals the LA Galaxy, the Chicago Fire (with popular Hispanic player Cuauhtemoc Blanco) and defending MLS Champions Real Salt Lake.

In Denver: The Colorado Avalanche’s Holiday Pack includes four games (one the day after Christmas, two in January and one in March), an autographed puck and a team flag. Prices start at $89, and the pack also comes with playoff ticket priority.

These are just a few of the offerings available out there right now. If your favorite team or city isn’t listed, I can almost guarantee you that your team has some kind of holiday promotion available. Even if you’re team doesn’t play until the spring, there’s still a good chance that they are offering some kind of deal. And if you work for a team and you aren’t offering a special holiday package, use the ideas above as examples and get to work! Happy Holidays!

Marquette University has taken a very creative approach to selling their season ticket and mini-plans that goes beyond a straight sales pitch. They worked with Row27 Studios to creating a new website that combines team-generated and user-generated content with both a contest and ticket sales information to create an interactive fan experience.  You can visit the site at www.marquetteminiplans.com.

The website displays a 3D rotation of different videos, including game actions clips, interviews with the team (some of which are VERY funny), and placeholders for user-generated videos. Some of the videos are grayed out and will be activated over time, giving fans reason to keep visiting the site. Everything is tied together through a contest, which you can learn about through the links at the bottom of the site. There are prizes based on accumulating points, and you can gain points by creating an account, uploading videos, finding a hidden video, sharing with friends via email or social networking (Twitter and Facebook), and purchasing a ticket package.

I’m not a Marquette fan (I’m actually an alumnus of a rival Big East school), but I’ve already visited the site multiple times to see the different types of videos that they’ve created. I’m sure that the school’s fans will really respond to this promotion. I love the interactive elements and how they encourage and reward the site visitors to share the link with others. This is a great alternative to a typical online ticket sales or marketing campaign.

In sports, it’s very easy to learn who is buying your tickets through the information collected via the ticketing system.  However, it’s not as easy to learn who is actually showing up to use the tickets. Beyond the ticket buyers, the people in the seats definitely include the following groups:

• Family and friends of full and partial season ticket holders
• Season ticket share partners who aren’t listed as an account holder
• People who bought tickets through a ticket broker or other secondary market option (StubHub, Craigslist, scalpers, etc.)
• Employees who received tickets as a reward or part of a company outing
• Current or potential clients being treated to a game

With all of these “non-customers” receiving and using these tickets, it’s important for teams to constantly be thinking of ways to collect information on these individuals and try to turn them into direct paying customers.  Here are some ideas on how you can collect this valuable data during your events.

• Use a drivers license scanner for anyone picking up tickets at the will-call window.
• Have enter-to-win raffle tables at different areas throughout the concourse.
• Run a text-to-win trivia contest on the big screen that sends a follow-up text message encouraging them to opt-in to your email and/or mobile marketing program.
• Make sure that any in-arena surveys being performed also collect names, phone numbers and emails at the end of the survey.
• Put computer kiosks in premium seating or high traffic areas that offer an incentive for completing a brief survey or entry form.
• Have a table to promote the team’s email newsletter or text messaging club, with a computer or forms that let people opt-in right at the table.
• Walk around to the suites, club boxes and premium lounges with a premium raffle item (signed jersey, free suite tickets, etc) and collect entries.  These individual could potentially be high-value ticket buyers or lead you to other potential companies that could be suite or club box leads.
• Make sure that any sales tables also have a business card drop for people interested in receiving more information.

Through these different methods, you will collect a great deal of information about your fans and potential new customers, building up your consumer database and making it easier for the marketing and sales departments to drive new ticket revenue.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Ron Contorno, President of Full House Entertainment Database Marketing.

Being in the middle of hundreds of direct marketing campaigns for sports teams and entertainment venues, we know what works and what does not work.  We also are backed by a lot of research that identifies the businesses and consumers with the most potential to buy tickets.

I want to share a couple hot ideas for finding new season and group sales customers.  Most of these targets address a current or upcoming event (state of the economy, upcoming birthday/anniversary, new mover).  This makes your direct marketing (direct mail, telemarketing and email) more relevant and better timed.

• Counter-Cyclical Industries: Collection agencies, pawn shops, debt consolidation, attorneys, auto repair, apartment-related, etc.
• Company Anniversary Parties: Businesses celebrating a milestone anniversary – 10, 20, 25, 50, 75, 100 years
• Ethnic Business Owners: Hispanic, Irish, Italian, Asian, etc.
• Female Business Owners: Great leads for women’s sports
• Small Business Owners: Great prospects for partial plans and second tier seating
• Kids Birthday Parties: Target parents that have a son and/or daughter with an upcoming birthday.
• Adult Milestone Birthdays: Turning 30, 40, 50, 60
• New Movers: Brand new to your market

Full House provides targeted sales leads for direct marketing campaigns: direct mail, telemarketing and email. Over 600 sports teams, arenas/stadiums and entertainment organizations have used Full House to find new business and residential customers. We also have a free program called BULLSEYE that delivers hot new target markets 1-2 times per month.  To sign up, visit www.fillthehouse.com/bullseye.  Hopefully, the tips that we provide here and in our newsletter will help you deliver the most effective direct marketing campaigns.

My last post discussed identifying the top targets for premium seating sales initiatives.  In that post, I referenced a research article that was prepared by a partnership between the Association of Luxury Suite Directors, Full House Entertainment Database Marketing, Ohio University Center for Sports Administration, and Turnkey Sports and Entertainment.  Ron Contorno from Full House sent me a copy of the complete article, titled “Who Buys Luxury Suites?” and I’d like to share it with all of you. The research for this article took place in 2007, but the information is still very relevant today.

Click here to download the PDF of “Who Buys Luxury Suites?”

I just had the chance to sit it on a panel discussing database marketing and demographic profiling in relation to premium sales.  Ron Contorno, who is the President of Full House Entertainment Database Marketing, talked about some of the things he’s learned through research and analysis that indicates how to best target premium sales prospects, so I’d like to share some of his insights here:

• Of all suite owners, almost 40% come from just 10 specific industry types and 50% come from just 20 industry types (industry type is defined by a specific SIC/industry code).  The top two types were banks/bank holding companies and attorneys/legal services.  Other members of the top ten were media (often through trade deals), insurance, finance, contractors, management consulting, accounting, real estate, and telecommunications. (Note: this information comes from a joint study between ALSD, Ohio University, Turnkey and Full House that was done in 1997).
• While things have definitely shifted a bit since 1997, there are still several counter-cyclical and “recession-proof” industries that are valuable targets.  Some examples of these segments are collection agencies, credit counseling, education providers, discount chains, fast food, auto repair, alcohol distributors, attorneys, home repair and apartment-related companies.
• There are also premium targets on the consumer side that can be easily identified.  Some examples of these consumer targets include airplane owners, luxury car owners, certain publication subscribers (WSJ, Fortune, Financial Times and Golf Digest to name a few), high income/net worth consumers (both local and recent movers to the area) and consumers with a high discretionary spending index. All of this consumer data can be easily obtainable to match against your existing customer database or as new target lists.

Hopefully this information helps share the power that data can provide.  By focusing your efforts based on the right SIC codes, industry segments and consumer demographics, you can generate more effective premium sales campaigns for your organization.

In the past couple of weeks, there has been some extra coverage of the Miley Cyrus concert tour, but it doesn’t have to do with her music.  The entire tour is going to use paperless tickets, meaning that the ticket information will be stored on the credit card that was used to purchase the tickets instead of any physical tickets being printed. The biggest reason behind this movement is to prevent ticket scalping.  Scalpers like to purchase large numbers of tickets as soon as these events go on sale (sometimes using questionable means) and then resell them on the open market at steep premiums.  However, without having a physical ticket to provide, these resellers are losing their inventory.  You can click here to read the full Wall Street Journal article on this topic.  

There are other benefits to paperless tickets as well, including reduced production costs, being environmentally friendly and reducing counterfeit ticket issues.  Of course, innovation always comes with some additional pitfalls.  In this case, there are concerns about long lines at the arena, the safety of patrons that still try to buy from a reseller (they’d need to be physically present at the arena with the ticket buyer to get in) and even some risk of lost sales (however much teams and venues hate to admit it, there is value in being able to sell a large amount of inventory to resellers and get that guaranteed revenue).

While the focus of these paperless initiatives is on the concert side, it won’t be long until this moves over to the team side.  In fact, some teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers have already moved some portion of their customers to paperless tickets.  In these cases, tickets can be loaded onto a credit card or any other id that has a magnetic strip.  Are we going to reach the day when all tickets are digital?  It might not be this year or next year, but I do believe that we’re not too far away from the end of physical tickets.

It looks like even New York isn’t immune to the current economy.  News came out yesterday that the Yankees have decided to cut the prices of their premium field-level seats (New York Times, 4/28/09).  Front row tickets that had cost $2,500 each have been cut in half to $1,250, and tickets along the first and third base lines have been cut from $1,000 to $650.  Anyone who had paid full price previously will be compensated with free tickets to future games, and additional complimentary tickets are being distributed to premium season and partial plan ticket holders.

In the days leading up to this decision, there had been some heated comments going back and forth between Don Garber, the Commissioner of MLS, and Randy Levine, the Yankees team president.  Garber criticized the Yankees for having so many empty seats behind home plate, which did not look particularly good on television.  Initially the team defended their pricing, but after reevaluating they admitted that some seats “might be overpriced.”  Even with cutting these prices in half, the Yankees will still have far and away the most expensive ticket prices in baseball, and they’ll still be the league leader in ticket revenue.

I’d be curious to know what type of price sensitivity analysis the Yankees did before setting their new stadium prices. I’d have the same question for all New York teams that are opening new facilities and substantially raising their prices. A lot of teams still set their ticket prices by feel, which cannot be a very effective method.  If the team’s did run some sensitivity analysis, when did they do it?  The Yankees and the other New York teams announced their price increases quite a while ago, before we knew the extent of the current recession.  If they do the same analysis today, their results would no doubt be quite different.  Some type of advanced dynamic pricing models might help the teams handle this type of situation more efficiently.