Season tickets are a big part of any sports team’s revenue. Rugby is no different. However, it can be tough to maximise sales, especially in the current climate. There are several factors that could prevent fans from investing in season tickets.

For example, the improved TV coverage of games: The average live TV audience for Aviva Premiership games on BT Sport last season reached record highs, 5% up on the previous highest season (2014-15).

So, more than ever, it’s vital that rugby clubs (and sports clubs generally) maximise existing assets to get fans buying season tickets.

Remarketing Code

Google’s remarketing code is one of digital marketing’s core components. Put simply: The code can be utilised to show ads to people who have visited a website. This is incredibly powerful as it is (more than) likely that the people viewing a club’s website are fans.

Fans can be targeted with a mix of blog content, video content, direct response ads across a variety of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, AdWords and LinkedIn.

Retargeting site visitors is a highly efficient form of digital advertising that should be a key element of any club’s digital strategy when it comes to selling season tickets.

Email Databases

Email databases are an incredibly useful asset for digital marketing. Databases can be segmented into individual groups that can be targeted in specific ways.

For example, previous season ticket holders in a database who decided against renewing their season tickets over the last five years. These users can be targeted with emotionally-charged, nostalgic video content surrounding successful moments – ex. a cup run four years ago where the team reached the final after many memorable home games.

Segmenting people who have already purchased their season tickets for the year ahead is vital. This segment can be cross-referenced against the retargeting campaign (step 1), this prevents season ticket holders being shown content promoting buying a season ticket. This is a simple but efficient way of focusing a marketing budget.

Retargeting Engagement

All platforms offer some form of retargeting. A simple example is YouTube can target users who watch Video X with Video Y. It seems simple, but this is a highly specific way of talking to an audience who are (already) incredibly engaged with a club. These users can be cross-targeted with existing season ticket holder database (ruling them out) as well as radius targeting around the stadium/city/region (ruling out fans in, let’s say, Australia – sorry Aussies).

Another way of ruling out targeting users who already season tickets is putting a specific piece of retargeting code on the conversion page after purchasing a season ticket. This URL then operates as a Venus flytrap: Once someone reaches that page, they’re gone, excluded from the digital marketing for the season. No point spending budget on preaching to the converted.

Contact:
Patrick Macnamara, Managing Director of Terrier
Company: Terrier Agency
Address: Terrier Agency, 8 Lee Street, London, E8 4DY, UK
Phone: +44 207 1831 022
Website: https://www.terrieragency.com/