Tampa Bay Rays

Tampa Bay Rays | The Walk Up Game

Going into the 2021 season, the Tampa Bay Rays explored all kinds of new technologies to help them collect more directional data, identify more of their fans, and improve the overall ticketing experience.

Tickets.com sat down with Jimmy Reed, Manager, Strategy & Analytics at the Tampa Bay Rays to discuss the 2021 season and what they learned while welcoming back their fans into the stands.

The Walk-Up Game

A portion of sales for the Rays come from game day ticket purchases at the box office, known as walk-ups. While in the past walk-up sales were done in-person, in 2021, the Rays made modifications to adopt mobile-only ticket sales. On game day, fans looking to purchase tickets were met with QR-code signage which when scanned, took them through the MyProVenue™ ticket purchase flow and then to ticket delivery within the MLB Ballpark™ app.

“We’ve been mobile-only the whole year, we’ve had the ability for fans to scan a QR code to buy tickets through the MyProVenue™ purchase flow, but we really wanted to see if we could take it to that next step to make the experience even quicker.”

 

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CrowdConnect Email Marketing: Stop Sending to SPAM and Junk

Email Marketing: SPAM-less

Are your emails falling into SPAM traps? Event messages getting missed by potential patrons? Consider these tips to improve your message deliverability.

What is a SPAM Trap?

A SPAM trap is how an Internet Service Provider (ISP) protects subscribers from getting unwanted and unsolicited mail from ever reaching an inbox.  If caught in the trap, your IP address and your ‘from domain’ will be blocked.

How does it affect my event marketing?

When your domain and IP address get blocked, your marketing messages don’t reach your subscribers’ inboxes, your deliverability rates sink, and restoring your venue’s reputation can becoming a large undertaking.

Here are some tips to keep your messages out of SPAM and junk mail:

Who Gets Your Messages…?

Make sure you create a permission-based subscriber list and continue to focus on those who engage with your messages.  The Open Rate and Click Rates are key indicators in this area.

Content is King!

  1. Create content that is relevant, engaging to your subscribers and keep testing to optimize your performance.  Read more about A/B testing.
  2. Using a wide array of styles, colors, and font sizes (especially larger then 12pt) can be a formatting no-no and easily make your subscribers think your email is SPAM.  So, stick to a simple palate.

Subject Lines Matter! 

Besides creating an incentive to read an email, subject lines can encourage subscribers to mark your messages as SPAM.  Consider the following when creating your subject lines:

  1. Using ALL CAPS can appear as if you are shouting.  Make sure whatever you capitalize actually needs it – when in doubt – skip the CAPS.
  2. Multiple exclamation points don’t necessarily create a sense of drama, they can come across as false enthusiasm.  Instead consider focusing your subject line on relevant, thought-provoking copy.
  3. Just like multiple exclamation points, using too many Emojis can affect your deliverability.  Consider what Emoji is relevant, and how many, if any, are necessary for your target audience.  Read more about using Emojis.
  4. Special characters like “$” and “#” can also trigger your subscribers to think your email is SPAM.  So, if you don’t need them, leave them out.
  5. There are a lot of words that SCREAM SPAM and can quickly get you blacklisted.  Make sure to avoid using words/phrases like: “Free”, “Best Price”, “No Obligation”, “Discount”, “Will not Believe Your Eyes”, “Why Pay More”, “This isn’t Spam”, “This Won’t Last”.  Instead try focusing on subjects with personalization, such as “Hi [Name], do you want to go to a concert?”  Check out this list of SPAM trigger words.

Interested in CrowdConnect the Tickets.com official email marketing platform powered by WhatCounts? Learn More.

CrowdConnect Email Marketing Who Clicks Matters

Email Marketing: Who Clicks Matters

Who clicks matters.

Your email subscriber data can help you understand your patrons, their interest in your events, the content that they care about and more.

Planning to market your next event?

Consider looking back at your previous emails with an Event Report.

An Event Report can help you identify which of your contacts have taken specific actions such as opening your email, clicking on individual links, and even unsubscribing.   Plus, an Event Report can be run for specific email campaigns or for a given date range.

Once you know who is engaging, you can improve targeting for future marketing efforts.

Who matters?

The ones who clicked and the ones who did not.

If you promoted multiple concerts in the same email campaign, then you can use reports to identify which contacts clicked on each variation.  You can then decide who to follow up with on one concert, both concerts, or none based on that information.

For those who did not click, perhaps a new marketing message will be your plan.

The email readers and nonreaders.

Open rate can also tell you a lot about your marketing message.  For instance, if you are testing your subject lines with multiple email campaigns to sample audiences, email opens can provide you with insights on the strength & success of your subject line.

Read more about the value of the A/B test to improve your open rates.­­­

With CrowdConnect you can quickly run Event Reports that will help you better understand your subscribers as well as your patron marketing strategies.

Interested in CrowdConnect? Learn More

Already a CrowdConnect user?  Check out how to run an Event Report now.

Email Marketing: The Value of the A/B Test.

We all know that data is running behind so many of our marketing tactics, but we don’t all know how best to take advantage of what the data can do for us.  With a few simple process changes you can make your email marketing a more effective tool in your marketing arsenal. 

One of the simplest ways to make an improvement is to use data to test out your theory.  An A/B email test can help you figure out what’s engaging your email subscribers and what’s not.    Using a sample size of your market test 1 change and compare your Open Rate results as well as engagement metrics like Click Rate to determine which version was most effective.  Use that answer to be your winning send to the rest of your target market.

Here are 5 simple A/B tests that you can use today!

  1. Subject Lines
  2. Image Choices
  3. Color Choices
  4. Promotional Offers
  5. Placement of your Purchase Link

With CrowdConnect the Tickets.com official email marketing platform powered by WhatCounts your test results are easy to read as you analyze your subscribers.    

If you are a current client learn more about how to set up A/B tests in CrowdConnect using our Knowledge Base.

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