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Renewal Prep Toolkit

Are you ready for 2021? This toolkit helps you set up your new seasons and prepare a strategy for going live with renewals and new sales. Need help crafting your marketing plan? Utilize the toolkit for excellent tips and examples from the community on promoting ticket sales in today's world.

 

GET STARTED WITH OPERATIONS CRAFT A MARKETING PLAN 

 

 

Operations

Recommended Processes to Use

Opening the New Season

Event and Item Creation

  • Event Build Checklist
  • Build Your Combo Item
  • No Schedule?
    • No worries, you can create a single event to act as your season ticket item at the beginning of your renewal/new sales campaign.
    • Once your schedule is confirmed, you may use this bulk process to convert your single event to your newly created combo item: Single Event to Combo Item Bulk Process.
    • Recommendation: Create a placeholder event and add it to your combo item that does not tie to a specific event in your schedule.  This event can help keep season ticket sales numbers, revenue figures, and a continuous reference to a location intact on the original account throughout the season ticket's life cycle.
  • If you have any questions regarding any of these setup items, please contact Customer Support.

Building Applications

  • Preseason vs. Postseason Applications
    • Reserve Seats = Preseason Applications
    • Renew, Reorder, Reallocate = Postseason Applications
  • Build or update your Item Sets to bulk load your renewable Items (seats, parking, chairbacks, etc.) on your applications in preparation for printing.
  • Ensure Carry Over Credit is available on the application
    • Note: Must have a balance due on the application for the credit to display on the application
    • COC App Setup.png
  • Forms Message creation
  • Do You Have Additional Items?  Here are some examples below.
    • Additional Season Tickets
    • Season Parking
    • Chairbacks
    • Intent Collection
  • Virginia Tech Example:
    • App screenshot_VT with check box additional items.gif
  • Printing Applications
  • If you have any questions regarding any of these setup items, please contact your EOS or Customer Support.

Fundraising Opportunities

Bill Plan Setup and Payment Options

  • Planning to offer your customers payment options?
    • Payment Options to consider:
      • Deferred Bill Plan:  Customer does not owe anything upon checkout, and the first payment is determined by the first date of the bill plan.
      • Small % down initially:  Customer pays a minimal % upon checkout, and future payments are distributed evenly across remaining installments.
        • Bill Plan Setup Example 1 Percent.png
      • Standard Bill Plan: Customer's payments are distributed evenly across a total number of installments.
        • Bill Plan Setup Example.png
      • Full Payment: Require full payment with no bill plan option.
    • Example Bill Plan language on application:
      • app billplan_iowa.gif

Confirmation Pages & Emails

  • Confirmation Pages
    • Directing your customers post-renewal to additional items?  Use your confirmation page to provide a graphic direction for a seamless online experience.
    • Iowa Confirmation Page.png
  • Confirmation Email setup
    • Interested in making your emails more appealing? You can use HTML coding to enrich your confirmation emails.
    • Cal Email Confirmation.gif
    • Note: Paciolan does not support HTML rich email confirmations.  The client is responsible for the coding, maintenance, and testing of confirmation emails if they choose to implement them.
  • Want to send secondary email confirmations to your customers post-renewal?
    • Contact your Marketing Automation Specialist to discuss your options.

Delivery Methods

New Sales/Deposits

  • Offering New Season Tickets or Deposits?
    • Are you offering new sales with allocated seats?  Use the same item/event you created for your renewals.
      • Texas A&M New Sales Example.png
        • Please contact your EOS to prepare your PYO map for your new season.
    • Are you offering deposits or new sales with non-allocated seats?  You can use the same item/event you created for your renewals or create a separate miscellaneous item.
    • UAB F21 On Sale Flow (1).jpg
    • Pitt Deposit Example.png
    • Contact your EOS if you have any questions. 
    • Contact your Marketing Automation Specialist on lead generation form options as well.

Ballena

  • Seat Selection Process Preparation Timeline:
    • General Information and Functionality Call: 2 months prior
    • Back Office Setups: 1-month prior at the minimum. 
    • Marketing Automation Emails Setup: 1 month prior
    • Final data: 1 week before wanting the site to be live.
  • Seats3D Modeling Updates: (Timelines could vary)
    • 2 months: Signage updates (client provided graphics)
    • 3 months: Seat or small structure updates (Example: Partial endzone)
    • 5 months: Full endzone/sideline renovations or larger
      • Please note the timelines above are all based on availability and once all of the references have been received.
  • Functionality Features:
    • Opt-Out Button
    • Seat Block Restriction for Social Distancing
  • Seats3D Utilization & Updates:
    • Make sure you’re Seats3D is up to date with the current pricing. If not, please contact your Ballena Project Coordinator.
    • PYO Maps: Make sure your PYO maps have the Ballena Seats3D images on there.
    • Seat Selection Process Webpages or Seats 3D Site Links:
  • If you have any additional questions, please contact your Ballena Project Coordinator or your Client Partner.

Online Application Examples

Click to view enlarged examples for Miami, Indiana, Southern Miss, and Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall.

F21-application-comp.png

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Marketing Resources

Once you have an operational plan of action, it is time to market and promote renewals and new sales. Check out these resources below to help build your marketing plan for 2021.

 

CUSTOMIZE YOUR MESSAGE COMMUNICATE CLEARLY THANK YOUR FANS

PREPARE FOR NEW BUSINESSNOT READY TO RENEW? TRY THESE IDEAS

 

Customize Your Message 

Segment your target population and customize messaging based on what you know about their actions in 2020. You should talk to someone who donated their 2020 balance differently than someone who asked for a refund in 2020. Check out these tips for each segment below.

Donated Balance

  • Make this group feel special. Make them feel like part of the family. Highlight what the donations they contributed to were able to do for student-athletes and your organization in 2020. 
  • Thank them for their donation (again) and share the excitement of events in 2021. 

Rolled Over/Credited Balance

  • This group will want to know where their account stands. If possible, share their account credits available for 2021 tickets in your renewal materials using variable data in emails and applications. 
  • Focus on messaging about “securing your seats” rather than “renewing your tickets.”

Refunded Balance

  • This group may be the hardest to win back. Focus on the benefits of season tickets and experiencing the event in person. 
  • If you have any discounted or value pricing, promoting to this group could be a good strategy to get them back in for 2021. 

Attended Events in 2020

  • Thank them for being a part of this season and let them know you can’t wait to see them again in 2021.
  • If new aspects of gameday are back in 2021, like tailgating or premium areas, highlight these experiences.
  • This group should be the first that you market to for 2021 as they will be the most likely to return. Others may not be ready to commit yet, so focus on your high-probability accounts first. 

Didn't Attend Events in 2020

  • Focus on messaging about being back together again.
  • Highlight the in-person atmosphere of gameday and focus on how that can be better than the experience at home on the couch.

Indicated COVID Concerns in 2020

  • If you were able to collect data through surveys or phone conversations that someone made a decision for 2020 based on health concerns and event safety, you could send this group information about your COVID policies and procedures to help ease their concern about events being safe again. 
  • Thinking about timing when communicating with this group. Wait until there is good news to share on the COVID front before promoting tickets to this segment. 

Small variations to copy can make a big difference in creating a personalized message for your customers. 

F21-spolight-communicate-VT-L.pngF21-spolight-communicate-VT-R.png

Segmenting in Salesforce

You can use these different segments to serve unique creative to them in digital and email marketing, like these examples above. More explicitly, you can use Salesforce to report and prioritize your renewals. 

LEARN MORE ABOUT SEGMENTING IN SALESFORCE

image (28).png

 

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Communicate Clearly

Variable Data

Communicating clearly to your fans where they stand with their account will be very important, going into 2021. You can use variable data directly in renewal emails to share what a fan did last season with their dollars. Hence, they know exactly where they stand and can consider that when thinking about 2021 tickets.

Think about all the data you have access to and how that may be helpful for your fans. If you have your Sales Representative or Account Owner in the Pac Platform or Salesforce, that can be brought over to Adobe to display in various communication pieces. This way, the fan knows exactly who they should contact with any questions regarding 2021.

 

Communicate Clearly - Combo.png

Digital Invoices

Besides just displaying data in emails, you can take it a step further with Marketing Automation and create a true digital invoice to show what is live on their account. This invoice/statement is updated in near-real-time, so it can be a great tool to help fans understand what they truly owe for their 2021 renewal.

Templates can make creating invoices through Marketing Automation an easy solution. Custom invoices can also be designed to help push fans to renew tickets online and even replace a paper application. 

MARKETING AUTOMATION INVOICE EXAMPLES

Strong Content on your Website

Email communication is not enough. Be sure that your content site also communicates relevant information to your fans effectively. Things like renewal timelines, deadlines, benefits, bonus point incentives, donation information and more should be easy to find on your content site when someone is looking for ticket information for 2021. Click on the logos below to reveal some great content site examples!

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Thank Your Fans

Automated Campaigns

Every year we encourage automated thank you campaigns after renewals or new season ticket sales to go that extra mile in showing appreciation for your fans. We all know why this year is more important than ever, so this is an easy win we can set up ahead of time with Marketing Automation.

MORE INFO ON AUTOMATED THANK YOU CAMPAIGNS

Thank Your Fans - Combo.png

 

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Prepare for New Business

Prospects for New Sales in Salesforce

Once you have your plan for renewals, you can focus on new business. With a potentially shorter renewal period this year, it is imperative to start to think about new sales prospects now.

While you may not know pricing right away, you can prepare several different prospect lists using Salesforce now to be ready to target when you get the green light.

CLICK FOR TARGET AUDIENCE IDEAS FOR 2021

image (27).png

Data Driven Marketing Audiences

Getting ahead of your 2021 digital marketing strategy is also a must. While budgets and pricing are still up in the air, start to think about how you will appeal to your audience for next season. Think about the marketing segments available to you and how you can speak to each of those audiences. Work with your Digital Marketing Specialist to make a plan so you can execute right away once decisions are made.

LEARN HOW TO USE DATA IN YOUR MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

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Not Ready to Renew? Try these ideas

If you are not ready to go live with 2021 renewals or new season tickets, there are still several options available that you can implement now to put you in a better position to generate revenue in 2021.

Renewal Intent Survey

If you are looking to estimate season-ticket holder allocation needs or want to gauge the general interest of your fans in attending events in 2021, a Marketing Automation survey or even an application in PAC can be a great way to gather data. This information can be used to help make pricing decisions, build incentive packages, and even help you message each category differently when you go on sale.

Rather than a full survey, you can get creative with buttons and links to create a one-question “survey” within an email itself. You can tag these links to bring clicks over to Salesforce to gather intent like this Mississippi State example.

TCU did a great job of surveying their fans ahead of their 2020-21 Men’s Basketball allocations, and it gave them valuable data ahead of the process. Check out their survey example below.

TCU SURVEY

Promote Deposits

Get creative and gather intent to purchase with deposits for 2021 tickets. Deposits are a great way to get commitment and revenue for 2021. These can be promoted like any other ticket option with heavy, targeted digital marketing efforts.

Not Ready - Cal Deposits.jpg

Integrated Lead Generation

It is never too early to start building your interest lists for additional offerings like mini-plans or single-game tickets. Use a Marketing Automation form hosted on your content site or eVenue, sent directly via email, or promoted via digital marketing to push fans to provide their info and be the first to receive information when it is available. These form responses can be automatically sent to Salesforce to generate lead lists for your sales team.

VT-GIF-Final.gif

You can also use Facebook’s lead generation ads to gather interest for 2021. This form should have dollars behind it to target high-value prospects on social media and collect their information. These Facebook forms can also be automatically integrated into Salesforce to make it easy for your sales team to engage with them when you go on sale.

Not Ready - NC State Ad.png   Not Ready - NC State Form.jpg

Grow Your Database

For a more basic lead generation, you can use this uncertainty to grow your marketing database. Get creative with Marketing Automation form placement to ensure you are always adding new users to your database.

CHECK OUT ALL THE PLACES YOU CAN USE MARKETING AUTOMATION FORMS ONLINE

Not Ready - Washington Grow Database.png

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