How can you reactivate passive supporters?
Or maybe even supporters who are on the verge of churning?
There are many different reasons you might have passive supporters. Some might be Season Ticket holders who haven’t renewed their tickets yet. Or it could be that they are streaming fewer videos on your OTT platform. The list goes on. However, the good news is that you can easily activate these supporters and even make them loyal.
So in today’s blog post we’ll be covering:
The key to reactivating your passive supporters
The challenge that is holding you back from leveraging this key
The solution to this challenge
Three examples of how you can reactive your supporters
Before we dive right in...
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The key to reactivating passive supporters
Before we talk about the key to reactivating passive supporters, let’s first take a look at what will definitely not help you.
Some examples are:
- spamming supporters with email and SMS reminders
- sending out the exact same campaign to all your supporters
- guessing the reasons why they are passive and therefore sending out random offers to those supporters
This list could indeed be longer, but these examples are sufficient to prove my point. Which is that you cannot treat all your supporters the same.
Different supporters have different needs. So how you approach your supporters needs to be adapted to that specific group of supporters. Essentially, you need to tailor your offerings and communication to different supporters. Because only then will your offerings truly resonate with your supporters. So in short, the key to reactivating passive supporters is:
Creating offerings your supporters will really appreciate.
However, there is a challenge that is stopping sports organizations from creating and delivering these offerings. And until you actually solve this challenge, reactivating your passive supporters will be much more difficult. So let’s take a look at this challenge and then, more importantly, how you can solve it.
The challenge sports organizations face
So far, you know that the key to reactivating passive supporters is to create offerings that are personal and relevant to each supporter. So then the next question is: how exactly do you know what your supporters want?
And this is the challenge.
You need enough information about your supporters’ specific characteristics, preferences, and behaviors. Only when you know this information will you then be able to create ticketing campaigns that your supporters will really appreciate. Because not knowing this information is like guessing what a supporter wants. And being the forward-thinking sports organization that you are, you know that guessing is not on the roadmap. You want to be certain that you give your supporters exactly what they want and desire. Because only then will you truly be able to activate your passive supporters and transform them into the loyal supporters that they have the potential to become.
So what is the solution? How exactly do you get access to the necessary information that you so desperately need from your supporters in order to create offerings that you know they will really appreciate?
The solution: converting supporters into contacts in your database
Specifically, you will need to convert your supporters into known contacts – with names, email addresses, phone numbers, preferences, and the list goes. Because once you have collected this information about your supporters, you will then be able to merge this data with your sales data. This will then allow you to find out which supporter segments you should target with your campaigns in a way that you know your supporters will really appreciate. Only when you have this information will you be able to reactivate your passive supporters.
However, converting your supporters into contacts, although a crucial step, is only the first step. Because once you have collected your supporters’ contact information and merged it with your sales data, you will then need to figure out which supporter segments you should target with your different offerings.
At Data Talks, we help you succeed with the 4 fundamentals to selling more tickets, which are:
- Grow your supporter base, continuously
- Collect supporter data with contact information and merge it with your sales data
- Find out which supporter segments you should target with your ticketing campaigns,
- And send out relevant ticket offerings to those segments in a way that your supporters will really appreciate.
Learn even more about the 4 fundamentals to selling more tickets in these blog posts:
- This is why your contact database is still not growing and how you can solve this
- The Data Talks formula to easily sell more tickets, sponsorship packages, and merchandise
- You are not selling enough tickets yet. And this is the reason
- Do you want to make real revenue in sports today? Then do this
- 5 steps to create communication your supporters appreciate
Using the Data Talks Sports CDP, you can succeed with all 4 fundamentals. Because only when you follow these 4 steps can you uncover deep insights about your supporters that will help you deliver offerings you know they will really appreciate.
To see how this would look in action, explore the Data Talks CDP demo >>
So how exactly can you reactive your passive supporters in practice? Let’s take a look at three examples of how you can reactive passive supporters into active ones and even make them loyal supporters using the Data Talks Sports CDP. And for each example, we’ll show you how our customer PAOK FC achieved each case in real life.
3 examples of how you can reactive passive supporters using a CDP
1. Reactivate passive Season Ticket Holders
At some point, next year, it will be time for your Season Ticket Holders to renew their membership for the upcoming season. The assumption is that your most loyal supporters and VIP members would have, of course, already made sure to renew their membership. You should not assume by the way. But for the sake of our conversation, let’s do that.
What about your “less loyal” supporters? Your more passive supporters. You can’t just assume that they will renew their tickets. You might be thinking, surely if someone has bought a season ticket before they can’t be a passive supporter. But how long ago did that supporter:
- buy merchandise in your shop
- actually attend the games and not just buy the ticket
- buy a season ticket? Was it a year ago, 2 or maybe even three years back
These are all important considerations. So you need to act now instead of waiting for too much time to pass.
So here is what you do:
You start by identifying exactly which Season Ticket holders have purchased season tickets for the current season but have yet to renew for the upcoming season. In the CDP, you can easily do this by simply choosing supporters who fulfill this criterion, which means you would choose:
“Supporter has NOT purchased Season Tickets for the upcoming season.”
Once you have specified your supporter segment, you can dig even deeper. For example, you could split your supporter segment into smaller segments based on whether your supporters have previously purchased Season Tickets for specific sections of the arena.
Then, you could also take it to an even more granular level and segment your passive Season Ticket Holders into segments based on what they have previously purchased in the stadium, including food and beverages, and merchandise. You could even segment them based on whether they have bet on specific games. Long story short, only your data is the limit to how granular you can go with your segmentation.
Once you are happy with your supporter segment(s), the next step is to create a campaign that is personal and relevant to each segment based on the information you know about them. So, for example, if you know that your supporter usually purchases certain products in-stadium, then you can include a special offer for their favorite food and beverages in the reminder as well. And in the Data Talks CDP, you can easily create such a ticket offering both via email and SMS.
Here’s how PAOK FC increased their season ticket sales by targeting: the right supporters with the right message at the right time
Just one day before the renewal deadline for their Season Tickets, PAOK FC targets them with ticketing campaigns that their supporters really appreciate. And the results speak for themselves:
- 50% of supporters opened the email campaign
- 10% of those who opened the email campaign renewed their Season Ticket
- 74% out of the supporters who renewed their Seasons Tickets were high spenders
- And 16% of the targeted supporters were VIP spenders, which is the highest spending ranking
This campaign is a great example of segmentation done right!
2. Reactive passive supporters who haven’t purchased merchandise in a while
If you have a merchandise store, then this use case is one you don’t want to skip. And if you don’t have one, then this use case will demonstrate why you should have one – ASAP. Because although your ticket sales are indeed your top priority, merchandise sales is not very far behind. And for a good reason. Because when done right, your merchandise store can become a lucrative revenue source that keeps on giving.
So let’s take a look at an example of how you can reactive passive supporters who haven’t purchased merchandise in a while.
Let’s say you are in the Data Talks CDP. You decide that you want to have a look at your supporters and their buying habits. In the CDP, you can easily and quickly gain these insights by using the RFM dashboard, which shows you:
- How recently a supporter purchased something from you
- How frequently a supporter purchases from you
- How much supporters spend when purchasing from you
Based on the insights you have gained from your RFM analysis, you notice that there are several supporters who have not purchased from you in a while. But when they do, they usually spend more than the average supporter. In addition, you also notice that supporters in this segment prefer to interact with your sports organization on social media channels, including Facebook and Instagram.
Knowing this information, you understand that there is an opportunity to reactive these supporters.
Learn more about RFM in this blog post >>
Now that you know there is an opportunity to reactive these supporters, you go ahead and create a supporter segment including the above-mentioned supporters. And taking it one step further, you also segment them further into segments based on what merchandise they have previously purchased. For example:
- If a supporter has previously bought several t-shirts but never any pants, then you could create a special offer for them to complete their clothing set.
- Or perhaps a group of supporters usually purchase merchandise with the number of their favorite player. Then you could target them with an offer including something with their favorite player.
As you can see, only your imagination is the limit here.
Finally, once you have created your supporter segments, you target them with tailored campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. And before you know it, your previously passive supporters are now active once again.
Here’s how PAOK FC managed to skyrocket merchandise sales with hyper-targeted campaign
When one of PAOK’s best players Jasmin Kurtić “the Sniper,” scored a buzzer-beater goal, the creative PAOK team took action and created a t-shirt campaign starring Kurtić. They targeted their supporters on social media, using insights about their supporters in the Data Talks Sports CDP.
These were the epic results of the campaign:
- 66% increase in sales for their e-store in one single day compared to the previous best-performing campaign.
- 91% increase in sales compared to the day before the game
Because PAOK FC knows their supporters and has access to relevant insights about their specific wants and desires, their campaign was a huge success.
3. Reactivate fans that are about to churn
This third example is an important one because these supporters are passive in several ways and for different reasons. It could be that they haven’t purchased a ticket in a while. Or bought anything from the merchandise store or any of your other offerings. As you can imagine, not doing anything could, in the worst-case scenario, mean that you lose this supporter for good. So it is important that you catch them before it’s too late.
So let’s look at how precisely you can win back your fans and keep them for good.
Let’s say that you’re looking at your different supporters in the Data Talks CDP. Soon enough, you notice that there are some supporters who have not purchased tickets in a while. Moreover, they haven’t bought any merchandise for a longer time period, and they haven’t signed in to your OTT platform in quite some time. All these signs tell you that these supporters are on the verge of churning.
Knowing this, you decide it’s time to focus on these supporters and create offers that are personal and relevant to them. Because this is the only way you can truly connect with them and make sure that they stay and remain loyal fans.
Just like in the previous two examples, you start segmenting these supporters into different segments based on their specific characteristics, preferences, and behaviors. For example:
- If you see that some supporters have previously been Season Ticket holders, then you create a special ticketing offering for them.
- For supporters who have bought merchandise from you before, take a look at what they bought and create a cool offer that they will really appreciate.
- Or if some supporters used to watch certain games or programs on your OTT platform, then would be a good time to send them similar recommendations.
As you can see, you can create as many segments as you desire based on what your supporters specifically want and need.
Once you have created your different segments, you can now target them with offerings in their preferred channel, confident knowing that they are personal and relevant to each and every supporter. So if you’ve followed all these steps correctly, your passive supporters will soon enough be reactivated.
Here’s how PAOK FC managed to reactive their churned supporters via a Name Day Campaign
Thanks to their quick and creative thinking, PAOK FC acted immediately using the Data Talks Sports and saw the following results from their Name Day campaign:
- 50% average email campaign open-rate
- 25% click-through rate in each campaign
- And most importantly, reactivation of their churned supporters
As you can see, when done right, supporters are on the verge of churning, and even churned supporters can again become loyal fans.
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