4 Analytics Tips for Boosting Ticket Sales and Fan Engagement

When you see a stadium full of happy, engaged fans cheering on their favorite sports team, you should take pride in knowing that you are providing your fans with a great experience.

You should also be aware that your fans and their behavior while in your stadium are providing you with a plethora of information that can be converted into sports analytics to study and use for future improvements. It is integral that your athletic department continues to learn about the needs of your fans to keep them excited about your teams.

Gathering data from your fans should include everything that happens in and around the stadium and the event. When and where ticket sales occur, food and beverage choice, and even merchandise buying are all points of interest for predictive analytics in collegiate athletics. When you have the full picture of your fans, you can adjust your marketing plan to meet their needs and provide them with the best possible experience.

Top Tips for Analyzing Customer Data

When it comes to analytics for collegiate athletics, it can be difficult to decide what data is most important for engaging with your fans and reaching new members of your target audience. The truth is, all the data you have about each customer is valuable. The more you know about your customers the more personal you can make the relationship between your brand and the person feel.

Here are a few quick tips for getting started analyzing data in order to boost ticket sales and fan engagement:

Take action! Make improvements and adjustments based on the data. Combining data sets and visualizing this data can help you provide a better experience to your fans before, during and after the event. For example, a combination approach will show you that perhaps season ticket holders prefer specific food and beverages over others. Ensuring their favorite concessions are available in their section demonstrates your knowledge of your loyal fans as well as their concession preferences, which each come from two disparate systems. The analytics based on a 360 degree view of our customer will tell you what is most important to your audience and allow you to adjust your offerings to accommodate them through marketing offers, sales calls and even the food or beverage they find in their section.

Unify customer information for a well-rounded picture of your fan base. You have a multitude of operational data points in disparate systems – parking, attendance, food and beverage, merchandise, secondary ticket market and survey data that can all tie together for a complete picture of the in-game experience.

Utilize propensity models and scores. Once your data is unified, apply a propensity score to your customers to help you identify fans and alumni most likely to make purchases or take other actions. Knowing who these fans are will show you who to target in your segmented email campaigns or who sales should call on first.

Share your analytics across departments. It is important to work with and share your analytical insight with other parts of your organization to ensure you have a plan in place to attract your target audience based on one view of analytical numbers and predictions.

You know how important it is that your loyal fans continue to support your team but also your new fans feel welcomed into the fold. With predictive analytics on top of a trusted customer data management solution, you will be able to see who your customers are and what is most important to them so that you can adjust your sales tactics and marketing strategies for the best return on investment possible.

Mark DiMaurizio

Mark DiMaurizio is a strategic technology executive with expertise in BI, CRM, marketing automation, analytics, and IT operations.

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