Ticketing in Sports: How to Boost Your Ticket Sales?

In today’s world of sport, live and online events are becoming more of the same priority and popularity – sports tickets are almost like hot cakes! After months of restrictions, fans are craving to see more live matches. Equally, with the increasing importance and activity in social media, the online audience also searches for more entertainment.

Meanwhile, sports organisations are determining how to improve their sports tickets sales and fan engagement after a shortfall. The new goal is to find new ways to increase sports ticketing using digital media and bring fans back into their seats.

So how to boost ticket sales in your sports organisation? In this tutorial, we will present our tips and solutions on:

• How to achieve the best results with our product WICKET;
• How to build a solid fanbase;
• The importance of keeping a database of your fans. Personalising communication and client retention and much more.
  

BUILD YOUR ONLINE FANBASE

Without an engaged and loyal online community, your ticket sales will not meet your demands. Make sure you combine social media channels, build your PR and be unique. Engaging fans, keeping them up-to-date with what’s going on in your club, offering them amazing offers and experiences is the starting point of a successful ticket sale strategy. 

If you would like to learn more about fan engagement in sports, make sure to check out this article!

Another important aspect is to make it as easy as possible for the fans to navigate through your content. The single sign-on (SSO) functionality of WICKET allows fans to access exclusive content, e-commerce, discounts, promotions, ticketing platform, etc. Fans have only one set of credentials to remember, reducing the number of support requests.

Moving around your website or app becomes a piece of cake for your audience. No more annoying login pop-ups and URL redirections when buying the match tickets!

BUILDING A SECURE DATABASE

Once you have established your fanbase, you must keep their data secure. First and foremost, the storage of data must be GDPR compliant. With that in mind, your users do not need to worry about their personal data’s irresponsible or reckless use. Secondly, knowing more about your fans, understanding their interests and behaviour come in handy when planning your ticket sale strategies – more about it in the next point.

WICKET is fully compliant with data storage security requirements. It enables you to collect, store and classify data while being very scalable and adaptable to database growth.

PERSONALISED SPORTS TICKETS SALES

Different types of fans have various reasons for attending your event. With social media and email marketing, you can tailor your messages to each one and boost your sports tickets sales. After learning more about your fans and securing their data, you can use the gathered information to personalise communication with your audience. 

Offer family tickets to families with children, encourage frequent participants with a season pass, easy as that! Once you integrate WICKET into your organisation, it becomes your single source of customer data. Apart from personalising your communication, it allows you to visualise the progress and effectiveness of your marketing and ticket sales campaigns.

USE REFFERALS AND LOYALTY PROGRAMMS

According to Nielsen research, 92% of consumers trust referrals from people they know. How many times have you listened to your friend’s or relative’s recommendations? Primarily, referral programs get you in front of more potential clients, but secondly, they make those prospects more likely to convert! 

Referrals are one way to attract new ticket buyers. However, loyalty programmes will hook your fans and present them with special offers and discounts. Loyalty programmes drive sales and increase customer lifetime value. On top of that, they create emotional commitment through repeat behaviour and play an essential role in customer retention. 

With WICKET, you can craft unique loyalty programmes that will boost your ticket sales. You can use tokenisation for loyalty programs that resonate with younger fans and have great potential for marketing campaigns.

BLOCKCHAIN AND TOKENISATION

Speaking of tokenisation, what do blockchain technology and tokenisation have to do with ticket sales? It turns out that blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFT) ticketing can cut out middlemen and resellers. Ticket scalpers systematically buy large numbers of sport and entertainment event tickets with the sole aim of reselling them at a high profit above the initial purchase price.

The benefit of using Blockchain and NFTs for ticketing is that event organisers can keep track of the tickets even after they are sold. Each ticket is securely linked to its respective buyer, and these transactions are stored in the Blockchain database.

WICKET allows innovative blockchain-based integrations like identity confirmation, service pricing, tickets sales, e-wallet, which in turn will allow to purchase and keep track of the tickets securely. Moreover, the e-wallet functionality enables you to use tokens as prizes to further loyalise fans, e.g. rewards for registration or participation in your club’s activities.

TISA’s PRODUCTS

So now you know some basic but essential steps to improve your ticket sales. WICKET is a tool that will surely help you to achieve these goals. However, in order to bring your result to the highest level, we highly advise using WICKET in conjunction with our other products, e.g. UMPIRE.

The two products reach full potential together and open new opportunities to increase your ticket sales. For example, UMPIRE enhances communication across all digital platforms, boosts fan engagement and builds a solid fan community. With both products, your fans will never miss an update on your future matches or events, have easy access to buy the sports tickets, and not worry about their personal data or ticket authenticity.

CONCLUSION

When it comes to increasing online ticket sales, you have several options at hand once you’ve mastered the basics. Here’s what you need to remember:

• Building your fanbase with appropriate tools and strategies is an essential starting point. Without an engaged and loyal audience, your ticket sales will never reach their full potential.
• Obtaining and securing your fanbase data is critical from the law’s point of view and your future marketing strategies.
• Personalisation doesn’t have to be difficult, and it is the best way to make your communication look authentic and attractive in the eyes of your target audience.
• Word of mouth and loyalty programmes play a significant role in finding new customers and customer retention. 
• Do not be afraid of implementing new technologies like blockchain or NFTs. Both can improve the security of your ticket sales and further loyalise your fans.

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Are you looking for more information about digital transformation in the sports industry? Visit our website to learn more about dedicated products and innovations designed for sports. To find out more about how TISA can help your organisation thrive in the digital world, contact us directly – we will be happy to talk about your case. And if you’d like to join our team and help us create the best digital solutions for the world of sports, check out our current career opportunities.