The 9 Key Takeaways From Our Black Friday/Cyber Monday Webinar
Our latest webinar, FEVOForum Presents: Perfecting Your Holiday Sales + Marketing Strategy, covered everything you need to know to make a huge impact with your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales through FEVO this year.
FEVO EVP of Partner Success Jamie Hernandez led a spirited chat with Jody Thorson (Director of Ticketing Operations, Ottawa Senators), Dustin Stafford (Director of Sales and Services, University of Kansas Athletics), Haley Durmer (Director Strategic Marketing and Sales, Seattle Mariners) and Marc Mahoney (Director, Suite and Group Sales, Seattle Mariners) about all the tricks they keep up their sweater sleeves to drive revenue ahead of the most wonderful — and fiscally critical — time of the year.
Each of the panelists brought a wealth of experience to the table, diving into a variety of tactics that’ll help you optimize and get creative with your holiday sales programming. Here are a few key takeaways from the webinar …
Meet Fans Where They Are
Post-Covid, the Mariners decided to move their suite sales online, and it paid huge dividends around the holidays. On a single Cyber Monday, they managed to sell more than 6x the amount of suites they ever had via similarly themed offline sales. “It turns out that the price point is not prohibitive and we’re lowering the barrier of entry to people who before may not have been interested,” said Marc Mahoney. This strategy led to nearly 80% of purchasers being first-time buyers!
Get People in the Door
Mahoney notes that “it’s better to have a suite full at a discount than to be completely empty.” So even if you have to sell distressed inventory at a lower-than-normal price, it can do a lot of work in getting new people in the system who can then be converted into repeat buyers.
Stack Value
Word to the wise: the Mariners also use FEVO to stack additional value via offerings like F&B vouchers, parking passes, fan experiences and more.
Test Your Distribution Techniques
Haley Durmer and the Mariners spend a lot of time testing channels to see which ones deliver the best returns for BFCM deals. They’ve found that lower-funnel campaigns see the best ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), but that can change from team to team — which is why you test!
Pre-Communicate the Sale
Prepare your fans ahead of time for your sale: Send an email before the actual launch letting them know a sale is coming and what to look out for. Durmer also noted to pay attention to email analytics and send this email when open rates are the highest.
Put Some Thought Into Your Sale
BOGOs can be more impactful than 50%-off sales, according to Jody Thorson of the Ottawa Senators. This gets people in the doors on more than one occasion, increasing the likelihood they will become repeat customers. And on top of that, it creates an opportunity for cross-sells and upsells like merch, concessions, parking and more.
Give Yourself Buffer Time
Plan ahead for these things. Thorson recommends choosing the games you want to feature at least two weeks ahead of the sale to give your team enough time to build and test all of the links and communications you plan to send out.
Get Creative with Your Offers
Stafford and the University of Kansas used FEVO to go beyond tickets, offering up rare and unique KU memorabilia that fans went crazy for. They of course put game tickets up for sale as well, which many fans purchased while they were browsing the one-of-a-kind items.
Use Everything FEVO Offers
FEVO has a robust tool kit for you to take advantage of, whether it’s REF Codes, Promo Codes, in-platform reporting, the FEVO Exchange program for extended distribution, our SMS/texting partnerships with Vozzi and Laylo, our mobile-friendly checkouts and more. It’s all here to help you sell better; get in touch with a Success rep to make sure you’re making the most out of the tools at your disposal.
You can also watch the webinar in its entirety below...