In “Questions From The Client”, we reach into our grab bag of client queries to answer a question that we often hear current and potential SocialToaster clients asking.
Today’s question: Can baseball teams use advocacy marketing to drive ticket sales?
Well, buy us some peanuts and crackerjacks, because today we’re heading to the ballpark! We mean, can you even say that you’re enjoying summer if you haven’t watched a baseball game? We think not, which is why we’re sliding into home with these tips on how baseball teams can use advocacy marketing to build their fanbase and drive ticket sales all season long.
Why Advocacy Marketing?
Before we start popping pop flies of advocacy marketing knowledge, let’s go over the ground rules. Why should your team care about advocacy marketing in the first place?
In an advocacy marketing program, your fans are charged with sharing your branded content onto their personal social media profiles. Personal profiles tend to get a broader organic reach than a brand’s profile. Which is great news for teams who are tired of constantly boosting and promoting posts in order to get more visibility on their content.
On top of an expanded reach, content shared through an advocacy marketing program tends to be more trusted by fans. 92% of consumers trust word-of-mouth recommendations. Every time your advocates share your content, they are passing along their personal endorsement and recommendation.
Even better, recommendations from a trusted friend or family are 50-times more likely to drive a purchase compared to other sources (like paid advertising).
All-in-all, if you’re looking for a new marketing program that can help increase visibility and engagement, while also driving ticket sales, then look no further than advocacy marketing.
Ready to get started?
Three Advocacy Marketing Best Practices for Driving Baseball Ticket Sales
1) Start With A Strong Content Plan
The better your content, the stronger your advocacy marketing program. It’s that simple. Lucky for your brand, your baseball team’s marketing strategy is no doubt already producing a ton of amazing content for your other marketing channels.
Leverage those assets to support your advocacy marketing program. Specifically, look for opportunities to create or share any of the following content subjects:
Featured Athlete
Whether it’s your team’s home run hero or your rookie-of-the-year, use your advocates to build awareness of your players in the market. Don’t just share stat sheets or post-game recaps, create content that allows your fans to truly get to know their favorite player.
Organization Spotlight
On top of sharing content that features your athletes, you should also create and share content that spotlights your organization as a whole. From your mascot and managers to the vendors and janitorial staff, there is a story to share about every person who works for your organization.
Specials and Theme Nights
In other words, content that focuses on the game. If there’s a special theme coming up, attendance gift, fireworks or even a ticket sale/discount, create content around that upcoming game highlight. Then have your advocates share that content with their social media profiles. Drive ticket sales by getting your fans excited about upcoming games.
2) Recruit, Recruit, Recruit
At SocialToaster, we’ve found that the average advocate in one of our programs is connected to around 600 people through their social media profile. Which means that if you have 100 people in your advocacy marketing program, you have the potential to reach as many as 60,000 individuals, 1,000 people? That’s a potential reach of 600,000!
The more advocates in your program, the greater the reach and impact of your efforts.
Strong recruitment is all about consistent messaging. You can’t simply make a one-time ask and expect everyone to sign up. Your program needs to have a presence at all of your games.
Here are a couple of ways we’ve seen baseball teams market their advocacy marketing program:
- Advertisements in the in-game program
- Announcements during the game
- Booths in the ballpark
- Special on-field events
As a best practice, be sure to include a strong call-to-action and crystal clear direction on how to join your program.
3)Incentivize and Reward
If you want to see strong performance from your program and your advocates, consider building incentives and rewards into your advocacy marketing efforts. The more engaged your advocates, the more content they share. The more content they share, the more tickets you sell.
Need some ideas on strong advocacy marketing incentives?
Tickets
It’s safe to say that the advocates in your program are fans of your baseball team (otherwise, why would they be in the program?). As such, free tickets to an upcoming game can often be a strong incentive for participating in your program.
VIP Treatment
In addition to free tickets, consider creating unique fan-building opportunities for your advocates to earn through their participation. This could be a meet-and-greet with their favorite player or special in-game suite seating.
Merchandise
Empower your advocates to show off their fandom wherever they are by rewarding them with branded merchandise. Bonus points if it’s autographed.
Advocacy Marketing is A Home Run
Don’t let the mid-season slump drag your ticket sales down. A strong advocacy marketing program (completed with dynamite content, a growing audience, and the right incentive), can be just what your organization needs to grow ticket sales and ensure that every game is a sellout.
Not sure how to get started? We can help. Our team of advocacy experts can work with you to create and launch an advocacy marketing program tailored made for your team. Schedule a demo today to get started or give us a call at 855.62.TOAST.
