Overview

Feeling pressure to fill the stadium for an event a few days away? Create a campaign that focuses on fans who traditionally purchase tickets at the last minute. If you hit these fans at the right time with the right message (maybe even with the right offer), you’ll have them thinking that you know them better than they know themselves.

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Why it Matters

Industry experts recognize that fans are buying tickets closer to the day of an event, which can create a level of unease when all you want is assurance that you'll have butts in seats at your next event. Focusing on Last Minute Buyers allows you to target fans that have a history of purchasing last minute, but also allows you to better influence the timing of their decision making.

Almost 30% of all ticket purchases happen in the 48 hours prior to the event. 

Rice University emailed a group of last-minute buyers within 48 hours of a football game and were able to generate an additional $1,000 in ticketing revenue for that game. (Typical last-minute buyers who did not receive the email bought 0 tickets). If Rice repeated the play throughout the whole season, they could add up to $25K in additional revenue! 

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Getting Started

There are a couple of variations you can consider for this play. You can hit Last minute buyers with an offer right before the event, like Rice did, hoping for a quick conversion. Alternatively, you can go for a more long-term, strategic approach by attempting to turn last-minute buyers into earlier purchasers. Either way, you will use the same audience.

Variations

• Literally Last Minute 
• When to Send: 48 hours prior to the event
• Incentive/Offer: Since this audience traditionally purchases 48 hours prior to an event, an incentive is not necessary. If you're on track for low attendance, an incentive could help get more fans through the door.
  
  
• Reward Earlier Purchasers
• When to Send: 1-2 weeks prior to the event
• Incentive/Offer: If you are trying to change fans' behavior, they will need a good reason to do so. A strong discount or giveaway is typically enough to push fans to purchase, but giving away experiences is the most lucrative incentive available.

Work with your team to craft a repeatable template that contains a few key components that will change for each event. For instance, highlighting a rivalry, having a theme night, doing a giveaway, or hosting a special sponsor event.

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Sending your email 

Create your email template in SendGrid. In FanThreeSixty, go to the Email section and start a new email.

Schedule by event:

• In the email builder, choose Automated email and then Custom Automation.
• For audience, select Last minute buyers.
• Click Add Email, then edit the schedule. You can click on By Event and select the event and time you want to send the email for.

Schedule by date and time

Alternatively, you can select a specific date and time to send your email.

Sending with a third-party email provider

You can send your email with a third-party email provider by exporting your audience. Click on Last minute buyers and then click Use Audience. Select Export from the action menu. From here you can connect your audience directly to Mailchimp, or export it as a CSV.