Our client Sam had a problem.
His advertising strategy had remained unchanged for years, and ticket sales were not hitting expectations. He had an audience but knew there were opportunities for additional sales.
Digital marketing efforts were yielding great results, but we were given just a small portion of his marketing budget to work with.
With the results of our digital marketing efforts in hand, it was time for Sam to trust us with some big changes.
Start with the Data
As you read this case study, keep in mind this process of creating a data-driven strategy can be applied to any industry or company with concrete goals. I would strongly encourage following along with your own company in mind and seeing how these tactics can be applied in your situation.
Before making any changes, we needed more information on Sam’s audience and their behavior. Our ultimate goal was to figure out what was preventing his target audience from buying more tickets.
Research, Research, Research
To gain insight into customer behavior, the first thing we did was look at historical ticket sales data for patterns of behavior.
For analyzing data, here are a few items to look for:
- Patterns in time – When do people make purchases? Look at large and small increments of time.
- Demographic patterns– Who is and is not buying/converting?
- Conversion patterns – How many website visits does it take before signing up / purchasing?
- Psychographic patterns – Are there characteristics your buyers have in common (activities, interests, etc.)?
Translating Data into a Strategy
When examining Sam’s historic ticket sales and website data, we found a number of interesting connections. But patterns were useless numbers until we translated them into an actionable plan. A plan that would help Sam achieve his goal of selling more tickets.
This step, where you use data to create change, is the most important step in any analysis. Sound overwhelming? It’s not if you break it into two steps:
- Identify any current marketing efforts that contradict/support your goal.
- Make recommendations on new efforts needed to support your goal.
Pattern 1 – Buyers visit the website site multiple times before purchasing tickets
Current Marketing Efforts Hindering the Goal:
- Paid social advertising is 1-2 weeks before the event.
- Limited time creates limited exposure for the target audience.
Recommended New Actions:
- Begin earlier social advertising for Sam’s events (4 weeks vs. 1-2 weeks before).
- Allocate a small budget for continual, year-round social advertising.
Overall Marketing Takeaway / How You Can Use (Do) This:
The old advertising adage says that a customer has to see your advertisement seven times before they are compelled to purchase. Depending on your product or service, it may take even more exposure before the desired action is taken by your customer. Knowing this can allow you to build in the time needed for the right amount of reach to make a conversion.
Pattern 2 – A strong connection between website visits and ticket sales
Current Marketing Efforts Hindering the Goal:
- Sam had a generous marketing budget, but it was spread out over a wide variety of mediums.
- Many of these had no way to connect users directly with a way to purchase tickets.
Recommended New Actions:
- Invest more advertising dollars in methods that lead users directly to the company website, such as pay-per-click, social media ads, and other online avenues.
- Use traditional forms of advertising, such as radio, TV, print, etc., as supplemental.
Overall Marketing Takeaway / How You Can Use (Do) This:
Knowing how and when your audience interacts with your product is some of the most valuable information you can have. With this information, you can optimize your website, emails, social media, and sales processes to ensure that customers’ needs are met.
Data-Driven Strategy Results
With these patterns in mind, we shifted Sam’s advertising budget to focus on digital advertising and ticket sales. After only 3 months of this new strategy, results have been impactful. Move Digital and Sam are both excited to see how the strategy affects ticket sales long-term.
Tactics:
- Increased Facebook ad budget by 300%
- Longer social media ad campaigns for events
- Increased use of video
- Increased use of shorter videos (15 seconds and under)
Results After 3 Months:
- 113% increase in tickets sold (over 5,000 seats)
- Website visits increased by 720%
- 83% increase in the number of stories users created on their personal Facebook pages/profiles about client
- 28% increase in retweets
- Cost per result on Facebook ads decreased by 68%
How can you achieve these results?
- Set goals
- Regularly check your goals and metrics
- When your goals aren’t working, CHANGE your tactics
- Trust your data. It always knows best.
- Overwhelmed? Let us help.
Admitting that something is not working can be difficult for any business owner, but it is necessary to succeed.
Do not mistake a switch in tactics for failure. Quite the opposite. Knowing, like Sam did, when to change your tactics is a great strength and something you can only do if you are constantly and consistently critically examining your efforts.