Your team sends email. Schedule announcements, promo nights, fireworks, opening day.
And yet ticket sales from email feel flat.
Most teams can’t say whether their email is actually working — because they’re not running an email strategy. They’re running a calendar of blasts.
In Episode 171 of the Sports Marketing Machine Podcast (powered by Revelocity Sports), I break down the difference between using email as a blast and building it as a system — and the six journeys that turn it around.
Listen here: You Don’t Have an Email Problem. You Have a System Problem. https://revelocitysports.com/podcast/episode-171/
Here’s what the blast approach quietly costs you:
70 to 75% of fans get to the cart and abandon it. In minor league baseball, 80 to 85% of single-game fans don’t come back the next year. And almost no team has automated follow-up to catch them. Every one of those is a fan you already paid to acquire.
The fix isn’t sending more email. It’s sending the right email at the right moment — triggered by what the fan actually did. That’s a lifecycle system: automated journeys that fire on behavior, not on a date.
And it works. Teams running this are seeing open rates of 35 to 65% and conversion rates 3 to 5 times a generic promo send. When a first-time attendee gets a personal email 48 hours later, it feels like a conversation — and conversations convert.
A few things we cover:
- The six journeys every team should run — win back, lapsed buyer, first known attendee, one more game, know before you go, and post-game survey
- Why win-back and lapsed-buyer journeys quietly outperform everything else
- How “Know Before You Go” doubles as an upsell engine and a sender-reputation boost
- Turning the post-game survey into a warm-lead machine for groups and season tickets
- The persona layer that makes the same Bluey Night email land for both young families and grandparents
If your open rates have plateaued and you’re sending more email hoping for more sales, this episode is the reset. Relevance beats volume every time.
Listen to the full episode → https://revelocitysports.com/podcast/episode-171/
P.S. Pick one journey this week — Win Back is the easiest. Pull the fans who haven’t engaged in 90 days, write them one behavior-specific email instead of one more calendar blast, and see what comes back.
