Does your org ask for email addresses from walk-up ticket purchasers at the front gate or box office?
Do you ask "how did you hear about us?" or "what prompted your visit today?" (or similar) and use source codes to track general marketing efforts? (not asking about direct marketing efforts with discounts or promo codes, but rather general brand advertising or press for guests buying at full price?)
If your org does either of these--or have tried in the past, but didn't find it successful--we'd love to hear your advice! Tips for collecting useful data without annoying the customer too much or slowing down the transaction time too much.
thanks!
Tiffany Zarem
Marketing Director
California Academy of Sciences
Our ticket agents ask "Have you visited us before?" to help gauge the likelihood that they are already have a constituent record. If the guest has not been with us before, they then ask "Can I get either an email address or phone number?" We've found, for the most part, that guests will give one or the other when presented with two options. If a guest is resistant to provide contact info because they don't want to be added to an email/phone list, we opt them out via the Contact Details>Contact Permissions tab. Only rarely do we have a guest who is not willing to give any contact info at all. We turned off the ability for any of our users to sell to General Public because the ticket agents were using it for every order rather than taking the time to ask the guest for their info. We are still working on how to use Sources effectively, but we have begun to use them to track specific marketing efforts--particularly vouchers/coupons.
If someone is resistant to giving contact information, do you make a constituent record using just their name to opt them out?
Essentially. We still try and get as much meaningful info as we can-- for instance, Zip Code.