Portland Trail Blazers Look for Social Media Campaigns to Boost Ticket Sales

The Portland Trail Blazers have continued to look to boost ticket sales after last season’s “Deal of the Week” promotion soared more than 210 percent following a revamped Twitter, clinic Facebook and email campaign powered by global interactive marketing provider ExactTarget.

Using ExactTarget’s Interactive Marketing Hub and its SocialEngage and Email applications, anesthetist the Trail Blazers centralized its interactive marketing campaigns, analytics and reporting, giving its marketing team new insights to offer more relevant promotions and improve real-time engagement with fans.

“Before ExactTarget, we were less connected to what we were doing on social media and email,” said Caitlin Leonard, interactive manager for the Portland Trail Blazers. “ExactTarget has enabled us to effectively engage fans and followers and unified our communication, sales and service to improve our customer experience.”

During the season, the Trail Blazers sent weekly emails featuring ticket offers and information alongside a Facebook campaign that encouraged fans to subscribe to their email for exclusive “Deal of the Week” ticket promotions. Managing engagement and offers across the multiple platforms caused difficulty engaging fans, said Leonard– something the team remedied with ExactTarget’s suite of integrated applications.

Last year the team saw their Twitter following double to over 80,000 and reached over 386,000 fans on Facebook.

“By integrating the power of social media with other interactive channels, brands can create cross-channel opportunities for fans to interact whenever and wherever they like,” said Tim Kopp, ExactTarget’s chief marketing officer. “Now more than ever, social engagement is driving real business results – from generating leads to improving customer satisfaction and driving website traffic.”