173 - The Email Isn't Finished When You Hit Send

Most sports teams know exactly who their fans are — the fireworks families, the premium buyers, the last-minute deal seekers — and still send every one of them the same email blast. In Episode 173, Jeremy Neisser uses a simple ice cream shop analogy to show why that quietly drives fans away, and why the fix isn't better copy or a new platform. It's a system that responds to fan behavior after the send. If you felt the pull of Episode 171 on lifecycle marketing but haven't built anything yet, this is the episode that explains what's actually stopping you.

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KEY TOPICS COVERED
- Why "we know we should be doing this" is the most common response from teams — and the real reason they never start
- How to tell the difference between an email problem and a systems problem (and why it matters for your results)
- The weekly email workflow that feels productive but keeps you stuck in the same loop all season
- Why sending everyone the same blast wastes the fan data you already have on purchases, promo nights, and spend
- The Bluey Night example: how generic messaging makes loyal fans feel unseen and stop paying attention
- Why personalization stalls — it's not that teams don't believe in it, it's that it feels overwhelming
- The critical distinction between campaigns and systems, and why great email marketing is built on systems
- How fans actually experience your team (as a night out, not a campaign) and what that means for your marketing
- What should happen after every open, click, purchase, attendance, and no-show
- The one question to ask this week that reveals whether you have a system or just a send button
- How teams are automating their way into more ticket revenue without adding nights and weekends

TIMESTAMPS
[0:00] — The ice cream shop analogy: why knowing your customer means nothing if you market to everyone the same
[2:05] — Connecting back to Episode 171 on lifecycle marketing and reframing the real issue as a systems problem
[3:00] — The repetitive weekly email workflow that feels like progress but keeps teams stuck
[3:53] — You already have the data: who buys premium, who brings kids, who waits until the last minute
[4:50] — The Bluey Night example — what generic messaging feels like from the fan's side
[5:41] — Why this is a systems issue, not a copywriting or creative one
[7:02] — Campaigns vs. systems: the difference between good and great email marketing
[8:27] — Why systems keep running while campaigns end and require someone to remember
[9:26] — The central takeaway: the email isn't finished when you hit send
[10:24] — Building follow-up experiences after every fan interaction
[11:50] — The question to sit with this week: after someone buys a ticket, what happens next?
[12:16] — The upcoming webinar on automating more ticket revenue with the tools you already have
[13:13] — Closing: leave a rating or review to help other ticket sellers find the show

CALL TO ACTION
If this episode has you asking "where do I even start?" — register for the upcoming webinar. Jeremy walks through the framework for building automated journeys, triggers, and priorities using the tools your team already has, with examples from teams that built these systems without working nights and weekends. Link in the show notes.

Links mentioned: 

Episode 171

Episode Webpage

QUOTE PULLS
"It's not an email problem. It's a systems problem." — Jeremy Neisser

"Most sports teams know exactly who their fans are and what they like. They just don't market like it." — Jeremy Neisser

"Campaigns end. Systems keep running. Campaigns require someone to remember — systems remember for you." — Jeremy Neisser

"The email isn't finished when you hit send. It's finished when it changes what your fan does next." — Jeremy Neisser

"The best marketing organizations don't think about sending emails. They think about building experiences." — Jeremy Neisser

Register for the upcoming July 23 webinar: REGISTER

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Transcript

Jeremy Neisser (00:00.392)
Welcome to episode 173 of the Sports Marketing Machine Podcast, powered by Revelocity Sports. I'm your host, Jeremy Neiser. my family and I, we went out for ice cream today. It's about 95 where we are. Now I'm a pretty simple guy. Every time I go, I order the same thing: cookies and cream in a cup. No sprinkles, no caramel, no toppings, nothing. Just cookies and cream. Now my daughters

Parker and Kennessy, they are the complete opposite. Parker's eleven. She wants chocolate, toppings, mixins. Shh, the more going into that ice cream cone or cup, the happier she gets. Now, Kennessy, she's eight. She just likes popsicles. She doesn't really like ice cream. In fact, she doesn't even really like sweets, truth be told, she takes a couple bites and that's it. While we're sitting there, I got a started to thinking about this. Imagine if

Every single time we went in that ice cream shop, they tried selling me something like Rocky Road or Pistachio. Every single time I go in there and say, hey, buy some pistachio, buy some Rocky Road. But they know what I like. I've ordered cookies and cream numerous times. I mean, they have my purchase history. I've accumulated enough points to get ice cream for free a few times. Yet what if every time I walked in there they were trying to sell me something completely different? It didn't

Be ridiculous. It'd be annoying, truth be told. And eventually I'd stop paying attention and stop being a customer of theirs. Not because pistachio's bad or rocky road, but because it's not for me. And then it hit me. Most sports teams know exactly who their fans are and what they like. They don't market like they do. Let's get to it.

Jeremy Neisser (02:05.974)
Last week I published episode 171 where I talked about life cycle email marketing. I'll put a link in the show notes. The episode is titled Why Your Email List is the most underused asset and how to fix it. The response was fantastic. I've actually had several folks reach out from teams and almost every conversation ended the same way. Jeremy, this totally makes sense.

We should be doing this. I know we're not there yet. And that's what's been rattling in my head ever since. Because I don't think most teams have an email problem anymore. I think they have a systems problem. Let me say it again because I think it's so important that I reiterate it again, not only here, but I was something I brought up in episode 171. It's not an email problem, it's a systems problem. Here's what happens.

If you're the marketing person coming in, and we've said this numerous times, like you oftentimes during the season you're coming in in an O two count and you're really just trying to get things off your plate, get things done, check it off and what have you. But think about it, if every Friday morning you're in the marketing office, someone logs into constant contact or HubSpot, or if you're in Meyer League Baseball, maybe it's iterable, they'll spend a while debating subject lines, adding buttons, rewriting copy for email blast.

Maybe the headline a couple times, and then finally they're gonna hit send. A few hours later, they check the open rate and they celebrate that a decent open rate, decent open rate could be 30%. So out of a hundred people, 30 folks opened it, 70 did not. And you look through and say, hey, we made some ticket sales. That's pretty good. Then Monday rolls around and the week starts over again.

Week after week throughout the season, it's just like this. You get in there, you plan these things out, you craft these emails, you hit send, you look at the data and say, Hey, we sold some tickets and move on. But here's what's crazy. You already have the information to do something different. You know who comes for fireworks nights. You know who came out the Bluey night. You know who spends a lot of money in the premium seats and who buys the cheap seats. You know who comes out once a year, you know who brings kids.

Jeremy Neisser (04:21.216)
You know who always waits to the last minute. You know all of that because you have the data and then everyone gets the same exact email. Think about it, everyone in your entire email list, regardless what they bought, all get the same email blast. Back to the ice cream shop thing that I opened this with. Imagine every single customer gets handed cookies and cream. Well, even the people who hate cookies and cream, shame on them, but nonetheless. What if every single time

At that ice cream shop, they only sold that, and that was it. And they push people to that. Even the people who hate cookies and cream. That's what a lot of the email marketing looks like today. Let's make it real. Let's say I bought four tickets to your upcoming Bluey night. I got my girls, we're coming out. They want to get a picture of Bluey. We bought some popcorn. We had a lot of fun. We took a lot of photos. We posted on Instagram. We had a blast. The girls talked about it all the way home. A month later,

I get that same exact email that a 24-year-old would get about coming out to Thirsty Thursday. Think about it. We are a completely different customer. In my house with these two girls, we have different motivations, different interests, different reasons why we would come back. Yet somehow we're in

The same exact email campaign as the 24-year-old who wants to come out on Thursday, Thursday and have a good time with their friends. That's not a copywriting problem. That's not a creative problem. That's a systems problem. Why do teams don't fix this, right? And I'm not picking on anything. I don't think teams ignore personalization because they don't believe in it. I firmly think that teams were like,

That sounds fantastic. That will work. I think they ignore it because it feels overwhelming. We have to rebuild everything. We need a different platform. We need another person. We need this to talk to this. We'll tackle it in the off-season, right? Then the off-season comes. You got sales numbers you gotta get to. You gotta plan out your promo calendar. You got a lot of things that happen.

Jeremy Neisser (06:34.806)
And a lot of those things are more important than the personalization that we're talking about. And then opening day gets closer, and you promise you'll do something like this again. And before you know it, a few years have gone by and you're in this cycle. You keep thinking about it, you keep talking about it, you keep talking about how everything should be connected and working together to make it easier for you to sell more tickets instead of actually doing it. And I'm not calling you out because there's everyone.

Minor league teams, major league team, there's teams all across the globe that are doing exactly what I just described. Now, here's something that I've been thinking about a lot lately. Marketing departments are incredible at campaigns. We have a campaign, we're gonna be promoting this specific theme night, fireworks, giveaway, Star Wars, Bluey, whatever it is. They are really good at campaigns, but campaigns are one.

situation one thing they are not systems a campaign would be I'm spending a thousand dollars to promote Star Wars night we're gonna promote it with six emails we're gonna spend this much on meta ads we're gonna do X we're gonna do Y right that's a campaign that is not a system and I think that's the biggest difference between good email marketing and great email marketing because here's why campaigns are how we organize our work fans don't experience our team that way

They experience buying a ticket, coming to the game, parking in the parking lot, buying a hot dog, having a great time, and not coming back and forgetting about us. And then buying again. Those experiences, those are experiences, right? Them coming out, enjoying it. They're not campaigns, they're experiences. Campaigns have deadlines. Systems have outcomes.

Campaigns end. Star Wars night happens. I put this money into it to promote, right? Those campaigns end. Systems keep running. They're automated. They just keep happening. Campaigns require someone to remember. Systems remember for you. Campaigns ask, hey, what are we doing this weekend? What are we promoting? Systems ask. What happens after someone buys? Those are two completely different questions.

Jeremy Neisser (08:56.78)
When I first started working in sports, I thought the goal was to build better campaigns and really optimize what we're doing with that campaign, which would mean better subject lines, better graphic and creative, better promotions, better videos, all of those things. And of course, we're all promoting one thing. Those things matter. But the teams that consistently win with email aren't just better at campaigns. They've built systems that keep working long after someone

hits send. All right, which brings me to today's point. The email isn't finished when you hit send. Let me say it one more time for the people in the back row. The email isn't finished when you hit send. The email isn't finished when you hit send. That's where most the most teams think the work ends. They've checked that off the box and we're moving on. I think that's where a lot of the work actually begins because when you

Get someone onto your list and you send an email to them and they buy tickets, that's where the work begins. Like, what if after someone opens, what happens? After someone clicks, what happens? After someone buys, what happens? After someone attends, what happens? After someone doesn't come back, what happens? If your answer to any of those questions are a nothing, we're not doing anything after someone doesn't come back. I guess we're just sending them another email, right?

Or after someone attends, we do send them a survey, but that's really about it. And after someone clicks, we don't really do anything. Or if someone puts something in the cart, we don't really do anything after that, right? Then your marketing has actually stopped too soon. The best marketing organizations don't think about sending emails. They think about building experiences. Every interaction creates another interaction. Every purchase starts another conversation, every attendance.

creates another opportunity. That's what a system does. It isn't just HubSpot or Iterable or Constant Contact or MailChimp or Ticketsmaster or Tickets.com or any of these different nineteen different things that you have logins for. It's simply making sure that the conversations that happen next happen where whether anyone remembers to send it or not. Listen, if you've listened to episode 171

Jeremy Neisser (11:21.516)
And I hope this episode is kind of connecting the dots from that one to this one. And I think like when I talked about lifestyle marketing, life cycle marketing, this is what it should look like. And I today I just really wanted to talk about why so many teams never build it. It's not because they don't care. It's because they're stuck thinking that campaigns are what they're doing instead of building systems. So here's a question I want you to think about this week.

After someone buys a ticket, what happens next? If your answer is I don't know or nothing, don't start sending more emails. Start thinking about how do I make this into a better system? Because the email isn't finished when you hit send. It finished when it changes what your fan does next. Now, if today's episode has you thinking, okay, Jeremy, where do I even start?

We're actually hosting an upcoming webinar. I'm gonna put a link in the show notes. We're actually gonna teach you all about this and how teams are automating their way into more ticket revenue. We're gonna walk through the framework. We're gonna use teams that have built these systems without asking your marketing department to work nights and weekends. We're gonna have them share journeys and triggers and priorities and how to get started with the tools that you already have. I'm gonna put a link in the show notes just like I said.

Feel free to register, but I think between episode 171 and this one, I hope the light bulb moment has gone off to you thinking, this is exactly what we're trying to accomplish. We've reached a point where we know that our email makes money. We know that we can do better with what we're doing, but it's constantly this cycle that we have to constantly do. It can be automated, and we're going to teach you how to do it during the webinar.

So if you found some value in this episode, please take a moment to leave a rating or review on Spotify or Apple. It would mean the world to me, but more importantly, it would get this podcast in front of people who are just like you trying to sell more tickets and grow your fan base. Until next time.