Finding New Railfans (delivering growth to your railroad operations

through ticketing and internet marketing)

2011 Railway Heritage Preservation Conference

A quick poll (raise your hand if):

• You have too many riders annually

• You sell out every train

• Your railroad has too much money

• You feel like you do a good job of reaching younger folks

Key Concepts

1. Big events generate interest

2. Use the free resources on the Internet to sell more tickets

3. Make sure you capture and use customer data from ticket purchasers

4. Build on existing customer relationships for year-over-year growth

Growth begins with

Additional Big Event Ideas

• Jewish-Themed Events (Purim) • Teddy Bear Picnic • Ales on Rails • Others?

Key Takeway: Events don’t all have to be as massive as Thomas or Polar, they just need to appeal to a certain group of people. CREATE INTEREST!

Three Steps

Sell the Ticket

Use the Data

Generate

Awareness

2. Awareness: Getting the Word Out

What do you currently do to attract people to your events?

What techniques are working best?

Email

Best Practices:

• Collect an email for every ticket purchaser

• Use email for both marketing AND customer service

• EVERY TRANSACTION IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO BUILD YOUR LIST

Web Presence / Search Engines

Best Practices:

• Publish to local newspaper website

• Publish to other local publications

• Publish to local and national event websites

Popular Event Websites

www.upcoming.yahoo.com

www.zvents.com

www.eventful.com

THESE WEBSITES

ARE FREE TO USE!

Social Media Tools Facebook: a site where friends can share information with each other. 750 MILLION + Registered users 500 MILLION+ Log On Daily 26% of ticket sales, on average, are referred by Facebook Each “share” is worth approximately $2.53* It’s FREE to set up a Facebook Fan Page for your Railroad.

Twitter : as website where users can publish short messages to subscribers 100 MILLION + Registered users 1.8 million tweets per HOUR 12% of ticket sales, on average, are referred by Twitter Each “share” is worth approximately $1.78* It’s FREE to set up and use.

Tip #1:

Use Facebook to “talk “ to fans of the railroad. Update often,

at least weekly.

Tip #2:

Create your events on the

Facebook “Events” Tab

Tip #3:

Sell Tickets on your Fan Page!

Twitter Best Practices

Tweet Consistently around your

events

Always Include

links

So what works?

Word of Mouth, 49%

Web Search, 22%

Other, 8%

Email, 7%

Print, 5%

Direct Mail, 3%

Social Media, 3% Radio, 2% TV, 1% Outdoor, 1% Telemarketing,

0%

Referral Source Data, 2010-2011 WhistleTix Clients

Internet marketing drives over 30% of sales!

3. The Purchase: Best Practices

• Make it EASY

• Make it CONVENIENT

• Capture Customer Data

Tip #1:

Ticketing Links should be on

the FRONT page of your website

(and every other page).

Tip #2:

Sell tickets on your OWN site,

not a third party.

Tip #3:

Include DETAILS! Pictures, Videos,

information!

Convenience: Multiple ways to buy

• Call Center

• Website

• Mobile Phone

• Walk Up

• Social Media

Make sure that when a customer is ready to buy a ticket, you have a system in place

to sell it!

Capture and Keep Customer Data!

• Name

• Address

• Email

• Phone

Every customer you reach whose

data you capture=

One less new customer you

must reach next year

4. Effective use of existing customer data + smart internet marketing =

GROWTH

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Tick

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Cumulative Ticket Revenue Per Year

2008

2009

2010

2011

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Tick

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Cumulative Tickets Per Year

2008

2009

2010

2011

Another Example:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Nu

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er

of

Tick

ets

Cumulative Tickets Per Year

2009

2010

2011

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Tick

et

Re

ven

ue

Cumulative Ticket Revenue Per Year

2009

2010

2011

Key Concepts

1. Big Events generate interest

2. Use the free resources on the Internet to sell more tickets

3. Make sure you capture and use customer data from ticket purchasers

4. Build on existing customer relationships for year-over-year growth

Drop your business card or email

ehoush@whistletix.com for a copy of this

presentation.

Internet Marketing Check List • Basics:

– Create a website for your railroad

– Create a Facebook Fan Page for your railroad

– Create a Twitter account for your railroad

• Publish your event to the Internet (remember ticketing links!)

– Publish event to your website

– Publish event to Facebook

• Events Tab on your Facebook page

• Fan Page Ticketing from WhistleTix

– Publish Event to your Twitter account

– Publish event to eventful.com , upcoming.yahoo.com, and zvents.com

– Publish your event to the web sites of local publications, newspapers, magazines

– Email your existing customer list!!!

• Make it easy for customers to find and buy tickets

– Links on the front page of your website

– Fan Page ticketing on Facebook

– Mobile –friendly websites for Smartphone Users

– Call Center to answer calls

• Capture patron data during the purchase process

– At LEAST the email address!!