41. How the NHL's Minnesota Wild and TrueDialog are Innovating and Converting Through SMS Text Messaging
Summary
Episode 41 - In this episode of the Farrell Sports Business podcast, the host Matt Farrell talks with execs from the Minnesota Wild about their SMS and text messaging efforts. Matt talks with Bryant Hafemeyer and Ben Hall from the Minnesota Wild and Amanda McGucken Hager of TrueDialog. The conversation explores the Minnesota Wild's innovative use of SMS marketing to enhance fan engagement and improve communication. The discussion highlights the strategic reasons behind adopting SMS, the importance of meeting fans where they are, and the various applications of SMS in sports marketing, from ticket sales to service communications. The panelists share insights on the competitive landscape of sports marketing and the future potential of SMS in enhancing the fan experience. In this conversation, the speakers discuss innovative strategies for ticketing and SMS marketing in the sports industry, focusing on the Minnesota Wild's approach. They delve into the mechanics of launching SMS campaigns, the legal considerations involved, and the importance of building quality SMS lists. The conversation highlights the success metrics of their campaigns, showcasing the effectiveness of SMS marketing compared to other channels. The speakers conclude with thoughts on future directions and the significance of maintaining compliance and quality in customer engagement.
About the Farrell Sports Business Podcast
Interviews with news makers from sports business to talk leadership, entrepreneurship, industry news and their unique career paths. Hosted by Matt Farrell, President of Farrell Sports and former Golf Channel, USOPC, USA Swimming and Warner Bros.
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Matt Farrell (00:00)
We all receive emails and text messages from our favorite professional sports team, whether that's promotional offers or theme nights or even game day preparation. This week's Farrell Sports Business podcast, we're going to go behind the scenes of a very successful SMS campaign with the Minnesota Wild of the NHL and their partner, TrueDialog What goes into that SMS campaign?
from a compliance and legal standpoint, from a technology standpoint, and there's more that meets the eye of what really goes in behind successful SMS campaigns. And you'll hear some of the conversion numbers and return on ad spend numbers from the Minnesota Wild in this podcast that really are eye popping. I'm the host, Matt Farrell Welcome to this episode of the Farrell Sports Business Podcast.
We have three guests on the pod this week. Bryant Hafemeyer He's the director of digital analytics at the Minnesota wild. Ben Hall is the manager of marketing automation and campaigns with the Minnesota wild in their vendor and their partner, at TrueDialog Amanda McGuckin Hager, who's the CMO at TrueDialog. So let's dive into SMS campaigns and the Minnesota Wild
Matt Farrell (01:38)
Bryant Ben, Amanda, so glad you could join. This is an exciting conversation, so thank you.
Bryant Hafemeyer (01:44)
Thanks for having us.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (01:44)
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Matt Farrell (01:47)
So we're going to dive into what the Minnesota Wild is doing and Amanda, from your perspective with TrueDialog, with SMS in particular, from the marketing side, the business side. But I'd like it maybe let's just do a quick around the room, maybe go Bryant, Ben Amanda of just who you are, what your role is in relation to the Wild and the SMS project.
Bryant Hafemeyer (02:13)
Sure, so yeah, I'm Bryant Hafemeyer I've been with the Wild for just over seven years now, and I am the director of our digital analytics team. And I work very closely with Ben and the other parts of our marketing and digital marketing organization. And my relationship to SMS is I've been in it day one. So I have been with prior providers
to TrueDialog I've helped set up not just our application to many texting, which is a lot of what we're going to cover today, but also our one-to-one texting. And then, like I said, I've been through it all. So I helped vet the vendors and do those migrations in the past and really understand what we were looking for in a provider and a service.
Matt Farrell (03:05)
Awesome, thanks, Ben.
Ben Hall (03:05)
Yeah, and
as Bryant mentioned, I'm Ben Hall. I am the manager of marketing automation here at Minnesota Wild. And I've been here for three years, which means I've been lucky enough to work with Bryant for three years on a lot of our marketing campaigns and communication campaigns. So our email marketing campaigns and then also supplementing them with SMS and text message marketing through TrueDialog.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (03:33)
And I'm Amanda, I'm the CMO of TrueDialog. I've been with the company about a year or so. I've had the pleasure of working with clients like the Minnesota Wild with Bryant and Ben and helping share their stories.
Matt Farrell (03:46)
Well, this, this is exciting. So I appreciate it. And maybe my first question is going to actually be fairly broad. So you can take some liberties with where you want to go with it. but before we dive into SMS specifically, I just, I want to know your take on, you know, maybe why we're talking about this topic. What was going on marketing wise with the wild? I, I know they're
plus or minus in the top 10 of attendance, and which is very impressive in the NHL. But really, what's the what's the why, if you will, of why you really expanded into SMS?
Ben Hall (04:28)
for us at The Wild, we're really trying to meet the consumer where they're at.
And email allows us to do that. Other marketing channels allow us to do that, but SMS and text message marketing certainly helps with making sure that we're sending a clear and concise message to our fans, making it clear what we're wanting them to do, which is hopefully purchase tickets. But then as we'll touch on, I'm sure later on, that game day communication, that service kind of side of text message marketing. The second thing that
you know, we looked at is our buying windows too. So from a ticketing perspective, we've noticed that our consumers usually purchase 48 hours to 72 hours before the game. And again, text message marketing allows us to convey that clear message. Hey, a game's coming up. Here's the ticket link, go buy it. And so those were really the two things we looked at from a business perspective that made us move forward with text message marketing.
Matt Farrell (05:30)
I feel like you tapped into my own personal lack of planning here, Ben, of like the 24 to 48 hour advanced purchase. in this case, you're telling me that I'm normal. So that's helpful. I appreciate that.
Ben Hall (05:43)
Hey, I'm right there with you, Matt. I'm right there with you.
Bryant Hafemeyer (05:46)
only thing that I might add to that is You know when we look at you know Ben touched on you know meeting the buyer meeting the fan You know where they are so You know I just want to drive on that point especially as we look at you know the changing demographics of our buyers right and we look at you know younger younger buyers or fans is that you know they have
less of that habitual reliance on email that some of us do. So, you know, we have a better chance of getting in front of them with other means. especially text messaging, right? Again, just having that messages app on their home screen, it's a better or higher likelihood that they're going to see that and engage, especially within those specific given windows.
I'll just add from a general SMS perspective, there are messages
Amanda McGuckin Hager (06:37)
just add from a from a general SMS perspective. There are messages that
are better sent through text than through email, right or Especially those ones that are time sensitive. So if you have an event a game time date specific SMS is a great channel for that. I think also it's a great channel for more intimate conversations or more intimate Message types then say email emails
Bryant Hafemeyer (06:42)
sent through Texas.
especially those ones that are time sensitive. So if you have an event, again, time date specific, SMS is a great channel for that. I think also it's a great channel for more intimate conversations or more intimate message types than say emails.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (07:05)
as Bryant alluded to, people are less likely to respond. It may take a couple days for them to look through it. They may not even open it.
Bryant Hafemeyer (07:06)
As Bryant alluded to, people are less likely to respond. It may take a couple days for them to look through it. They may not even
Matt Farrell (07:14)
sometimes you look at marketing or opportunity or technology is maybe in a couple different lenses of
Is there a problem that I'm trying to solve? Or is there an opportunity that I see by going this new direction? I'll leave it to you on who best to kind of take this one. But maybe let's break this down. Did you notice something happening that you said, gosh, we really, we can be better at this, we could improve on this?
Ben Hall (07:44)
Yeah, I personally think Bryant, Bryant touched on it. the changing demographics, right? Of our fan base and, and some people might not prefer email. Some people might not see email and rely on it as heavily as others. And so I think really it was an opportunity for us to expand our marketing technology and making sure that we were, generating as much, as many touch points as possible per campaign. really allowing our, our customer to engage with us the way that they want to engage.
And so I think that's where, you know, we saw that opportunity, tech message marketing made sense and we went with it.
Matt Farrell (08:23)
So in this case, mean, and one's not better or worse. It's just the email person is a segment for you. The text and SMS person is a different segment. We just behave differently on what we respond to, it sounds like.
Ben Hall (08:38)
that email communication and text message communication supplementing what we're showing on our app, what we're pushing on TV and radio. so it's really all of our marketing channels are working together to push the same message to our fans.
Bryant Hafemeyer (08:54)
I think that Ben touched on it as and I don't even think it's so much, Matt, that there's different segments. Right. There there certainly are, you know, there are certainly going to be people that are more likely to respond to a text message or an email or even as we expand beyond those channels. Right. You know, some sort of
other digital advertisement, know, get whether it's some sort of display ads, search engine marketing, what have you. We, while we would love in the perfect world to be able to just be hyper-targeted and get, you know, find the exact channel that somebody, you know, prefers to be communicated through, that's tough. so it really is a multi-channel approach, right?
we're still sending them emails, but we're also sending them a text message. ultimately we don't care how or where they engage, just that they have the awareness and hopefully do engage. And I think it's especially important in our market because we're one of those few markets that has as much competition as you possibly can have when it comes to sports and entertainment, right? we have every single, you know,
Matt Farrell (10:13)
yeah.
Bryant Hafemeyer (10:15)
men's and women's essentially professional sports league. We have the NBA, NFL, MLB, obviously NHL, but then we have the PWHL and WNBA. We have MLS, have women's soccer, and then also in town, we have our major state university, right? So we have University of Minnesota.
And there's a ton of gopher alumni and fans and, and, know, especially college hockey here is big. Even high school hockey is where, you know, that might sound crazy to some people, but especially at this time of year, high school hockey is akin to high school football and say the South, right? And so there are, there are high school organizations on weeknights that are selling out, you know, multi thousand seat or a hundred to thousand seat arenas.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (11:13)
Wow.
Bryant Hafemeyer (11:13)
you know, local arenas
here. So there is a lot of competition, not just for the dollar, but for the, you know, attention of fans out there. So really as many touch points as we can generate to plant the seed, that is really what's necessary.
Matt Farrell (11:31)
I live in Colorado. And yes, you have the abs, the nuggets and the Rockies and the Broncos.
Bryant Hafemeyer (11:31)
because I live in Colorado and yes, you have the abs, nuggets, and the Rockies, and the Broncos.
Matt Farrell (11:38)
And then somebody like Deion Sanders comes in and blocks the sun from everyone. So I get it.
Bryant Hafemeyer (11:38)
And then somebody like Deon Sanders comes in and blocks the sun from everyone. So I get it.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (11:42)
Hahaha!
Matt Farrell (11:47)
But Amanda, whether this pertains to the wild or 30,000 foot view, what opportunities were out there that you saw that, you know what, SMS can actually do this better than other mediums.
Bryant Hafemeyer (11:48)
Amanda, whether this pertains to the wild or 30,000 foot view, what opportunities were out there that you saw that, you know what, SMS can actually do this better than other mediums?
Yeah, speaking of sports in general, the loyal fan base is everything, right? Home team advantage is real.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (12:02)
Yeah, you know, speaking of sports in general, the loyal fan base is everything, right? Home team advantage is real, right?
Bryant Hafemeyer (12:14)
Right, having the fans in the stands and cheering on the team is a real sort of phenomenon. And having that loyal fan base engage in all the ways, and that could be through promoting team charity events or community events.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (12:14)
Having the fans in the stands and cheering on the team is a real sort of phenomenon. And having that loyal fan base engage in all the ways, and that could be through promoting team charity events or community events.
Bryant Hafemeyer (12:32)
Amanda McGuckin Hager (12:32)
It could be through loyalty programs.
Bryant Hafemeyer (12:37)
You know, there's game day ticket sales, which we're discussing today, and there's so much more. It could be behind the scenes content or,
Amanda McGuckin Hager (12:38)
There's game day ticket sales, which we're discussing today. And there's so much more. It could be behind the scenes content. I'm in Austin, Texas. We have the University of Texas here. And I do go to the UT football games. And the engagement there, while you're in the stadium,
Bryant Hafemeyer (12:47)
You know, I'm in Austin, Texas. We have the University of Texas here. And I do go to the UT football games and the engagement there while you're in the stadium
is also very real, right? Being able to text. We have a big Megatron video screen in the stadium and there's QR codes up there for in-game fan engagement. So there's a lot of opportunities for SMS to engage the fans.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (12:59)
is also very real, right? Being able to text. We have a big Megatron video screen in the stadium, and there's QR codes up there for in-game fan engagement. So there's a lot of opportunities for SMS to engage the fans
Bryant Hafemeyer (13:17)
in many, many different ways, in the ways that the fans want to show up for the team and to show up for the spirit.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (13:17)
in many, different ways, in the ways that the fans want to show up for the team and to show up for the spirit.
Matt Farrell (13:26)
Did you start finding, and we'll get into this a little bit as well later, but did you find that, you know, once you get the right technology and solution in place, then you have the salespeople
Bryant Hafemeyer (13:27)
Did you start finding, and we'll get into this a little bit as well later, but did you find that, you know, once you get the right technology and solution in place, then you have the...
sales people knocking on your doors and how can you help me? VIP hospitality people, how can you help me? Game day operations, coming bad weather. So how do
Matt Farrell (13:42)
knocking on your door saying, how can you help me? The VIP hospitality people, how can you help me? Game day operations of coming bad weather. So how do you
Bryant Hafemeyer (13:56)
you kind of spread the love and figure out where to best use SMS in the
Matt Farrell (13:57)
How do you kind of spread the love and figure out where to best use SMS in the organization?
Bryant Hafemeyer (14:03)
Yeah, I'll jump in here and address this. this is actually maybe
a little bit unique to us in terms of how we kind of actually came to SMS. For us, we actually didn't look at it initially as a sales channel. We looked at it as a service first opportunity. So when we first started with SMS, gosh, I don't even know, maybe five years ago, five, six years ago, it was very much
I'd say initiated by the need to communicate new security policies at our arena. So when we moved to a no bag policy and some other types of security policies, that was going to be a major change for our fans in market here. you know, that something like a no bag policy or a small bag policy, that's that can create.
Matt Farrell (14:53)
Mm-hmm.
Bryant Hafemeyer (15:09)
a lot of challenges for people, right? There's a lot of things that they may need to bring with them or just that awareness, right, of, you know, making sure that we get in front of them and communicate these new policies and set expectations as early on as possible or certainly to hit them before they leave their home, hopefully. So that way they're not showing up to the game and then getting all the way to the gate. And at that point,
being turned away or having it communicated by a game operations employee that, hey, we have this new policy in place. Now what are we going to do, right? Because somebody's got their bag, but they can't bring it into the arena with them. So that's really where text messaging kind of came into play with us was, again, looking at,
we can send these emails, we always send our know before you go type of communications before a game day, on a game day, multiple times. again, when we're talking about, especially say on a weeknight or even on a weekend, right, people are out and about is meeting the fan where they are and giving us the best opportunity to communicate and set awareness and expectation. And that's again, where text messaging comes into play, right? So, you know, cause it's unlikely that
somebody, especially on a weeknight, is going to get home, do what they need to, or to prepare for the evening, and then check their email, see our email, and have that awareness that, I can't bring my bag with me. I need to figure something else out. So that's where hitting them with a text message, they're going to see that message indicator, hear that notification, and it's more likely that they're going to see that message and
gain that awareness and hopefully reduce the likelihood that they're going to have a bad service experience to start their event off, right? So that's really what drove us to SMS to begin with. It wasn't the sales aspect of it. really what it comes down to is better communications, raising awareness, increasing efficiency, right? For the fan and for our game operations team.
And that can translate, if all that is done well, then that will increase the positive experience that somebody's having. people sometimes don't think that there's a cost associated with service, but there most certainly is, right? It's again, that communication awareness, that drives experience and that translates or deters repeat business. Yeah, as a female,
Amanda McGuckin Hager (18:00)
As a female with a big
bag that goes to games, I appreciate the bag policy text very much.
Bryant Hafemeyer (18:02)
to games. I appreciate the bag policy text very much.
Matt Farrell (18:08)
it is a way to break through the clutter and and stand out. And whether it be
Bryant Hafemeyer (18:08)
But it is a way to break through the clutter and stand out. And whether it
be marketing or sales or, for lack of a better term, utilitarian uses of it, impending weather, bad policies.
Matt Farrell (18:15)
marketing or sales or, for lack of a better term, utilitarian uses of it, impending weather, bag policies. Any
other examples that have just stood out to you that, gosh, that did a little bit better than I thought it would?
Bryant Hafemeyer (18:24)
Any other examples that have just stood out to you that did a little bit better than I thought it would?
you?
Ben Hall (18:34)
Yeah,
Bryant Hafemeyer (18:34)
Yeah, I think, I think Bryant touched on, you know, the service side, the bag policy and that stuff. You know, a lot of our major marketing campaigns kind of like you were alluding to Matt, right? Like, we hear internally that, you know, members aren't reading our emails.
Ben Hall (18:34)
I think, I think Bryant touched on, you know, the service side, the bag policy and that stuff. You know, a lot of our major marketing campaigns kind of like you were alluding to Matt, right? Like, we hear internally that, you know, members aren't aren't reading our emails. So how are we gonna, you know, still communicate that important membership information. And so we do have a couple of like, email automations that in the future, we're looking to enhance some of those that
Bryant Hafemeyer (18:52)
So how are we going to still communicate that important membership information? And so we do have a couple of like email automations that in the future we're looking to enhance. Some of those
that come to mind would be like a payment reminder, right? If they're in a like 10 period payment plan, we would send them an email every month saying, hey, you have an upcoming payment with us. This is the credit card we have on file, right? How can we do that through SMS? And like you were saying, break through the clutter.
Ben Hall (19:03)
come to mind would be like a payment reminder, right? If they're in a like, 10 period payment plan, we would send them an email every month saying, hey, you have an upcoming payment with us. This is the credit card we have on file, right? How can we do that through SMS? And like you're saying, break through the clutter.
So things like that, you know, it's again, that's more of a utilitarian use of it and not so much the
Bryant Hafemeyer (19:23)
so things like that, you know, it's again, that's more of a utilitarian, use of it and not so much the ticketing or the sales side of it, but it's important nonetheless, like Bryant and yourself.
Ben Hall (19:30)
ticketing or the sales side of it, but it's important nonetheless, like Bryant and yourself alluded to.
Bryant Hafemeyer (19:36)
Yeah. And, you may kind of touched on it as we utilize it, with things like, one thing that we do, for our fans, I know a lot of other teams do as well as we have a lot of open practices, right? So our fans can, you know,
that's not the only way that they can watch the team, know, or a game is not the only way they can watch the team. They can come down to practices that we open up to the public and experience that and, you know, something a little bit different. And but in order to to have that experience, it's essentially a registered or ticketed event. Still, it's generally free to the public, but they still have to claim their free tickets in order to gain access to that event.
Part of the reason that we require that though is so again from a service communication standpoint, there are a lot of planned practices that get canceled last minute, right? It could be, we're getting the team got home late from the road trip, right? So they're not gonna have practice in the morning. It could be inclement weather for whatever reason a practice may get canceled. And the most efficient way for us to communicate that out is via text message, especially because people again,
may not be checking their email leading up to that practice. if we don't catch them before they leave their homes, then hopefully we can catch them while they're on the road so that way they don't get all the way down to the arena and again have to be turned away. like I said, you kind of touched on it with that example and we have had multiple games postponed and a lot of times those games do not get postponed until the day of.
just hours before it was planned, scheduled puck drops. So again, text messaging comes into play as a prime communication method for that scenario. One other example that I'll give, and it's something that hopefully none of us ever have to consider again, but during COVID, we had, when we started to allow fans back, we did so in limited numbers.
But while we were doing that, we had to come up with a method of, you know, pre health screenings, right? And just being able to get confirmation from the fans that were allowed to come down, you know, of, know, basically their health screening status. And so we would communicate out, hey, before you come down to the game, please fill out this, you know, screening. The screening was a form. And then based off of their answers in that form.
they would get an email, but also a text message that would give them their approval or denial status. having that right there on their phone, especially if they didn't fill out that form until they got to the gate, having that text message come through with, hey, here's your approval, then they could just flash that to the security guard and they'd get through. So that's just another unique way that we have leveraged SMS in the past.
Matt Farrell (22:43)
So where do you not asking for anything confidential? You know, you're competing with all the other NHL teams out there. So, but anything you see in the future of where it's going, how you might use that you're not using today.
Bryant Hafemeyer (22:46)
You're competing with all the other NHL teams out there.
see in the future of where it's going, how you might use that you're not using.
I think one thing that internally we've talked about through the future, right, is right now we do a lot of SMS, but we haven't touched into MMS, which is sending an image with a text message. And so I think Amanda, as you brought up, our theme packs, that's a perfect way to do that, right? Showing our fans and our potential buyers, hey, this is the image that you would get when you purchase a ticket.
Ben Hall (23:01)
I think one thing that internally we've talked about for the future, right is right now we do a lot of SMS, but we haven't touched into MMS, which is sending an image with a text message. And so I think Amanda, as you brought up like our theme packs, that's a perfect way to do that, right showing our fans and our potential buyers, hey, this is the image that you would get when you purchase a ticket.
So that can be anything from a hat to a jersey.
Bryant Hafemeyer (23:27)
So that can be anything from a hat to a Jersey.
Our our marketing coordinator in-house does a great job with, you know, coordinating all those different items, all those different ticket packs. And so making sure that, you know, maybe now people aren't reading, but they're seeing the pack and that's what encourages them to go buy. think in the future, that's something we can do a better job of with MMS.
Ben Hall (23:29)
our marketing coordinator in-house does a great job with coordinating all those different items, all those different ticket packs. so making sure that maybe now people aren't reading, but they're seeing the pack and that's what encourages them to go buy. I think in the future, that's something we can do a better job of with MMS.
Bryant Hafemeyer (23:50)
what goes into getting it
Matt Farrell (23:50)
what goes into getting it going?
Bryant Hafemeyer (23:52)
going?
Amanda McGuckin Hager (23:53)
From
from our perspective, there's a little bit of hand holding around opt-in, compliance, registration. The numbers need to get registered with the campaign registry for long codes and then short codes also have a registration process. So there's a little bit of phone number provisioning, opt-in compliance, terms and conditions that might need to get updated on the website. And assuming all that is in place, we're
Bryant Hafemeyer (23:53)
from our perspective, there's a little bit of hand holding around opt-in, compliance, registration, the numbers need to get registered with the campaign registry for long codes and then short codes also have a registration process. So there's a little bit of phone number provisioning.
opt-in compliance, terms and conditions that might need to get updated on the website. And assuming all that is in place,
we're on our side, we're ready to launch a campaign in a week or two. So it's quite lightweight on my side. I think the harder part is on the clients like Ben and Bryant here who...
Amanda McGuckin Hager (24:20)
On our side, we're ready to launch a campaign in a week or two. So it's quite lightweight on my side. I think the harder part is on the clients like Ben and Bryant here who need
to make sure that their lists are ready to go. I think, Bryant, you and I chatted a little bit about lists the other day. Or Ben, do you want to talk about how you did your list building for SMS?
Bryant Hafemeyer (24:37)
need to make sure that their lists are ready to go. I think Bryant, you and I chatted a little bit about lists the other day. you want to, or Ben, do you want to talk about how you did your list building for SMS?
Yeah. So before I answer that, let's, I'm going to kind of touch back on some of the items that you touched on, Amanda. So this is of course the disclaimer that.
I am not a lawyer as much as I'd like to be. So this is not any sort of legal guidance, but from a client perspective, the one thing that I always tell teams when they're reaching out and asking us about our experience with text messaging is,
Matt Farrell (25:08)
That's funny.
Bryant Hafemeyer (25:23)
From the beginning, whether you have in-house counsel or external counsel, make sure that you get them involved and you understand the laws. Not just the federal laws, but there's a lot of different state and other local laws out there that, or even international laws, depending on who you're trying to communicate with. And it's murky, it's that the ground is constantly shifting beneath our feet. having counsel that can, you know,
do the hard work for you in terms of understanding that and then just telling you how to comply is critical. So I'm going to touch on a couple of those things. I would say at the very least, as people start to investigate text messaging as a means of sales or service, just general communication is the TCPA, which is the I believe the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, also CANSPAM Act. Those
Amanda McGuckin Hager (26:19)
Yes.
Bryant Hafemeyer (26:23)
People probably hear TCPA and the telephone aspect of that and think, well, how does that relate to text messaging? Again, not a lawyer, but essentially it was originally put in place to cover your telemarketing, I believe in the early 90s, late 80s, early 90s, somewhere around there. But as text messaging became a means of communication, a lot of those same requirements were extended
Amanda McGuckin Hager (26:42)
Yeah.
Bryant Hafemeyer (26:52)
to text messaging. And then can spam, same thing, right? People think of that as it relates to email, but some of those same principles have been expanded to digital communication in general. So those are the two probably most broad pieces of legislation that people need to make sure they familiarize themselves with. And then there's other things.
that those cover, right? So what are those gonna cover? Those are gonna give you some guidance or requirements in terms of things like the timing of communication. So when are you allowed to send messages? The frequency with which you're allowed to send messages. The requirements for opt in and opt out and all sorts of disclosures that you must include, such as your privacy policy, the terms and conditions related to your text messaging.
There's a lot of other again considerations that go into it but those are just some of the major topics that you know, you'll be exposed to when you start to look into the compliance requirements of text messaging and again, that's why I say it's critical to make sure that you have good counsel that can walk you through what you need to make sure that you adhere to as we talk about opt-in Opt-in is
a higher standard for text messaging when it comes to sending out solicitations than it is for email. So for email you have typically, again, not telling people what to do here, but it's a little bit more fluid. You can implicitly subscribe people to communications based off of transactions and other things like that and then market to them potentially.
with text messaging, if you are going to send a marketing message, you 100 % have to have express written consent, right? You have to have that explicit opt-in in order to send those marketing messages. you know, where partners like TrueDialog come into play, again, not that they're gonna act as legal counsel for you in this, but they understand these requirements and can help you navigate this.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (28:55)
Mm-hmm.
Bryant Hafemeyer (29:16)
Because part of the process when you are registering a long code or a short code with the carrier is the carrier is going to want to see examples of the types of campaigns you plan on running. And then also they will want to see, how are you collecting opt-ins? And if, for example, if you're collecting an opt-in on a email form, which is primarily not an email form, a web form that
Amanda McGuckin Hager (29:37)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Bryant Hafemeyer (29:44)
that's primarily how we have built our email, our text messaging opt-in list is there are very specific requirements and that you need to make sure that you're adhering to in terms of how you collect those opt-ins. For example, you cannot pre-check a I'd like to receive text message marketing messages from the Minnesota Wild. Okay, you cannot pre-check those boxes. They have to, you have to allow the opportunity
for the fan or client to actually explicitly check that box. The other thing is, I don't know if it's still this way, but I know when we were going through this process is you can't just generally it's best practice or maybe it is even a requirement that you have a yes, I'd like to and a no, I'd like to. And you don't require it. They don't have to necessarily say no.
because you're only going to be allowed to send a messaging if they say yes. But, you know, I don't know whether it's the carriers that are, you know, strict about this or if it's all if it's related to the law. But I know that that was one of the things that we had to make sure we adhere to was we gave both affirmative and negative options to that question. So, again, it's it's it's a much higher level of scrutiny when it comes to.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (30:53)
Hmm.
Matt Farrell (31:06)
That makes sense. Yeah.
Bryant Hafemeyer (31:13)
receiving those opt-ins for text messaging than it is email. There may be some local laws around double opt-in. There where even if somebody checks a box or sends a keyword to subscribe, an inbound keyword to subscribe to a marketing list, that you may have to gain double opt-in. So you send the confirmation of subscription and then say, reply yes to
you know, confirm your subscription. Even if you aren't required to do double opt-in, it's best practice to have those confirmation subscriptions when somebody checks that box on a form or texts a keyword in, is to give them essentially, it's basically a passive double opt-in, right, where you're saying, hey, you've subscribed to this, but here are the terms and conditions, the privacy policy link, and, you know, the frequency with which we will communicate with you, and at last,
Matt Farrell (31:59)
Yeah.
Bryant Hafemeyer (32:11)
reply, stop or end to unsubscribe from this. So those are just some of those initial considerations and things that you need to look out for in terms of the mechanics of SMS. there's other things that I'd like to touch on too about like best practices for when you do send out messages and then other considerations too around short codes versus long codes.
Matt Farrell (32:16)
That sense.
Bryant Hafemeyer (32:36)
the benefits of a short code versus a long code.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (32:41)
I'll just add a little bit to what Bryant was saying. I think it's imperative that other teams know that SMS is first party data collection. So you can't buy a list from another team or from a vendor or a data provider. It does have to be that explicit consent.
Bryant Hafemeyer (32:41)
I'll just add a little bit to what Bryant was saying. I think it's imperative that other teams know that SMS is first party data collection. So you can't buy a list from another team or from a vendor or a data provider. It does have to be that explicit consent.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (33:04)
that Bryant was alluding to and you do have to build it manually. So even if you are not planning on doing SMS this year, it's always good to get your list started. At least, you know, give your fan base the opportunity to sign up for SMS even if you don't start sending them down until further down the road.
Bryant Hafemeyer (33:04)
that Bryant was alluding to and you do have to build it manually. So even if you are not planning on doing SMS this year, it's always good to get your list started. At least give your fan base the opportunity to sign up for SMS even if you don't start sending them down to further down the road.
Right, yeah, because it's a bit of a chicken and egg scenario, You sign on with an SMS provider.
Well, you wanna be able to actually message people right away. So that is one thing that I would recommend. I know I talked about it's best practice to be able to send a text message and confirm people's subscription or again, depending on where you're at, you may be required to do double opt-in. So in those cases, this recommendation may not fit, but one thing to consider as Amanda was alluding to is start to build your subscription list.
before you actually pull the trigger on text messaging, right? So that way you do at least have some sort of audience that you can communicate with. So the easiest way to do that is through, I would say, including it on web forms, right? So a lot of us, especially in the sports, you know, industry, we have a lot of different web forms out there for various things. And we make it a point to include the opt-in.
for SMS on nearly all of those web forms that we have out there. that's how, that's the primarily the way that we've grown our list. And then once you have text messaging, there are other methods that you can employ, such as Amanda alluded to it or touched on it earlier on in our conversation. That it's one thing that I think especially colleges do really well is utilizing
text messaging within their venues, right? So promoting that either through a QR that launches a pre, know, a pre-configured text message for them and they just have to hit send or, you you say, hey, text this keyword to this number and then that acts as basically consent as well. that's, again, those are the main methods but ultimately,
Amanda McGuckin Hager (35:18)
as the opt-in, yeah.
Bryant Hafemeyer (35:24)
start to build your list before you actually pull the trigger on investing in text messaging would be my recommendation.
just to say that the opt-in is the barrier to opt-in is a little bit higher, but I think that's what makes the list so high quality. Yes. Right. And the engagement so high in that channel. Bryant and I were talking about one of his campaigns and I think I won't share the metrics.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (35:32)
just to say that the opt-in is the barrier to opt-in is a little bit higher, but I think that's what makes the list so high quality, right? And the engagement so high in that channel. Bryant and I were talking about one of his campaigns. And I think I won't share the metrics. I won't steal
Bryant Hafemeyer (35:51)
steal that thunder from you, I think it was the, was it the holiday campaign? Yeah. was off the charts.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (35:51)
that thunder from you, but I think it was the holiday campaign. The engagement was off the charts.
Bryant Hafemeyer (35:58)
Yeah, it was. I'll actually just throw that out there real quick because I wanted to come back to it and I'm glad that you brought us back to it. but essentially I'm just going to isolate on the largest campaign that we run for us on an annual basis is a single game ticket campaign. We were, it's called our no fees campaign.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (36:03)
Ahahaha!
Bryant Hafemeyer (36:18)
Because hey, you can buy fees without all those, or buy tickets without all those extra fees that everybody hates. So essentially, you know, it's a multi-channel approach. It's all of our own media channels, so social app, our website, the email, and then text messaging. And then it's, you know, paid advertising through other digital means, traditional media.
paid social, things like that. we sat down, yeah, right, exactly. So when we sit down and we did the attribution after that campaign concluded, what we found was that email was our largest revenue generator, which isn't a surprise to us. However, what's interesting is that from a revenue perspective, text messaging came in third.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (36:49)
Truly Omnichannel.
Bryant Hafemeyer (37:16)
However, it had the highest conversion rate. people might be wondering, wait, how can I have the highest conversion rate but only be third in revenue? Well, it just comes down to the audience size, right? To our text messaging audience, our subscription list for that is less than a tenth the size of email for us. And when you look at social, it's less than a 20th the size of
our social audience. So the fact that it came out much greater in terms of conversion rate really speaks to what Amanda was saying is the quality of that segment. And again, also the fact that your message has a higher likelihood of seeing engagement and getting those impressions because again, it's right on the home screen. So when we talk about how much better was it from a conversion rate perspective,
compared to email, email was number two for us in terms of conversion and it outperformed email five to one. So from a conversion rate perspective. Yep, and then when we look at, you know, ROAS or return on ad spend, it's a little bit murkier because we're not including email in that because at least for us, there's no, there's not a transactional cost to email. Same thing with like,
Matt Farrell (38:23)
wow.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (38:25)
Yeah, that's big.
Bryant Hafemeyer (38:43)
organic social right, there's no cost with that. So you can't can't calculate something with a zero involved. But when we look at anything where there was actual money laid out, there was a cost associated with that activation method. Text messaging came back at a return 12 to one. And that was that outpaced every other paid channel. For example, this the
Amanda McGuckin Hager (38:48)
Hmm.
Bryant Hafemeyer (39:11)
The other page handles that performed best for us were paid social and then paid search and display ads. And those were anywhere in the three to one to seven to one return. So again, text messaging really led the way both from a conversion percentage standpoint and from a return on ad spend for the channels that there is a spend associated.
Matt Farrell (39:21)
wow.
And that you hit the nail on the head. That's that's an incredible stat. And The Wild is clearly, at least to me, a leader in the space with TrueDialog. Maybe just in closing, I'll go around the horn, if you will, and we'll go Amanda, Ben, Bryant. In a closing thought, shameless plug on how to find you or your company or
Bryant Hafemeyer (39:37)
That's an incredible step.
least to me, a leader in the space through dialogue. Maybe just in closing.
A closing thought, shameless plug on how to find you or your company or
Matt Farrell (40:04)
get my next 48-hour advanced game day tickets for the wild. maybe any quick closing thoughts. Amanda, start with you.
Bryant Hafemeyer (40:04)
get my next 48 hour advance game day tickets for the wild. you know, maybe any quick closing thoughts. Amanda, start with you. TrueDialog is easy to find online at TrueDialog.com. think at work.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (40:18)
TrueDialog is easy to find online at TrueDialog.com. think we're honored
Bryant Hafemeyer (40:24)
honor to work with sports teams like the Minnesota Wild. This is the favorite part of my job to be able to share, you know, the success and, and, learnings. they have done such a great job. So we're grateful for
Amanda McGuckin Hager (40:24)
to work with sports teams like the Minnesota Wild. This is the favorite part of my job to be able to share the success and learnings. They have done such a great job, so we're grateful for that.
Bryant Hafemeyer (40:38)
that. Ben. I would, yeah, would piggyback what Amanda said. And I think one thing that excites me the most is just the future and how we look to implement TrueDialog more and more in our communication campaigns.
Matt Farrell (40:40)
Ben.
Ben Hall (40:41)
I would piggyback what Amanda said. And I think one thing that excites me the most is just the future and how we look to implement TrueDialog more and more in our communication campaigns.
So excited to see those results. Matt, if you're looking for those 48 hour ticket sales, I'm not gonna not plug us. Yeah, wild.com backslash stay connected. That's where people can sign up for those. So thank you for having us on. I appreciate it, Matt.
Bryant Hafemeyer (40:53)
So excited to see those results. Matt, if you're looking for those 48 hour ticket sales, I'm not going to not plug us. Yeah. Wild.com and actually stay connected. That's where people can sign up. Thank you for having us on. appreciate
Amanda McGuckin Hager (40:58)
You
Matt Farrell (41:01)
I know some people.
Amanda McGuckin Hager (41:02)
haha
Nice.
Bryant Hafemeyer (41:09)
that. Bryant, you get the last word. Yeah, no, I think Ben covered it in terms of following the wild and in terms of if anybody has questions.
Matt Farrell (41:10)
You bet. And Bryant, you get the last word.
Bryant Hafemeyer (41:21)
for us about our experience with text messaging or one thing that we didn't specifically get into, but in terms of, how do you choose a vendor? What do you look at when you are evaluating vendors? What set TrueDialog apart? Why did you choose TrueDialog? We are happy to share our experience with that and those reasons. Just I would say the easiest method to reach out to us is probably just reach out to us via our LinkedIn pages.
And hopefully Matt, you'll link our LinkedIn somewhere so that people can find
Matt Farrell (41:55)
Will do.
this is, I can't tell you how much I appreciate this fascinating conversation. know, Bryant, just some of the numbers you shared just in terms of conversion and what it means is pretty eye popping. And so congratulations to you, what you've done with The Wild and Amanda with TrueDialog. You guys are onto something and I...
Bryant Hafemeyer (42:12)
is pretty eye popping. so congratulations to you, what you've done with The Wild, and Amanda with TrueDialog, guys are on to something, and I
Matt Farrell (42:23)
would be willing to bet some of your fellow NHL and other professional sports team franchises are going to be listening in and taking notes. So thank you all so much. Really appreciate it.
Bryant Hafemeyer (42:24)
would be willing that some of your fellow NHL and other professional sports team franchises are gonna be listening in and taking notes. So thank you all so much, really
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