Incentivising first-time attendance through referrals

Here at Action Links HQ, we love a bargain – who doesn’t! And despite the growing trend of inflated ticket prices, it’s reassuring to see that many organisations are still committed to offering significantly discounted tickets to young people and first-time theatregoers.

Providing accessible routes into theatre is a critical part of audience development for many venues and there are lots of discounted ticket schemes that are free to join (often made possible by corporate support partnerships with major brands). However in order to overcome some of the barriers for first time attendance for young audiences, it’s critical that the process for accessing and utilising these discounts is simple, quick and intuitive – especially when targeting the digital natives of Gen Z.

Sadler’s Wells, a world-leading dance organisation with four theatre spaces in London, have taken this to the next level by asking how their existing young audiences can advocate amongst their peers in order to grow this segment even further via an incentivised referral scheme. When they came to us to explore how this could be built using Action Links, we knew they were on to something…

The challenge

To access discounted tickets that have been ring-fenced for a specific segment, users typically need to ‘sign up’ or register to a venue’s discount scheme. Usually this means providing a few details about themselves (e.g. email address, proof of age, or postcode if the discounts are aimed at local audiences). This information is then used to add the user to a CRM system, with a tag or identifier that unlocks access to the discounted ticket prices online.

However, depending on the tools used to capture the registration, sometimes this data transfer to your CRM system involves multiple manual steps (especially if sign up is via a paper form). This takes time for staff teams to process and meanwhile leaves the user waiting indefinitely before they can actually gain access to the discounted tickets. Not ideal when a show is selling out and there’s a limited capacity of discount tickets being offered.

Sadler’s Wells were already offering a fully online sign-up to their Barclays Dance Pass offering £10 tickets for 16-30 year olds, with a Dance Pass membership added instantly on registration to unlock discount tickets for purchase online. However, when they looked at their tech stack, neither their website or native checkout flow were able to offer out-of-the-box functionality for facilitating referral sign ups where existing members can refer friends with this activity being tracked and recorded.

They also wanted to incentivise these referrals by entering both parties into a prize draw to win Wimbledon tickets (juicy prize alert!) but only if the friend successfully signs up to become a Dance Pass member.

Because this was a new audience growth strategy that would be approached as a trial, Sadler's Wells were looking for a cost-effective solution that could be delivered and amended quickly (rather than invest in a checkout customisation that would require long-term investment). Using Action Links as the platform to build the referral flow allowed speedy set-up and options to iterate and evolve the functionality going forwards, should the trial prove sucessful.

The brief

We worked with the Sadler’s Wells team to plan a solution that would…

• Allow existing Dance Pass members a way to easily and quickly refer a friend(s) to join the Dance Pass for free
• Provide referred friends a streamlined way to sign up to the Dance Pass online and instantly unlock the benefits of discount tickets immediately upon sign-up
• Both users would need to be identifiable in the CRM as being eligible to enter a prize draw
• Track exactly who referred who, by storing this information and relationship within the CRM customer records for future reporting and analysis
• Offer referrals in an entirely digitised way with a hands-off process for staff, avoiding any manual data entry or handling

The solution

The first step in the new referral flow is allowing existing Dance Pass members the opportunity to refer their friends. This is handled via a Wordfly campaign that sends members an email, including a link to get started.

Following this link, the member lands on an Action Links page and is asked to log in to their customer account and is shown a referral link (a URL appended with their customer ID which allows us to track where successful referrals originated). The member can copy this link and share it with as many friends as they wish.

When a friend opens the referral link, it’s now their turn to land in the Action Links flow and proceed through a series of checks…

Check 1) First we ask them to enter their email address so Action Links can perform a look-up in the CRM system (in this case Tessitura) to see if the user already has a customer record or not. If they do, we ask them to login. If they don’t we ask them to register a new record.

Check 2) Next, we check to see whether the user is already a Dance Pass member – to do this Action Links is checking Tessitura for a Dance Pass Constituency. If we see this Constituency has already been added to the record,  the user is not eligible to join again or be entered into the prize draw and they’re shown an error message to inform them that their journey ends here.

Check 3) Users who are deemed eligible to joint the Dance Pass then pass through a date of birth check to verify whether they’re between 16 and 30 years old (the qualifying age criteria to hold a Dance Pass membership).

Then it’s time for Action Links to set the user up as a new Dance Pass member and record the successful referral within Tessitura, both on the customer account of the new member and the original user who referred them…

What happens to the new, referred member’s record:

• Action Links adds an Attribute storing the user’s date of birth (this allows Sadler’s Wells to expire the Dance Pass membership when the user ages out after their 30th birthday)
• Action Links adds a Dance Pass Constituency and a Ranking to the customer record in Tessitura (this unlocks the ability to book discount tickets online)
• Action Links adds an Attribute with Constituent ID of the referrer (this tracks that the new Dance Pass member originated from a referral and that this person should be entered into the prize draw)
  

What happens to the original referrer’s record:

• Action Links adds an Attribute with Constituent ID of the person they referred (this identifies to Sadler’s Wells that someone the referral made was successful in generating a new sign up and that this person should be entered into the prize draw)

The referral is now complete. Both users have been automatically added to the prize draw and the new Dance Pass member can immediately access discounted tickets without having to wait for any staff to process their sign-up. And the best bit? Sadler’s Wells haven’t had to intervene in the process at all – it’s entirely hands-off.

The impact

Since launching the new referral scheme a few weeks ago, Sadler’s Wells have seen over 400 users visit this new user journey and over 80 individuals have successfully either referred a friend or joined the Dance Pass. This is already sparking conversations about how to shift from traditional acquisition channels to a more community-led approach.

The prize draw closes in May with winners to be announced shortly afterwards. Sadler’s Wells will then be able to reflect on the referral trial and will have tracked data at their fingertips in Tessitura to help report on outcomes accurately, before considering how they can deliver other referral campaigns in the future.

This is a great way of using Action Links as part of your audience development strategy and we’re excited to see how other organisations embrace this.