What can we do to get more fans at home?

[PopStander]

What can the club do to get people in?
We're winning games, top of the league, could be promoted Saturday. It's happening on the pitch.
Would cheap tickets bring people back?
Free tickets?
Better advertising?
Free drink?

[acacia94]

The club for whatever reason have never got a grip of this.
Its straightforward.
Get strategic marketing consultants to pitch for the job of increasing the attendances at Doncaster Rovers home matches. Its a marketing challenge. The brief would be to deliver consistent gates of 10, 12, 14,000 (whatever the target is set at) through increased season ticket sales or whatever the consultants would present as their solutions.
I've got no idea how DRFC manage their strategic marketing but I doubt from our low attendances, bearing in mind we have been a relatively successful club over the last 10-15 years, its been dealt with in a grown up way.
Of course it would cost money but the long term benefits would offset any initial sizeable outlay.

[bpoolrover]

Keep winning the more successful the more will come

[MrFrost]

The club for whatever reason have never got a grip of this.
Its straightforward.
Get strategic marketing consultants to pitch for the job of increasing the attendances at Doncaster Rovers home matches. Its a marketing challenge. The brief would be to deliver consistent gates of 10, 12, 14,000 (whatever the target is set at) through increased season ticket sales or whatever the consultants would present as their solutions.
I've got no idea how DRFC manage their strategic marketing but I doubt from our low attendances, bearing in mind we have been a relatively successful club over the last 10-15 years, its been dealt with in a grown up way.
Of course it would cost money but the long term benefits would offset any initial sizeable outlay.

This.

The club needs a proper social media professional as well. The content and engagement through its current channels is laughable.

[Syme]

Was this one of your ideas you sent them? 'Employ an expert'?

[PopStander]

Saturday should be advertised as promotion party, get people in to see us be promoted, but I've heard nothing about it.
The Black Bank which is run by fans are doing something for the Exeter game.

[Jersey Rover]

Not everyone can attend weekly, an expat membership where you get a certain amount of admissions per season rather than just pay on the day. Would be happy to pay a smaller fee to be part of the club for a membership as a distant member

[Syme]

I'm not sure an ex-pat membership makes much financial sense for the Club. The numbers involved would be very low and I would see it as, if you are already prepared to pay the expense of travelling from overseas then you're not likely to be put off having to pay an extra few quid per game.

[Jersey Rover]

And the club receive nothing. Charging for an overseas membership creates another revenue stream for the club. Look at all the larger teams. Most of their revenue comes from fans that are not season ticket holders

[The Red Baron]

The club for whatever reason have never got a grip of this.
Its straightforward.
Get strategic marketing consultants to pitch for the job of increasing the attendances at Doncaster Rovers home matches. Its a marketing challenge. The brief would be to deliver consistent gates of 10, 12, 14,000 (whatever the target is set at) through increased season ticket sales or whatever the consultants would present as their solutions.
I've got no idea how DRFC manage their strategic marketing but I doubt from our low attendances, bearing in mind we have been a relatively successful club over the last 10-15 years, its been dealt with in a grown up way.
Of course it would cost money but the long term benefits would offset any initial sizeable outlay.

This.

The club needs a proper social media professional as well. The content and engagement through its current channels is laughable.

We had one of those and people didn't seem to care for him.

[Syme]

And the club receive nothing. Charging for an overseas membership creates another revenue stream for the club. Look at all the larger teams. Most of their revenue comes from fans that are not season ticket holders

I doubt it would be much of a revenue stream. What would this membership get an ex-pat? Cheaper tickets? If so, why would the club want to promote that, unless the ex-pat would never turn up. In which case why would the ex-pat want to buy it.

[Filo]

The club for whatever reason have never got a grip of this.
Its straightforward.
Get strategic marketing consultants to pitch for the job of increasing the attendances at Doncaster Rovers home matches. Its a marketing challenge. The brief would be to deliver consistent gates of 10, 12, 14,000 (whatever the target is set at) through increased season ticket sales or whatever the consultants would present as their solutions.
I've got no idea how DRFC manage their strategic marketing but I doubt from our low attendances, bearing in mind we have been a relatively successful club over the last 10-15 years, its been dealt with in a grown up way.
Of course it would cost money but the long term benefits would offset any initial sizeable outlay.

This.

The club needs a proper social media professional as well. The content and engagement through its current channels is laughable.

We had one of those and people didn't seem to care for him.

He loved himself before the job

[Syme]

He was a professional in the sense that he got paid to work.

I wouldn't have called him proper though.

[Alan Southstand]

In general, bpoolrover has got it spot on. Marketing for a one-off, like this Saturday, should be ramped up but as yet we have seen nothing.

As a Club, you sometimes have to wonder whether we are switched on. For atmosphere the Moat suffers badly when only half full. The team are doing their bit, but the Club seem to be lagging behind but at least, like the team, they're pretty consistent.

[Herman Hessian]

from an outsider's perspective, the oft-mentioned idea of making a real effort to engage with the local Polish community seems like a fairly simple step that could reap decent rewards...seems to be suggested on here on a regular basis, generally agreed to be a good idea, then not acted upon in any meaningful way at all; more Pole's that come along the better IMHO - they seem to love their football and are fond of generating a mental atmosphere when sufficiently interested...

[RedJ]

He was a professional in the sense that he got paid to work.

I wouldn't have called him proper though.

Dunno, he got us in the spotlight a few times. Even if some of his initiatives were a bit embarrassing.

[Syme]

He did raise the profile occasionally, but to what end?

The Fleetwood highlights video - where nothing at all happened about from the kick off - was in most national papers, trending on social media etc. - but if you saw that and you were from Donny would it make you want to go and watch a game?

[ballysbackin]

Why not have a public Consultation with a drop in or a series of desks in town centre PLUS an online forum at the same time and ask the simple question with no suggested answers. "Why do you not attend DRFC home games?  Not too hard isnt that. then the professionals will know what they have to do.

[roversdude]

Ticketless tickets .... a few of my mates moan that they have to go and buy a ticket or if done on net go and pick it up
Barcode scanner could solve this ala theme parks zoos etc
In fact thinking about it why bother printing season tickets just have a card that could be scanned

[acacia94]

All these suggestions are undoubtedly valid but they're tactical activity.
Whats required is strategic campaign being delivered by proper marketeers who are tasked with measurable strategic goals – such as increased gates of +2K, +4K – whatever is decided by the club as targets – within say a 12-18 month period and beyond.
How they do that is then a series of tactical activities that will deliver the agreed goals. The club / directors / whoever makes these decisions arent doing the big bit of work upfront which then defines, guides and connects the various work streams.
This is all very standard marketing stuff. I can only think Terry and Dick aren't overly concerned about attendances and don't want to spend the money on attempting to improve our gates. They're both proper business heavyweights so there'll be a reason for it somewhere in the recesses of the KM.

[Herbert Anchovy]

In my opinion the best way to understand why people aren't attending games is to ask them. The club could use a variety of methods to question a cross section of the population of the town to understand what's stopping them going. For example I'm sure that the club will still have the contact details of former season ticket holders. A survey of them will give us one insight. Additionally, online and face to face surveys could be carried out with people/supporters across the town, for example those who've never had a season ticket but go to most games, those who only attend occasionally, those who used to attend but have stopped and those who've never gone to a match for x amount of years. 

Many people have shared their own feedback of why people have stopped going on this forum in the past, but I feel that a more organised and structured approach would give the club a key insight. Once they have this knowledge they can begin to create a marketing plan that answers the 'concerns' of those who have either stopped going or never started going in the first place. Indeed, you could have a 2 pronged marketing campaign aimed at those 2 groups of people.   

Just my thoughts...

[MrFrost]

Ticketless tickets .... a few of my mates moan that they have to go and buy a ticket or if done on net go and pick it up
Barcode scanner could solve this ala theme parks zoos etc
In fact thinking about it why bother printing season tickets just have a card that could be scanned

I must admit, i'm surprised we haven't introduced etickets. Would make everyone's life a whole lot easier.

[Filo]

Etickets are a good idea, the only drawback i could see is that eticketing doesn't discriminate between a home supporter and an away supporter

[roversdude]

Surely it will only allow access to predetermined area

[graingrover]

Interesting to suggest expats as a potential income stream. I am an expat and buy a season ticket because I  wish to support the club. I offer my ticket to the club when I cannot get to matches so that they may offer it to a worthy cause of which they have identified many in the community.
   I don't share the view we are weak on marketing . I think the Club Doncaster strategy is very good strategic thinking which both strengthens our identity in the community and generates extra income from the multitude of activities that go on at Keepmoat.

[Bentley Bullet]

We have to sell the dream back to those who became despondent because of past failures. Not everyone is as faithful as those of us who never stopped attending regularly despite our more recent failings. I must admit a lot of my enthusiasm went when the dream of reaching the Championship proved to be unsustainable (twice), and although I never stopped going, I can empathise with those who did.

The majority of those who no longer attend who I've spoken to told me they no longer go because actually reaching the promised land of Championship football wasn't anywhere near as good as the dream of getting there. They claimed that even with backing from the richest board we've ever had, and are ever likely to have again resulted in failure, meaning that we will never be anything higher than a third/fourth tier team.

Hopefully, this new dawn of building the club from within will prove otherwise, resulting in those who jumped ship becoming life-long fans again.

[Bessie Red]

from an outsider's perspective, the oft-mentioned idea of making a real effort to engage with the local Polish community seems like a fairly simple step that could reap decent rewards...seems to be suggested on here on a regular basis, generally agreed to be a good idea, then not acted upon in any meaningful way at all; more Pole's that come along the better IMHO - they seem to love their football and are fond of generating a mental atmosphere when sufficiently interested...

I've heard what sounded like eastern European languages a few times outside the Keepmoat & the people were all sporting Rovers scarves so there already seems to be some interest from that community in following us.

[sheffield exile1]

Interesting to suggest expats as a potential income stream. I am an expat and buy a season ticket because I  wish to support the club. I offer my ticket to the club when I cannot get to matches so that they may offer it to a worthy cause of which they have identified many in the community.
   I don't share the view we are weak on marketing . I think the Club Doncaster strategy is very good strategic thinking which both strengthens our identity in the community and generates extra income from the multitude of activities that go on at Keepmoat.

We had similar posts in the programmes in the 50's when we had the other good spell playing Leeds, West Ham, Liverpool and Everton week in week out its not a new phenominan poor gates at Donny. Sure you have observed that Brian. Couple that with the conference years and a whole generation of weeds, wendies etc lost we need to buil a sustainable base. In the championship we had kids round Mexborough with rovers shirts on playing in the local parks. Its that kind of hook and ongoing sustainability we need to develop. Unfortunately we are top, but of division 4, so we need to keep doing things off the field and I am sure the lost souls will gradually return.

[normal rules]

Keep up the momentum on the pitch into next season. If the team are performing this time next season like they are now, then we will see a welcome upturn in attendances.

Sadly for some, there was alot of damage done over last few seasons. My dad and brother, who have been sth for years, gave up two seasons ago, rightly or wrongly. And before anyone moans about committment etc,  my brother in particular was with the team through their darkest hour in the conference years home and away.

They just fell out of love with DRFC. It started way back during the "experiment" and was compounded with relegation into league two.

[normal rules]

My dad and brother were very loyal to the club for some years, yet they have not renewed for two seasons and no phone call from the club.

Im sure a correctly worded phone call with an incentive or two would go a long way to getting them back.

On a PR note, every chippy within a 5 mile radius of the keepmoat should have a flyer in the window advertising the next home game.

Ive seen this in other towns up and down the country.