How to build the perfect tech stack for sports and entertainment in 2024

The sports and entertainment industry has made a strong comeback following the unprecedented challenges you faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ticketed events are expected to reach a total market size of $82.5 billion within the next couple of years. That’s not accounting for the revenue you can generate through fan membership subscriptions, merchandising, partnerships, and sponsorships.

The time is right to make some important decisions. Streamlining your cross-departmental tech stack is essential for continued recovery and increased growth. For marketing departments in particular, unified tech stacks allow you to deliver tailored experiences – something that is vital in the fast-paced world of sports and entertainment.

Managing a complex tech stack to achieve the necessary level of personalization is a significant challenge for many sports and entertainment brands. Siloed data, outdated systems, and fragmented customer journeys often hinder your ability to deliver meaningful experiences.

Dotdigital offers a comprehensive solution to these challenges. As a leading provider of personalized cross-channel marketing automation, we specialize in helping sports and entertainment brands build streamlined tech stacks that drive fan engagement and revenue.

So, whether you’re a sports club or organization, theater, venue, or ticketing vendor, we can support you to achieve your growth ambitions.

The challenges: Building a winning tech stack in sports & entertainment

The sports and entertainment industry is a complex ecosystem, characterized by a multitude of platforms and data sources. From ticketing systems and CRM software to social media platforms and mobile apps, you’re juggling a vast array of tools to engage your audiences. This fragmented landscape can make it difficult to achieve a unified view of the customer and deliver personalized experiences.

One of the biggest challenges sports and entertainment brands need to overcome is siloed data. Customer data is often scattered across different platforms, making it difficult to access and analyze. This can hinder your ability to understand your audience’s preferences, behaviors, and needs.

What’s more, in today’s competitive environment, personalization is essential for building strong relationships with fans and customers. However, achieving true personalization is difficult when data is siloed and the tech stack is fragmented. You need a unified view of the customer journey in order to deliver tailored experiences that resonate.

The fast-paced nature of sports and entertainment requires real-time engagement with fans and customers. An inefficient tech stack can limit a brand’s ability to respond quickly to events, such as game results or breaking news. This can lead to missed opportunities and a decline in customer satisfaction.

Top tech stack challenges facing sport & entertainment brands

• A fragmented landscape: Multiple platforms and data sources lead to missed opportunities.
• Data silos: Data trapped in different systems makes data-driven decision-making inaccessible.
• Lack of personalization: With a fragmented ecosystem and siloed data delivering tailored experiences is almost impossible.
• Real-time engagement: Turning engagement into conversion requires you to respond to events quickly.

Building the dream team: The ideal sports & entertainment tech stack

So, what should your tech stack look like? What’s the real dream team?

To overcome the challenges facing your industry, you need a robust and integrated tech stack. Here are the key components to consider that need to sync data seamlessly for unparalleled success:

1. Customer relationship management (CRM)

A robust CRM system acts as the central nervous system of your tech stack, providing a unified view of the customer journey. It enables you to collect and manage customer data and track interactions and preferences across your marketing channels. Overall CRM tools like Spektrix and Salesforce can help you:

• Track customer interactions: Keep a record of all interactions with customers, from sales calls to support inquiries.
• Manage customer data: Store and organize customer information in a centralized database.
• Personalize fan experiences: Use customer data to tailor interactions and provide personalized service.

2. Marketing automation

Marketing automation tools help you automate repetitive tasks, personalize campaigns, and deliver content at the right time. This enables you to nurture leads, increase conversions, and improve customer engagement. Cross-channel marketing automation platforms like Dotdigital allow you to automate campaigns that run across email, SMS, retargeting ads, apps, and more.

3. Data management platform (DMP) or customer data platform (CDP)

Where a CRM tool is designed to manage customer interactions and relationships, a DMP or CDP is focused on collecting, organizing, and activating customer data from various sources. It’s like a central hub that gathers information about your customers from different touchpoints, such as websites, mobile apps, social media, and offline channels.

As well as integrating with leading DMPs and CDPs, Dotdigital’s CXDP also provides key functions including:

• Data collection and aggregation
• Data enrichment
• Audience segmentation
• Data activation

4. Ticketing & event management platform

While many sports and entertainment brands already have established ticketing and event management platforms, it’s essential to ensure that these platforms integrate seamlessly with your overall tech stack. This will allow you to capture valuable customer data and provide a unified experience.

A truly seamless, personalized experience requires clear communication pre- and post-event, making integration with your marketing automation platform essential.

5. Analytics & reporting

Measuring your marketing campaign’s performance and understanding fan engagement nuances is vital for optimization and continual improvement. As your tech stack grows and the number of channels you engage fans on expands, having a central hub for analytics and reporting will contribute significantly to your success.

Additional considerations

• Content management system (CMS): A CMS provides a user-friendly interface for managing your website content, including articles, blog posts, and landing pages. Consider a CMS that integrates with your other tech stack components for seamless content creation and distribution.
• App management: If you have a mobile app, ensure it integrates with your other tools for data collection, push notifications, and personalized content delivery.
• Advanced personalization tools: Explore AI-powered personalization tools that can deliver highly targeted and relevant experiences. These tools can analyze customer data to identify preferences and behaviors and then use that information to personalize content, recommendations, and offers.

Streamlining your tech stack for success

At Dotdigital, understanding the unique needs and challenges facing our users is at our core. Built by marketers, for marketers, our expertise lies in building perfect marketing tools that enable the building of streamlined tech stacks. The result: you deliver exceptional results, every time.

The Dotdigital advantage

1. Seamless integrations

One of the key benefits of partnering with Dotdigital is its ability to integrate seamlessly with various platforms, including CRMs, DMPs, and ticketing systems. This creates a single source of truth, allowing you to have a unified view of your customers across all channels.

What’s more, we’re trusted by giants in the industry such as Spektrix, Sports Alliance, and Jonas Sports to provide sport and entertainment marketers with the tools you need to build powerful relationships with fans.

2. Data-driven marketing

Data is the fuel that drives successful marketing campaigns. Dotdigital’s platform empowers you to leverage customer data to deliver highly personalized experiences. By understanding your fans’ preferences and behaviors, you can create targeted campaigns that resonate and drive engagement.

3. Real-time engagement

In the world of sports and entertainment, real-time engagement is crucial. Dotdigital’s platform allows you to send targeted communications based on event triggers, such as pre-game emails or post-event offers. This ensures that you’re always reaching your fans at the right time with the right message.

4. Actionable insights

Our advanced analytics tools provide you with the insights you need to measure campaign performance and optimize your marketing strategies. By analyzing data on open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, you can identify what’s working and what’s not, and make data-driven decisions to improve your results.

And, as a bonus, Dotdigital’s AI-powered marketing intelligence engine (WinstonAI) looks at fan engagement patterns to offer predictive analytics such as likely next purchase date and churn probability. With Dotdigital, proactive and real-time marketing is easy.

Building a winning tech stack for the future

It’s clear that in the competitive world of sports and entertainment, having a streamlined tech stack is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. A unified approach allows you to deliver personalized experiences, engage fans in real-time, and drive business growth.

Dotdigital is your trusted partner in building a winning tech stack. Our platform offers seamless integrations, data-driven marketing, real-time engagement, and actionable insights. By partnering with us, you can unlock the full potential of your marketing efforts and achieve lasting success.