(09/22/16)

Presenter: Jenifer Wisniewski, Marketing and Communications Manager, Georgia DNR Jenifer.Wisniewski@dnr.ga.gov
Notes by Cindy Kuenstner, New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife
Sally Mills, Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries

• Georgia licenses are complicated; many are sold as a package.
  Most popular among avid anglers: fishing license/trout stamp.
• Reviewed R3 efforts (recruit, retain, reactivate) and emailing to license holders:
  How much are they worth? Studies underway with RBFF, NSSF, GADNR, others.

Georgia Pilot Retention Program – Study of first-time anglers and all who had not purchased/renewed any license in last five years

• Across all groups, emailing anglers increased license sales by 5 percent compared with the control group.
• Discounted rate was worth it!
• Results: Sold 128 more licenses; brought in $800 revenue (vs. $350 revenue lost through discount)

Email Newsletters – Do they help?

• Customers receiving emailed newsletter did not renew their license at higher rate.
• NSSF study results will be available soon.

Lifetime Sportsman’s License Campaign –

• Georgia hunting and fishing combo license
• Groups targeted: seniors, sportsman’s license holders, nonresident license buyer (for infants under 2 years old) and residents at holiday time.
• A lifetime license allows the state to receive Federal Aid dollars each year for the years covered by the lifetime license, including the very young ages.
• Purchasers ages 16-50 would save several thousand dollars over the years.

Georgia Lifetime Licenses (www.georgiawildlife.com/LifetimeLicense)

• Results: Lifetime license sales increased by 1,000 with $273,575 increased revenue.
  (Sales were compared with prior years. Results tied directly to email campaign.)

Lapsed Angler Email Campaign –

• Conducted in June; used GovDelivery tool.
• Two email versions:
  < 5 years: “You’ve expired …” (100,000+ recipients)
  > 5 years: “We miss you…” (95,000+ recipients)
• Georgia email list 1,670,000 customers. When purchasing a license you must opt out of receiving DNR emails, purposely made more difficult to opt out.
• Offered a discount of $2.75 off of the regular $9 fishing license.
• Results: 36 percent of the > 5 years group opened email.
  12,950 paid “privileges” sold during that two-week period.
  < 5 years group brought in $77,991. > 5 years group brought in $93,481.
  27 lifetime licenses sold at $200 each.
  Total sales from this two-email campaign: $171, 472

BOTTOM LINE: ROI can be proved in these types of targeted/segmented campaigns.

Additional details from Q&A

• This was a one-time effort (no repeat emails).
• Georgia has 60 percent of its license holders’ email addresses.
• Had to get legislative approval for discount rate.
• Used RBFF templates for email content.
• Also leaned on Brandt and Southwick for tools.
• Consider how you will measure the success of a new campaign.
• Emails opened the most: senior citizens.
• For the lifetime license, must mail in paper; not available online.
• These initiatives came from the top down in Georgia DNR.
• Any license buyer who renewed early received a discount.
• Georgia had a 97-99 percent delivery rate of the emails.
• Check into “Tableau,” a great tool for data on licenses and auto-renew.