RBFF releases first-time buyers retention email campaign toolkit

The Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation on Thursday announced the release of its First-Time Buyers Retention Email Campaign Toolkit for state agencies. This toolkit includes email communication strategies and resources that have been proven effective in retaining new anglers.

“If the majority of individuals who tried fishing stuck with it, we’d be well on our way to reaching our 60 in 60 goal,” said RBFF President and CEO Frank Peterson. “Our industry has a big opportunity to decrease the number of people lapsing out of the sport. Fortunately, with effective angler retention programs like this toolkit, we have proven that state agencies can effectively retain anglers through email communications. This program helps agencies gain critical dollars for conservation programs while investing only minimal staff time.”

By utilizing the toolkit, state agencies can follow step-by-step directions, which include identifying first-time license buyers, utilizing and customizing the supplied email templates and distributing the email communications. This toolkit supplies state agencies with all the necessary resources to plan and implement an angler retention campaign. All that’s required of the state agencies is the staff time needed to manage the campaign.

The toolkit is the result of the learnings from RBFF and the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division’s New Angler Retention Pilot Program, which concluded earlier this year. Results of the program were positive, with treatment groups generating a 4.7% increase in the license renewal rate compared to the control group. The program led to an additional 1,448 licenses being sold in Georgia and more than $18,000 in added revenue. Furthermore, anglers in the treatment group renewed their licenses more quickly than those in the control group. On average, members of the control group took 30.5 days to renew their license while members of the treatment groups averaged just 18.8 days.

“Getting positive results from this work with our partner, RBFF is so exciting! We knew that email communications worked, we just needed a way to measure how effective these communications are with new anglers, and this study did just that. Putting the right communications strategies into play is an effective tool in recruiting and retaining anglers. It also affects license purchasing behavior by reducing churn, keeping anglers from lapsing.” said Rusty Garrison, director, Georgia Wildlife Resources Division.

To download the toolkit and implement your own angler retention campaign, head to the RBFF Resource Center.