Keeping Fans First: How Savannah Bananas Maintains a Personal Touch with Constant Contact

To some, baseball is slow and predictable. Perhaps even a little … boring. If that’s your take, you clearly haven’t seen the Savannah Bananas. Known for dancing on the diamond, wearing kilts in the outfield, and doing backflips on the mound, the Savannah Bananas flip the script on America’s favorite pastime by turning every game into a full-blown spectacle. 

“I knew that to many people, baseball was too long, too slow, and too boring. So we had to think dramatically different,” explained Jesse Cole, owner of the Savannah Bananas. “People don’t leave a great movie in the middle of the movie, but in baseball games, people were leaving every single game before the game’s over. And I said, ‘There’s a fundamental problem with the game.’ So we went all in on entertainment first.”

This mindset sparked the creation of banana ball, the team’s twist on baseball that eliminates the “boring” parts like bunting, mound visits, and walks.  “We actually changed the rules of baseball to make it faster and more exciting for fans,” said Jesse. 

They tested the first game in 2018 with zero fans in the stand. After that game, they knew they were onto something special. “We played for 99 minutes and the players said it was the most fun they’ve ever had playing.” 

By 2021, they began playing for fans, and in 2022, they went all in on banana ball. “It’s what fans wanted.”

Fans first

Everything the Savannah Bananas do centers around one simple mission: fans first. It’s a belief so central to their identity that even their business name, Fans First Entertainment, reflects this. “Every question we ask is: ‘Will it create fans? Is it fans first?’” said Jesse. This means ditching the one-size-fits-all approach and instead having real conversations with their fans. 

In the early days, Jesse and his team handwrote thank-you notes after merchandise sales and personally called every single fan who bought a ticket. “That’s 100,000 plus calls”. But as their fanbase grew, maintaining that level of connection became a challenge. They turned to Constant Contact to help scale their reach while maintaining the personal feeling their fans have come to know and love. 

Maintaining authentic connection and the fan experience

With almost 5 million fans, it’s impossible to send handwritten notes to everyone. But staying connected to their audience in a genuine way is a priority for Jesse and his team. Now, they write a single heartfelt message by hand, insert it into an email in Constant Contact, and share it, allowing them to maintain that personal connection at scale without the time-consuming process of individual outreach.

By communicating with their fans directly in their inbox, they can keep them informed about the stuff they care about, like essential updates, ticket sales, game broadcasts, behind-the-scenes peeks, and new merchandise drops. 

As the person responsible for guiding fans from signing up for their ticket lottery to the moment they leave the stadium, Carson Bowen, Savannah Banana’s Ticket Experience Director, understands that authentic connection is key. 

“Whether there’s 3 million on a list or 10 million, it’s the same dedication to that one fan at a time. How do we make sure they feel like they’re not just a number?” he said. They think through every single touchpoint and every piece of communication that goes out. “Is it creating a fan? Is it entertaining? Because as our mission states: fans first, entertain always.”

More than a ticket

To the Bananas, a ticket isn’t just a ticket. It might be a long-awaited family night out, a mini-reunion, or a birthday surprise. So they constantly ask themselves, “What do people need to know to make them feel supported and informed?” They want to ensure the process anticipates any and all questions so the experience feels smooth, seamless, and enjoyable throughout. 

“We are acutely aware that people get a lot of emails. Anytime anyone gets an email, we don’t want it to be an interruption,” said Carson.  “We want it to be informative, educational, and most of all, fun. If we’re able to communicate with our fans at the right time, entertain them, and get them the information they need, then we’re happy and they’re happy.”

Building the brand, one email at a time

For Kara Heater, Savannah Banana’s Vice President of Marketing, brand consistency isn’t about pretty visuals. It’s about making sure every fan experience feels like the Bananas. From subject lines to images, every element reinforces their quirky, heartfelt identity. 

Now that they are managing four teams, plus the Banana Ball World Tour, branding consistency is even more important. “We really want to make sure that as we add teams, each one has its own distinct brand identity and personality,” explained Kara. 

By utilizing email templates, the team can easily tweak colors, logos, and layouts that align perfectly with whatever team  or event they need to promote. With a simple scan of their website, Constant Contact’s BrandKit helps them add their colors, logos, and images into their templates.

“Each email can be customized through the email designer and the customizable templates, which is really cool. It makes it feel personalized for the fans, for what game they’re coming to, and what teams they’re going to see.” 

Getting personal

Personalization plays a major role in how the Savannah Bananas create the feeling that each message is speaking to each fan individually. The personalization features within Constant Contact, like greeting tags, allow them to address their fans by name. 

“We try to personalize by using features like the greeting tags and personalized greetings so it feels like we’re actually talking directly to them and it’s not just some big email going out to 100,000 fans,” said Kara. “It feels like we’re speaking directly to that one fan.” 

As their fan base grew and as multiple teams needed to communicate about various topics, segmentation became essential. This helps ensure their messages provide the information they need to know, what they want to see, and who they want to hear from.

“We’re able to communicate with the right people at the right time. That way, someone from Reno, Nevada, is receiving information for Reno, Nevada, not Albuquerque, New Mexico,” explained Carson. 

Because their ticketing system is integrated directly into Constant Contact, they are able to automatically pull fan data and organize it into separate lists  —  merchandise interest, broadcast emails, and of course, ticket information. “Segmentation has been crucial for us because we have such a big list of contacts,” explained Kara.  “We need to make sure the information that’s going out to these fans is exactly what they’re looking for.”

“Through the tools on Constant Contact, like segmentation and the API integration with our ticketing system, we’re able to communicate the right information to the right people,” Carson Bowen, Ticket Experience Director.

Click segmentation has helped take their engagement to the next level. Their most notable success was their holiday catalog campaign, in which they sent an email that included merchandise broken down by team.

By utilizing click segmentation, they were able to easily identify which teams each fan was interested in and they automatically sent follow-ups showing them additional items from that team. “It worked really well,” said Kara. “We had a lot of fans getting new merchandise.”

Forms, feedback, and cupcakes

The team also uses forms as another way to continue personalizing the fan experience. Their know-before-you-go emails include a form asking questions like, “What are you celebrating?” and “What are you looking forward to the most?” This feedback gives them the information they need to create memorable experiences for their fans.

“If someone tells us they’re celebrating Jackson’s 11th birthday, we know exactly where they’re going to be sitting. And maybe when they get there, there’s a cupcake for Jackson,” explained Carson. “So we’re able to utilize feedback from our fans to help make ‘never forget’ moments for our fans.”

Turning engagement into sales

To increase merchandise sales, the team connected their Shopify store with Constant Contact. “Integrating Shopify into our Constant Contact has been super helpful,” said Kara. “… we’re able to know who we’re pushing merchandise to, what they want to see, what they want more of.”

Automations like abandoned cart emails and personalized thank you messages help them to drive sales and humanize their communications. 

“One thing the marketing advisors at Constant Contact really helped us with was setting up an abandoned cart automation. This helped sales for our merchandise campaign last year, which was awesome,” said Kara.

Their Shopify integration has allowed them to average more than $5,263.15 in sales per email, resulting in an ROI of more than 1300%. 

Smart data = better timing

The Bananas utilize tools like heatmaps and monitor data like open and click-through rates to determine if what they are providing fans is truly fans first. 

“We realized the moment they join the list, they’re not concerned with what gate they could be walking through,” Carson explained. “However, that information is more and more important 24 to 48 hours before the event. Whereas information like hotels or parking needs to be closer to the ticket purchasing date.”

Leveraging these reporting tools has helped inform optimal email timing and continue to provide fans what they care about. This strategy has helped them to achieve stellar reporting averages. 

“Our open rate is tremendous. I think the national average is around 20% and we’re over 55%,” said Jesse.  “Because we’re sending things not to sell, but to tell our fans what they need to know, entertain them in a unique way, and thank them in a unique way.” 

Looking to the future

From the start, the Savannah Bananas team has focused on connection over conversion. Every email, game, dance, or social post has been about making fans feel like they’re part of something. 

“At the end of the day, we’re fans of our fans, and our fans are fans of us,” said Carson.

Using Constant Contact tools like segmentation and automation, they have been able to create experiences while still feeling tailored to individual fans. With higher-than-average open rates, a fanbase that keeps growing, and an ROI that’s, well, bananas, it’s clear their approach is working. 

“Working with the team at Constant Contact, we realize that there’s all these facets to this platform we haven’t even touched. Even this year, we’ve made tremendous growth,” said Carson.

Looking ahead, they have a wildly ambitious goal: grow to one billion fans without losing the human touch. With Constant Contact by their side, they feel ready to make it happen.

“It’s great to know we can rely on an email platform that can handle that many contacts, reach them in multiple ways, and make it a fun experience for the fans that we’re contacting through email,” said Kara.