Sports clubs are important for the health, education, and socialisation of their members.
These clubs often provide resources for individuals who want to participate in sports, whether individual-based sports or team sports and can be a fantastic social hub for people of all ages.
The immense benefits they bring make them popular outlets for families with children, who want to get their kids engaged in sport, whilst they can also be social pillars of the local community and a haven for people to come together and enjoy a game.
Of course, running a sports club is no easy task.
It takes an army of volunteers to ensure the club runs efficiently and can adequately look after its members.
At the same time, a healthy sports club relies on its ability to attract and retain playing and non-playing members, volunteers and sponsors.
Without club members, a sports club ceases to exist.
Without volunteers, a sports club ceases to function.
Without sponsors, a sports club may no longer be financially viable.
When it comes to attracting all three of these vital sides of the sports club survival there is one crucial element you need to get right.
Marketing.
Marketing isn’t just for big businesses. It’s a vital aspect of your sports club, too.
Being able to capture the attention of your club’s local audience and potential new members, ensuring that you can effectively showcase the benefits and value provided by your club as well as having the ability to demonstrate the quality of experience your club provides its members are all crucial elements of your sports marketing strategy.
Moreover, it’s important to make sure that you are able to effectively promote your club, its activities and the benefits it provides.
Marketing is all about getting your message across to the right people at the right time so that they are able to take action on what you have to offer.
As a sports club, your marketing should have four main goals:
- Attract new members
- Grow your membership database
- Bring new supporters to your games and events
- Attract sponsorship
Here are seven reasons why sports club marketing is important:
Sports club marketing can help you attract more members
Football clubs in the US and Europe are increasingly using digital marketing to attract new fans and players. Social media marketing can make it easier for football clubs to connect with their target demographic, while the increased availability of data analytics can help clubs find out which strategies work best in order to attract potential members.
If it’s good enough for the biggest clubs in the world, it’s good enough for your local sports club.
You might not have superstar players to attract a crowd, but you might have an exceptional social experience on offer.
Perhaps you have an exceptional coaching team.
Maybe your facilities are the gest in the local area.
Whatever it is you think will attract members, make this a core focus of your sports club marketing campaigns to give people a reason to come down to the club and check it out.
Sports club marketing can help you grow your membership database
A sports club’s membership database is an important asset. It’s the key to making sure that you are able to effectively market your club and its activities, as well as having the ability to demonstrate the quality of experience your club provides its members.
Sports clubs can use their membership database to create targeted marketing campaigns that will enable them to attract new members by offering discounts or exclusive offers.
You can use this database to create a great email list, whilst it can also be a great way to attract sponsors.
Sports club marketing can help you win more customers
Customers are a bit different to members, as they tend to be more transactional and less “sticky”.
But if your club has great-looking apparel, great match-day food or something else that might attract people for a one-off visit, a great sports club marketing campaign will highlight that to the local community and perhaps even fans of opposing teams and convince them to come down for a visit.
You never know, those one-off customers might have such a great time that they sign up as members.
Sports club marketing can help your club build a brand
It’s no secret that sports fans are extremely brand conscious. You need to make sure you’re able to offer the customer experiences that allow them to form a positive opinion of your club, even if they don’t become members.
Furthermore, if you’re able to offer a great experience, customers will be more likely to tell their friends about it.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says “Branding is what people say about your business when you’re not in the room.” This equally applies to sports clubs.
If you can use your sports club marketing streams to help attract people to your club, and the experience lives up to the expectation, this could well be the best bit of brand-building you can do.
Remember, marketing isn’t just about what you do to get people to your club. It’s about what happens when people come to your club.
Good sports club marketing should seamlessly integrate with the lived experience your members will have when they come to the club.
Get this right, and it will go a long way to establishing your sports club’s brand – whatever you want it to be.
Sports club marketing helps your club reach its target market
One sports club can market its club as a family-friendly, diverse, and inclusive community. A club with these values will be more likely to reach its target market of families who want to have fun while playing a sport that they enjoy.
Another club, on the other hand, might market themselves as valuing elite development and performance. By marketing these messages to the public, this club would hope to attract talented players with hopes of perhaps playing professionally one day.
This is an important factor in any sports club’s marketing plan, particularly if your club’s major target is attracting more members.
Sports club marketing can help you grow your digital audience
By expanding reach through social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, a good sports club digital strategy will likely help build the size of potential members’ audiences for future marketing campaigns or promotions rolling out across various platforms.
Depending on the sport your club plays, you can also potentially build a regional, national or even international interest in your club and team.
Even if the people who like your Facebook page, follow your Twitter account or subscribe to your YouTube channel are never going to come to your ground and spend a dime at the bar or canteen, they are a valuable part of your digital audience.
The bigger your audience and the more diverse your marketing streams, the more attractive your club is to potential sponsors.
Sports club marketing can help you gain new sponsorship
A sports club can secure deals with companies based on how its marketing efforts align with brand values. For instance, if your club is known as being community-focused and inclusive rather than one which focuses heavily on competition – it could be possible to attract sponsorship from businesses who similarly value diversity and inclusion.
Not only does sponsorship help pad your coffers, it can also carry off sales of other related products such as training kits or annual memberships. Additionally, sponsors’ fees can be used to add on new facilities such as updated changing areas at ground level.
Finding sponsors for your sports club isn’t always easy, but a solid marketing foundation can make it easier.
In summary, sports club marketing can help your club grow its digital audience, build brand awareness and attract sponsorship.
If you’re ready to start stepping up your sports club’s marketing efforts and growing your digital audience, get in touch with Content Hype today.
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