Marketing your club can be extremely time consuming, and sometimes it can appear like the amount of time you’re putting in is not generating the results that you’re looking for. Here are 6 ways to efficiently executive your club’s marketing strategy.
Save time with efficient social media efforts
You might be finding yourself spending more time than you’d like posting your clinic schedule and club tryout information on one social media platform and then another every single week. Rather than posting individually into each platform, you can post on multiple platforms at once and schedule social media posts in advance and using a service such as CoSchedule can save a lot of time. It is $40/month for one user/login. FaceBook also have the ability to schedule Instagram and FaceBook posts in the Meta Business Suite.
Find the social media platforms that reach the most followers. Instagram and TikTok will reach the most athletes. FaceBook and Twitter will reach the most adults and coaches. Keep posts regular on these platforms by posting a few times per week.
Tell your club’s story through graphics
Make your social media posts visually appealing with graphics and video to grab the attention of your followers. Try to avoid text heavy posts, and instead drive your followers to click the link for more information on your website. Have templates for graphics saved that you can use time after time. Google Drawing and Canva are intuitive, easy to use and free platforms to use. A graphic can tell a story on its own, and can draw someone in to click and learn more. As families are deciding which club to tryout for, take advantage of your social media to share why these families should join your club’s community this season.
Share your message with the masses
Many clubs quickly outgrow their mass communication platforms, especially when limited to sending an email to 100 emails. Utilize an email campaign software such as Constant Contact or Active Campaign to make your emails appealing, reach a larger audience, and organically grow your email list. Emails can be cross promoted on social and you can streamline your communicate by segmenting your contacts by the program they are signed up for, the age or level of team, or their association with the club (parent, coach, athlete, partner, etc).
Each email has a hyperlink that can be shared on social media. Emails can be copied and edited, and you can save a template for each type of newsletter or email, for example, a template for Tournament Updates can have the same style so teams see a consistent looking email throughout the season. Try to limit the text in your emails and keep information short and concise by including action buttons with urls for more information. This is a great way to drive traffic to your website, draw more eyes on your other programs, fundraisers, club store, and events.
Stay focused on your club’s mission and goals
Marketing is used to attract new families to your club, however it can also be focused on speaking to your current families to emphasize your club’s mission and reinforce what your club is all about. If your club is focused on community service, make sure you are promoting the community outreach, events and fundraising that your club is planning to achieve your club’s mission. If your club is focused on growing boys and beach volleyball, make sure you’re representing these sports in your club’s social media posts and content through newsletters. Feature the athletes who have gone onto college and excelled at the next level. Athletes love to be able to relate to and aspire to be a collegiate athlete so this will help your social media engagement. Include equal representation among age groups in the images you’re sharing and the features you’re putting together for your followers.
Not everything needs to be shared. If you’re not sure whether or not post something on social media or your newsletter, ask yourself “Does it help advance your club image and brand?” If the answer is no, it’s best to hold off on sharing it with your entire audience.
Streamline your communication
Have an email address that is a forwarding address that goes to the administrators who post on social media. When the content is posted the administrator can “reply to all” to let them know its posted. If for some reason the content is not posted, the administrator can reply to let them know why. Having multiple people receive the content can prevent help your club manage all of the posts and content to share. Put some accountability on your coaches and players to share content to this email address as well.
Utilize your facility to promote your programs
If you own or lease your own facility, take advantage of the marketing space in your facility to promote what your club is doing. Place banners and photos in the hallways, hang flyers in the bathroom stalls and the check-in desk, and have consistent branding throughout your facility so anytime photos are taken around the courts, halls, etc, your club’s logo and colors are visible.
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