A successful marketing strategy will give a club a strong profile. Whether trying to attract new members, sell tickets to events or just improve awareness in the community, a good profile is key for success.
Marketing strategy
There are a number of options available to help raise the profile of a club. A club in the first instance should create a marketing strategy. Within this, the following should be considered:
- Who is the key audience?
- Identifying who the target audience is will help clarify what channels to use in promotion and help to create the best and most well-suited profile for the club.
- What budget is available to promote the club?
- A clearly identified budget will help determine what channels should be used to market a club.
- When will it be best to market the club?
- Ensure a clear schedule of communications and identify key dates in the calendar e.g. events, competitions, open days etc.
- How is best to do this?
- Identifying a budget will help with this. Consider what cheaper options are available such as social media before considering print options.
Marketing channels
There are a number of different platforms a club can utilise to raise the profile of a club. Just some options available are:
Social media
- A quick, easy and incredibly cheap tactic to raise the profile of sport. Social media helps keep members updated on the everyday running of a club, highlights key dates in a club’s calendar, and can help maintain a strong profile year round within the community.
- Some recommended channels to consider using are Twitter and Facebook. Twitter is a great channel for constantly updating a community, keeping the club’s profile strong and maintaining a level of engagement with external stakeholders. Facebook is also recommended for this, but is a particularly useful platform for contacting current members of a club with operational updates e.g. change in timetables.
- sportscotland can provide a club with more information on social media. It is important to contact the local community sport hub officer, active schools coordinator, Governing body or local sports development officer in the first instance if a club is struggling.
Website
A club generally should always have an online presence and in most instances an external stakeholder may look for a website. However, a club may decide a website would be too difficult to manage, in which case it is recommended to have an online profile on social media.
A website is a perfect channel to let external stakeholders know more about a club and the services on offer, but it does need time and resources to ensure information is relevant and up-to-date.
Sponsorship
A club should consider any local organisations when looking to increase a profile of a club. Attaining a partnership or sponsorship agreement with local organisations can help increase club revenue and partnering organisations can provide access to their databases to allow for a greater increase in awareness. A sponsorship or partnership agreement can be customised to suit the needs of all parties involved.
Printed resources
Such as posters or flyers, this type of communication will always require time and budget. In a lot of instances, such as marketing within a school, a poster campaign or printed flyers may be best suited. However, before considering printed options it is recommended to consider social media as it is a cheaper and more time efficient option for most.
Media channels
A club should make contact with relevant local media channels who can help raise profile and connect with a local audience. There are some points to consider when working with media:
- Is there a story? Consider what may be “news worthy”. Just simply organising an event will not be considered. However, is the event for charity raising mosey for charity and has there been a positive impact within a local community as a result? Is there anyone within a club who has been positively impacted and inspired by a club’s services?
- Remember to keep journalists up-to-date with any relevant information/ images about an event
- It is important to remember that journalists are very busy, so reminding them of any relevant information you wish to put out to media is important.
- A club may find writing a press release highly time consuming, especially if there is a demand from the club to be in the media frequently. A tip for a club would be to write 3-5 bullet points on what the story is about and send this to a journalist with contact information. If a journalist is interested in the story, they will contact and ask for more information from there.
- Visit Sport First online for some examples of what makes a good story
