Boosting your Sports Business with Social Media
As a start-up or small business owner, we have no doubt that you’re aware of how much there is to accomplish with limited resources. Choosing traditional marketing methods in the climate we live in today will not only drain your funds but are likely to be time consuming and ineffectual. The shift to the internet and the demand for online interfaces means that social media marketing can give you a direct line to current and prospective customers (and is low cost!).
Although social media platforms are easier to master, successful marketing via tools like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest is an art form. Due to the wealth of advertising that now appears on sites like Facebook, diversifying your business with social media must be strategic – cutting through advertisements, and building relationships without alienating followers.
By investing time in nurturing your social profiles, you’ll be able to build a loyal fan base and increase your sports business’ revenue. Here are some tips on how to generate a buzz around your business:
1. Do your homework
Behind every successful social media campaign, there is a well thought
through strategy, since to be successful you must be able to connect
with your audience on an authentic level. Begin by understanding your current customers. What are they looking for? Are they a sports coach or sports enthusiast? Are they satisfied with what you offer? An intimate awareness here will help you to understand your potential customers, and you begin to define your audience. Look at age, gender, profession, interests etc. and base your message – your USP – on your defined target audience. If you listen and learn what’s important to your customers, you can create content and initiate a conversation that adds value rather than clutter to their lives.
2. Quality not quantity
This old adage rings as true here as it does elsewhere! In its laws on social media, the Entrepreneur website writes that it’s better to have 1,000 online connections who read, share, and talk about your content with their own audiences than 10,000 connections who disappear after connecting with you the first time – and we agree! Just because your social profile is available to everyone online doesn’t mean you need to reach everyone. Promoting your posts through paid advertising allows you to localise your targeting by town or city. Whichever option you choose, targeting your social content with quality in mind ensures that your posts are valuable to the right people.
3. Incentivise – run competitions and offer promotions
If you’re looking to increase your fans and followers, why not offer them an incentive? Organising competitions can make you stand out from the crowd, increase brand awareness and get your customers engaging with your business on another level. Perhaps you could ask people for their favourite combat practice and imaginative reasons why that is their favourite, and reward the winner with a free training session. This then provides greater exposure to your services. You can also reward loyalty through discounts or free samples, but always be sure to keep these techniques light and friendly as hard selling can put people off.
4. Accessibility and reciprocity
It’s all very well and good to have great intentions when you’re starting up, but must avoid publishing content and then disappearing. Be available to your audience, if you want to engage with them, they must be able to engage with you back. That means consistently publishing content (but think this through, never spam!) and participating in a conversation. Competition is always high so if you disappear, are slow to respond, any business can be replaced. As a sports business, also aim to apportion some of your ‘social media time’ to following others and sharing their content. On Facebook, the higher the engagement of your page, the more content Facebook shows your fans, so it’s worth improving your engagement rate!
We’ve got you covered offline. Find out more about our comprehensive sports business insurance.