Effective advertising campaign
First of all, we appreciate that you’ve been keeping up with series so far. And if you’re someone who has stumbled across the blog posts, then be sure to check out the first two posts – preparing the recruitment campaign and create and optimize club website to catch up and connect all the dots.
Our next posts explore how clubs can reach out to the local community, engage their supporters, and run fantastic registration events. But first we turn our attention to advertising your club in your local area — an effective and often free way to raise awareness and boost club membership.
Your club should now have a virtual presence to be proud of. You’ve established a well-constructed website to give current and prospective members all the information they might need, a social network presence that links your broader community and allows for easy real-time sharing of information, images and content. To get your recruitment drive really flying, it’s time to spread the word with effective advertising campaign in your community.
3.1 Physical and virtual club listings
3.1.1 Make sure you’re searchable in local listings
To allow prospective new club members to find you easily, make sure you take advantage of any free listing sites that operate in your local area. Check out whether local community centers’ websites include virtual ‘notice boards’ where you can list club details and add a link to your website. Advertise on municipality websites and online sports club directories, which often allow free classified adverts for local organizations.
3.1.2 List on Craigslist, Gumtree and local equivalents
Whether it’s your local Craigslist in the USA or Gumtree in UK cities, most areas are covered by popular ‘classified’ sites that connect community members with local businesses, organizations and clubs. To give a sense of scale, 60 million Americans use Craigslist each month — making this the perfect place to get the word out about your club and registration events once you organize them.
3.1.3 Community and notice boards
Finally, don’t forget to display your flyers and posters on physical notice boards within your community. Think about the audience. If you run a youth sports club, for example, you might have posters aimed at parents and extended family members, as well as some that speak direct to younger prospective players.
Display the ones that appeal to athletes at youth clubs and schools, and those aimed at family members in places of social gathering (i.e places of worship, community centres and so on). Ask volunteers, coaches and current club members to display flyers and posters in their car, business or home windows to further raise the club or team profile.
3.1.4 Be creative
When looking to engage your local community, you can afford to be creative.
Do you know any local real estate agents who might agree to let you borrow their ‘For Sale’ boards and display them in the front yards of volunteers’ homes with your ads on them? Can a local printing firm help you to make and display large size banners in prominent sites in the community?
By being involved with community events, companies gain exposure themselves, as well as being associated with a good cause. Cooperating with community businesses like this builds mutually beneficial relationships which can support smaller clubs to develop and grow.
3.2 Make use of the media
3.2.1 Mobilize your community
When you’re ready to advertise through local media outlets, take time to understand if you have community members who can help you.
Do you have club members with connections in the local media? Are there talented writers among your community who might help you craft press releases, ads or announcements? Ask the photographers in your club to continue taking and sharing great images of training once your season is underway, and use these to further enhance your advertising efforts.
3.2.2 Create effective announcements and advertisements
Contact your local papers and radio stations to find out how to send them your announcements. Over time, you can develop relationships with the reporters who cover your local area.
Create effective announcements for media use by thinking about simple messages. For example, you may ask local media to report that your club is recruiting new members. Focus on the key details you would like to share, to describe and promote your club story. Don’t crowd out the main message, but include links to your website and social media handles to allow readers to connect.
Before you finalize your press announcement, reread it and ask ‘so what?’ If the message is clear, you’re good to go.
3.3 Use paid ads
3.3.1 Research popular local advertising channels
Any publicity is good publicity, so they say. But when it comes to choosing paid advertising channels, you need to do your research. Look at local print media, radio stations and classifieds, and ask coaches, volunteers and athletes which channels appeal to them.
Before committing club funds to advertising, you may find it helpful to create a detailed profile of your targeted marketable audience. In conjunction with club coaches, agree on details like whether you’re marketing to parents or athletes, what age and region you’re looking for. Review your audience profile to check if the channel and ad strategy makes sense, before you finalize your plan.
3.3.2 Consider a boosted Facebook post
Boosting your club’s Facebook posts can help you achieve impressive exposure for a reasonable budget. The average length of time spent on Facebook every day by adult users in the US is an astonishing 39 minutes. No wonder it’s a powerful tool to reach your prospective new members!
For as little as $5, you can get the word out to a new and targeted local audience. Choose a post with a strong image and specific call-to-action. Consider, for example, a post announcing that you are accepting new enrollments with a web link to the registration page and an impressive image of last year’s squad. The ad is automatically created within your club page when you select the ‘Boost Post’ option.
You are then asked to choose your target audience, specifying location, age, gender and interests, or you can simply have your post boosted to people who like your page already and their friends.
Finally, set your maximum budget. A handy slider allows you to change potential maximum budget amounts and see the change in reach. By testing different combinations of target preference and budget, you are able to see and optimize the post reach.
3.3 Maintain and improve
3.3.1 Keep a running list of where your club is posted
Outdated information posted in online listings can be off-putting to potential new club members. For updating purposes, keep a running list of where your club is posted, including website address, contact email and date of last update. Refer to this list whenever changes to the club might impact the published details.
3.3.2 Use previous experience and ask ‘how did you find us?’
Whether in-person or online, new club members should be asked ‘How did you find us?’. The answers to this question provide valuable information to track and improve your marketing efforts. Make the best possible use of the channels that show good conversion rates and retain other useful information like the target and reach of boosted Facebook posts to allow you to build on your successes in the future.
Summary
If you’ve been keeping up with our marketing training plan so far, then well done! Well-placed advertising will make sure you see a good return on all the time you have invested in your club’s recruitment drive. To keep momentum building behind your campaign, why not plan and place advertisements to start running next week. Good luck!
What’s next?
Next in line, we talk about how you can use social networks to really increase the reach of your campaign – from choosing the right social media channels to connecting with your community.
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Related posts in the series
1. Preparing for the recruitment campaign
2. Create and optimize club website
3. Effective advertising campaign (current article)
6. Final outreach + registration
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