Marketing essentials to help your league grow.

 

Welcome to part one of the Think Like a Marketer series! Before we dive into the technical details of how to grow your league, lets go over a quick high-level lesson of Marketing:

 

What is Marketing and why is it important for my youth sports league?

 

What is Marketing: the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.

Why is Marketing important: As the youth sports industry continues to grow, properly marketing your league will become as vital as running your league. You can’t start an organization or more importantly, grow it without effectively getting the word out.

This can be done strategically, when taking the following into consideration:

 

The 4 P’s of Marketing: Product, Price, Place, & Promotion

 

The 4 P’s of Marketing are coined as a process to describe the way all companies, small or large, target their audiences, while differentiating themselves from their competitors.

Here is an outline of what the 4 P’s look like for most youth sports organizations:

Product: The service of providing youth sports activities to consumers, such as youth baseball/softball programs
Price: The costs of registration, equipment, time, and fan wear parents pay for
Promotion: Relevant content and channels for advertising your youth sports league
Place: Sports leagues are seasonal, so advertise your organization in the right place, at the right time

As intimidating as they seem, every organization utilizes these points instinctively. For example, as your league’s season approaches, your team might start to pass out flyers at local schools around your community, or your organization might host a car wash to raise money for your league. Marketing your league can be done at all levels – whether it’s a grassroots approach or you decide to focus on a digital strategy.

What’s most important is how your organization executes your marketing game plan, while seamlessly taking the 4 P’s into consideration.

Work smarter, not harder.

 

No matter how big or small your youth sports association is, there is always room to grow; meaning, you will always need to be marketing your league. But, marketing your league doesn’t need to take up all of your time.

Stay tuned for our upcoming posts in our Think Like a Marketer series for tips on how to brand, market, and grow your league!