Sports advertising rakes in big returns for the companies that do it, no matter if they're advertising an event or just sponsoring it. Usually sports advertisements are left to TV ads and to the game itself. But what if it could reach further? What if you could continue to engage fans before and after the event? And also raise awareness of your company or team and generate more loyal fans? It's easy to do with a marketing automation sports platform that allows you to go the extra mile. Here are three ways you can do effective marketing for your sports team with ease, while still generating profits and saving time.
1. Take Advantage of Our Social Media Automation
A good example of a social media promotion that sent engagement and new fans skyrocketing was the Twitter event ran by Hillerich & Bradsby in 2011. By tweeting out hints about the location of merchandise hidden around the city of St. Louis and allowing seekers to keep the finds, they boosted their fan base by 143%. Using strategic, creative engagement, and even offering unique game day coupons for their followers or fans of a specific team, they can drive new fans and engage old ones to boost profits without breaking the bank. These sorts of campaigns break the normal marketing pattern, and they get more attention.
2. Apply the Same Sponsorship Principles to Email Marketing
So you've got a sponsorship contract with a specific athlete or sports team? They brand their gear or their home arena for you, but what about online? What if you could display their logo on your newsletter and vice versa? This will boost visibility for both of you and bring potential online customers to your site, generating leads. If you want visibility and promotion via your logo or advertisement being present, adding yourself to the team's online content will boost your visitors by quite a lot. Then you can create an email campaign for fans of your partner team or athlete.
3. Offer a Regular Special
While the previous two ideas are excellent one-off ideas for large events and email marketing, something that will get talked about continuously is your best marketing tool. A special that occurs each time your sponsored team or athlete does something specific is common. This keeps people coming to games, and allows you to interact with fans. For example, say you have a restaurant. Every time your team wins, or the star player performs a certain feat in a game, you send a coupon to fans via SMS or email. This will keep old fans coming to your restaurant after the game, and bring in a ton of new ones. In addition, if you offer it through the team's Facebook, customers at home can also get coupons. This increases engagement and benefits the team you sponsor, as well as boosting the amount of people interested in trying your fare.
These three ideas just scratch the surface of what marketing automation can do, but you can check out more ideas to boost engagement on our sports page, custom built for the sports industry. You can also learn more about how our products can benefit your business on our marketing automation page. Let us help your sports advertising reach the largest market out there today.
