Marketing, promotions and sponsorship when done properly can have an enormous effect on your club's success. The National Office exists to portray the image of Synchro Swimming USA at a national level, but at the local club level is where it all starts.
Marketing your club is an everyday opportunity. Whenever you are wearing a synchro shirt you are a walking billboard for the national organization, your club and the sport. Every time a person stops to watch your team practice, you are putting on an exhibition and marketing the sport. When you can deliver a quality product or experience, people will respond. When you don't, they will ignore you. Clubs sometimes are focused on what sounds good to them and not what sounds good to the non-synchro world. Clubs sometimes miss tremendous opportunities to increase their clubs awareness, revenue and membership at the local level by approaching people in a way that the general public won't understand.
Creating the proper ads, flyers, brochures, letters, etc. can help deliver your message to the appropriate people. Hit their hot buttons on these printed materials. If you don't offer your target audience what they are looking for your materials will end up filling the local garbage cans. Utilize words like power, grace, athleticism and beauty. Try to develop a sense of intrigue. Half the battle is getting people to ask questions and show interest. Once you understand who your target market is, marketing becomes that much easier because now you can play off their feelings and emotions. Marketing also includes ongoing promotions, which can include media relations, publicity, sales and customer service.
Defining Your Strategy
Listed below are some simple questions that we ask ourselves when dealing with national marketing issues. Each club is special and unique so everyone won't have the same answers.
1) What is your goal, mission statement?
2) What are your USPs (unique selling points)?
3) Who is your fan base?
4) What crowd do you want to attract?
5) What is the image that you want to portray?
6) What is your club's current image in your area?
7) How can being a part of your club help a company's image in the community?
8) What business opportunities can partnering with your club generate?
9) What makes your club a better partner in your community than other local sports?
10) How many events do you have locally?
11) Do you generate media coverage for your meets?
12) What media coverage does your club get locally?
13) What coverage does your club get nationally?
14) Do you put on just competitions or do you put on "events" as well?
Sponsorship Solicitation:
When trying to solicit sponsorships for your club, you must become a sales professional. You are selling your club and the sport of synchronized swimming to potential sponsors, fans and members. You have to take the approach that your club is a business. You're in the business of educating youth and creating competitive sports opportunities. To be the most effective sales professional for your club, you need to start and finish with your prospect’s needs as the focus. In a world filled with parity and services, sales professionals who best present themselves to their potential sponsors come out on top.
In a sales situation, it is essential that your prospect be receptive to the communication signals you will be sending, simplified here as the three Vs - the Visual, the Vocal, and the Verbal. While all three are important, in some situations what you say may not be as important as how you say it; for others, the way you look and the facial expressions you use will influence the impression your presentation leaves. Your ultimate credibility as a sales professional will be determined by how well you master the three Vs. The Web is a rapidly growing medium where new technology appears almost every day. Before taking advantage of the latest Web site enhancements consider your audience, because new technologies can exclude Web users who lack current computers and software.
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