Top tips to attract new members to your sports club

If you have a sports club whose members are dwindling, you want to reach out and flex your marketing muscles to get more members! Finding new people isn’t as difficult as it sounds, you just have to consider your potential new members; what do they want and where will they be looking?

Many people new to an area will turn to the internet to find out what fun things are going on. If your sports club has a good online presence, then your club will be the one that stands out, and you will reap the reward of new talent! We’ve put together some top tips to help you attract new members to your club. 

Be online

Your club may have survived over a decade without a website, relying solely on community spirit and word of mouth, but as we move further into the digital age, a website is a necessary component to any sports club. The majority of potential new members will research online to see if there are any clubs that they would like to join, comparing and contrasting to find which one will suit them best. If your club doesn’t even have a website, you will lose out at the first hurdle!

What do they want to know?

So, you’ve got a website, but what do you put on it? There’s no complex strategy here, just be simple and transparent. The first time a visitor enters your site, they want to know the basics: Product, Place, Price, and Process. What does membership get them, and how many times do you train a week? Where is the training ground? How much does it cost per month, and what are the steps involved to becoming a member? 

By making this information easily accessible, you will have given a visitor all the information they need to be able to join your team! If they still have questions or are unsure of how your sports club works, then it reduces the chances significantly of them clicking the “join” button. 

Social media

Social media is a great way to build a community around your sports club, as well as a useful tool to link people back to your website. Join relevant groups in your area to help build your club’s recognition in the area, or post regular updates on your Facebook page for upcoming games or training. 

You can drive social media engagement further by using photos and videos, as well as adding relevant hashtags to get more new eyes on your posts!

Email subscriptions

If you already have a website, then you should set up email subscriptions – this is for your fans to follow your team closely and stay up to date with new matches, results and general news. This is an invaluable tool! Write in your newsletter that you are looking for new members, and your fans – who are already invested in your team – will put the effort in to ask their friends and family, or even join up themselves.

Get involved with the community.

Getting the community involved will help publicise your team, get the word out that you’re looking for new members and help you gain a positive reputation! There are various ways to do this. Organise a barbeque or a friendly field day – something that everybody can get involved in – and bring your team to help out. Give a quick speech about the importance of being active, and invite new people to join to help them reach fitness goals or just to expand their social circle. 

If you’ve got a website and an active social media presence, it should be easy to drum up some support for these kinds of events. 

Word of mouth

We may be living in a world where a digital presence is crucial, but that’s not to say that word of mouth isn’t an important element of marketing. People are much more likely to trust recommendations from their friends and acquaintances.

Use the team members that you already have, and organise a buddy night, where each of your existing members brings a friend to practice one night. Make sure it’s a fun night, but also add in the standard training and drills you do every week, so that the newcomers can see what it would be like if they were to join. Post pictures of this on your website and social media and share them with everybody who came, so they can easily show others how much fun they had!

For a sports club, a mixture of digital and community-based marketing is a great strategy to reach as wide an audience as possible. If you want more ideas, then check out our article on how to create a great website for your sports club. 

If you’re looking to build a website for your sports club, then Go Sitebuilder is an excellent option. If you’re new to websites, then our platform is perfect for you; just click the style you want and upload your content and you’re ready to go. Try out their 14-day free trial and start attracting new members to your club today!