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Which sports teams have the best marketing strategies online?

Female marketing working with a customer looking into which sports teams have the best marketing strategies online

There is no textbook definition as to what a strong marketing strategy is. However, by examining successful marketing strategies carried out by sports teams, you can build an idea as to what the techniques are best to adopt for that specific sector. If you want to grow the visibility of your sports team online and build a strong brand, you’ll need to have a strong presence online. 

Building your own website is the first step in your marketing strategy: we suggest using a website builder, as building a site from scratch can be time-consuming and expensive. Once you’ve built your site, you can start working on your marketing strategy to ensure your sports team has a powerful online image. 

Motivational message 

Conveying a motivational message which reaches out to a wide audience is a great way to market your sports team. In 2015, the English Sports Council started up the trend #ThisGirlCan, inspiring women across the country to take up sports. This marketing campaign was a success, as it reached out to ordinary women who might have hesitated to take part in sporting activities due to their appearance or fitness: the original video was viewed more than 8 million times, and the hashtag is still going strong to this day. 

Incorporate a motivational message in your marketing strategy to encourage audiences to identify your sports brand with positivity and personal growth. If you want to target a certain group of people, focusing your marketing strategy around them will show your sports team is committed to helping and inspiring this particular audience. 

Make your sports team personal 

It is easy to feel distant from even your most idolised sports star: their wealth and extravagant lifestyle often makes sports teams seem like they’re far away from your reality. However, sport plays a big role in many people’s lives, so building a relationship between your sports team and its supporters is key. 

As part of your marketing strategy, utilise social media to build a stronger relationship between your sports team and its supporters. Real Madrid launched their own SnapChat account in 2015, providing live updates to supporters all around the world. In just three months they managed to gain almost half a million subscribers – by providing their fans with match footage and information about its players, they built a successful digital relationship between their fans and their sports team. 

Stay connected with supporters

Keeping supporters in the loop with your sports team with all the latest updates around game results, membership deals, and team information is important to establish a healthy relationship between your sports team and their fans. One of the easiest ways to do this is by creating an email list – sending out weekly updates is a good way to keep your supporters up to date with the latest news surrounding your sports team, so that if they miss a match, they don’t feel as if they’ve missed out on your sports team’s latest developments. 

For a more personal way to stay connected with supporters, use live chat options on social media platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter. This lets you directly answer questions about your sports team, and shows that you really value the supporters of your sports team. It also gives you a chance to boost your publicity: retweeting and sharing messages of support from fans evidences the successes of your sports team. With a larger base of supporters, your sports team is more likely to get more sponsors, helping to grow your sports team even further. 

Be accessible

When choosing a site builder to build your website, you’ll need to check they offer a responsive web design. In 2012, a Nielsen Report showed that 60% of mobile and tablet owners received sports related content on their devices at least once a day. Make sure your website is accessible on both desktop and mobile devices so that supporters can gather the latest information surrounding your team wherever they are in the world. 

Having a website that can only be accessed from only one type of screen may mean people become less engaged with your latest news and slowly drift away from supporting your team. To keep fans interested, build a site which is easy to use and looks great from any device. 

Although there are many site builders to choose from, we believe Go Sitebuilder is the best site builder for those who want an easy-to-use site builder which delivers premium websites at an incredibly affordable price. Our website builder offers ready to go web designs which are fully customisable, and our site can be accessed from any device.

Our 14-day free trial gives you all the time you need to discover why Go Sitebuilder is right for you and your sports team – try it today!

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Why you should have a sports fan site

Homepage of Bayern Munich, the largest soccer club in Germany using Go Sitebuilder for sport fans.

If you are a serious sports fanatic then you might find it slightly frustrating trying to tell friends and family about the latest sporting updates. The more excited and in-depth of an explanation you go into, the more their eyes glaze over and the more disinterested they seem.

That’s why being a part of a sports fan website can be a great thing for a sport-lover: you are able to share your interests with countless numbers of like-minded people, safe in the knowledge that they will listen to your every word. Having a sports fan site creates a real sense of community within your sports area of choice, and it allows you to engage with your hobby as much or as little as you desire. In order to grow this sense of community, it is important that you include a few important functions within your site so that it can prosper. 

Social media 

If you use social media regularly then you will understand the importance of its use in the sporting world. By being able to link your social media to your sports fan website, other users will be able to see what kind of sport-related information that you’re posting. This doesn’t need to be a time-consuming essay: Twitter only lets you write 280 characters at a time, meaning all sport updates have to be kept short and sweet. 

Linking your social media to your website also shows other fans that you know what you’re talking about. For example, if you’re posting live updates of results and commentary on the latest footie game then it’s clear you’re a true fan, and are committed to ensuring that your website is useful for other sports fans.

Having live updates which are shared both on your website and your social media is also a great way to reach out to professionals on the go who might not have the time to always keep up to date with their favourite game. By keeping them in the loop, you’re more likely to build a strong sports community that includes everyone.

If you want a live chat room then linking your Facebook messenger is a great way to keep everyone connected so that you can share your love for sport with others at any time of day.

Blogs 

If you want to commit a bit more time to your fan site, then blogs are a great way to draw others to your website. By writing opinion pieces about certain matches, providing history on a certain popular player, or even offering information pieces about the importance of your sport of choice, you are bound to get more people interested in your content, thus inspiring them to become a member of your fan site. 

Writing blogs can also increase the visibility of your fan site. If people are googling questions online, and Google’s search engine picks up on the key terms from the question within your website, it is more likely to boost your website further up the search index. This is something called SEO – search engine optimisation. This is important if you want to increase your membership number: the more people who find your fan site, the more likely it is that you will generate larger numbers of interest. 

Upload photos 

Uploading photos is a great way to add some visuals to your website: whether you’re posting pictures to show support for your favourite player or want to post your own snaps from a live game, it’s a good idea to have a photo gallery to display all of this. It adds a personal touch, and allows you to share your opinions about a game/players in an authentic way.

If you want to get other site users involved then you could encourage them to send you photos of their own about the chosen sport – why not encourage them to send you their pictures through social media, and then you can upload them onto your fan site? This would encourage others to become actively involved with your fan site, ensuring that you have a steady stream of people who want to become a part of your community. 

How to set up a fan site 

Whilst setting up a website might be daunting, don’t let this stop you from building a thriving online sports community. Go Sitebuilder does all the hard stuff for you, meaning that you can start your fan site free from any hassle. Not sure if you’re ready to commit yet? Their 14-day free trial gives you all the time you need to decide whether or not you want to start your sports fan site today!