How to Build Your Sports Club Brand in Ten Steps | ERREA Ljubljana Frogs
At least 30% of the whole population has at least one sports club that they are fond of. NASCAR, F1, NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, Champions League, Premier League, and Seria A have sports brands on the professional level.
The main question in this blog is how to bring your amateur sports club to a brand one as those on a professional level. Most of you'll think that's not possible. And most of you are right. But there is always a tiny percentage that you can build it. We made arrangements with consulting agency AK and today, and we will show you our blueprint.
First of all, you need patience, time, and many people who will work towards your goals and dreams. Even Rome wasn't built in a day, and so will not be your franchise. The biggest obstacle is how to motivate people in non-profit organizations to work for free. So we all know how things go when you have volunteers. They have their schedule; they have their own life, sometimes have plenty of time on their plate, and sometimes don't have even two minutes to spare. There is a big difference between a college student at the beginning of his career or someone in the right business for at least five-ten years.
Now let's get straight to the point because we know that people have a shorter attention span every day due to the excisive amount of irrelevant information they acquire.
You already made your logo or crest. You chose the font, the colours, and you started with social media communication.
We started to bring our brand to life in 2019. So as a flag football club, we are more than young. We live in Ljubljana, the green capital city of Slovenia, Europe. The population in our town is 320.000 people. So how to bring a small club of flag football, an unknown sport, to the masses in Slovenia and worldwide? Easy.
STEP 1 - THE RIGHT APPROACH
You approach your non-profit organization as a business, a startup. You have to have board members, the president of the board, players and support staff. It should be everything by the book.
In two years of existence, we have 20 players on our roster. We have a president; we have a photographer, a videographer, a graphic designer, a lawyer, a PR and marketing department, a team manager, coaches, nutritionists, and a physiotherapist.
Our board you can see here. Most of those are volunteers who are friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, fiances of the players. If you want to dance as you wish, you have to pay the fiddler to play the right music. And you have to have the best people at your disposal. If you can't guarantee them money, you have to find the right way so all of you can be happy. It would help if you used the right connections, building bridges between your sponsors and people who work for your non-profit, getting them mentors, free stuff, free knowledge and most importantly, business.
Everybody knows a person who knows a person who needs something that your club can offer them, or the people working.
STEP 2. - YOU CAN'T BE A ONE-MAN BAND
You have to divide the work amongst your players. Every player in our team has an obligation because amateur sports clubs cannot be raised only by one person. Nobody can't carry that enormous burden. We know many non-profits are working that way, but we tried, and it wasn't bringing any joy.
So, we find the solution to that problem. We attracted the right players who are good athletes, and they have some other knowledge. Some players are computer programmers, and they built our website. We have an auto mechanic player, and he fixes our car when it breaks down or needs attention.
We have a PhD student of agriculture who helps us when and how to treat neglected grass and try to solve the problems with moles (you could not believe how much damage can those small creatures make). One player works in Hofer/Aldi and buys snacks, water, electrolytes, and the proper hydration and energy. Two of them are digital marketing specialists and work on google, YT, Instagram, Facebook ads.
Offence captain Žan Ocvirk has a master degree in sports, and he shows us how to do the conditioning and strength drills. You get the point. It's easier if someone from your team picks up the more minor chores and you have more time for some other things.
STEP 3. MONEY LIES EVERYWHERE
Yep, you read it right. Money lies everywhere; you have to know how to pick it up. Every sports club and non-profit organization cannot run on thin air. For the results, you have to have some money. So we decided that every player part of our team has to pay their membership value of 240 EUR in one payment at the beginning of the season. You may ask why the heck would we do that, and here is the answer. You kill two birds with one stone. First, you get an instant money injection for running the operation of your non-profit sports club.
Second, if someone gets the flu, or is not feeling well, or he doesn't have the time for the training, you don't have to worry that he won't pay you the monthly payment, due to the excuse that this month he wasn't there for a whole month and they shouldn't pay.
The third thing is to know how much money will flow at the beginning to make a proper financial plan. The budget organization is of utmost importance; prioritizing what, when, and how to pay is crucial.
Then there, you have sponsors. You have to have in mind a couple of things. If you think you know the people who'll give you money, let us spare you the trouble. What we learned due to these COVID times is that people become, well, odd. The businesses took a pretty big hit in their books, and most think every penny should be saved. Or they will tell you they just bought a new car, or make a million excuses which are, well, you know, a lot more money than 500 EUR for supporting a local sports team and help their growth. But, some businesses are suckers for a good story. And if you have a professional approach, everything will fall off in your way. Especially if you are building their brand with yours in the long run.
A national business which is run by different governments all around the world, those are different. If you know the people on the higher level, you'll get the funds. On the other hand, you can have the best numbers on IG, FB, YT, TikTok, other social media platforms, websites, etc. You'll still not getting a dime because it's how politics works. It's better to pay a club in the 4th regional league division with 20 people watching the game in a year because you know the president. Don't you hit your head over those stupid unwritten rules! You will get the money elsewhere. It takes a lot of time, but the EU offers a million grants every year; you have US Embassy grants and local municipality grants. You just have to have a little bit of luck and a person or a firm who knows how to translate your ideas to write down the correct sentences.
STEP 4. NUMBERS AND CONTENT MATTERS
In 21. century, statistics and numbers matter the most. The algorithms are changing the world, and social media platforms are always a few steps before everybody. Let's just take for the example Instagram. If you are not investing any money in it, that means you work on an organic scale. What does that mean? It means that you have to know a million things. You have to put the right hashtags and alt text on the picture; you have to know which day to post and what kind of content. And when you think you got ahead of the algorithm, he shows you who is the boss.
Ljubljana Frogs Instagram account has 4400 followers. And we would like to think those numbers are pretty good, to be honest. It's not NFL, NBA, or major sports brands. Although we are building on our Instagram for a year and a half.
For example, we posted a random short movie, 15s, playing flag football in the heavy rain on the best day. The numbers were 4425 accounts reached, 4870 impressions. From hashtags, we got 2693 impressions alone. 64% of people weren't following our IG account. 1.900 views on the video. 324 likes were on that post, 43 profile visits, 17 comments, and 13 saves. And you know what? We got 0 new followers! Let's break those numbers a little bit more. On a regular day, we get 25% accounts of all our followers on the IG. From that 25% of people, around 10% of them likes the post. So you get between 2-3,5% interaction with your all followers. Is it absurd, right? Even Kim Kardashian and Luka Donćić have that kind of numbers. But if you pay the IG, Facebook, or even Google, you can have those numbers better.
We have a website up and running for a year, maybe. SEO is not there yet, but we still got 3500 clicks on our website. That's massive, but the sponsors don't budge. They think everything is easy. It's your job to show them that you have a great story and move in the right direction.
There is a saying. "Offense is selling the tickets, but the defences are winning championships". Sponsors just want to see how you will approach the followers and how many you'll reach. Numbers matters.
STEP 5. YOU HAVE TO HAVE MONEY TO SPEND MONEY
If we told you that our annual budget is 8500 euros would you believe us? Would you think that's a lot of money or that you can't work with that? Well, life is never simple, right? And if you are not a philanthropist, raising money is more complicated than you think.
With 8500 eur we have covered most of our costs, the players get a shit ton of gear, we are all the same when we train. We love the feeling when players think they are equal, and in this time, we know that nobody has the same opportunities. We also spend 3500$ on Google to gain some traffic to our website.
Then the next investment was in new jerseys and personalized boxes for the players to get those new jerseys. And you may think that costs a lot, but in Slovenia, we paid 110 euros to get a good marketing campaign, and people saw it on Instagram and were shocked and awed. A lot of them wanted to be a participant in that jersey scheme. Still, when you have a limited edition, everybody wants to pop it in. Chelsea, Manchester United, Barcelona, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Dodgers, Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots have a massive amount of money (we are talking billions of dollars). They started from scratch, too, at the beginning.
We are living an unfair game in an unjust world. First, you have to build your website. A lot of templates can be found on Envato and they cost between 45-60$. And that should be your first investment. We gained 6 new players just because we had a professional website and others didn't.
STEP 6. STORYTELLING IS THE KEY
Is everybody a sucker for a good story, right? Especially in sport, we have to cope with all those naked bodies, swimsuits, pretty ladies, bodybuilder bodies, nice cars, yachts, and so on. CEO of Instagram told the people that IG is not a photo-sharing app. It's video one. But for video, you have to have some money, equipment, and most importantly, a person who knows what he is doing. 15s, the 60s, 3 minutes videos are in, but you have to know that people are LAZY, and the algorithm is sharing you with those who are lazier than the rest.
Whatever you read on blogs, how to do a great and so on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and so on, don't use it. Because there is no perfect timing, and if it is, you are more lucky than bright. Every story has its own meaning; you need to find your own. And you have to communicate it right through proper channels.
What are proper channels are a million-dollar worth answer. It depends on your targeted audience, what you are trying to communicate, how, and why you choose that approach. Example: If you want to gain some kids from 13-15 years to get into your flag football club and play, it's better to use TikTok than putting some posters in their primary schools.
Especially during COVID times. The mix of design, videos, professional photos with a good story to back it up can do wonders. Ask Merlin how he gained 4500 followers in one year and a half. And he doesn't even speak because of the stitches on his mouth. Tell everybody how you started your club, when and why. Write about your town, about your players, do interviews, make blogs, write about your games, what happened, who scored how many TD's or INT's, and you should be good.
STEP 7. PERFECT TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Yes and no. What we learned in those past two years is that perfect timing is everything. But for ideal timing, you have to be lucky. First of all, we learned patience. You can't force things to come around, or you may think you can beat the system, but the hard truth is that you cannot. Especially when you are winning.
Everybody is cheering for those sportspeople who are constantly winning. If you have good results, you will have better reach. It's a fact! Nobody likes to cheer for losers. Just ask the fan base of the Los Angeles Chargers. It's funny how almost nobody came to the games the past couple of years (not the COVID situation). Still, when they drafted Justin Herbert and this year Rashawn Slater and made a couple of offseason signings, man, the Chargers are getting full stadium in week 1. So the perfect timing is everything, but you will hit it just a tiny amount of time in a year. But when you do, you'll get better reach.
So don't be afraid to talk about the first win, first ten-win, 100 wins, or when you are signing a veteran who played the game for a long time to bring your team to even a higher level. And also, remember this, the more stupid video is, the more reach you will gain on TikTok. When something works, it doesn't matter when you post it. Baby steps. First, to show those closest to your base, you don't need somebody in Turkmenistan working at the cheese factory to see your posts on Instagram how to pass the ball. It would be nice, but it's not a targeted audience.
STEP 8. HOW TO TARGET THE RIGHT AUDIENCE
We live in a small country called Slovenia. The whole population is a little bit more than two million people. We have some big sports brands in Slovenia such as ACH Volley, Cedevita Olimpija, NK Olimpija, NK Maribor, RK Krim (women handball), Slovenian soccer national team, Basketball national team, and so on. Then we have Tadej Pogačar, Primož Roglič, Tina Maze, Ilka Štuhec, Jakov Fak, Peter Prevc, Luka Dončič, Goran Dragič who has their own brands and very very big reach among Slovenians. And how to cope with that? How to bring closer the sport which is highly unknown in Slovenia? Well, the thing is, there was a lot of crying and sleepless nights. Just kidding. :)
We asked ourselves who our audience is? What kind of communication do we want and, most importantly, how we will reach our goals. So, we started small. We knew that Slovenia is not going to cut it because of the unknown sport. Our players sent our IG account to ask their friends, follow us, and invite their friends. So we grew from 0 to 250 followers in a day. Mostly those were our family members and closest friends.
Then we started to add people who are playing our sport in Slovenia. Then we moved to add people playing our sport in Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Italy, Austria. The list goes around Europe and moves on the West and East coast, Mexico, Argentina, Russia, Japan, and Mongolia. Flag football is moving like a fast train to the Olympic games in 2028. Our idea is to become ambassadors of the sport and a "kick" to other clubs to see that we can work on a highly professional level even if we are amateurs.
First, your friends should know what kind of sport you play. Then the people who are living in your town should know that you exist. When you conquer that, you should go on a country level, so the Slovenia sponsors will know or hear of you somehow and move outside borders.
STEP 9. HOW WE BUILD A MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Give things time. A lot of it. Even if you are a robot, you can't make everything in a day. That's just not impossible. We learned in those COVID times that even you think you have all the time in the world, you don't. So many things can change. If you don't communicate with your audience at least a few times per week, they will think you are done or closed your shop. And you don't wanna give them that feeling.
1st you have to be organized.
2nd you have to have people who will work on your campaign.
3rd without a graphic designer, it's going to be a hard one.
4th build a story.
5th, research your audience.
6th make a timeline of when and where are you going to put something up.
7th Start with game results. The next day you write game recaps. You show the people the stats of your players next. Some video of TD's, INT's flag pull, great pass, run. Designs.
8th then you go to posters, billboards, showreel, best top 10 plays after the season, and so on.
9th, find local students clubs or find students of marketing and PR to help you help them.
10th, if you need any help, you can contact us anytime.
STEP 10. WRAP IT UP
We live in the 21st century. Social media is a simple communication tool. A lot can be done if you have the right tools. We use Slack as a formal communication tool. We use IG groups to share stupid videos among the players who would like to show each other the videos from the NFL, memes, or girls playing flag. You can have SEMRush or Google Analytics to see how you are driving your website traffic. With the website, people can find you everywhere. On IG, people can see how you are doing. FB allows your grandma to know how you performed. With the articles on other websites, you can reach a wider audience. But you have to have patience, time, money and people.
There are many small secrets that we can't share with the broader public because it's our know-how. But if you can contact us, we can work something out! We are here to help.