After years of hard work, dedication, and effort to become the best in their chosen sport, many talented sportspeople can no longer cope with the financial burden of competitive sports and quit before realizing their true potential. The key to a successful and sustained sports career relies on performance, results, and a good support network comprising family, friends, fans, and business contacts. All this is provided through Self Promotion in Sport.
“Why would anyone be interested in me?” people might ask, “It’s not like I am on the TV winning major events every week.” In reality, if sportspeople were on TV regularly winning major events, they would have already achieved their goals, and therein lies the big “Catch-22” in sports – the rewards are there when you make it to the top. Still, you need the support now to get there! In response to who would be interested in me, the answer is simple: those who know about you, which again comes back to Self Promotion in Sport.
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Self Promotion in Sport starts with friends and family. Sportspeople must keep their friends and family updated regarding their efforts, goals, and achievements. One of the most efficient ways to provide this is through a personal sports website, which should be regularly updated. Well-informed friends and family should be considered the sportsperson’s free marketing team and encouraged to spread the word about the person’s efforts, goals, and achievements. Once the free marketing team has been assembled and briefed, the team should be asked to help you build your fan base and develop business contacts, as necessary.
In the same way, as the sportsperson should create a buzz amongst people they know, the sportsperson should also ask their friends and family to do the same. If a sports person has a personal sports website, friends and family should be invited to email links to the site to as many people as they know. People are more likely to click on a link in an email to visit the site than type the address into a browser; however, when the sportsperson or their friends and family meet people who might be interested in following their career, a business card with the address of the website or at least an email address creates a good impression.
Media exposure can be achieved in many ways. The internet is becoming the easiest way to gain exposure, as sportspeople can create and post articles, blogs, or message board threads. All such methods can present opportunities to insert links to the sports person’s personal sports website. Printed media exposure can be more challenging to achieve but can provide excellent results. Free local newspapers often look for residents with interesting stories to produce an article on. When approaching local reporters, sportspeople should first list content to make a potential article interesting to the general public. Interesting content may consist of achievements, funny stories, career aspirations, charity work, or an insight into the sport, such as “a day in the life of a.” sports people should ask their friends and family to help generate interesting content.
For those eligible to accept financial support, equipment, clothing, modeling work, product endorsements, etc., members of their fan base could one day become excellent business contacts, so building a fan base early is essential. Sportspeople should set realistic goals for business contacts. Many automatically think about lucrative contracts with major sports equipment and clothing companies; however, they are unlikely to come to fruition until such companies can reap significant benefits from an agreement. The key to building successful business contacts is to think “small, local, and multiple.”
It is not only the major companies looking for sports people to do product endorsements, modeling work, or help with branding and reaching their target audience. It is not only the companies related to a sports person’s particular sport who could be considered good business contacts. Sportspeople should view the products their sport promotes and find several small local companies that may benefit from their affiliation. If the sports person has been proactive in their self-promotion efforts, there is a chance that the local companies may already know who they are!!!! Sportspeople of all ages and levels need to understand that they must play an active role in Sports Self-Promotion. If they don’t, they could give their competitors the edge.
