AGENDA What is Marketing? Keys to Strong Marketing Identifying the Ideal Customer Developing Your Brand Personalizing Your Brand Key Message Points Traditional Advertising Growing Demand for Video Value of Social Media Marketing with Social Media Using Social Media as a Marketing Tool 2
WHAT IS MARKETING? Marketing is the creation, communication and delivery of value, as well as the management of customer relationships for a lifetime EVERYTHING IS MARKETING Traditional advertising (flyers, ads, brochures, etc.); public relations; and social media Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell. Stop trying to sell with marketing. Instead, use marketing to help the customer buy. 3
KEYS TO MARKETING STRATEGY Identify your target market Know your competition Find your niche Develop awareness Build credibility Be consistent Maintain focus The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the event fits him or her and sells itself. 4
IDENTIFYING YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER PRIMARY SECONDARY PRINT/ONLINE 1 2 3 Club Directors, Coaches and Team Parents Demographics Age: 30-50 Sports enthusiast Middle class Well-connected to sports media Parents of Youth Athletes Demographics Age: 30-50 Parents, divorced or married Moderately connected to sports media TERTIARY Youth Athletes Demographics Age: 8-17 Participate in team sports (est. 21.5 million kids) Sports enthusiast Psychographics Invested in youth athlete experience (in-game) Interested in providing education opportunities Highly influenced by products supported by successful athletes Psychographics Invested in child s athletic experience (on/off field) Strong desire for child to succeed Moderately influenced by products supported by athletes Psychographics Invested in their own athletic experience Well-connected to sports media Highly influenced by products supported by successful athletes
DEVELOPING YOUR BRAND How do we help the customer? NOT How can the customer help us? What distinguishes your event from the competitor? Location Price Format / Competition Level Organization / Schedule Past Competitors (AAU Alumni) Who can provide relevant testimonials? What stories can you tell to help personalize your brand? MARKETING TIP Use photos with brand signage in the background to emphasize your brand 6
PERSONALIZING YOUR BRAND 7
KEY MESSAGE POINTS We Are AAU Since its inception in 1888, the AAU has set the standard for amateur sports in the United States with one goal in mind: Sports For All, Forever. The AAU way is steeped in tradition and represents everything great about youth sports. The values of the organization integrity, passion, teamwork, character and community stem from the AAU s commitment to giving youth athletes a one-of-a-kind experience while preparing them for life beyond sports. The AAU offers first-class events for athletes of all ages and experience levels The AAU hosts high quality national championship events that provide athletes with an opportunity to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience both on and off the playing surface. Each year, the AAU challenges itself to create breakthrough experiences in the form of events for athletes of all ages and experience levels. The goal is to leave every athlete, every coach, every parent and every attendee better than they were when they arrived. The AAU is connected to an illustrious base of alumni Many of the most successful athletes in the world competed in AAU events as a youth athlete. Notable alumni include LeBron James, Michael Johnson and Mark Spitz, as well as 2015 World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner and 2015 NBA Finals MVP Andre Iguodala 8
TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING The most effective advertisements are targeted, focused and visually appealing Where is your target audience? 9
GROWING DEMAND FOR VIDEO Nearly 7 in 8 Americans watch online video, with more than half doing so on a daily basis In 2014, the number of monthly unique video viewers on desktop was just short of 200 million, with each viewer watching more than ten videos per day on average Think about it. People remember of what they hear of what they see of what they see and hear & 10
GROWING DEMAND FOR VIDEO Examples 11
VALUE OF SOCIAL MEDIA 1,000,000,000 people logged on to Facebook on August 24 to connect with their friends and family, which is equal to 1 in 7 people on Earth 12
VALUE OF SOCIAL MEDIA (CONT D.) Facebook 936 million active daily users 4 billion videos viewed each day Twitter 500 million Tweets per day 80% active users on mobile YouTube 300 hours of video uploaded per minute 1 billion videos viewed per day Facebook is responsible for 1.4 billion users of the 2 billion that access social channels each month Photos and links are shared more frequently (31%) than text or videos (5%) Be specific with tags to allow users to find videos more easily 13
MARKETING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA Social Media advertising allows you to target potential customers based on demographics and current interests You can effectively target a particular audience by honing in on an industry influencer and targeting their set of followers YOU HAVE FULL CONTROL OVER YOUR BUDGET 14
MARKETING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA Examples 15
SOCIAL MEDIA AS CUSTOMER SERVICE TOOL Always answer questions that are posted on your page. Providing a public response to a question or complaint can go a long way. Studies show 95.6 percent of consumers are affected by other customer comments on a brand s social page, so it follows that consumers will also be affected by your response to such questions. Social media users spend 21 percent more when they experience excellent customer service. Know when to take conversations offline. Not every contact over social media can be easily resolved in a single exchange (or in less than 140 characters), particularly if the individual has technical issues or grievances to air. It can also be hard to know at the outset whether the customer will keep a thread going, cluttering your Twitter feed with @replies, so you must become adept at determining when to take a conversation from a public page to a private message or perhaps off social media altogether. When the issue is resolved, make sure to return to the social channel and thank the customer for reaching out. Respond even when the user hasn t directly tweeted at your or asked for help. Answering brand mentions or comments that don t require a response, but might benefit from one, shows you re paying attention. Retweet. Promote your customers by RT a happily resolved social interaction or by liking helpful interactions between custom 16
SOCIAL MEDIA AS CUSTOMER SERVICE TOOL Don't neglect your customers. If you're going to provide customer service over social media, at minimum every direct support question should be answered. And, as quickly as possible. Don't delete (or hide) comments or posts. The only exception is when comments are clearly spam or in violation of posted community guidelines. Deleting a customer's negative comment in order to preserve your virtual image will only further enrage the customer and damage the relationship. Don't be defensive. It's important to remember that the customer, even when angry, has reached out to you. Thank them for bringing their issue to your attention, acknowledge their concern, and apologize for the trouble they are experiencing (even if you know it's self-wrought). Don't engage with a customer whose intent is to simply argue and publicly defame your brand. Sometimes your best defense is silence and, after a certain point, they'll damage their own credibility more than your brand's reputation. Don't reply or respond to every customer in the event of mass issues or outages. When many customers are affected by a single issue, it's best to provide only public status updates that will reach everyone. 17