7 Tips to Market Your Youth Sport Program

Marketing plays a crucial role in promoting your youth sports program and creative awareness within your community. A well-designed and executed marketing plan will not only attract new participants, but help to get your whole community involved. However, many people find marketing an intimidating task to take on. Find below 7 different tips you can use to market your youth program. 

Working with your local schools or school system is a great way to market your youth program. Your target market is all together from September to June and hours of 9am to 3pm. Get into schools to demonstrate your program and host a fun and interactive experience for the students. Make sure to have something for the students to take home, like flyers or brochures, so they can take it home to their parents. Parents are more interested in registering their child into a program when their child is showing interest in the sport before.

Another way to show your program to potential participants is to offer free or discounted trials. That way, parents can make sure their child enjoys the program and it's a good fit for them. This may seem like a way to have fewer participants, but it's just helping you find the participants that want to invest in your program for a long time and that helps to create a positive relationship between the program and the participant.

Look into what type of events your community is hosting and become a part of it! You could set up a booth at a local festival highlighting your program and offering fun activities for participants to do while at the festival. This also allows for face-to-face with parents to share the story of your program and give them your information.

Reach out to local businesses and organizations to build partnerships that can help promote your program. For example, you can work with a local restaurant to offer a discount to program participants or a local sports store to offer discounts on equipment. This can enhance the value and reputation of your program and increase your brand awareness through their networks.

We are living in a digital world, and not being active online can  hurt your success. One of the first things parents look at when looking into a new program for their child is a website or social media page. Creating a user-friendly website and posting relative content on social media can only better showcase your program to potential participants.

A great way to get new participants is through your current participants. Encourage current players and their families to refer friends and family members to your program. You can then offer incentives such as discounts on registration fees or free equipment/swag to the current participants referring to your program.

Creating interactive challenges or games that encourage participation and reward achievements is a fun way to showoff your program! This can spark competition and excitement among youth, motivating them to join your program or stay with your program. Ideas for this could be having a leaderboard or ranking system, progressive challenges, different prizes and awards, or even feedback rewards!

By following these tips, you start to develop an effective marketing plan for your youth sports program and attract new participants, while building a strong community relationship. One thing to remember about marketing is that it does cost time and money to do it effectively but youth sports programs provide a very valuable service. So it’s worth the effort to make sure as many participants can access your program as possible.