Marketing tips and resources to help you promote events or programs.
Marketing & Promotion Tips
Getting the word out, encouraging participants to sign up, and continuing engagement with your audience can be a challenge – so we’re here to help! Check out some of the marketing tips below designed to help increase your reach both on-and-offline and keep your audience coming back to your events and programs.
General Marketing Tips
Check out the videos below to help get you started which better understanding marketing, how to reach and engage and attract new audiences, and capture memorable content. Check back because we have more coming too!
What Is Marketing?
Get valuable insight into what marketing is and how to leverage it to reach your audience, engage them, and attract new people.
Capturing Content
Capturing photos and video of events will help bring your event to life and keep your audience engaged. Check out these tips and instructions on how to capture quality photo and video content.
On Site
Having information about future events and play opportunities available and accessible at events and gathering spaces at your facility is a great way to help get the word out. Check out these tips.
Facebook can be a great way to connect with customers and other industry leaders by sharing moments that engage and attract your audience. Check out these tips on how to leverage Facebook for marketing.
Twitter can be a great way to connect with others, connect with customer and other industry leaders, and share moments that engage audience and attract new audiences. Check out these tips of how to leverage Twitter for marketing.
Instagram can be a great way to connect with others, connect with customer and other industry leaders, and share moments that engage audience and attract new audiences. Check out these tips of how to leverage Instagram for marketing.
Tips for promoting your events and programs
Create A Space to Register Online
The first step is to create an easy-to-access and easy way for people to sign up for your program or event. This could be a registration system your Club or facility uses, USTA Serve Tennis, TennisLink, NetGeneration.com, or other online registration platforms such as Eventbrite. Having your registration through any of these channels creates an easy and convenient way for players and parents to sign up as well as allows you to capture important contact information about your participants.
Once your program or event is populated in the appropriate online registration platform you have a link you can use to share on both online channels and print media when promoting your program or event.
Note: It is recommended to use only one (1) online registration system for your program or event. Using more than one can create confusion, is challenging to manage, and may create a negative experience for your participants.
Add Your Program/Event To The USTAFlorida.com Calendar
To help organizers get the word out we have created our event calendar here on USTAFlorida.com to be another place Florida tennis organizers and providers can share their tennis programs and events online. Our event calendar is packed with features such as rich text description areas, easily add your registration link, mapping and directions to your location with a click or a tap, and events are indexed by search engines to help maximize exposure. You may have a website and calendar of your own and that is great. Adding your programs and events on multiple online calendars can be a huge help in getting the word out.
Don’t have a login? No problem. Just click the ‘Sign Up’ button below and we will send you login information and detailed instructions on how to add your events to the USTAFlorida.com calendar.
Create A Flyer With Instructions Of How To Signup
Print flyers strategically placed and distributed are still a great way to help get the word out especially when paired with online postings. Some of the key information you should include on your flyer are:
- The name of your program or event
- The date and time the program or event is being offered
- Who the program or event is for (i.e. level of play, age(s), etc.)
- A brief description of the program or event and what the participant can expect
- Instructions on how to sign up including the direct link URL to the online program or event registration you created previously.
USTA provides some great visual and compelling templates to help get you started. Click the button below to go to the USTA Marketing Generator. Or contact us and let us know how we might be able to help.
Tip: Creating a QR Code linking to your online registration for your program or event and including it on your print flyer can be a great way to bridge the gap between print and digital to provide for an easy and convenient way for people to sign up on the spot.
Create a List Of Where To Share Your Program or Event In Your Community
Before heading out to place/hand out flyers or post about your program or event online, it’s a best practice to create a strategic list of where to distribute and post to maximize your ability to reach the audience you are trying to reach. Here are a couple of steps that will help you create your list:
- Determine who your audience is. A common mistake is to think your audience is “everyone”. The reality is that not everyone is interested in what you have to offer. So it is important to clearly define who you are trying to reach such as parents, local adult players, etc. Don’t forget about your current players or participants in your programs and encourage them to invite family and friends. Most people enter tennis because of a peer referral or recommendation.
- Where will your unique audience likely be found? Various audiences are typically active in different places and it’s important to give some thought where you might find those audiences in your local community. For example, your community might have a great online community calendar where parents find activities for their children to participate in. So if you are promoting a youth tennis program or event, this would be a good item for your list. Likewise, there may be a very active online group (i.e. Facebook Group) for adults that is focused on connecting local tennis players. This could be a great place to join, connect with others, and share information about your program or event.
- Create your list. Now that you have determined who you are trying to reach and where you can most likely reach them, compile your list of those places and spaces.
Distribute Flyers & Spread The Word Through Online Social Channels
Now that you have your list of where you are most likely to reach your target audience, use your list to distribute your flyers and share your program or event online. To keep track of what is working or not working you can do the following:
- Check the number of signups at least once per day or multiple times a week.
- Monitor online social posts and make sure to respond to any comments or questions that may come in from others. This sis great way to get a conversation going about your event.
- Respond to any emails with questions about your program or event in a timely manner. This is typically within 24 hours. Waiting too long to respond could cause the potential participant to lose interest.
- Revisit places you have distributed your flyers to see what place may be more successful than others. If you discover a place that your flyers have not been very successful, take them and redistribute to your other locations or try another location that may reach your target audience.
- Continue to share through social channels and encourage your connections to share along to their connections.
Safe Play Facility Signage Templates
Below you can download a “Guest Health Questionnaire” and signage templates to customize for use around your facility to help communicate and promote a safe play environment for all.
