In this day and age, there are many basketball Marketing Ideas that organizations can use to promote and market the game of basketball.
There is no doubt that technology and social media platforms are there. It is up to basketball entities to distinguish themselves in a way that builds and sustains brand loyalty.
Doing so will lead to a successful promotional campaign that may even serve to go viral. There are some solid basketball marketing ideas that can be used to do just that. We will go over them in this piece.
Leverage Social Media
Using social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube are all great ways for basketball teams to market themselves.
With the prevalence of social media in everyday life, it would be wise to use these platforms to your advantage.
These accounts allow teams to quickly communicate with their fan bases, make timely announcements, market and promote events and merchandise sales, and create a sense of community between teams and fans.
A consistent posting schedule helps keep your team in your fanbases’s mind, builds your brand, and helps others to feel connected to your team.
You can even use social media to promote fan giveaways and contests to boost engagement!
Connect with online influencers, especially those that love your basketball team.
Whether a basketball team is in the NBA, college or local, there are certainly opportunities for basketball entities on any level to connect with a popular online influencer.
It is plausible that there are many online influencers on TikTok or Instagram who may be fans of a local or professional basketball team. These online influencers tend to have a heavy amount of engagement.
The basketball entities should reach out to these influencers and establish a working relationship with them. It will be mutually beneficial for both the organization and the influencer.
Promote your sponsors on your social media platforms.
If you are fortunate enough to have a basketball team that is sponsored, it would be a very good idea to promote your sponsors on your social media platforms.
NBA teams promote their corporate sponsors consistently on social media.
Certainly, a local business would benefit greatly from the publicity that a local basketball team would give them via a social media promotion.
A great platform to promote your sponsors is on Instagram.
Always remember to tag the social media page on your social media caption. This strategy will strengthen the relationship between your organization and your current sponsor.
Additionally, this marketing idea will make your organization quite attractive to future sponsors.
Build a Website
Your website is another great way to market your basketball team. Also out of all basketball marketing ideas, this is the most important one.
Your website can direct people interested in your team to a central location with all the information they need – right from their living room or cell phone. It’s the first place people will look to gather more information about your team.
Your fans can check upcoming game schedules, buy merchandise, get to know the players and coaching staff, be linked to your social media accounts, watch videos, and much more through your website.
Email Newsletters
An email newsletter is an underrated, but effective, way to market your team.
As social media algorithms advance, it sometimes gets tricky to get your marketing in front of the proper target audience. Your posts can sometimes be lost in the shuffle.
However, if you’ve built an effective email newsletter list, you’ll always have loyal customers who want to hear about your team, receive news updates, and hopefully purchase tickets and merchandise. Unlike social media, your email list is tailored specifically to people who are directly interested in your team and what they are up to.
Even though social media should receive a strong focus with your marketing, you would be wise to continue to stick with the proven marketing strategy of email.
Highlight a social issue or cause in your marketing efforts
Whether your basketball team is local or national, any marketing or promotional tool will pack a greater punch if you can highlight a social issue.
For example, a local girl’s basketball team could promote and market their team while accentuating the issue of promoting women’s equality when it comes to the game of basketball.
Another cause that local and national basketball teams can have as a theme could be to promote unity in the local community. This can be accentuated with a promotional team showing the team doing some form of community outreach.
Community Involvement
One of the best marketing tools that exists is painting a positive image in the local community.
In order to do so, you may have to go simply beyond basketball-related activities and participate in community events.
These events could be anything from charitable, volunteering in some capacity, attending other local sporting events, and much more.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to the local news when you are contributing to the betterment of your community either!
Share pre-game content of the team as well as content during the game on social media
If you want your supporters and fans to feel that your team is a real big deal, then this step is a great way to do it.
Examples of pregame content may be images/and or videos of the team warming up before the game. One can even highlight the recent performance of standout players on the team before the game.
During the game, one can keep supporters up-to-date such as sharing the score at the end of a quarter or at halftime. They can even capture a team highlight if one occurs. Ultimately, the most important of content that must be shared is the final score.
This strategy helps your basketball team stay active on social media feeds. The consistent posting of content will keep your followers actively engaged.
Merchandise
Marketing your basketball team through the selling of merchandise is an absolute win-win situation.
First, when someone purchases merchandise with your team logo on it, you receive free advertising for your team and brand any time that fan wears it.
Second, you make money from selling merchandise!
Conclusion
While there are many basketball marketing ideas out there, these ideas will put basketball organizations on the fast track to a successful promotion. Online influencers who are fans of basketball and have a huge following will be a great help. An organization that advertises it’s sponsors get the dual benefit of more promotion for themselves as well as a stronger relationship with the sponsor.
It’s clear that a basketball organization will benefit from promoting a cause greater than themselves in their own marketing.
Finally, basketball organizations increase the significance of their teams in the eyes of their fans when they gave constant updates of happenings prior to the game as well as during the game.
