Commentary: Why content marketing works in athletics

Commentary: Why content marketing works in athletics

Chris Syme, former Montana State athletics communications professional who serves as the New Media/Technology Committee Chair, is a frequent contributor to CoSIDA.com.

Syme is a regular contributor to MTbusiness.com and Social Media Today, in addition to writing her own blog, which is syndicated on AllTop and BlogHighEd. Chris is a frequent conference speaker and workshop presenter.

Here, she shares her ideas for SIDs on content creation and marketing and sharing that content. This is a post from her blog/website cksyme.org. You can also follow her on Twitter.

When we think of college sports websites, we think of news. Schedules, events, game stories, and previews of more games and events. Then, there’s the big “buy tickets now” button, booster info, on and on and on. Most athletic departments are relying strictly on news and advertisements to drive people to their events and booster clubs. But news is only one piece in building an invested stakeholder base. Many schools are missing the boat by ignoring their biggest asset to drive fan engagement: content marketing.

What is content marketing? In a nutshell, it’s a technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action (definition courtesy of Junta 42).

News is definitely a piece of that, but it can’t be the only piece. There are a couple reasons why:

1. Most college athletic departments have news cycles that peak only during parts of the school calendar.

2. News from losing programs and low-interest minor sports programs traditionally does not generate a high level of general fan engagement.

Strategic content marketing can help overcome both of these problems and give you a  year-round invested fan base. Engaging content is more than game stories and stats. According to the Roper Public Affairs, 70% of decision makers say content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company, while 60% say that company content helps them make better product decisions.

Ann Handley, author of Content Rules, says engaging content builds relationships. Good relationships endear people, and will develop them into brand loyalists. And brand loyalty can help carry you through losing seasons, down times, add attendance to booster events, and create a well that will help sustain you during reputation bumps.

So how do we create that content?

1. Marketing directors and athletic communicators need to form a strategic alliance.

There should be an understanding in every athletic department that the best communicators create the best content, whether it’s a feature story, a video interview, a story about an athlete’s academic success, a blog for the football coach, a student-athlete’s road diary, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a coaches show, or whatever. If it involves communications, the communicators should be in the loop with marketing. The best stories are about people, and fans want to get to know the coaches and student-athletes through more than just stats and post-game quotes.

2. Use new media.

There is no question that social media is engaging, but how are you using it? Just to pump out your news? The worst use of social media is duplicating your news headlines on Facebook and Twitter, word-for-word. Remember, each social media channel is a unique outpost with its own culture and own way of communicating.

Use social media and video to go outside the box. Look around at what other people are doing. Whatever the big schools are doing, you can create it on a smaller scale, if need be. Find somebody in marketing or sports information that is good with video and produce interviews with players and coaches about non-traditional subjects: academics, unique hobbies, or anything that makes them personal. Try a “traditions” feature that interviews well known former athletes and coaches. Or how about some “behind the scenes” stories about facilities operations? Or better yet, survey your fans about what they’d like to see.

3. Promote your feature stories beyond your borders.

If you don’t have one already, put together an email data base of organizations that are looking for non-news features on athletics like NCAA News, NACDA, CoSIDA , Women’s Sport Foundation, Athletic Management Magazine, and others. Use social media to announce when those features show up in national publications.

4. Enlist the help of people outside the department.

Your fans can be your biggest source of content: invested student fan groups, campus staff, booster groups, fan message boards, parents, community organizations, former journalists, and more.

Content marketing is a shift in how we do business. There is a learning curve that takes an investment of time. But the payoff down the road is tremendous. In his recent book, Launch, Michael Stelzner talks about the principles of reciprocal marketing, or the built-in human tendency to give gifts back to those that give to us. Our gift to our fans is great content that engages and entertains them, and gives them an inside look beyond the everyday news we churn out on our websites.

Maybe it’s time to move marketing beyond advertisements and TV commercials, and use an all-encompassing definition that melds athletic communications and marketing together.