After years of hard work, dedication and effort to become the best in their chosen sport, an increasing number of talented athletes find that they can no longer cope with the financial burden of competitive sport and drop out before they realize their true potential. The key to a successful and sustained career in sport is not only based on performance and results, but also on a good support network that includes family, friends, fans and business contacts. All of this is provided through Self-Promotion in Sport.
“Why would anyone be interested in me?” people might ask, “It’s not like I’m on TV winning major events every week.” In reality, if athletes were on TV regularly winning major events, they would have already achieved their goals and therein lies the great “Catch-22” in sports: the rewards are there when you get to the top, but not really! I need the support now to be able to get there! When asked who would be interested in me, the answer is simple; those who know about you, who returns again to Self-promotion in Sport.
Self-promotion in sport begins with friends and family. Athletes need to regularly keep their friends and family informed of their efforts, goals, and accomplishments. One of the most efficient ways to provide this is through a personal sports website, which needs to be updated regularly. Knowledgeable friends and family should be viewed as the athlete’s free marketing team and should be encouraged to spread the word about the individual’s efforts, goals, and achievements. Once the free marketing team has been assembled and briefed, they should be asked to help you build your fan base and develop business contacts as needed.
In the same way that the athlete should create a buzz among the people he knows, the athlete should also ask his friends and family to do the same. If an athlete has a personal sports website, their friends and family should be asked to email links to the site to everyone they know. People are more likely to click a link in an email to visit the site than they are to type the address into a browser; however, when the athlete or her friends and family meet people who might be interested in pursuing her career, a business card with a website address or at least an email address makes a good impression.
Media exposure can be achieved in many ways. The Internet is becoming the easiest way to gain exposure as athletes can create and post their own articles, blogs or message board threads. All of these methods can present opportunities to insert links to the athlete’s personal sports website. Exposure to print media may be more difficult to achieve; however, it can provide excellent results. Free local newspapers often look for local residents with interesting stories to produce an article. When approaching local reporters, athletes must first write a list of content that would make a potential article interesting to the general public. Interesting content can consist of achievements, funny stories, career aspirations, charity, or insight into the sport, such as “a day in the life of a…” Again, athletes should ask their friends and family to help generate interesting content.
For those who are eligible to accept financial support, equipment, clothing, model work, product endorsements, etc. Members of your fan base could one day become great business contacts, so building a fan base at a young age is essential. Athletes should set realistic goals for business contacts. Many automatically think of lucrative contracts with major sportswear and equipment companies; however, they are unlikely to come to fruition until such companies are able to reap significant benefits from a deal. The key to building successful business contacts is to think “small, local, and multiple.” It’s not just big companies that are looking for athletes to endorse products, work as models, or help with branding and reaching their target audience. It is not just companies that are related to an athlete’s particular sport that can be considered good business contacts. Athletes should think about the products that their sports personalities promote and find several small local businesses that can benefit from their membership. If the athlete has been proactive in their self-promotional efforts, chances are local businesses already know who they are!
It is important for athletes of all ages and levels to understand that they must take an active role in self-promotion in sport. If they don’t, they could be giving their competitors an edge!
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