3.4 Building Your Local Brand

Social Media and Location Page

Because of your target audience, taking advantage of social media and your location is critical for your PSS’s success. Face it, you’d be hard pressed to go into any restaurant these days and not find the youth in the restaurant looking at their mobile phones during most of their meal. Actually, the same thing goes for many adults too!

This constant need to check various social media sites provides a tremendous marketing opportunity for you and your PSS. Therefore, become aware of the general rules for posting to any social media outlets. These rules include:

• Post Often – The more often you post information your audience is interested in, the more your audience looks for your posts and shares them with contacts.
• Post Short – The emergence of social media has conditioned people to “hit and run” on content. Your audience does not want to read a lot of text, so keep your post short, to the point, and provide links for people who are interested in “learning more” about the topic.
• Post Interesting – Your audience is not interested in promotions (although there are clever ways of slipping them into a post). They want success stories, videos of Parisi Training, interesting sports trivia, nutritional advice and workout tips, etc. The more interesting your posts, the greater your visibility.
• Post Variety – In general, videos and pictures get more interest than text. Yet, most experts state that using a variety of ALL types of media supported by a particular social media site is the best approach for keeping things fresh.

 

Your location page on www.parisischool.com is also a tremendous information source for your athletes and potential athletes. You can post your schedule, pictures of your facility, staff, location information, as well as blogs that you can share to your social media channels. Your location page is a great way to give people the info they need and by posting content to your site regularly, you are naturally creating a better presence and generating more interest on the web.

 

Parisi Nation Challenge as a Marketing Event

Driving leads through your door is the primary objective with any marketing effort. With the Parisi Nation Challenge, you get a double bang for your buck! Executed correctly, the Parisi Nation Challenge is both a retention tool for your existing athletes AND a very successful marketing event that drives new leads into your sales funnel!

There are several things you must do to turn these into marketing events:

• The Challenge must take on more of an “open house” environment.
• You must incentivize existing athletes to bring their friends to the event.
• You must advertise the Parisi Nation Challenge as an Open House.
• There must be sufficient staff available to talk with parents while the event is taking place.

 

While the most successful Parisi Nation Challenges have already proven that energizing music, balloons, food and beverage, etc. are important, they become more important when you are making it an open house. You want to showcase your PSS, so you want it to look its best and portray an atmosphere that parents, and kids want to be a part of.

There are many ways to incentivize your athletes to bring their friends. Some of the most successful ones include:

• Free speed passes
• Free t-shirts or gear for bringing XX number of friends to the event
• Free t-shirts advertising the Parisi Nation Challenge, which you also encourage your athletes to wear around their friends
• Free individual workouts with a favorite coach for bringing XX number of friends to the event
• Attendance to an exclusive workout and party
• Competitions with rewards for the top number of friends attending
• Tickets to sporting events and other big prizes via raffle drawings
• Guest passes

 

The point is this – you want your existing members to bring potential memberships into your PSS and reward them with personal reasons to want to do it. You also want to encourage parents to come with their kids, because they are the consumers and will benefit too! You can do this by having drawings, giveaways, etc. for parents who attend as well.

 

Having said that, you can’t leave all of the Parisi Nation Challenge marketing up to your kids. You must also advertise your challenge. You might want to consider the following:

• Talking about your upcoming event in your outbound calling (when appropriate)
• Printing flyers and posting them (with approval) in businesses, community centers, schools, etc.
• Collaborating with other businesses (such as arcades, health supplement stores, local pediatricians, and youth health organizations) to create Win/Win exchange programs
• Utilizing social media networks to promote the Parisi Nation Challenge, while asking your athletes and members to share the posts
• Advertising with local newspapers or television stations

 

Lastly, it is essential that you have sufficient staff to talk with the parents during the Parisi Nation Challenge; otherwise, all of your efforts will fall short. Staff should “float” from parent to parent to discuss:

• What the Parisi Nation Challenge is all about
• What the results will show (in general)
• How your PSS can help the child become more confident, in better shape, reach his/her goals, etc.

 

It is also helpful that you have some written pamphlet, brochure, or flyer the staff can leave behind with parents who are not ready to sign their child up right then! Also, if you have a TVs in your PSS, have the have the Parisi Impact Movie or parent orientation video playing in a continuous loop so parents can watch it at their leisure. This movie explains many of the advantages our program brings to athletes – important information for parents to know.

Many of our PSS’s host Parisi Challenges every month, others every quarter. There are merits to both decisions, so you need to decide what is right for your situation. However, it is recommended that you NOT host a Parisi Nation Challenge as a marketing event (as discussed here) more than once a quarter.

Why? Because a good marketing event takes a lot of time and effort to produce. You will get more leads from one, well-­‐executed Parisi Nation Challenge over several that are hastily put together and not true marketing events.

 

Focus on Daily Outbound Marketing Activities

Outbound marketing activities are a critical and essential component of sales funnel management. This includes daily phone calls, emails, texts, social media posts, blogs posts, etc. It cannot be stressed enough that if you ignore your outbound marketing responsibilities, YOUR PSS WILL EVENTUALLY FAIL.

Too often, Program Directors of new speed schools decide it is not necessary to pursue outbound marketing because the inquiries flow in with ease (due to the school being new and trendy). Four to six months later, these same Program Directors are invariably at a loss to explain why sales at the school have taken a steep nose-­‐dive from which they are having a hard time recovering.

 

So, who should you be targeting with you outbound marketing efforts? It is a fairly simple process. The following groups of consumers all have the potential of pushing prospects into the top of your sales funnel:

• Camps/Team Training Decision-Makers (e.g., coaches, league managers, after school directors, etc.)
• Community Organizers (e.g., fair boards, PTAs, parks and recreation, etc.)
• Lost Leads/Expired PSS Athletes
• Existing Health Club Members (who have children) and/or New Leads
• Parent Rapport/Athlete Referrals

 

By setting daily goals (also referred to as Key Performance Indicators or KPI’s) for outbound marketing to each of these groups, you ensure the number of prospects being pushed into your PSS sales funnel is adequate to sustain and grow your revenue.

 

In most PSS’s, the Program Director, Assistant Program Director (if the position exists) and Performance Coaches all share in the task of outbound marketing.  The Performance Coaches are most often responsible for parent rapport calls and email correspondence, while the director(s) are responsible for the other groups.

No matter who is responsible, set aside a dedicated block of time each day to devote to outbound marketing. Avoid times when the business is pulling you in different directions (such as 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM) when overseeing the programming takes a lot of your time. Generally, the most effective times are between 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM. Regardless of the timeframe that works for you, go into your office, close the door, and crank out the calls and emails! Once you get into a routine, you will find that you can reach your call goal in approximately one hour!

Camp / Team Training Decision-Makers

Every successful Program Director in the Parisi network stays in touch with the coaches, league managers, after-­‐school directors, etc. within the community. Furthermore, these Program Directors work at continually building better rapport with this important group and leveraging these relationships to start new ones.

The importance of this outbound marketing effort cannot be stressed enough. Not only can these people book camps and team training with you, but they can also recommend the PSS program to parents with whom they are in frequent contact. In addition, they are a gateway to your participation in events and programs that otherwise you might not know about or not be able to gain access to without their help.

Long‐story‐short – people do business with people they like!  If a coach or another decision‐maker likes you and your PSS, they will call you first!  That is the reward for your outbound marketing efforts to this important group.

To maximize success in this area, you will need to do a little research. You need to identify every school in your area, as well as recreation teams, traveling leagues, PTA’s, club teams, booster clubs, etc. Any organization that has any involvement with youth sports and/or fitness should be on your list.

Once completed, find out who the “decision‐makers” are for each of the organizations on your list and make them the focus of your outbound marketing efforts. The old phrase, “you may have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince(s) charming,” applies here because getting to the decision‐maker is sometimes not easy. But if you have to kiss a frog, make sure you put the kiss to good use!

Influence these people to be your advocate and work for you. You will be amazed how many doors these “frogs” can open once they are on your side and want to see you succeed!

 

The goal for your effort is simple and should result in at least one of the following:

• Book a face‐to‐face meeting with the decision‐maker
• Book a free team demo class
• Book a time to make a presentation to the organization
• Get an agreement to look at some information (sent by you) and schedule a time for a follow-­‐up call
• Book a camp/team training

 

Just to set realistic expectations here – you might not reach your goal with everyone on the first try. Persistence is the key. The more you get to know people and the more they hear from you, the more willing they will be to give you their time.  They may also help introduce you to other key decision-makers they know, especially if you ask!

This type of outbound calling will take some upfront work and research on your part, but the rewards are well worth your efforts over time. Make a commitment to invest in the effort now and you will reap the success for many years to come.

Community Organizers

Community organizers are another important group worthy of your outbound calling efforts. These people become the basis of your community outreach program because they can open doors for participation in events, sponsorships with high visibility, and collaborative “business‐to‐business” efforts.

The way to maximize your success with this group is very similar to the previous group. Make a list of all of the events that happen within your community such as fairs, festivals, large fundraisers, recreation departments, elementary schools, PTO’s, Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs, Chamber of Commerce, YMCA’s volunteer efforts, community gatherings, local summer sports camps etc. and then get to the decision-makers.

Offer to set up a booth with activities for kids, present on kids’ health, fitness and/or nutrition, conduct a mini camp to entertain kids, etc.  The important key to building a good relationship with this group is to understand that you have to “provide value” to them at little or no cost. If you contact them with the intention of “marketing,” you will not get far.

By being involved in their cause and helping them, you will gain exposure to your market and be able to collect contact information through creative means. For example, you might give away a free session or week with the name, phone number, and email address of a parent.  Then too, you could raffle off a mini camp for a birthday party. The ideas are endless, but the goal is to get the parent’s contact information for later outbound calling efforts.

Lost Leads / Expired PSS Athletes

The beauty of this outbound calling effort is that you already know that the individuals you are calling have some knowledge of the PSS. Hopefully, you also know why a lead was lost (or an athlete expired) so you can filter out any that are not possibilities for future sales. Either way, the goal of this outbound calling effort is to reignite interest and get the athlete back into the program by booking a time for an evaluation.

Existing Health Club Members (w/children) and New Leads

It’s always amazing how many licenses that are part of a larger health club or sports plex (often with thousands of adult members) do not leverage those memberships as potential leads for their PSS. Think about it – adult members who are already sold on fitness and the facility, also workout or play sports at the facility, AND are often challenged with finding childcare while there – COULD THERE BE AN EASIER SALE?!?!?

The other group to consider as part of this direct outbound marketing effort are new leads; the parents from whom you have collected information through community outreach efforts, referrals, social media inquiries, etc. These are parents that have at least heard of your PSS, so they’re not considered “cold calls.” You have their information because they provided it to you during some promotion or interaction, so take advantage of their awareness and educate them on what your PSS can do for their children.

With both of these groups, as well as the group above (Lost Leads/Expired PSS Athletes) it is important to have a “reason” to call and something that will pique the parent’s interest. This is where your internal promotions come in handy, because you can always make that the “reason” for your call.

Parent Rapport and Referrals

This is another area where you get multiple bangs for your buck. Contacting parents to discuss their child’s success and challenges is a surefire way to let parents know that you are interested in their child. This most often results in renewals. It is also a time where you can get feedback from parents on how they feel about the services you are providing at your PSS. When given an opportunity for improvement, it is your time to address their concerns, rather than have them just not renew when their contract is up. Lastly, it is an important time for parents who are singing your PSS’s praises to ask for referrals. These parents might be willing to give you names and contact information right over the phone. If not, at least you can ask for their commitment to call parents of other kids they feel could benefit from your PSS.

Just so you know, there is already a structured Parent Rapport program set up for you! All you need to do is implement the program and make sure it is being executed correctly on an ongoing basis to reap the benefits!

Rely on PSS Marketing Assistance Resources

Finally, remember that Parisi corporate offers a couple of different types of marketing assistance to our network. The only thing you need to do is pick up the phone and call.

The support team can help you at any time by providing advice, what has worked well for other facilities, ideas based on your challenges, etc. Depending on your specific circumstances, they can also align you with corporate experts in the fields of advertising, social media, printing, etc. to help with whatever concerns you might have.