Making A Connection

Social Media Marketing 101 for team dealers ... Part 2 of our ‘Facebook for Dummies’ Series

Nine Steps To Your Own Social Media Plan
Social media marketing comes with an entirely new mindset on how to do business. It's all about providing useful information and resources and solving problems your customer may have.
For example, you can provide safety instructions for the equipment they will purchase from you or provide a link to the local baseball tournament site. When you consistently contribute to your customers, you build trust and loyalty, which ultimately results in sales.

1. Create your social media marketing plan. Remember, all roads lead to your Web site. Linking your Facebook, Twitter and blog accounts with your site is the key.

Here are some questions to consider when you are designing your plan:

What useful information, tools, etc. can I provide my customer? For example, you could offer instructional information on hitting techniques for softball players.

How can I contribute to my customers’ success? You might ask a tech rep from one of your manufacturers to present an on-line clinic for your customers and post the link on your Facebook page or blog.

In what ways can I give back to the community? Volunteer or sponsor the local little league team and post it on your Facebook page or write about it on your blog. Add information that is relevant to the community.

2. Get Help. You may already have someone committed to managing your network marketing program. Unless you have the time and are pretty adept at working on-line with the social media programs, you might want to enlist help from someone who has a knack for it. The reason you’ll need help is the same reason you need help keeping your Web site up to date — it’s a constantly changing environment.

If you want to learn more to do-it-yourself, you can find workshops through local colleges and adult ed centers or on-line.

Most of the social media websites mentioned in this article have great tutorials to guide you through the process.

3. Sign up for a Facebook page. Develop this page to engage your customers personally. Invite them as “fans” to comment on news, events and new products. It will help you keep up and stay involved with your customer base and attract new customers. Be sure to link it to your Web site.

4. Add a Twitter account. Begin sending tweets to let your customers know about new products, sales and up-to-the-minute information about events in the community and at your store.

5. Integrate everything with your Web site. Provide links on your “landing” or home page for all social media platforms. All of these platforms will lead back to your store’s Web site. Keeping your customer in the loop also means they will be more likely to buy from you whenever they need anything sports related.

6. Model other successful stores. Look at your competitors’ and other sporting goods stores Web sites and Facebook pages. What are they doing differently? How many fans do they have? Are they engaging them? Modeling other successful marketing programs helps you build a more effective social media marketing program.

7. Call on your manufacturers for more product marketing tools and help developing eblasts that promote their products. Most of today’s brand names have a lot of product information available in digital form, from sophisticated graphics with detailed texts to YouTube-type videos demonstrating their line being used in the field.

All you have to do is ask them for help. Explain what you want to accomplish and ask how they can help you out. More than likely you will be working with their marketing department rather than your local sales rep. Your manufacturers are a valuable resource for you to develop your social media marketing programs.

8. Keep updating your Web site and social media pages. Just like with your Web site, dealers need to keep their social media pages and programs current, which is why you need someone who is dedicated to managing these sites for you.

9. Start an email marketing campaign that links back to your Web site. You’ll need a customer email list and some tools. Use an email marketing service like Constant Contact or iContact. The email marketing sites let you create multiple campaigns using their templates and your email list. They are very easy to use.

Eblast info to introduce a product or a special sale with a link to your store, making it easy and convenient for them to buy. It’s Eblasting at it’s best. Just be sure to target your blast to those customers who might benefit the most from the product or service you're offering.

Broad-based eblasts turn off potential customers when the products you offer aren’t relevant to them. The more you “blast them,” the less your customers will open your emails, so use email blasting for real deals, introductions, promotions, sales, events and announcements. See more on Eblasting techniques below.


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Having An eBlast

Eblasting is effective because it can instantly get the word out to your customers. Used correctly and somewhat sparingly, eblasting your customer base can be an effective way to bring your customer to your store or Web site to purchase product. Remember, you only have one-fifth of a second to get your customer to open your email, and only a second or two for them to decide whether it’s of interest.

Here are a few hints to better target your Eblasting:

1. Subject Line

Speak to their interests and make sure they know its you sending it. If you have a new bat that you believe will enhance their on-field performance, tell them in the subject line. It has to speak to them directly so they respond.
EXAMPLE: “Coach, do you want to increase your players hitting power?”

You have about one-fifth of a second to capture your customers’ attention (yes, these are people who know you) so you need to speak to them directly about something they might care about.

2. Body of the Email

• Keep it brief. Stick to the best points about the product. Some email servers only allow text, so be sure what you say describes the product simply without images.

• Show the product. Images can make all the difference, so show it large enough.

• Give them a way to buy it now. Add a “buy now” link in the body of the email next to the product that send them to your shopping cart on your Web site.

• Make it Personal. In the body of the email keep the text simple with benefits your targeted customer will appreciate personally, as if you were speaking to them in your store. And make sure it’s relevant to them. Then ask them to buy it (while offering an on-line special like “free freight”) with a link button directly to your Web site where they can purchase the product.


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SKLZ Gets Social

Sporting goods supplier SKLZ, which primarily serves the team business with some highly targeted training aids for a host of team sports, has already made social media an integral part of its marketing and company culture. “It plays a role in almost everything we do — marketing, sales, product development and even operations on occasion in the form of crowd sourcing,” says Greg Shoman, SKLZ VP-marketing. “All SKLZ employees are encouraged to participate in social media whether regularly posting on our blog, or the sales and human resources teams using LinkedIn as an outreach and research tool.

The company’s goal is to develop relationships with its consumers and essentially ask them to invite the company into their lives. “There is no stronger consumer-brand relationship than when consumers choose to associate themselves and their online personalities with your brand,” says Shoman. “We have an entire department dedicated to achieving this, and it’s pretty much mandatory that any strategic marketing alliance include social media integration. The old model of simply talking at consumers no longer applies.”

With so much consumer access to information and empowerment in the purchase process, a two-way dialogue is imperative to building trust in a brand. SKLZ does this through its own blog, Twitter, Facebook, SKLZ.tv (instructional, how-to, and entertainment video), Youtube and regular monitoring of blogs, comment sections and social media forums.

“It’s amazing what you can learn about your company and your consumers when you listen — feedback on products, desires for new products, trends and the many levels of passion they have for their sport,” Shoman points out.

In one example, SKLZ worked with iHoops and Sports Authority to develop an integrated promotion that offers consumers a compelling prize, while supplying instructional and video content that demonstrates how SKLZ training programs and products can improve their games.

All parties broadcast the promotion across multiple social media channels, leading to a significant viral effect.

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