One problem all coaches have when they are trying to build a successful football program is the same at whatever level you coach. How can you get better players to play on your team? You know they are out there in your school – you may even know which ones you actually want. Fortunately, getting people to join something is not a new problem. Marketers have been working on this problem since the beginning of media. How to convince people to buy or join something. So why not use some basic marketing ideas to help grow your team?
Photo by Charles Henry @ flikr.com
Here’s where you start. When you are trying to grow something, you have to have a product and you have to advertise. Good advertising starts with a clear message and then gets that message out to as many people as possible as often as possible. It also shows how what it is offering solves a problem for the person it is targeting.
Your message and product as a football coach is simple but you should still spend some time to write it down. Start by making a list of the ideal player on your team. Then list some problems that you can help solve for that ideal player. Here’s an example:
Ideal Player:
Physical Qualitites – Fast, Strong, Smart
Problems – Need a coach to direct them to improve in training, Need teammates to share experiences and friendships, Need to satisfy desire to belong, Need to have fun, Need to feel successful at something, etc, you get the idea.
Then make up a short, simple tagline that tells everyone what they will get with your program.
Another sample: “Building Champions Together – South Side Football” You can steal it if you really like it, but I am just throwing something out there.
Next, you need to get your message out to the students.
Once you have your team tagline, start including it in everything you put out as a coach. Over the announcements, on any posters, websites and clothing. Make it who you are as a program. If it resonates, people will respond and think of it whenever they think of your program.
Using Giveaways
One idea I really like is to make up T-Shirts that have your team mascot logo and include your new tagline. The key is to make these T-Shirts amazing – so everyone wants one.
Here’s how I would do this:
1. Get onto Fiverr.com to create an awesome logo with school colors, tagline and mascot. Put this new logo on everything as well. If you really want to do it right – try 99designs.com and then have your team vote on the best logo they would like for the season!
2. Place an order with a T-shirt Company to have some shirts made up – make sure you get plenty of extras. Have your logo screen printed on the shirts. Hopefully you have some money available for this – but I would begin to budget for this expense every year. If you don’t have a company, my affiliate partner DESIGNASHIRT offers custom made shirts with free shipping for teams.
3. Make a list of the players you really want on the team. Hopefully you are already talking to these players and working on building a solid relationship. Ultimately, you are who they will buy in to. But you want to make it as easy as possible for them to join.
4. With your shirts, call a team meeting of your core members. Explain how your vision of building a successful program can help everyone involved. Encourage them to be very welcoming of any new members that join. Remind them that hazing is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Then give them the new shirt with one simple request – that they wear it once a week to school. Tell them that anyone who joins for the offseason strength and conditioning program will get a T-shirt.
5. Make sure to give your team members who are participating in another sport a t-shirt as well.
6. Finally, go and offer a t-shirt to the players who you want on the team. Let them know that you’d love to have them join because you know they would love playing.
Next Steps To Building A Successful Program At Your School
To get you started, a lot of this you can do free of charge or with very little expense. Creating a tagline and season logo can have a big impact alone. Then you can figure out if you want to try the T-shirt idea.
What I really want you to do now is help each other out. Go through the tagline creation process right now and share what you came up with in the comments below. I’d love to see what some of you can come up with. Or if you think you have a good one and aren’t sure – share it below and we all can give each other some honest feedback.
If you get a logo made – I’d also love to see it.
Share this article with a coach who might appreciate it below.
