Five promotional strategies to boost your basketball tournament
Are you in charge of promoting a basketball tournament? Whether the game is for kids, teens, or adults, these promotional strategies will help get the word out and boost your attendance!
Hosting a basketball tournament is tough. You need to take care of all the logistics, like ordering the right amount of food and making sure the refs are qualified. But promoting your event can be even more challenging, especially if you don’t have the right strategies in your arsenal. Here are five tried and tested ways to promote your basketball tournament.
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Use social media to your advantage
Social media is a powerful tool that can help you reach a broad audience with minimal effort. Create a Facebook event and invite all your friends, family, and followers. Post updates leading up to the tournament, so people don’t forget about it. You can also use Twitter and Instagram to promote your event using posters and relevant hashtags. Need some inspiration making the perfect poster? Check out these creative basketball poster templates.
If you have the budget, you can also run social media ads. Facebook, in particular, offers a variety of targeting options so you can make sure your ad reaches the right people. A paid social media campaign will target people most likely to come to your basketball tournament. Social media search engines track users’ search preferences to filter out the right people to show your advertisement.
Put up creative and dynamic flyers
Flyer marketing is a tried and tested method of advertising. You may think no one notices flyers, and that’s true – but who said they should be boring? Your flyers should be eye candy and grab the audience’s attention instantly. Use bright colors and include all the date, time, location, and prize money.
Instead of hiring a graphic designer, you can use this nifty poster maker to create a stunning banner for your basketball tournament. Once it’s made, put it up in local shops, community centers, and schools. It’s also best to include a QR code on your flyer, so people can scan the code with their phone and be taken directly to your tournament’s website or social media page.
Reach out to the local media and influencers
If you want to reach an even wider audience, consider reaching out to local newspapers, radio stations, and TV channels. They may be willing to do a story on your tournament, which will help generate more interest and excitement in the community.
You could also ask a popular YouTuber with a large audience to promote your basketball tournament. Influencers have a loyal following and a large outreach. If they mention your event in a video or post, many of their fans will likely come to check it out. Just make sure you find a YouTuber that’s also excited about your event in the first place.
Gather sponsorships
Sponsorships are a great way to generate more revenue for your tournament. You can reach out to local businesses and see if they’re interested in sponsoring your event. To return the favor, you can promote their business on your flyers and social media accounts or give them a big shout out during the tournament. It’s hard to say no to free advertising, don’t you think? Take a page from professional sports teams–some of the best marketers in the business—to learn about the digital tools they use to advance brand awareness on and off the court; visit https://www.greenfly.com/
Selling advertising space is another way to get sponsors for your event. You can sell ads in your program or on banners on display at the venue. That’s a clever way to offset some of the costs of hosting the tournament and make some extra money.
Arrange delicious snacks for your audience
People love free food, whether or not they are interested in your tournament. You can ask a local restaurant or bakery to donate some snacks for the event. It’s also an excellent opportunity to promote local businesses and show your support for the community. Even if they don’t agree to give away food for free, they would surely agree to give discounts.
Another option is to have a food truck at your tournament. A food truck is convenient because you won’t have to set up food stalls. People can just walk outside the gymnasium, buy whatever they want to eat, and come back to watch the game.
Some food for thought
There’s no one way to market your basketball tournament, and how you advertise it depends on who your target audience is. Whether it’s families and friends or other basketball players? The bottom line is your marketing mix should be relevant to your audience.
Once you’ve done that, get creative and put together the right marketing mix for your basketball tournament. Word of mouth is always a powerful marketing tool, so tell everyone you know about your upcoming game. You never know who might be interested in attending.