Written for Ernie Saxton Communications by Joe Verdegan.
In the last issue we talked about “following through” with existing marketing partners for your respective racing operation(s).
One of the components we covered was dealing with “social media” and using it as a creative and positive way to promote your team, and more importantly, those marketing partners who in some way, shape or form are supporting your efforts.
In the past couple of years I’ve shifted from a public relations type person who worked for race tracks to writing books about local (Wisconsin) racing history. I’ve used social media as an extremely effective tool to sell books all across the United States and Canada.
You can use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to not only provide your existing marketing partners with a top notch ROI (return on investment) but to also lure in new marketing partners.
Twitter – if you’ve followed our recent presidential election you’ll note that president-elect Trump “tweets” on almost a daily basis. There is a reason for that. His message is reaching millions. Twitter is a quick and effective way to post sponsor announcements, updates on the building of your race car, upcoming races your team may be attending, etc.
“Tweeting” is quick, and that’s important in today’s digitally-enhanced, short attention span, instant gratification society we have. They want information INSTANTLY and nobody seems to have patience anymore.
I’ve likely sold more books using Facebook than any other form of social media. Granted, I’ve been fortunate enough to build up thousands of contacts during a 35 year period of being in this crazy sport called auto racing. And best of all, it’s free. (Although there are options to pay for ads which some colleagues of mine have used for sporting events.) The benefit is Facebook does direct marketing to very specific demographics.
The more “friend” requests you get, and send out yourself, you will continue to build your database per se of potential customers. I would encourage all teams to develop a Facebook page separate from their personal pages. Remember though, a Facebook page is no different than a website that’s constructed. It’s only as good as the updated content that is provided to it. It makes little sense to develop a Facebook page and then not have anyone refresh it or provide up-to-date content on a regular basis.
Now mind you, don’t feel the need to post something every single day. I’d say during the racing season a weekly post maybe the day or night of your race – how you did, how things went. Then perhaps you can post a few days leading up to your next event and anything special that may be associated with it. Color photos are key and with today’s phones with have built in cameras which are fairly high quality there’s no reason not to get some good stuff posted.
What this all comes back to essentially is networking. There is no substitute for it and truthfully, when it comes to building up marketing partnerships with companies both on a local and regional basis, it’s huge. What you are essentially doing with this social media stuff is casting out a huge net – similar to what those folks do on the show “The Deadliest Catch.” The only difference here is you are trying to find somebody, who knows somebody, who knows somebody, etc. who would be interested in climbing on board with your program. Potential decision-makers of business dollars or services that can benefit your race team.
In the racing business, you cannot know enough people – if that makes any sense. You never know who you’ll make contact with. Years ago getting business owners to fork over their hard earned advertising dollars was a much easier sell when the economy was booming. Like everything else, companies had tough decisions to make around 2008 when the game changed – drastically. The sponsor dollars that were that much easier to obtain dried up. It started at the top at the Cup level of NASCAR. The 10 to 15 million dollar sponsors that seemed to be around every corner evaporated.
So the second and third-tier advertisers in NASCAR’s Xfinity and Truck series, respectively, got swallowed up by the Cup teams. That left the cupboards essentially bare for NASCAR’s two junior series. That’s when you started seeing multiple paint schemes during a season – and that decision was based primarily on economics.
What happens in the big leagues most certain has a trickle-down effect on the local and regional sponsorship chase. And with using social media and casting a wider net over potential business contacts can only better your chances when it comes to the great money hunt.
Good luck!
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