Digital and Social Media Marketing in Sports: The Essentials

SummaryDigital marketing is the use of digital platforms such as the internet to deliver branded communication to potential consumers. It involves a wide range of different techniques which are aimed at promoting a brand and its benefits to an audience, in the same way that radio and TV marketing work, only through the internet. Social media marketing is a particular facet of digital marketing which has gained a lot of attention in recent years thanks to its potential impact. Social media is the name given to describe a website or application which allows users to create and share content with each other through the internet. Social media has become one of the most popular ways people spend their time online, with major platforms such as Facebook and others attracting millions of daily active users and forming a large percentage of total internet traffic. Its the large audiences of social media sites, along with the features designed for creating and sharing content, that make them so appealing for marketers. A brand can use social media to boost its reach and engage with new audiences in new markets, increasing their overall brand awareness and bringing an increase in sales. With the fast growth of the internet and the fact that there are now billions of people online, digital and social media marketing have rapidly grown in significance. Today, these platforms can be used in a variety of different ways to improve the image of a brand and help a company to reach its target demographics. In the world of sports, digital and social media have been used to connect fans in their love of their favourite sports, teams and athletes. Sports marketers have also made the most of these platforms to appeal to sports fans and associate brands with major sports teams and sporting moments. Brands that want to stay ahead of the competition need to be able to adapt and pick up new techniques and ideas. Digital marketing is one of the biggest changes to the field of marketing in the last decade or so and is still rapidly evolving as new tool emerge that allow brands to make better use of digital and social platforms. Digital marketing is now a major component of any marketing strategy, with most companies now aware of the benefits that it can bring. Digital marketing includes techniques such as search engine optimisation, content marketing, paid online advertising and social media marketing, among others. All of these techniques can be used in tandem to create a robust and effective digital marketing strategy capable of increasing brand awareness, brand equity, positioning and ultimately, improving sales. Sports marketing is an integral part of the sports industry and just as traditional marketing has adopted digital techniques, so too has sports marketing. Now, sports marketers use digital and social platforms to connect with wider audiences, engage directly with fans and bring sports to new markets. As well as being on top of current digital marketing trends and techniques, brands must constantly be looking to innovate in order to gain a competitive advantage. This is true in any industry, but the sports industry in particular is highly competitive, and organisations and those that work in it need to be able to stay on top of current trends to stay ahead of the competition. The digital landscape changes quickly, and social media is always developing and bringing new ways to interact with users. Being a great digital and social media marketer means staying ahead of these trends and innovating to create and develop new techniques yourself. What Youll Learn What is search engine optimisation and why is it so important How content marketing forms a large part of any digital marketing strategy What is paid online advertising and how it can be used to promote brands The basics of social media marketing What is brand awareness What is brand equity What is positioning How is branding to sports fans different from branding to regular consumers What is market research and why its so important to a marketing plan How to create user personas and for what purpose All about metrics of digital marketing including how to set and track goals How to take the components of digital marketing to create an actionable marketing plan How social media can be utilised to build brand awareness How social media can be used to build and measure engagement All about distributing content on social media Why is engagement such an important factor for marketing campaigns How a brand can activate its marketing How modern marketing teams use data to drive marketing strategy Mobile optimisation and how it affects digital marketing How voice searches are affecting digital marketing How artificial intelligence can be used to create successful digital marketing strategies Why brands are focusing more on creating personalised content and experiences for their consumers How live streaming can be implemented into a digital marketing strategy The use of augmented reality in marketing The rise of eSports and how it offers opportunities