Marketing is vital to any club. It is the key process of researching and promoting your services and offerings to your target market.

It's important that you use marketing to promote your club, brand and offerings - whether it be junior, senior, Auskick, women’s, coaching or volunteering opportunities. Without it, how will your club grow and be sustainable?

The 7 P’s of Marketing

The 7 Ps are a recognised marketing framework, which you can use in any combination to satisfy customers in your target market. Combining the 7 Ps to meet your customers' needs and wants is known as using a 'tactical marketing mix'.

The 7 Ps help address key areas including:

• What the club offers
• How much it will offer it for
• How it is going to deliver the service/offer
• How it is going to tell its customers about the services

Product:

This is what your club offers to the customer. When marketing your product, you need to consider the key features, the benefits, the ‘point of difference’ to competitor products (what makes your club different other codes or the club down the road) and quality of your product/services.

Price:

This refers to the price you put on your product/service. When setting your price, you need to consider your overheads (e.g. insurance, ground hire, affiliation), your profit margins and the price your customers are willing to pay.

Promotion:

This refers to the activities you will use to promote your club and its product/service. These activities can include your club website, word of mouth/reputation, social media, PR etc.

Place:

This refers to where a customer will see your service/product and how accessible your service/product is.

People:

This refers to the people within your club including club committee, volunteers, players, members and other stakeholders. When you have a good club culture and your people are happy to be involved, you will attract others.

Process:

This refers to the process involved to deliver you product and services to your customers. Consider your standards of program delivery, the efficiencies of your club to handle challenges and issues and processes and procedures to ensure best practise operation.

Physical Evidence:

This refers to what the customer sees when interacting with your club. This can include the physical appearance of your facilities, equipment, uniforms etc and the way your key club people look and act.

Things to consider

When marketing your club, it’s also very important to consider the following points:

• Brand: Is your club positive, supporting, family friendly etc?
• Tone: Is what you say done in a positive, optimistic, friendly way?
• Language: Is it professional, inclusive, respectful?
• Purpose: Does your message inform, engage, motivate your customers?
• Audience: Have your considered who you are marketing to e.g. current or prospect players? Kids, youth, adults, parents, volunteers?

Considering these points will ensure your marketing activities are effective and get the desired results.