Zero Budget Marketing

First some background:

I volunteer at BRACKLEY RUGBY UNION FOOTBALL CLUB LIMITED , I have been involved with rugby since I was 5 years old, my daughters play, my wife used to play and a large amount of my friendships and social life's has revolved around rugby and rugby clubs.

I love giving back - I coach the U18 boys and the U16 girls as well as manage and support all the boys teams from u12 to u18s. This time of year is critical for us as we prepare for pre-season and keep the community interested through the off season. Although everyone at the club is a volunteer, we still have significant costs to maintain the club. Pitch maintenance is expensive, our pitches work hard and are used about 4 times as much as they should be to stay healthy. On top of this we have club kit and training gear, floodlights, posts, maintenance of the facilities and the ever increasing cost of utilities - unfortunately rugby clubs are mostly used in the winter months so heat and light can be expensive.

We have 3 areas of revenue - our club bar, membership fees and sponsorship. We don't make a lot in fees as we strive to be cost effective and for everyone to be part of the community. We benefit mostly from generous sponsors. So this time of year, we have 2 main goals- attracting new players and attracting new sponsors.

I am lucky (in a way), that I have some downtime as I look for my next role and have had time to look at the sales and marketing of the club. I work closely with other volunteers like Richard Goodall and David Reynolds F.C.M.A. C.F.S.P. who have significant business experience and we are able to share ideas between us.

Just because it's a small not for profit organisation doesn't mean we should tackle the objective in any different way. Building the brand, targeting, working out the offer and deciding on the goals and vision all still need to be done. In 2019 we decided as club that we couldn't compete in terms of pure mens rugby performance like some of our near neighbours, so we decided to focus on what we could do. We decided we would become the best community, social and inclusive club in the area, focusing on enjoyment of the game. Since then, we now have 4 girls rugby teams from 11-18, 250+ 6-18yr olds playing rugby, walking rugby for men and women who want to be involved in rugby at a slower pace (our oldest player is in their 70s), mixed touch rugby and an increasingly successful mens side (an interesting side note is that with more people spending time at the club and enjoying rugby, performance is really improving as well!)

We also work hard within our community, with groups like the Royal British Legion, whose local branch is now based at the club, and Brackley Town Council - together we regularly hold community events such as Armed Forces Day and celebration events

Objectives:

We want to grow our membership and community. We need sponsors to help us do this.

With sponsors, we hope to be able to find someone with similar values to ourselves, focussed on health, activity and an inclusive community. In return for their support we aim to offer a real demonstration of our shared values and putting them into action as well as the traditional positioning opportunities (club shirts, advertising hoardings etc). We have endless positive stories coming form the club, from the recently formed girls team league successes, to the RBL community bringing local servicemen together for the benefit of mental health, to the simple things of a less able player finding a place where they are accepted as part of the team. If they can support us we can, in return, make them part of the success and demonstrate where their support can make a difference. Just 1 or 2 generous sponsors can make all these good things continue to happen. In return our sponsors can use our positive stories that the have helped create and help them generate their own web traffic and get those higher Google scores.

We have to understand who the target is for new members - for younger players its probably not them directly, its their parents and for media savvy teenagers its probably a different message and a different platform and for older and more mature club members its different messages again, so it starts to become increasingly complex.

We have near zero budget for marketing, no creative agency support, no paid ads and there isn't really a big expo for perspective sponsors and members to go to. So this is grass roots marketing. Luckily we now have social media, gone are the days of the written note in the newsagent window. We have our core message of community and inclusivity, we aim to get the message of anyone becoming part of the commnunity in everything we do

Without over generalising, the parents and the older players are on facebook, younger players are on Insta. Twitter is probably too fast for us and we have shied away from some platforms as some have raised safeguarding concerns, which of course are paramount in a club like ours. We have limited time and resource, so any efficiencies we can make are also good. Facebook reels can also be Insta reels and we can link the two. We have realised not many clubs are on LinkedIn and we are tentatively exploring this for sponsors and identifying those with the shared values.

So to the messages, and here we have again a free resource, our members of all ages help with the research, why did they join, why did they stay did anything make them hesitant Rugby clubs can be scary with 2m tall 120kg players wandering around, at least until you know they are softest bunch of people you will ever meet!

The Rugby Football Union also helps, the values of rugby are affectionately know as TREDS Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment, Discipline, Sportsmanship. These are good values to put into the messages around the kids game, they may resonate with parents more than the kids, but they act as a plus in all we do. For the girls, it can be that girl power message, but overcoming the mindset of it not being feminine or its going to hurt. The camaraderie and the sense of belonging, helping promote a level of confidence that is enhanced by improved fitness. We also have the older boys teams, they are young men and 2 things come out strongly, again the sense of belonging and also a willingness to compete and prove yourself. With the older teams and the adult non-contact rugby, the team and club are still strong and we ensure we keep that message. Fitness at your pace is also a strong message that starts to come out, whether it's maintaining it or gaining it, its something we can offer. The social activities message is still strong. but we may put a little less emphasis on this than in recent years.

We have been building our socials but growth is only organic (boosting costs money), we routinely ask existing members and community partners to like and share. Our reach is steadily growing. We keep an eye on what works and what doesn't work and keep a balance of "sales" pitches of come and join and positive news stories that enhance the underlying messages, like the 7 girls who went from never playing rugby to county standard in 12 months. Our impressions and reach are growing rapidly with over 100k impressions with a 30k reach in a 28 day period and this has increased by over 100% from the same time last year. It's having an effect with several new players scheduled for the boys teams training, 60+ girls players (25% increase) coming to train already and new senior players coming to join in off season fitness sessions.

OK, so its not world beating, but done on zero budget, by a small group of part time volunteers. By applying basic principles and following a proper plan through, most importantly coming to the market with good segmenting, targeting and messages, we can demonstrate that you can still manage to achieve.

If you would like to get involved with grass roots community sports as a participant or even as a sponsor, please get in touch. [email protected]