Earlier this year my 5-year-old son expressed an interest in martial arts. Like any parent, my first stop was Google, which as you can imagine, gave me a long list of options and a chance to review youth sports marketing strategies.
Some websites were excellent, some needed work. Some made me hunt for the information I needed. Others had lead forms front and center.
One school in particular looked very impressive. Their site was polished and professional. But I couldn’t view schedules or pricing without filling out a form.
Now, at YMS we are certainly not against using forms to help organize and track new customers, but I grudged the gatekeeping of simple information just to grow their database.
And then came the funnel: a series of texts and emails. For $20 my child could do one intro class and one group class. I got templated messages about the benefits of martial arts. Everything was automated, and polished, it looked good but feld cold.
It was all excellent, by the book marketing, but what works in selling shoes or online courses, doesn’t always work for busy parents looking to give their children the opportunity to learn new skills and experience new environments. I got the feeling that my son would just be another number at that particular school.
The Personal Touch
In the end, I actually chose the school with the oldest website and least sophisticated funnel. Why? Well, they did have a form and once completed the owner personally emailed me with all the information up front and offered two free 1-on-1 sessions.
After that I could pay monthly. Yes monthly. When I finally got the information from the other school, I found it that I needed to pay for the year. Up front. I guess it’s a way of separating the serious from the unserious but at 5.5 years of age, I wasn’t ready to commit every Saturday morning, a chunk of change and worst of all, the lost opportunity for my son to try other things, on the back of two trial lessons.
And that’s another marketing element that you might learn in a book. Get them in, hit them when the enthusiasm is highest. The youth sports equivalent of letting you take a test drive in a car you can’t afford. Sure my kid might enjoy it to begin with but five weeks down the line, things might be different.
The program we picked is wonderful, it’s a small school so quality control is great and the communication is superb.
I don’t know for sure if the school has aspirations to be the biggest show in town. The owners, I get the sense, are in it for the love of the game, but everyone has bills to pay. I gave them a chance but not every parent would. There are countless great soccer clubs out there in the same boat. All they need is a website with a bit of love and care.
Best of Both Worlds
Around the same time, my daughter wanted to try gymnastics. It was a franchise style operation so I figured their marketing would be quite slick. It was, but it mixed the best of both of the martial arts examples.
The website made it super easy: I could register online for a free trial class in a couple of clicks. But I could also see the schedule and the pricing. No gatekeeping, no hidden costs. and I could pay monthly because, well, she’s 3. Believe it or night, gymnastics schools also want you to commit your kids life away at 3-years old too.
After I signed up, I got a follow-up text from the coach. It was probably automated, but it felt personal enough. When we turned up for the free session, the transition into the full program was seamless.
They had found the balance.
A professional website that worked. A simple, human touch in the follow-up. A smooth pathway from interest to enrollment.
The Lesson for Youth Soccer Clubs
There are a number of potential takeaways here and we’ll cover some in the future. For now, I would say the key is to find the balance in your marketing. I know in my case I was happy with what I chose, but I’m sure the slick marketing ninjas are getting their fair share of customers through the door too. But they lost me because I got the feeling they were hiding things.
Families don’t want barriers, and they don’t want cold automation either. They want:
- Clarity: pricing, schedules, registration up front. This might not be possible for all Premier teams for example but it certainly should be for U8 skills clinic.
- Warmth: a human voice, not just a funnel. It’s nice to show up and know who you will be handing your child off to.
The martial arts school over-automated. The “bad website” school had heart but will lose customers because their blog hasn’t been updated since 2018. The gymnastics program struck the balance.
That’s the sweet spot youth soccer clubs need to aim for and that’s what makes youth sports different.