WrestlingGear.Com

Wrestling Coaches Marketing - On a Budget During this time of year, much of your budget is already spent on new wrestling gear and new wrestling shoes for your athletes. one thing you may not have thought too much about is how are you going to connect with your fan base and get them to come out to your matches? Well I am just going to summarize a few thoughts about how you can put together your marketing plan together on a slim budget.

For a more detailed explanation of these tools, I wrote more in depth blog postings earlier in the year. For the most part, most of these tools just take time and will not cost you anything. See if you can find a parent to volunteer to put some of these tools to work for you this year. It’s all about getting in touch with your wrestling fans and just as important staying in touch with your wrestling fans.

First Tool - Create a blog A blog like this one can be done for almost no money. We upgraded the features with this blog for a small fee, but you can start out at zero cost. Other blogging software to look at are wordpress and blogger.com. You can post a quick note or blog posting if you can post a message on a message board. And if you don’t know how to post a message on a message board, find someone that does. As you progress through the year try to learn a few tricks like how to post a link to another site, add a picture, create a photo album, etc. Try to add something new to the blog each week and by the end of the season you’ll have a nice way to stay in touch with your fans. Total cost - $0.

Second Tool - Del.icio.us Del.icio.us is a program that lets you share links with others. Wouldn’t it be cool to find websites or videos that you’d like your team to look at. Well you can simply book mark them to your del.icio.us account and make them available for others to look at. Be sure to bookmark WrestlingGear.Com and this blog. You can even set certain links to private so those you do not want to share with your team you can have at your fingertips. Jeff Pape’s and WrestlingGear.Com’s Del.icio.us Total cost - $0.

Third Tool - Twitter.Com This is sort of a micro blogging tool. You can only post a few characters about 140 to be exact. How you can use this is post a note on twitter about a blog update. Post a “tweet” about something new you found or what you are doing at that particular time. This way others can follow what you are doing through out the day. As well as you can use this as free tool to promote your blog and website and other things you are doing both onine and offline.  Jeff Pape’s and WrestlingGear.Com’s Twitter Page Total cost - $0

Fourth Tool - LinkedIn This is a business tool, but you can use it. Already there are several wrestling related groups you can join. There is a USAWrestling related group you can join to network with other wrestlers. What a great way to stay in touch with sponsors, meet new sponsors and stay in touch with alumni that have moved on to college and out in the real world. You can even create your own group that alumni can join to stay in touch with each other. Total cost - $0

Fifth Tool -Podcast/Youtube We have created our own youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/wrestlinggear where you can see shows about new products, a uniform buying show, and new technique clips added each week. This is a cool way to put online for free, a high light clip, a recruiting clip for your summer program, etc. Get kids excited about coming out for your team. Kids nowadays are online and they are watching videos online, why not let them watch a recent match or a highlight film on youtube. Total cost - $0

Sixth Tool - Email This one might cost you a little bit, but you can just start out publishing your own newsletter and mailing it through outlook. Then when you have a few hundred email address start looking at spending a few bucks on an email service. A few popular ones that I have seen include icontact and constantcontact. They have templates for you and do all the work of up dating the database for you. Your users can click on the bottom of their email and change their addresses, phone numbers, basically anything you keep track of. Total cost - $0 - maybe up to $500 if your list grows

Seventh Tool - RSS Feeds Make sure your blog is generating a RSS feed. This allows others to read your blog without having to come to read it everyday. Most email software has a RSS reader that comes with it for free. You can set up your RSS reader for the blogs you’d like to follow. Or how about to follow high school kids if you are a college coach. Or if you are a high school coach, you can let others know how to set up their own RSS feed to follow blogs you’d like them to read.

Another option is you can create a free Feed digest and add it to your website. We have a feed digest on our site at http://www.illinoiswrestling.com it pulls information from sites through out the country so our readers can quickly see what is going on in the wrestling world. Total Cost - $0 What are some other tools you are using to promote your team and to connect with your fans. Try and post an approximate budget too.