‘If we did some promotion I’m sure we’d get more interest in the minis’ section’
‘More people would turn up if we bothered to advertise our events’
‘How can we attract more players, especially at junior and colts level? We should send something to the schools!’

Why have marketing?
Rugby clubs like many other sports are competing against a wide range of alternative activities for people’s leisure time. The success of individual clubs increasingly now depends on the way they market themselves to the local community and beyond – in other words how they tell people (their potential customers and players) about the facilities, services and opportunities they have to offer.

What should our marketing plan/ strategy include?
The marketing plan for a club can cover a number of areas and it might be that any potential marketing should focus upon one or two key issues that the club wishes to develop. However, in general it can cover any areas that require improvement or development. It is important that the club considers what it’s overall aims and objectives are so that any marketing plan/strategy can be clearly structured and deliverable. Some of these objectives might include:

• Increase membership
• Develop junior players/participants
• Recruit more volunteers
• Increase the number of coaches/ officials
• Increase overall participation
• Increase community involvement
• Improve performance levels
• Attract external funding
• Raising funds
• Recruiting members
• Maintaining loyalty to the club
• Raising community profile
• Developing a junior section
• Encourage participation from disabled people.

Methods of Marketing
There are a wide variety of methods and techniques that can be used to market your club effectively. Some may not be applicable to all your clubs events, but the list below will give you a guide of some of the key communication methods;

• Leaflets, brochures
• Posters
• Local newspaper adverts
• Regular team/club magazine/ newsletter
• Editorial coverage in newspapers and magazines
• Sponsorship of events, e.g., school rugby tournaments
• Promotional/Open day at the club
• T-shirts advertising the club
• Notice boards at local schools, colleges and businesses
• Distributing leaflets to parents to promote the formation of a junior team/section
• Taster courses for people who are considering joining the club.

Who are your customers?
In line with marketing techniques it is vitally important to consider ‘who your customers are’ i.e. which particular groups or group of people are you trying to reach? It is important to remember that your target audience will change depending upon the objective you are aiming to achieve and you will need to consider them carefully in terms of which medium/technique you use.

Who is responsible?
Whilst all members of the club should be responsible for promoting and marketing the club in the right way, it is sensible to have an individual or a small team appointed as part of the committee (see 4.4 Committee Structures) in order to oversee all marketing aspects of the club.

More often than not these are known as Club Development Officer(s) and should take overall responsibility for implementing some kind of marketing plan/strategy for the club as a whole.

Useful tips for general publicity and promotion
In terms of producing marketing and promotional material it is important that your message in whatever form it takes achieves 4 key requirements;

• gains attention
• holds interest
• arouses desire
• elicits action.

Whether your promotional material is a leaflet, poster, booklet, website, banner etc. it is important to apply these elements in mind throughout its design and development.

It may also be appropriate for your club to use promotional activities but the extent to which you do so is likely to be dependent upon your size and resources. Promotional activities can range from small simple promotions such as, half price drinks at special events, to larger and more complex promotions such as lotteries, major competitions or hospitality events.

Promotional material and activities can sometimes be an expensive form of marketing. However there are a number of software publicity packages now available to enable people to generate their own artwork, etc.

However, for clubs with more limited funds a form of marketing/promotion which can be free is publicity through the media. Regular mentions via the media help to create and maintain an awareness of your club and give it credibility and status. This may well in turn help to attract sponsorship, which can be used to help finance further marketing initiatives.

The local press and media are normally very welcoming towards ideas for their articles and programmes. They need to fill their pages and programmes just as much as your club needs them for publicity. It is beneficial to build up a good relationship with people involved in your local media who will often then regularly come to you for interesting articles or information.

A successful marketing campaign/strategy will always require some sort of financial support and it is important that allowance for this is made within your budget. However, you need to be realistic as to the level of resource you can allocate to this and about the scale of promotion and publicity you can undertake. Despite this, limited resources can be used effectively if backed up with careful planning, targeting and delivery.