By Rob Cressy, Founder, Cress Media
One area in which the majority of sports bars fail on social media, ironically, is on the sports side of things. So many sports-themed locations fail at speak the sports fan language.
One would imagine, if you’re running a sports bar you’re a sports fan, right? It’s time for these places to talk like a fan.
Recently I had Andrew Jaffee, Founder of The Rail, on my Sports Marketing Huddle podcast to talk about how sports bars can better market themselves. Gone are the days of putting up a crap-ton of TVs, throwing on some sports, and calling it a day. There are too many consumer touch-points and opportunities to create positive brand interactions to get by with just the bare minimum pieces of flair.
Your guest’s expectations have been raised
You need to be able to speak their sports fan language if that’s how you want to market to them.
Let’s be clear about something. When I say speak the sports fan language, I don’t mean letting everyone on Facebook know what date and time the game is on and considering that “talking sports.”
I mean actually talking sports. Having a relevant conversation and talking about what’s going on — just like someone would do if they were at your establishment chopping it up with their friends.
The reason I started a company that helps brands engage sports fans is because no matter where you are from, I can talk about sports with you and your audience. You could be from California, New York, or the moon. It doesn’t matter; I got you.
To prove my point, here are a few pieces of sports content that someone from the moon could post.
Let the passion and sports knowledge you and your fans have shine. Post video highlights, ask questions, create memes, start a sports conversation. This can easily be done on both a local and national level.
Give sports fans a reason to engage you
Talking shop with fans and giving them content they enjoy is how you get sports fans to engage back with you. Interesting and relevant content is a million times better than the overly promotional dinner and beer specials that are rampant everywhere.
To take this a step further, I’ve never understood why sports bars don’t have the best social media marketing. Really, it blows my mind at the opportunity you guys are missing. You have a built in audience that loves sports. Why don’t you run the best sports blog your city has ever seen? Make it the go-to destination to talk sports.
You could do this on a blog from your website or use your social media channels. Once you got a base going, intelligently integrate your marketing message with that content and VOILA! You’ve just created a win-win situation for everyone and you are now a sports bar that actually knows how to talk about sports.
I can tell you this much. Your odds of getting my business significantly increase if you are able to constantly capture my attention. Sports content is the way to cut through that clutter and build that relationship.
Do you or the person who is handling your social media have the ability to create engaging sports content on both a local and national level? Content good enough to stand out next to the Deadspin, Barstool Sports, and BuzzFeed’s of the world? Content that’ll get your audience to take action while looking forward to hearing from you again? If not then we need to talk, as I’d love to be an asset to you. Shoot me an email to rob@cressmedia.com. For content creation tips that’ll help you deliver better results I recommend you check out my Guide For Being A Content Creator.
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