by Kristin Swartzlander | May 6, 2016 | Media and Public Relations, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Social Media, Racing Sponsorship
If you’re building a racing business – a team, a track, an event or even a store – you know that you need customers. Customers come in different forms – fans, purchasers, media members, marketing partners or sponsors – and you need to get in front of them to be successful, whether you’re selling a piece of merchandise, a ticket or a story. While making a connection in person is always best, there are only so many opportunities to do so. And that’s why I think social media is the most powerful tool in any businesses’ arsenal today – we can be reaching new fans and building our audience 24 hours a day, seven days a week, no matter where you are. So, if you’re taking building your racing career seriously, and you’re approaching it as a business, you need to be looking to social media to build your audience. Agreed? Agreed. Now that we’re – ahem – agreed, let’s talk about where to find your audience. In the same way that you’re won’t be successful selling life insurance to a kid in the candy aisle, you don’t want to be hammering tweens on Snapchat with, well, life insurance pitches. (No insult meant to the insurance industry – I happily have plenty of it. But, as my friends and family will quickly remind me, I am no longer a tween.) There are a few ways to approach finding the right platforms to build your audience. These two questions should determine how you read the rest of this post: Are you going full-bore in the direction of your dreams and willing to dive into...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Apr 21, 2016 | Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses
There’s always that one guy in the bar. The one who’s wearing too much cologne, too much hair gel, pants that are way too tight and a look in his eyes that’s way too lecherous. The one who is – shudder – trying too hard. We all fear being seen as that person, right? Especially when it comes to racing. Racing, to many of us, is a bubble, where everyone watches what everyone else is doing, saying, wearing and tweeting. And, instead of feeling safe in our little bubble, we live in constant fear of looking like we’re trying too hard. Because even though we have an amazing racing family, we still compete with each other on at least one level, week-in and week-out. We want to look good, but not like we put any thought into what we’re wearing or how our hair looks. We want the car to be fast, but not like we bought our speed. We want to share on social media, but not so much or so often that it looks like we care what others think. We want to have a really nice hauler, but not like we have so much money that we don’t need sponsors. (Don’t even get me started on this.) Basically, we want it to appear like we woke up like this. We didn’t have to try. Success, and a cleverly-crafted Instagram bio, is our natural state. When did trying become a swear word? The same culture that wears YOLO shirts is also shaming us into caring immensely about what others think. But not looking like it. ‘You only live once.’...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Apr 7, 2016 | Media and Public Relations, Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Social Media, Racing Sponsorship
Whether you’re a track promoter or a team owner, things are about to get real. Real busy, that is. With the racing season upon us, nights in the garage / at the track are going to get longer and the time you can devote to ‘extras’ – what marketing is, like it or not, to many of us – becomes shorter and shorter. It’s really easy, and common, to hit July or August before you order your apparel, get around to inviting sponsors (or potential marketing partners) to the track, or realize you missed a holiday promotion you wanted to run. It happens to all of us (or maybe just me). So, I put together a list of ten things that you can handle, or schedule, now, while you still have at least a little bit of breathing room, so that your season runs smoothly and you reach your goals for the season without overloading the last few race weekends of the year with everything you forgot about earlier. Social media channels – If you don’t have them setup already, please do it now. (And, if that’s the case, just pick one and do that well to start with. Then branch out as you get your social-media-sea-legs.) If you’ve been quiet all winter, it’s time to stretch those thumbs and start putting information out about your first event, any partner news you have and your 2016 car or apparel designs, for example. If you’ve been active this whole time, bravo! You’re in the minority, but you’re surely a #DirtyMouther indeed! (P.S. Need guidance for your social channels? Check out the Social Media...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Mar 18, 2016 | Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Sponsorship
Pitching. It’s an arduous and repetitive process, whether you’re throwing fastballs, trying to communicate the value of an offering to a potential partner, conveying a story to the media or the like. I see a lot of these pitches, whether I’m reviewing them for clients or sending them out myself on behalf of our race team, one of our events or a client. But I’m always intrigued when a pitch finds it’s way into MY inbox. So, not exactly for fun but for learning experience, I thought we could review two pitches I got recently and tell you why I didn’t take the person up on their, ahem, ‘offer’. I’ve blacked out any details that might incriminate or identify the guilty. Unsuccessful Pitch #1: Yep, that’s it. You can probably spot the some of the problems with this pitch straight off the bat, but let me list them out for you: Used a contact form when my email is all over this website. This makes it difficult for a person to just hit reply – they have to copy and paste your email into their email service provider just to reply to your pitch. No. Didn’t use my name, even though it is also all over the website. Didn’t sign their name. Just a courtesy. Didn’t give me any information about his team and why I would be interested in sponsoring it. Didn’t provide any information about what kind of value I would receive in the relationship. Basically, this pitch said, “Hey person, I want to talk to you about giving me money. And I’m putting the burden of finding out why on you. Copy...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Mar 10, 2016 | Media and Public Relations, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Social Media
Have you ever heard the old adage: “if you try to appeal to everyone, you’ll appeal to no one?” I believe it’s true. I mean, some guys like big boobs. And they tell me some guys like small boobs. But news flash: no one can have both. Well, not a matching pair anyway. And I bet some people are into that, too. Mind blown. That’s why having boobs that everyone likes is literally impossible. (This analogy works on paper so just follow me here, people.) But the biggest problem with ‘trying to please everyone’ isn’t just that it’s impossible. The real issue is the trying part. Every girl knows that you can’t successfully grow real, perfect boobs by ‘trying’. You’ve just got to embrace what you were given. Or, get the fake ones that you think are the greatest – that’s fine, too. Whatever you do, own it. Sure, being real means that some people won’t like it. But the people who do like it – well, they’ll do you one better. They’ll love it. And that’s why turning some people off is a good thing – a really good thing. Every time I attend a big race, one where the crowd is really electric like at the Dirt Classic, I am completely delighted when someone starts booing a car. Booing? YES! You hate that car? They must have really done something to earn your obnoxious boos. And doing something, anything interesting enough to earn some vocal hate, will also earn you some love from another fan. For the exact same reasons. But doing nothing – walking the middle ground – so...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Feb 25, 2016 | Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses
If you’ve been around these parts long – that sounded very Southern…I feel like there needs to be a ‘y’all’ inserted here – you know that I believe pretty heavily in thinking not just outside of the box, but outside of our industry for ideas on how to survive and thrive. That’s how the best do it. After all, we’re not competing against other race tracks for fans. We’re competing against every other activity they’re choosing to do or not do. So I was really happy to get to listen to Speed Sport’s own Ralph Sheheen last week at RPM Daytona talking about exactly that. Specifically, he highlighted his experience with and observations of the AMA Supercross events. Here are a few things that I took away from his talk that I think you’ll benefit from, whether it’s as an event promoter, racer or marketing partner: The emphasis at Supercross Live is, first and foremost, on families. It’s family-friendly, from the advertising to the event experience. If you have, or are observing, an aging fan base, you can presume that they are lifelong fans. This sport isn’t built for an aging demographic, so you can guarantee they didn’t just walk in for the first time last race. If you want to create lifelong fans today, you have to get them in young. Appealing to young fans and parents, who are constantly looking for outlets to entertain their children in a safe, fun, cost-effective activity, you need to be family-friendly from the outset. They only have two racing classes. [Oh. My. Word. Did y’all just die?! Stay with me here.] This is a...
Connect!