How Social Media Marketing is influencing the sports industry in India
There is a new wave of sports enthusiasm emerging in India. With the introduction of sports leagues like the Indian Premiere League, Indian Super League,Pro Kabaddi League,Indian Badminton League and in recent times the prestigious Under 17 Fifa World Cup being held in in our own back yard ,the future for sports in India looks bright.Due to this sudden surge in the popularity of these leagues and sporting events,Sports brands have realized that there is a huge market awaiting to be tapped in india not only for popular sports like cricket but also sports about which no one was talking about 4 years ago like Kabaddi,Football,Badminton,Hockey etc.
It used to be a challenge for a marketeer to reach a million people with the same interests ,but in today’s time a Mumbai Indians fan sitting in London can be influenced by the advertisements about their team being made in India. This has all been possible because of the popularity of Social Media marketing .Therefore in this post I will be highlighting how social media platforms like Facebook,Twitter,Instagram,Pinterest etc are influencing Sports brand and institutes in India.
1.Engagement on Media Platforms
A study conducted found that 83% of fans, while watching sports on TV , constantly access their social media and 63% access social media while watching a game,sitting at the stadium.This trend has been recognized by sports brands and have now started coming up with different strategies to engage their fans as well as promote themselves.This results in increase in traffic on the sports brands site as well as increase in the awareness about the sport in general.
For example: Pro kabaddi league team Puneri Paltan has almost a million followers .This gives the team a platform to interact with their fans,Sell merchandise,Create campaigns to engage furthermore with potential new fans thus increase their Market.
2.Blogs
Blogging has been be a great way in which clubs and teams can interact with their supporters on a personal level and reach out to more communities and sports enthusiasts .This can be done by allowing supporters and fans to write about their experiences. They can engage with bloggers, by sharing the latest happenings of the club, who can then get it out to their community of followers. This is strategy being used by ISL teams such as Bengaluru FC and Athletico de Kolkata ,to name a few,to garner more online coverage and promote their Sports team/Brand.
3. SEO for Sports Brands
SEO or “Search Engine Optimization” is the process of getting free ,organic,natural or editorial traffic onto a site from the search results on a search engine.To increase exposure and increase traffic on the website sports teams in india have started working on this,because this social media strategy is used to improve the rankings on the search engine results page. Teams succeeding in this make sure that their site link is easily accessible to the person actively searching for them and beat competition by being displayed higher on the google search page results.
4. Data Analysis
In today’s age of big data,marketeers and management are changing their approach when it comes to forming strategies.Social media platforms allow marketers to analyse the patterns which are trending thus making it easier for the Team to have a good idea of what their market segment consists of,their behavioral cycles and what strategies can be used to further engage and interact with them.
5. Content Driven Market
Photos,Videos,Posts,advertisements almost anything today can be shared through social media platform. Sports teams and brands have now realized the importance of good,easy to the eye,catchy content and how it has a huge influence on their market. People like to engage on social media by sharing content that can garner many “likes and shares”,therefore we see an increase in the quality and quantity of the content being shared by teams in order to increase engagement and increase their market share.
6. Increase in Revenue
All the above mentioned points lead to one conclusion which is “Increase in Revenue”. Since the sports team are increasing their popularity through engagement and increasing their market share , people are ready to book tickets to see their favorite team play,they buy merchandise to show support for their team,they take part in team events and share it through social media which all leads to an increase in sales therefore increasing their revenue.
In the end i would like to conclude this article by saying that their are more than 323 million people India using the internet and social media marketers in the sports industry should look at this as an opportunity.The future for digital marketing certainly looks attractive.
