by Kristin Swartzlander | Mar 26, 2015 | Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses
Like everything else that runs seasonally, the racing season has a beginning, middle and end. When I was really young, it seemed like Western Pennsylvania weather dictated the beginning (rain), middle (yay!), and end (cold). But there’s another pattern we often followed – the opening winners, middle-of-the-season winners and the end-of-the-year winners. There are a number of things that happen over the course of a season. With each race, teams learn and get faster. Drivers get more in tune with their cars. The crew gels and the cars perform better. There are also the bad things that happen as the season winds on. Wrecks shake up a perfectly great car and an unproven backup is brought out. Teams run out of money and equipment to travel or even be competitive. Confidence bottoms out. While some teams are getting better, others are struggling. And a few teams are able to benefit from these scenarios. That’s why you’ll sometimes see less dominant teams get a win at the end of the season. Often, these wins are a combination of preparation and circumstances. But they’re still a little bit of luck. [Side note: Don’t get me wrong. These victories are not pure luck. It takes a lot of work to ensure you’ll be competitive at the end of the season. And you have to be competitive. It’s rare that every other team will get a flat tire and a back marker will grab the big check. ] Winning at the beginning of the year, though, can be difficult. You’re starting cold. But it sets the tone for the entire season. It tells...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Mar 19, 2015 | Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Social Media
When you tell your story effectively, you highlight what makes you unique. What makes you different from your competition. But because racing itself is unique to many people outside of our industry, we sometimes forget that the racing itself isn’t what makes us unique. It’s just part of our story. What makes you unique isn’t that: You drive a sprint car Your events run on Saturday nights Your track features five divisions Your track has high car counts These are details. They’re how you do what you do, not what makes you who you are. Right? One thing that I think we’ve forgotten is that people don’t just come to the tracks to see a cars turn circles. If that were the case, we’d be happy sitting in the stands watching self-driving cars. They buy tickets for the excitement. The drama. The stories. They buy tickets for the drivers. And the teams. And the family history. And because little Sarah likes watching the girl driver and little Johnny loves the car with the cow-print paint scheme. And your track is the only place cousin Billy can ear ‘Action Track’ Snacks. (Someone stop me now. I could do this all day.) If you’re a driver, you’re also probably finding out that companies don’t buy sponsorship just because you have a race car. Or even because you win races. They buy because you and your team align with their values. People buy because they’re invested in a story. In your story. If you want to know how to tell yours better yourself, check out a few of the most popular posts I’ve...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Mar 12, 2015 | Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses
Do you know where he (or she) is right now? Is he at work? Is she at spinning class? Is he in the garage? Is she poring over her son’s sponsorship materials while cooking dinner? It might seem silly to think about, but if you don’t know where you customer is – right now – how will you reach them? I had a great chat today with a seasoned member of the racing industry and he mentioned the importance of knowing, and utilizing, the basics of marketing. He’s completely right. All of the fantastic tools we have today – social media, mobile marketing, digital billboards, direct mail – are only that. Tools. They’ll only be effective if you have a blueprint to work off of. Sure, you may hit a few nails on the head, but you won’t build anything remarkable – or functional – by swinging a hammer in the dark. Last year at this time, I made a fantastic investment of time, money and effort into a marketing course that helped me to build my business and brand immensely. What surprised me most was that this very high-end course started with the most basic marketing principle: know thy customer. You’d think that someone with my experience and training in marketing, this would be an exercise I’d automatically skip over. But it was the most eye-opening practice I’d done to date. Because on most days, I could tell anyone that asked who my audience was. But once I sat down and gave a single audience member a name – along with details like age, occupation, hobby, hopes, fears...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Mar 5, 2015 | Mindset, Racing Social Media
One of the most frequent questions that I’ve gotten when talking to promoters about using social media is the fear that they’re opening themselves up to very public negative feedback. It might seem pessimistic to be so concerned with negative feedback, but I know from firsthand experience that criticism and complaints – from racers, fans, employees, etc. – make up the majority of the feedback that promoters get. Maybe this is your biggest concern. Or maybe you’re working with decision makers who have that concern. Either way, it’s a reasonable argument. So what do you say to someone that is afraid to use social for fear that all of the complaints they get in person will get blown up online? The reality is, if you start to build a community online you will encounter a few bad eggs. But not showing up for that reason is like not putting on a race because you’re afraid of wrecks. They’re going to happen. That it’s not always a bad thing, though. Here’s why: Instead of fighting the racing grapevine – the rumors that will get spread without you being able to right them – you’ll have the opportunity to dispel tension publicly and handle it professionally. You’ll also give supporters an opportunity to argue your case for you, so that you may not even have to get involved at all. Race fans are passionate – some critical, some extremely supportive. You’re giving them both the opportunity to give you feedback online. And that leads me to my last point. I got much more negative feedback as a promoter in person – mostly...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Feb 27, 2015 | Media and Public Relations, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Social Media
As many of you know, last year I had the opportunity to help produce the Dirt Classic Presented by Kasey Kahne with Jarrod Adams of Adams Investing and Alan Kreitzer of Lincoln Speedway. Together we created a solid foundation for the entire brand from scratch, crafting everything from logos and social media profiles to the race format and purse structure. Everything, and I do mean everything, was built into an overall promoting strategy designed to build awareness for the initial event and create a brand experience that customers (drivers + fans + marketing partners) would want to experience year after year. This year, the Dirt Classic will once again be an event produced by DirtyMouth. And as we work on the event, I’m thrilled to see how solidly we built this strategic foundation for ourselves. Because of that solid foundation, we’re able to innovate with tactics. Instead of rolling out a brand-new social media strategy, we’re able to tweak and innovate with individual tactics. Instead of a new advertising strategy, we can optimize to reduce costs and test new ads. Instead of a new race format, we’re able to modify the existing one to create better track conditions and more exciting racing. One of the fun new promotions we’ve introduced this year, for example, is the Fans’ Vote Race. The race will be a five-lap, $400-to-win dash for four cars as voted in by the fans on the DirtClassic.com website. Most importantly, though, it offers us a new tactic to promote the event through engagement with fans and drivers. It’s great for us – it doesn’t add a large percentage...
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