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Dropping knowledge left and right. But mostly left.
The Guy Who Washes His Car Goes the Fastest
Does washing your car make you go faster? Not on the street, it doesn’t. But, having been around the back gate of racing for as long as I have, I do believe it makes you go faster on the track on an average night.
It’s not that it makes you more appealing to fans and, thus, leads to sponsorship support for better equipment. Although there’s truth to that argument. It’s not that you have better aerodynamics. At least not in dirt track racing. It’s not just that you end up looking at every inch of your car and likely notice good and bad things sooner. Although that’s true, too. And it’s not that other cars are distracted by the glittering sheen of your body panels (SQUIRREL!).
Look how helpful I am at the car wash. Wait, is that a SQUIRREL?!
It’s the mindset that makes all the difference.
Washing your car is a seemingly unnecessary task that takes time. It takes energy and effort. It takes at least $10 at the Buffalo Express Lube in Sarver. And it requires these things of you before you do anything else you need to do.
But the type of people who wash their race car before they do anything else are the people who understand what it takes to win.
It takes more than building a car. It takes more than showing up on a Saturday night.
It takes more than the minimum.
Whether you’re a driver, a track promoter or a business operator, there are tasks that are the equivalent of washing your race car. I would argue that marketing is the car wash of all three of these categories.
It’s not enough to do your track prep and place your concession stand order. It’s not enough to open your doors and stock your shelves. It’s not enough to put your logo on a race car.
If you want to be successful, you can’t just do what needs to be done to operate. You have to spend time a portion of your time marketing yourself, too.
You have to wash your race car.
xo.
Kristin
Is ‘Live’ Technology Hurting or Helping Racing?
Over the past few years, I’ve worked with a number of race tracks across the country. One of the subjects that comes up over and over again is live updating.
I’ve had countless conversations with members of the industry who emphatically believe that live results published on social media are hurting our sport. With apps like Meerkat and Periscope, fans can now stream live video (for free!) right from the track or pits.
You might not be surprised by this, but I disagree with the argument that live updating stops fans from buying tickets. Fans come to the race track for the experience, not just for the results. Mistake that, and you’re missing out.
It’s my opinion that live results are meant for fans who can’t make it to the track that night, whether they’re in a wedding or another state. They’re not for fans who just choose to stay home that night because they can find out who won on Twitter.
In fact if results, or even a little bit of video, are satisfying enough to stop someone who would normally buy a ticket from walking through the gates, I think that says something worth thinking about. Either that person isn’t a serious race fan, or they don’t find the experience worth paying for.
If the first, are they really someone you want to cater to? Are they adding to the atmosphere at your track? If the second, maybe the product isn’t enticing enough to bring that fan there in person. Is the entertainment experience at the level it needs to be at? It’s a question we all need to ask ourselves if we want to keep the sport in good health.
Personally, I feel that live updating, whether that’s text, photo or video, does two positive things for the sport: it satisfies the curiosity of those who can’t attend that race, and gives current non-customers a taste of what they could see if they came to the track in the future.
How many people joke about racing as a bunch of guys turning left? Simplistic, yes. But can you imagine if you tried to describe the game of football to a non-football fan? Do you think they would ever buy a ticket to an NFL game based on an oral account of first downs and touchdowns? Absolutely not. Most football fans are made, and kept, by what they see on television and social media. Not by the live in-stadium experience.
How many people do you think we could bring into the sport if they could see the excitement of racing at their fingertips, in the same way as other sports? More than without it, I can almost guarantee that.
So, you’re convinced. But should you be the source? It takes time and effort, but if you can do it then I recommend yes. If your fans are already watching Twitter – even from in your track’s stands or pits, we all do it! – they can either get live updates from you or from someone else. If they’re using someone else as their source of information, you’re losing out on the opportunity to engage your customers.
Personally, I think you should take every opportunity you have to build relationships with fans that seek it out. Because that’s what this sport is made of: relationships.
xo.
Kristin
1,000 Raving Fans
There’s a concept in business that assumes that you can make an arguably good living if you have 1,000 true fans. They buy from you.
But most of all, they buy into you. No matter what.
- True fans don’t just show up in good weather. They walk to the gate and buy their tickets when everyone else is sitting in the parking lot in the rain, at best.
- Regular fans will buy a t-shirt. True fans buy every design you issue, even when all you have left is a size too big.
- Regular fans want their logo on your car or billboard when you’re winning and times are good. True fans continue to petition for your sponsorship program even when there are layoffs and budget cuts.
I saw a tweet the other day that reminded me of this concept. It’s from an Eldora Speedway fan – a raving one, it seems:
That’s one of many tweets that goes out every weekend from race tracks across the country. At least, the ones that are willing to acknowledge their raving fans, like Eldora did here by retweeting it.
There are two key factors that I believe go into creating true fans, and encouraging regular fans to become true, raving fans.
You need a product worth raving about, and the means with which fans can rave about it.
I don’t know that 1,000 true fans is an accurate number in racing. For some race tracks, averaging 1,000 fans at every event would mean success. For others, that would be a failure.
But it doesn’t really matter what that number means to you. The most important thing is to understand the concept.
It’s not enough to put out a good product. You have to be willing to nurture your true fans. You have to give them a way to connect with you, and other fans.
There are many ways to do that, but I recommend social media for obvious reasons. Because with social media, not only can they connect directly with you, but they can share the love with other fans.
And when those true fans share the love, they create more fans.
How do you develop true fans? How do you encourage regular fans to become raving ones?
Xo.
Kristin
How to Boost Audience Engagement Both Online and at the Track
Last week, I wrote about why engagement matters more than ever in racing. Engagement at the race track and engagement in your online community.
The more engaged your audience is, the more consistently committed they are to you and your brand.
If you read last week’s post, you know why engagement matters, I want to talk about how to boost your online engagement, whether you run a race team, series, track or brand.
When you think about engagement, I want you to think about specific actions. Reading a piece of content, whether that’s on your Facebook account, Twitter feed or your scoreboard, is not engagement. That’s consumption.
Engagement, by quantifiable standards, means taking action. Let’s talk about two of the most popular platforms: Facebook and Twitter.
On Facebook, engagement means a:
• Like,
• Share,
• Comment, or
• Click on a link.
On Twitter, engagement means a:
• Retweet,
• Favorite,
• Reply,
• Click on a link.
You can imagine what engagement looks like on the rest of the interwebs – for example, on Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and your email newsletter.
What you probably already know is that Facebook treats engagement differently. Your content is ‘edge-ranked’ by Facebook’s algorithm based on a number of factors that influence who sees your content and how often. Engagement is a major factor in that equation.
And while the other networks – including race tracks – don’t use engagement to determine your level of exposure to your fans, it’s just as important.
The more action fans take with your content – whether that’s what you do at the track or online – the more trust they feel with you. The more trust they feel, the more invested they are in your relationship.
And relationships mean everything to customers.
That’s why you have to get your fans to take action.
In order to boost engagement and get people to take action, you have to tell them to. In fact, that’s my number one tip for boosting engagement: give them a simple call to action. Tell them what you want them to do – click, like, share, join – even if it’s subtle.
If you don’t tell your audience what to do, they’ll do nothing.
Real life example: do you hear a lot more applause and cheers in the stands when the announcer asks the crowd to root on their favorite driver? Of course. Because they’ve been directed. Engagement rises when you make the ask.
Another way to boost engagement is to respect their time. Users move fast, and that means you have to make it easy for them to take the action. Asking a question? Think, before you post, what the potential answers might be. Instead of asking for a story, ask questions that require a sentence or less. Even just a word or a number. You’ll get a much higher engagement rate.
On that note, users find content that’s easy to consume most action-worthy. Optimize your content to be user-friendly and actionable. What qualifies? I recommend content with text that’s short and well-formatted – use punctuation and spacing to your advantage – and an image that’s both beautiful and simple. Make sure your links have descriptive headlines and also have nice images – did you know you could change these manually?
Finally, consider advertising. On every channel, not just Facebook, you’ll see a huge spike in reach and engagement by using ads effectively. What’s even better? With the current targeting capabilities on social media platforms, you’ll be prompting engagement from the fans that matter most to your business.
That should give you four factors to consider when creating massively engaging content, whether you’re at the track or supporting your business online.
Best of luck.
Xo.
Kristin
Why Engagement Matters More Than Ever in Racing
Over the next two weeks, I want to explore a topic that’s always hot when it comes to marketing and almost never talked about when it comes to racing: engagement.
First, let’s talk about how to define engagement and why you should care. Generally, engagement is: emotional involvement or commitment.
In our social media and online marketing, engagement means likes, comments, shares, and other actions like subscribes, purchases and referrals.
At the race track, engagement is generally less quantifiable. It starts when a fan or driver enters the speedway and, for example, gets built by:
- Forming relationships with other fans, drivers and track staff,
- Cheering for their favorite driver,
- Attending an autograph session,
- Bringing a friend or family member,
- Buying apparel and souvenirs, and
- Sharing their experience on social media, bringing the concept full circle.
As you might notice above, social media engagement feeds the at-the-track actions and at-the-track engagement can feed social media.
If that doesn’t give you enough of a reason to care about engagement, here’s the what it boils down to:
The more engaged your audience is, the more consistently committed they are to you and your brand.
So, what does that mean to you?
For drivers, engaged fans might mean more apparel sales, more cheers from the grandstands, more fan votes in contests, more sponsorship opportunities and better performance for your current marketing partners.
For tracks, engaged fans might mean more consistent, higher attendance numbers, more apparel and souvenir sales, more sales of signature concession items, a higher propensity to share their experience at the track, more sponsorship opportunities and better performance for your current marketing partners.
If you’re concerned that the sport is suffering because we’re competing with so many other forms of entertainment for fans’ dollars, you should consider the concept of engagement as your beacon of light.
Because if they love your brand, they’ll engage with everything that it’s aligned with.
If it aligns with you, an engaged fan will commit to you over and over again with their time, energy and money. On any given day, an engaged fan will choose your apparel over an MMA t-shirt, a trip to your race track over a night at the movies and an investment of marketing dollars if the fit is right.
(Side note: that’s also why consistent branding is so important. If it doesn’t feel like you or your brand, fans won’t engage).
So how do you build and boost engagement in your audience (which also, by the way, usually leads to growing it)?
I’ve got a detailed post coming your way next week that gives you plenty of ideas and concepts to put into action. Want a head start? Boosting engagement starts with knowing who your customer is and what they want. Take some time to create a customer profile that you can work from in the future.
Questions? As always, ask away.
xo.
Kristin
When It Comes to Sponsorship Marketing: Show, Don’t Tell
Ever heard the phrase, ‘ideas are worthless without execution’?
With the hands-on nature of racing, at the track and in the garage it’s very clear that an idea isn’t worth anything if we don’t do something with it.
When it comes to sponsorship marketing, though, we often forget that ideas aren’t enough.
We think that we can just pitch a bunch of ideas to a sponsor and we’ll execute whichever campaign they pick. Or, worse yet, we don’t give them any ideas and want them to ‘just tell us what you’re looking for and we’ll do that.’
There is a level of trust that has to be built with marketing partners, whether they’re new and you’re pitching them on an initial partnership or existing sponsors.
The problem for sponsorship sellers is: anyone can come up with ideas. Even great ones.
The problem for potential sponsors? Not everyone can, or will, execute them.
But that’s not a problem for those of us who show up. For those who can and will execute.
So how do you differentiate between your property – team, track, business – and the other idea-makers?
You show, not just tell.
How, you ask? Start by pitching ideas that are within, or only slightly above, your current marketing level. And then show them what you’ve already done and have in place that proves you’re up to the task.
For example, my husband, Carl Bowser, was recently featured in a television commercial for his marketing partner, Turner’s Premium Iced Tea. This was his first television commercial. So why did they trust that the idea would work in real life?
I’d venture to guess that there are a few reasons. Although it was his first shoot, it wasn’t mine. They knew that I was familiar with the process and we’d come to the table with a certain level of knowledge and experience. They’ve also seen him speak before. They have a level of comfort with his professionalism. And they know we’re familiar with how to film on-the-track action and could help the videographer if necessary.
The commercial was a level beyond what we had ever done with Carl’s program. But it wasn’t that big of a leap based on our relationship and what we’ve executed in the past.
If you wanted to offer a signature sandwich at your racetrack, you wouldn’t just have the announcer mention the idea and hope a fan ordered it. You’d have to put it on the menu, and buy all of the ingredients. You might even go a step further and create a beautiful photo of it, offer samples, and have one under glass to show your fans.
The more work you do up front to show fans that the sandwich exists and is delicious, the more likely you are to sell it.
The same goes with marketing.
When you’re working with marketing partners, you have to build a level of trust both with you and with your work. And that happens by showing them what you can do, instead of making them trust that you’ll actually be able to pull that idea off and do it well.
When you’re competing for advertising dollars, you can’t afford to make them imagine.
You have to show them.
Xo.
Kristin
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