by Kristin Swartzlander | Apr 30, 2015 | Media and Public Relations, Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Social Media, Racing Sponsorship
When you’re trying to do something great, whether that’s run a race team or build a business, you have to commit. That’s not news. Most of us in racing know all about commitment. You can’t just build a team or buy a race track and try it for a few weeks. You have to commit, up front, with time, sweat and money. We don’t have a problem with commitment when it comes to the racing part of the business. One of the biggest mistakes I see in racing, though, is a lack of commitment to marketing. To building an audience. We build racing properties then try our hands at a few press releases, tweets, advertisements or another method for getting the word out. We stick with it for a few weeks, maybe a few months, and when the opportunities don’t come knocking, we quit. It happens all the time. Racing is a demanding sport, no matter what side of it you’re on. It’s easy to imagine that you’re wasting time building that audience, and decide to put that time and effort into the actual racing. But if I gave up after a year of blogging, I would have missed some big opportunities. Huge ones. Some of which you know about, like the Dirt Classic, and some of which you don’t. At least not yet. And most, if not all, of them came from my writing. But do you know how long I wrote to no audience before that happened? A really, really long time. For over a year, I spent hours – sometimes over multiple days – crafting a blog post to...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Apr 16, 2015 | Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Thoughts and Rants
Me? I have never been more excited about the future of racing. And a lot of that has to do with people like you, who are working to improve the sport we love. But in many areas, the sport is suffering. Car counts are down. The purses are the lowest in the country. And ticket prices keep going up. And how many discussions have you overheard, or been a part of, in which someone suggests changes to the actual racing program in order to fix the problem? The stands would be more full each week if we: Add another division. Get rid of heat races. Change the number of laps. Do qualifying instead of pill draws. Make the racing more exciting in fill-in-the-blank way. People today – (P.S. I love that phrase. What else could we be? Time travel!) – want shiny and new. They can’t pay attention as long as they used to. We have to give them a reason to put their phones down. Etcetera. That’s the consensus, if you ask many. But here’s my opinion: the racing itself does not need to be fixed. It’s the marketing that hasn’t evolved as fast as the fans have. Every day, I talk to people who are involved in racing. Whether they are a group of fans at a mall show or clients on our regular conference calls, I’m exposed to a wide variety of people in racing. People are no less passionate about racing today than they were back in the good ol’ days of big purses and packed stands. There are just less of us than before....
by Kristin Swartzlander | Apr 10, 2015 | Mindset, Thoughts and Rants
In the past few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about hitting the ground running and practical ways to get ahead of your off-the-track work before the season heats up. For many of you, the season has already started. For some, it’s still weeks away. Either way, there’s not much time left to prepare. Now, it’s time to produce. This is what we live for. It’s what gets us through the winter and keeps us working towards our goals. It’s racing season. And in all of the excitement and anticipation, one of the things we often forget is the challenges that we’ll face. On and off the track. Racers will bust shocks on a rough cushion. The concession stand freezer will break and the beer will get warm. The trackside truck will get a flat tire on the way. The server will go down just as your pay per view goes live. It’s inevitable. And it’s not easy – the days when everything goes wrong. All the work you’ve done seems wasted. And there’s nothing you can do about it now. As scary as it seems, the work is all we can control. The results will reflect our hard work and preparedness some days, and they won’t on others. The others, though, are where character is built. Those days are part of our story, too. Sometimes a big part of our story. And that matters. So show up. Do your best, and let go of the rest. Smile through it, if you can. You might just make some new fans and friends. You never know when someone else is letting...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Apr 3, 2015 | Mindset
Last week, I wrote about the importance of hitting the ground running at the beginning of the season. “Starting off the season with a bang (or a full set of grandstands) comes down to two basic principles: build on what you know works and out-prepare your competition.” – Read the entire article here. I was really happy to get a few emails asking for advice on how, exactly, to take your seasonal preparation to the next level beyond just having your car or track ready for opening night. Here are five quick ways you can get ahead before the season even starts: Public relations. At this time of the year, there isn’t much racing going on. That means that reporters are looking for newsworthy stories. If you have one, now’s the time to put it out there because you’ll get a lot more traction before the racing action heats up. Public relations. While we’re on the topic of media, you can also do a little bit of work now to get yourself ready for press release time. Isn’t one of the best parts of getting to victory lane the post-win press release? No? Okay, that’s just me. On the nights you win, you have extra responsibilities, not more time on your hands. Now’s the time to put together your press release template, including the text you’ll use to highlight your marketing partners. It’ll take work off your plate later and ensure that you don’t forget anyone in the bustle of a win. Sponsorship. Everyone is thrilled at the beginning of the season, including sponsors. In fact, you may have just...
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 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...
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