by Kristin Swartzlander | Jun 3, 2016 | Media and Public Relations, Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Sponsorship
You can have one night stands, or you can have relationships. You likely can’t have both. At least not for long – just look at celebrities, politicians and athletes paying the big bucks in alimony and child support for trying to make that third setup work. In racing, and probably in life, ‘one night stands’ might produce wins. But they might cost you more in the long-term: On the track, if you can only control your win-producing -peed every once in a while, you’re likely crashing more than you’re winning. And that’s more expensive than just getting consistently faster until you’re a dominant car each and every race. If you got the lead by taking out a competitor, you earned a short term win and, likely, an instant deduction to your fan base. The same goes for the off the track end of your racing business. You might be easily able to charm the proverbial pants off of a potential sponsor. But if you’re not setup to actually deliver and activate long-term, that relationship won’t last. And, just like on the track, you might not just lose one fan. That marketing partner that you left out in the cold is likely to tell his business buddies, or the whole world (hello, internet!) about exactly how you do business. Deep, long-term relationships based with marketing partners on mutual respect, however, do exactly the opposite: they grow over time, and sometimes even multiple with referrals to more potential marketing partners and other valuable opportunities. I get asked a lot of questions about sponsorship-seeking tactics: What is the title of the person making sponsorship decisions? How do I...
by Kristin Swartzlander | May 20, 2016 | Media and Public Relations, Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Social Media, Racing Sponsorship, Thoughts and Rants
In my line of work, I get to see a lot of marketing. From flyers on windshields to social media updates – yep, that’s marketing even if you’re only selling your own image – we come across thousands of marketing messages each and every day. And we all know that there are people or companies who get it right, and people who’s marketing falls flat. It’s not wrong. It’s just there. And we aren’t buying what there is(n’t) selling. Good marketing determines quite a bit of success in racing. They might post gate times and ticket prices, or results on race night, just like everyone else. And, even though you might not be sure why, something is missing. It’s the story. We racing people are practical. We talk prices. We talk times. We talk weights and pressures and RPMs. And sometimes we forget that we do it all for a reason that has nothing to do with making a shiny thing go faster. We are too close to the details to see the bigger picture. And that bigger picture is how we market ourselves, as drivers, and teams, and tracks, and event promoters. Yes, it’s important to know how to tweet, and to actually do that. But to think you’re going to build a fan base just by putting up results, gate times and ticket prices is a big mistake. And it’s where I see many racing businesses – frankly, businesses in many markets – fall flat. Want to nurture a new fan relationship? Want to create a new customer? Tell me why you race. Tell me what you love about the...
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 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 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 | Jan 28, 2016 | Media and Public Relations
Recently, one of our DirtyMouth Sponsorship Success Community members, late model racer Darin Henderson, posted about one of his marketing wins: a feature on the late-model-focused publication DirtOnDirt.com. In his post, Darin recognized the value of the media attention he received in continuing to grow his audience and build his fan-base and provide added value to current marketing partners and potentially attract new sponsors. There is immense power in being featured in the media, both for your team or track and for your marketing partners, and I was really excited that Darin realized this. With my background doing public relations , I often forget that not everyone sees how valuable media coverage is, and how straightforward it is to get some when you have a compelling story and you work professionally with the media. Media coverage can: Expose you to new potential fans Expose you to new potential marketing partners Provide value to current marketing partners (by giving them additional reach beyond your core fan base) Give you a platform to share parts of your story that you haven’t shared elsewhere Allow fans to connect with you on a different level, through your voice or image on podcasts and video Provide an additional point of reference for the know-like-trust factor, often boosting sales and levels of engagement Allow you to create new messaging about yourself, your products, your track or your event Set you apart from your competition (and, no, that’s not just the racer in the trailer next to you or the track down the road) Provide hard metrics and credibility for marketing partners and other, bigger, media outlets Do...
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