by Kristin Swartzlander | May 22, 2015 | Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Sponsorship
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?...
by Kristin Swartzlander | May 14, 2015 | Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Sponsorship
For most of us in racing, time is a limited resource. We don’t lack ability, smarts or awareness. It’s time that stops us from doing anything more than getting our day-to-day tasks done. It’s time that stops us from being proactive about marketing, interacting on social media, and pitching new partnerships. That’s why much of what I write focuses on two things: doing things better and making them easier. (Here’s a popular post on making it easy for others to help you sell yourself and tell your story.) As a person who owns a home, runs a business and is elbows-deep in a race team, I make a lot of buying decisions. And I have a few criteria that I weigh when I decide where to buy what I need: connection, convenience and cost. Last week, when I needed contacts I had to decide whether to order from a) my eye doctor or b) an online retailer. Here’s how I weighed my buying decision: Connection: I love my eye doctor, and I’d like to support her. I have no connection with an online retailer. Cost: My contacts cost between 40 and 50% less when I buy them online. Convenience: When I order from my eye doctor, I have to pick up the phone during their limited hours and explain to them what I want to order. They usually don’t know how long they’ll take. I wait for a phone call to say they’ve arrived. When I get the phone call, I have to find a time within their limited office hours to pick them up. They call every single...
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 | Nov 20, 2014 | Media and Public Relations, Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Social Media, Racing Sponsorship
“Bad marketing done consistently will beat good marketing done inconsistently.” – I’m not sure who said it, or even where I first read it, but I like it. A lot. It’s a good reminder to me that just showing up consistently is more than most people will do. On every level of racing, there are champions. Championships are designed to name and reward the best performer over the course of a season. How many times, though, have you seen or heard someone gripe about a champion who didn’t win that many races? That’s why championships can be so controversial, and why NASCAR in particular has struggled with how to determine a champion over the last decade. We all know that consistency is the key to winning championships, even if that means you rarely, if ever, see the top of the podium. In racing, I get that. But for me, this ‘consistent bad marketing’ principle can be frustrating. And eye-opening. Because while I’m toiling away, whittling every sentence to perfection, other people are showing up more often. See, I’m a perfectionist. A lot of times, this is a great thing. My clients especially love it. But some times it slows me down, waiting to release things or submit a piece of work until every little detail is perfect. (By the way, I’m not trying to say that others are doing bad marketing and I’m doing good – often, we’re just different. In fact, that’s DirtyMouth in a nutshell. The reason that I created my business and started publishing (free!) content here is that in many ways, I don’t think we do...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Nov 6, 2014 | Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Sponsorship
I’m often asked: how do I get (more) sponsors? The answer is pretty simple: get on your local message board and bash all the other drivers using an anonymous screen name. Their sponsors will come running. Duh. Kidding. But seriously, this is obviously one of the most common questions I get. And the answer is really simple on paper: connect with a like-minded company, craft a win-win opportunity, agree on the terms and, most importantly, execute. But we all know that there’s a ton of work that goes into the in-between of a marketing partnership. Most of us can identify the right companies, find the decision maker and draw up a marketing plan. Then comes the sales pitch. And the proposal. And the sweating. We’ve all been there – you bust your butt to get in the door and have the opportunity to pitch the perfect company for your race team. You’re fist-pumping with excitement and then it hits you – you now have to produce that clinch-worthy proposal. That irresistible piece of marketing material. The one they can’t put down. It’s the proposal that perfectly reflects you and your racing program, and the success that you’ll have together. And your confidence begins to falter. I’ve been there myself. In my career, I’ve submitted, evaluated, reviewed and approved (or denied) hundreds, maybe even thousands, of proposals. I’ve seen it all – from hand-drawn submissions to tricked-out seven-figure deal materials. And I know the kind of work it takes to produce a piece that’s both beautifully eye-catching and undeniably effective. If you want a real shot at working with a...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Oct 30, 2014 | Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Sponsorship
A few weeks ago, an article that I wrote received criticism on LinkedIn because it used the word sponsorship in the title. I understood the commenter’s point of view – some people hear sponsorship and think ‘free money’ – and I actually do prefer the term ‘marketing partnership’. But I had to laugh when other commenters questioned him and his responses included the word ‘sponsorship’ instead of ‘marketing partnerships’ over and over again. Let me be clear: I don’t think he’s a hypocrite. It’s just difficult to strike the word from our vocabulary. Our brains are wired to recognize familiar patterns. For example, if the other cars on the racetrack begin to slow, your brain knows to make your eyes look for the caution light even before you think about it. ‘Sponsorship’ is how we in racing, and in many sports, refer to our marketing programs. So, it’s really hard to talk about sponsorship programs without using the word sponsorship. Our brains can recognize it, even if it doesn’t best describe what we do. To a potential marketing partner, the word ‘sponsorship’ immediately conjures up an exchange of value. And that’s where things can go right or wrong. If they’ve had a bad experience in the past, they might have a negative response to the term. It has positive associations for some, and negative associations for others. But here’s why I disagree with striking the word ‘sponsorship’ altogether: If someone has a strong, negative association with the word sponsorship, you’re not going to change their minds by using a different term in place of it. In fact, only using...
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