Dublin City Handball Children’s Academy Digital Marketing Plan - International Institute Of Digital Marketing™

Either you are a total beginner or an experienced player, you would know that Olympic handball is not a popular sport in Ireland. But the moment you watch it, you throw your first ball or you take part in your first defense action you will ask yourself … WHY HAVEN’T I DONE THIS SOONER?

And because this sport is not as popular as others but it’s so competitive and beautiful, the coaches, the sport teachers and the parents believe that their children should start early by joining an academy.

Nowadays, the online presence is extremely important, especially when you want to promote a sport that most of the locals have never heard of.

Dublin City Handball, a senior Olympic handball club, has decided to start their own academy for children and in the following we will show you how they can make use of the internet and technology to create a digital marketing plan.

1.SITUATION ANALYSE

Situation Analysis is critical for future success. This is your first step. Here is where you are right now. We will be focusing on who are your customers and who are your biggest competitors.

Target audience

The Prospects Analysis needs to be very thorough and in this case the Academy wants to focus on children, boys and girls between 9 and 12 years old. Some 67.9 per cent of young people participated in sport of some kind between May and October last year, according to figures published in the Sport Ireland Irish Sports Monitor mid-year report. This is actually one of the lowest rates registered since 2013.

This means we are firstly speaking for parents, grandparents, siblings, any family member or any adult concerned about the well being and the health of the children. Parents who play handball and they want their children to follow them.

Another important factor to be considered in targeting the audience is the location of the training hall. The DCH training hall is located in City Center and the training days are Tuesday and Thursday from 6 PM to 7 PM. With an average commute to work of 28.9 minutes in Dublin City, and the working day finishing around 5 PM, this means we are targeting people who live in the area, or take their children to the schools located close to the hall.

Competitors

In the sports industry anyone can be your competitor, especially with so many other Irish sports so well known. Here is a list of possible competitors:

Other sports more popular in Ireland (soccer, gailic football, basketball etc)
Clubs with better online presents including websites, social media accounts, YouTube channel etc.

2.OBJECTIVES AND GOALS

The objectives represent the mission and the vision of the academy. They are classified as SMART. Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based.

We divided them into 2 categories:

Short time goals (3 months):

Create a website and increase the traffic through specific ways
Increase followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
- 5,000 followers
Develop recruiting campaigns through multimedia channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
Have minimum 1 team-14 children

Long time goals (3-6 months):

Have minimum 2 teams and host the first competition (December- Christmas Tournament)
Increase followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
- 15,000 followers
Launch the Online Shop (gifts, equipment, balls, etc) linked to the main website.
Develop Youtube Channel to stream the competition, post videos from training and other team activities

3. STRATEGY AND ACTION

Increase website traffic through implementing On- Page and Off- Page SEO, Internal links,Google Analytics, Google MyBusiness.
Content Marketing
Blogging
Hashtags + Academy Motto (Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, Play Handball)
Email marketing
Youtube channel
Tracking Reviews
Establishing a well-thought-out social media presence (focusing on the platform with the target audience: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.)
Social media ad campaigns (Instagram Ads, Facebook Ads)
Interact with other businesses and be consistently active online- Answer questions and engage with the readers.
Personalization (creating personalized content based on the target audience)
Other relevant online business directories (Bing Places, Yelp, Yellowpages, Apple Maps, Foursquare)

4. CONCLUSION

Although there are many strategic digital marketing plans, this plan completely outlines everything Dublin City Handball Children’s Academy needs to increase brand awareness. The plan incorporates many influential strategies that include but are not limited to: content marketing, SEO, email marketing, ad campaigns, an established social media presence, reviews, and measuring success. All of these strategies can be efficient and provide you with an idea of how to successfully move your children’s sports business across the boards.

5. REFERENCES

Here is where we got our inspiration from :

6. ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Andreea Maria Dragota

Brand Marketing Analyst at International Institute of Digital Marketing ™

Katherine Garcia