Wednesday’s in 2014 on Sport for Business will have a grassroots flavour as we look to see how clubs at the sharp end of Irish sport are managing their affairs to best effect.
We kick off the series with a look at how Leinster Rugby are reaching out to clubs across the province with a view to up skilling their local capacity to publicise activities and events.
The aim of the seminars is to provide information on how clubs can themselves begin the process of strategic planning of marketing activities, how to manage their existing databases and build new ones, writing material that will be of interest to local media, promoting events through the official Leinster Rugby channels and of course social media.
Attendance at the seminars is free for Leinster affiliated rugby clubs and the hope is to get a minimum of one official representing each men’s and women’s section in a club to attend.
By their nature the courses will only be able to give a brief introduction to some of the ways in which the clubs can promote themselves but it is a good starting point and will help to build a network of individuals that have shared experience of what works best for different clubs and which may then be extended to others.
The importance of local media to local clubs, and vice versa, is often overlooked and this is a smart way to take one or two steps forward in placing the clubs more front and centre stage in their communications policies.
It is of course a challenge at grassroots level to find the right people with the skills and the time to undertake the role of a media and marketing person for a club but initiatives like this are useful in helping to show that simple measures can be a very effective starting point.
