Most successful sports retailers began as s simple family outfits. They were born of a passion for all sports and a family with the cash and the risk appetite to build their first store. And so, it is today, with thousands of family-owned stores providing all kinds of sports attire and equipment for their local communities. But how can you get your sports business online – growing your potential market by millions? This guide will show you explaining how a family sports firm can hit the big time by engaging right online.
Your Website
It’s true that many family-run businesses don’t see the need for a website. They see their primary market as those who live in the immediate area, who can quite easily pop into their store as they act out their daily routine. But what about those in the next town over? What about those on the other side of the country – or the world? If you want to sell products to anyone in the world, shipping beyond borders, then you need a website. And the best websites are optimised for consumers to find them.
Optimising
How do you optimise a website? One of the ways you’ll do this is through the services of a web designer, who’ll be able to ensure your website features no broken links or poorly built pages. Another way is to boost your SEO, or “search engine optimisation”. That’s how you’ll get your sports website to feature highly on Google’s search results. To find out more, talk with a specialist sports SEO agency to hear how they might be able to make your website into the main source of your income-generating far more cash than your older physical store.
Social Media
Sports are shareable, pleasurable parts of the lives of millions. As such, they’re all over social media – both amateur sports and elite sports that are watched by huge numbers of people each day. What does all this mean? Well, if sport is such a popular type of online content, then your store may well go down very well on social media. If you can start creating funny or interesting sports content, posting it on your profiles on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, you may well find more people coming to your online store to browse your products.
Finally, your business should try a little more outreach with your existing customers. That’s both the case for those who trade with you locally and those to whom you have sold products online. If you can gather names and email addresses from your customers, you’ll be able to build a mailing list that you can send regular email updates to. Email marketing is especially useful if you’re promoting a new line of products or if you’re running discounts on last season’s gear. Search for an automated email marketing firm to make this process seamless and effort-free.
These four tips will help any family sports business make its way in the online world of retail, too, giving you the opportunity to grow your customer base by many thousands of people.
