How to Get Your Organization Ready for the 2022 Winter Games

This February, thousands of athletes worldwide will compete on sports’ biggest stage at the 2022 Winter Olympics. With over 15 events taking place over 17 days, there is no better opportunity to witness the magic of winter sports. 

Millions of kids and families will gather to watch Team USA athletes like snowboarder Chloe Kim, alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin, and curler John Shuster shine on their quest for gold. For many kids, just watching the talents of these amazing athletes will be the first step of their youth sports journeys. As young athletes get inspired to hit the slopes or the ice for the first time, parents will be running to sign up for local programs, clubs, and other youth sports organizations to get their kids started. 

For this reason, there is no better time than now to make sure that your organization is visible, prepped, and ready for the influx of searches and signups during the Games. At SportsEngine, we have the tools you need to create your SportsEngine.com directory listing, identify your target audience, and promote your activities so that you can increase athlete registration. 

Are you ready to be a part of building the next generation of Olympic hopefuls? Read on to learn how you and your organization can capitalize on the Winter Games. 

Create a free listing on the SportsEngine.com directory

The first step to ensuring your organization can get in front of millions of parents is by adding it to the SportsEngine.com directory. Over 20,000 youth sports organizations are listed on the directory, which allows parents to search, find easily, and register for programs all in one place. 

Once you’ve added your organization to the directory, you can add program listings for all clubs, clinics, tournaments, or camps you run. Including these on your listing will help increase your organization’s visibility when parents search and will allow them to register for your programs seamlessly. 

Create your listing today >

Promote your organization on the directory by boosting your presence 

After creating your listing on the directory, there are simple steps you can take to boost your organization’s presence on SportsEngine.com. A few include: 

• Select all of the sports you serve. This will help your organization populate in keyword searches.
• Upload your logo to help your organization stand out from the pack. 
• Use an eye-catching and on-brand banner image. This image will be the first thing visitors notice when they search for your organization. 
• Add a link back to your website. This link will allow visitors to navigate back to your site for more information. 

By taking these easy steps to make your organization stand out in the directory, you can boost the number of parents and visitors who see your listing, ultimately driving better registration and sign-ups.

Learn more about what you can do to promote your organization>

Get to know your target audience 

Now that families are searching for and finding your organization on the SportsEngine.com directory, it’s a good idea to take the time to figure out who your target audience is. Understanding your audience will help you identify content that best fits their needs, craft marketing messages that will resonate with them, and better their customer journey overall. 

The first step to doing this is defining who your customer is. Think about their demographics: age, gender, profession, income, etc. Once you’ve pinpointed these characteristics, it will be easy to start to understand what your ideal customer’s challenges are, what motivates them, what they care about most, and what some of their pain points might be. From there, you can begin to develop marketing strategies, communication techniques, and other engagement tools to best interact with your audience and drive them to register for your organization’s offerings.

Use our FREE Design Center tool to help you propel marketing of your organization > 

Effectively communicate with and engage your customers

Once you’ve discovered who your ideal audience is, it’s important to nail down a way to engage with them effectively. One way is to create a communication plan, which you can do by answering three easy questions: 

1. Who? Who are you trying to communicate with: current customers, past customers, or brand new customers? There are different strategies for getting in touch with different people, so knowing the “who” is the essential first step. 
2. What? Each group or type of customer will need a different style of message. The “what” is the main point you want to reach your audience. 
3. When? While it’s important to send the right message, it is even more crucial to send the right message at the right time. Make sure you send your communications when they are most relevant to your customer, like notifying them that it’s almost time to register for the season. 

Ready to start building your communication plan? Use this guide to take you through the process step-by-step>

With a communication plan in hand, it’s time for the fun part: generating excitement and engagement! There are many ways to do this, like using social media to highlight what your programs or athletes are up to, designing flyers and posting them around town, or even sending out a physical mailer. Now’s the time to get creative and experiment with grabbing your customer’s attention in a variety of ways.

Check out our guide on advertising your programs for more ideas>

Before the 2022 Winter Games get underway, ensure that your organization is prepared for the millions of inspired kids looking to get involved in sports. For many, the Olympic journey starts with you! With parents searching for ways to get their hopeful athletes registered, make sure your organization is front and center.