Marketing Tip

5 Things Your Website Should Do

Your website is an important tool that can help you raise awareness, create interest and drive desired actions like signing up for to make a donation, volunteer or to play next season. Below are 5 best practices you may consider when creating or updating your website.

1. Easy to navigate—easy to read. Usability and overall organization of your site is important to help your visitors easily find the information they seek. Depending on how many pages your site contains, you will want to break out information into smaller "buckets" or sections rather than trying to put all information on the home page. Ideally, visitors should be able to "scan" your home page and easily determine where they should click next for information.
2. Content is king. Your site should offer content that is useful, relevant and timely. Have a newsletter, photos or video from games or other programs? Post them! Recruit and encourage your members, staff, volunteers, coaches, parents and even players to submit content such as stories, favorite game moments, etc.
3. Put your best foot forward. If "content is king" then "quality is queen" and she should not be ignored. Poor grammar, typos and outdated or incorrect information is the quickest way to turn your visitors away. When in doubt, always choose quality over quantity.
4. Make it easy. Don't force visitors to search your site or even to send an email or make a phone call—make it easy for them to register online for your programs! Provide a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section to reduce unnecessary phone calls and/or provide direct email links for visitors to submit questions or requests for additional information.
5. Create an engaging presence. Your website should be informative, engaging, and ideally, interactive. Take advantage of web content management tools that allow you, your staff or volunteer contributors to easily post updated content, video, photo surveys, message board replies or updates to your calendar—all great ways to help you build awareness, interest, action and ultimately participation!

A well thought-out and organized site will serve your organization and your members well. Remember, great design can not compensate for the lack of information, out dated information or poor organization which can leave visitors with a poor impression. Check out why small and large sports organizations alike are turning to websites that feature a Content Management System like Active's ACM Web solution.

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Product Tips and Tricks

Using the Group Categories Tool

Does your program have a large number of registration categories for different age groups? If so, we recommend using our Group Categories tool to make the registration process smoother for your participants.

1. Go to www.active.com/explorer.
2. Type in your username and password, click log in.
3. When the page refreshes go to the "Select Listing ->" drop down bar located in the top left – pull the bar down to select which listing you would like to access.
4. Once you have selected a listing you will see a set of yellow folders on the left hand side of the page; Group Categories will be listed under the Registration Categories folder.
5. Enter a descriptive name for each Category Group and click save
6. Once you have added all of your groups, you must now associate each category to a group by checking the appropriate box and click Save Associations.

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Active's Web Content Management System (ACM)

In our 24/7 digital world, your website is often the first contact your prospective parents, players, volunteers, sponsors, officials and the community at large may have to your organization. With limited staff and budget to hire a webmaster, organizations are turning to Active's Content Management (ACM) website solution with advanced, built-in content management functionality including:

• Ability to assign multiple individuals editing privileges by level or even by page
• Workflows permit all entered changes to be approved before publishing live to your site
• Web-based access allows assigned individuals to log in and edit content from any Internet connection—whether at home or on the road, updates can be easily made
• Built-in "point and click" smart editing tools work just like popular word processing software and eliminates the need for design, HTML or technical training. Anyone on your staff with assigned privileges can post, edit and update your camp site
• Easily post photos, videos, PDF, Word and Excel documents to your site without a webmaster
• Real-time website traffic and analytics reporting

Our design and development team can incorporate additional options including:

• Integrated Flash elements
• Calendar, survey polls, web forms
• Custom message boards
• Video and photo galleries
• Google map and search
• Additional languages (e.g. Spanish)

Check out Midwest Youth Team Tennis ACM website!
Midwest Youth Team Tennis is often compared to Little League® Baseball, as the program offers children the opportunity to develop their individual and team tennis skills in a fun, yet competitive atmosphere.

Note: You must associate a category with a group for it to appear on your registration page.

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In The Sportlight

Trilogy Lacrosse

League Name: Trilogy Lacrosse
Location: New York, NY
Website URL: www.TrilogyLacrosse.com
Active Client Since: 2006

"Active's system [LeagueRegister] is very user-friendly and the value that Active provided based on price point made it the best option for us...We can update the database in real-time and pull reports by event, season or demographics..."

Rob Lindsey, Co-Founder, Trilogy Lacrosse

Check out a 30 minute LeagueRegister recording to see the enhanced features that allows Trilogy Lacrosse to easily pull reports, view rosters and create schedules efficiently and can help your lacrosse league streamline and automate your registration administration.

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Team Corner

Melissa Magat, Account Manager - Tennis

I have worked at Active for 2 ½ years and am currently an Account Manager for the tennis market. In this role, I work with our existing tennis club and organization clients, helping them manage their membership, programs, tournaments, events, fundraisers, websites, and facilities through Active’s technology and marketing services.

Outside of the office, I enjoy going to the beach with my dog, playing tennis (of course), watching television, and visiting my friends in Orange County and Los Angeles. I believe it is important to treat yourself well, so I choose activities that are fun, new, and relaxing and enjoy theme parks, nice restaurants, musicals, shopping, day spas, and outdoor activities. I also believe it is important to give back and have supported and volunteered for causes like the Ronald McDonald House, Equality California, Human Rights Campaign, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Contact Melissa at Melissa.Magat@ActiveNetwork.com.

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