SportsBytes: eNewsletter for Sports Administrators - December

ActiveSports would like to wish all our sports friends a safe and happy holiday season and we encourage you to generously share with those who find themselves in less favorable situations. From the entire ActiveSports team – Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year!

We truly appreciate the opportunity to be your technology partner of choice and we look forward to working with you in the coming year.

Regards,
Scott Leder
General Manager

ActiveSports Team
ActiveSports@ActiveNetwork.com

In This Issue:

		What's New? New Account Manager Contact Page Active.com - Registration Center Video Tutorials
		Upcoming Webinars
		Marketing & Promotion Tips 5 Tips to Successfully Leverage E-mail to Promote Your Sports Programs
		In the Sportlight Caledonia Baseball Softball League
		Team Member Corner Ally Ward

Learn about The Active Edge

What's New?

New Account Manager Contact Page

New! Active.com - Registration Center Video Tutorials

Upcoming Webinars

Date: Tuesday, January 20th
Time: 4:00 - 5:00 PM - Pacific Standard Time
          7:00 - 8:00 PM - Eastern Standard Time
Cost: Free

Leverage the power of the Internet to centralize, streamline, and automate your next soccer tournament. Learn how ActiveSports’ Tournament Builder can simplify registration and tournament management from online team registrations to post-tournament reporting, including:

• Eliminate unnecessary paperwork by accepting team registrations, referee registrations and payments online
• Dynamically generate schedules (or simply import offline game schedules) by simply inputting team, division and game date and automatically display tournament schedules, scores and standings on your website
• Keep your teams informed: Automatically send emails and/or text messages to coaches and team administrators with schedule updates, tournament news and scores

Register Now

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Marketing & Promotion Tips

5 Tips to Successfully Leverage E-mail To Promote Your Sports
Programs

In the age of the Internet, smart phones and PDAs, electronic communication is an important communication channel to build awareness and participation in your sports programs.

E-mail is virtually free with no production, materials or postage expenses. Additionally, sending concise e-mails with a prominent Call-to-Action (CTA) regularly can help increase your Web site traffic, online registrations, donations along with general awareness with both past participants and newcomers alike.

1. Collect E-mail Addresses - Gather e-mail addresses at every opportunity and at every event. Provide a sign up sheet for anybody who may want to receive updates, bulletins or newsletters electronically and always include an email address field on all printed forms. Additionally, placing a contact list sign up option on your Web site homepage or other prominent pages is a great way to attract and educate new visitors about upcoming programs.
2. Offer an eNewsletter - An electronic newsletter is an effective way to strengthen relationships with your program participants/parents at little to no cost. Include upcoming events and early online registration dates, interesting articles, quotes, tid-bits and photos. Recruit contributors from the fan base and encourage them to submit stories and pictures to help build a sense of community and camaraderie among fans, family members and participants.
3. Provide a Clear Call-to-Action - What do you want your readers to do and when? Make your call-to-action prominent and hyperlink to the appropriate online registration web page so readers can act immediately.
4. Encourage Referral Marketing - Referral marketing can drastically increase awareness and expand your reach. Insert a "Forward to a Friend" web button/link in each email to encourage recipients to forward to friends and family. This is especially valuable if you manage seasonal camps, clinics or tournaments where you want to attract a greater range of participants and/or grow the event year after year.
5. Don't Forget E-mail Courtesy - When sending out e-mails, you should be mindful of common e-mail courtesies including:
   • Use an e-mail distribution list name to keep individual e-mail addresses confidential.
   • Do not send large attachments or too many files; many ISP/e-mail providers filter/block emails based on file size.
   • Don’t go overboard with overusing CAPS, FORMATTING, :)'s AND PUNCTUATION!!!!!!!!!! Remember sometimes less is better, and be mindful of the use of abbreviations or jargon.

Tip: Haven't checked-out the eMarketing Center? Click here to request your free login to gain access to a wealth of marketing and promotional tools, tips and templates

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In the Sportlight:

Caledonia Baseball Softball League

Team Member Corner

Ally Ward, Manager - Account Management - Sports

At work: I currently manage the sports account management team which is responsible for maintaining client relationships as well as educating clients about the Active solutions best suited to fulfill their technology and marketing needs. Previously, I was a Team Sports Account Executive for the baseball, soccer, basketball and lacrosse markets.

Outside of work: I was born and raised in San Diego, CA, but am most proud to be a University of Wisconsin-Madison Badger! I played volleyball for the Badgers for 4 years, and loved every minute of it. The entire city of Madison truly embraced the university’s athletic programs--I have never seen that kind of support or following from a community. It was definitely the best collegiate experience I could have ever had. Now that I’m back in San Diego, I enjoy beach volleyball, beach bocce ball, reading a good book, hanging out with friends and doing logic puzzles!

E-mail Ally

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