Jamar Johnson of Phoenix, Arizona writes:
“I need help from Publicy Hounds on how to market my company, SportsPro HR, Inc. It provides personal wealth and human resource management services for professional athletes, entertainers, and small business owners. The sports and entertainment management industry is very, very competitive, and I need ideas on how I can get publicity that will generate client interest, clients and revenue. I don’t have any former or current clients to use for testimonials. My target market of sports and entertainment professionals are really hard to get in front of and I’m in deseperate need of some creative publicity suggestions. Hounds, can you help me?
Hi Jamar,
I don’t have a publicity ideas, but some suggestions for your website may help.
Your home page needs strong benefits to your target customer and more content.
“About Us” needs to say WHO you are, your qualifications, and experience. Why does the “About Us” page say “HOME” at the top without a link? Is this supposed to be the home page?
Divide your services up into separate web pages with link headings that give the benefits to the customer. For instance, “Take the headaches away with Special Event Planning Help from the experts who know how to —.” (By the way, as a small business owner, why is this service limited to Sports & Entertainment Clients? I see many of your services that our company can use limited to Sports & Entertainment Clients.)
You need a picture of yourself and staff so clients connect to your company. Action pictures of you with clients or friends would even be better. I’d like to see a picture of you standing next to the private jet holding you hand out like you’re helping me on the jet.
Best wishes for your profitable business,
Jeanette Fisher
Jamar,
Major do-over with the website. Professional athletes’ egos will never allow themselves to be connected in the same breath with small business owners. If you must handle small business owners, get a second website. Also, there is way too much content on your site. Cut it down.
Dale
I would agree that his website definately needs work. There are plenty of cookie cutter softwares to aid with this, or hire someone, even minimal at the least.
Do you participate in golf tournaments? Or other special events with professional athletes? Use these as a tool to garner publicity, before during and after the events.
Get involved with the retired professional athletics; baseball, football, etc, They have a wide base of members in which you can launch something.
Special appearances of athletes in the community with non-profits, or at children events; the library, reading programs, back-to-school, great time to get in front of teachers, parents and kids with athletes. As one athlete sees your company this should generate interest. find an organization to become part of and get involved; kiwanis, rotary, chamber, etc.
Also, offer free seminars, keep these relatively short, one-to one and a half hours. Food helps, sminar on HR perks, benefits, etc.
Hope one of these helps, good luck
Loretta Lynn
Please visit my new website at http://www.sportsprohr.com. Any other suggestions, ideas, and/or comments about how I can generate some publicity and get the attention of potential clients can be sent to me at jamarj@sportsprohr.com.
Thank you so much Joan and all Publicity Hounds that respond to this fellow Hound in need!!!
Jamar Johnson
http://www.1wp.com/go/sportsprohr./ Why is this website being used? If a client sees this page first, they may never visit the improved website.
http://www.sportsprohr.com/ This website a much better, has pictures and color that adds warmth, better outline and clearer view points of what your business offers.
On Service Packages I noticed a major spelling error:
http://www.sportsprohr.com/servicepackages.htm
Misspelled word: “public relations, not “pulbic”
I liked the biography; this lets people know more about the person in charge of their future and assures the athletes you have skills and knowledge of this field.
Where does the percent value come from, need to list where this info is coming from. “According to…:”
To get help with your website do a survey and get input from athletes asking them why or why not they would choose your business by only seeing the online info.
Hi Joan —
Jamar’s revised site is definitely an improvement, but it still needs some work with sentence structure and verbiage. Word capitalization also seems to be a challenge — many words are capped that shouldn’t be and visa versa. Athletes and entertainers might not look that closely but people they trust will.
With that said, Jamar is targeting a busy clientele who likes powerful, brief explanations and lots of special effects. Superb audio and visual are parts of their lives and they will be more likely to connect with a professional that shares their passion and means of communication.
Jamar needs to walk and talk the brand (which is himself) in every sports and entertainment venue and at events to which he can gain access. That means A LOT of networking. Go to sports conferences and join professional organizations such as the National Sports Marketing Network. Mingle, schmooze, tell event attendees what you know and word will get around!
I have worked with collegiate and professional athletes and organizations for more than 15 years, and credibility is the key to establishing a business that depends heavily on respect, confidentiality and dependability. Jamar should establish and continue to build on his “brand” by continuing to learn more about his market and work every contact and task as if it is his biggest.
I have to agree with the comments about getting the website up to snuff before you start any publicity. It needs some work before you can go after professional athletes and entertainers (and I definitely agree with Dale about not mixing this target market with small businesses). Don’t spread yourself too thin. You’re going after a very specific market. Their needs (not to mention egos) are not going to be the same as those of small business owners.
I also think that unless you can list examples, you really don’t want to say
“There are several reasons why professional athletes, entertainers, and small business owners use our wealth and human resource management services.” You need data or case studies to back up these claims. Or testimonials. And if you were founded in 1996, my first questions would be “Who are your clients? What do you differently than the other sports management companies? Why should I work with you?”
You need to be able to answer those questions and also hire a professional copywriter and a marketing person who does websites before you start your publicity campaign. You don’t want to send the media to a website that has no relevant information for them!
Good luck! At least you know where to go for help.
Rickey
Testimonials would add so much to your site. If you’ve been in business for many years, then by now, you must have a lot of satisfied clients. Would some of them write you a recommendation? If some of them are well known, their images would add so much value.
I just went to the site mentioned. As a business/marketing consultant there are so many issues with this website. Lets start with the fact that it isn’t written in the right person. It should be directed at the person who is the ideal client and everything in it should be directed that way. Who is the ideal client? What do they want to know? The first thing I would want to know is something about the company and its founders. If the company is a consulting company, what is the professional expertise and training that allows them to do what they say they can do. Credibility is crucial. Secondly just from an aesthetic point of view, you can get pictures and graphics for almost no coast from a variety of places. I use flickr.com and istockphoto.com for dynamic graphics. Blue is a nice color, but it is a cool color and with sports cool is not what you should be looking for. What you need to have is a dynamic color. One with a lot of energy.
More about copy, if you don’t have clients yet, talk about ideas you have that you think people would be interested or find something you have done that is related to what you want to do even if not in the same niche.
Where are the freebies? Websites have a very limited time to keep someone on it. One of the things people love is something fun or free. What about interesting articles, online games or questionnaires.
I totally agree about the networking but one thing I have learned the hard way is that before you go you have to have something to leave behind…your image and it has to stand out. My coaching enterprise has a blog that is based on the idea of metamorphosis or growth and uses butterflies as an image. My business card has a piece of art with butterflies on one side and my information on the other. It certainly isn’t going to blend in, is beautiful and appeals to my main target…women aesthetically and connected to my blog with offers some information and has the same look and feel. So what he needs to do first is really spend some time working out that appeal. One of the things most people don’t realize about their website, particularly consultants, is how important a marketing tool it is and that it has to connect directly to the rest of the marketing plan. It must be a plan that has an overall focus and very specific timetables and deliverables that are connected. Lots of work. Lots of satisfaction. email me if I can be of any further assistance.
Jamar,
I have not idea why you referenced the old website. The new one is much better BUT…
You need an ABOUT US section. Yes, you have your bio in the Media section but you need it in an ABOUT US section. As to your bio, fine, you’re a jock and you have some management experience. But what I didn’t see was your financial experience or experience in many of the other areas that you say you can handle for your clients.
If you’re using your business partners as your “team” and using their experience, then what does someone need you for? They can find a Merrill Lynch financial advisor on their own (as an example).
What is it that YOU and YOUR staff bring to the table. You say you can handle a ton of things but I’m not seeing what your qualifications are to do this. You really have to stress them.
You say you’ve been in business for years and yet you have no clients who can give testimonials? So you may not have Shaq as a client, but any client, even one who is small is better than not showing any satisfied clients. In fact, if you can show how you helped manage the career/built the wealth of a smaller, lesser known athlete and turned his small nestegg into a larger one, that would be very impressive.
After all, Shaq doesn’t need that much help in getting endorsements, finding people who want him to make investments and so forth. These people are throwing themselves at him. But if you helped a second or third string player or “B” or “C” list celebrity maximize their assets, then that would be interesting to note. After all, a bigger name might think, “Well, if he can do that for Joe Football who makes only ten percent of what I make, what can he do for me?”
As for publicity, I know that many of the teams offer their players seminars on money and fame management. Offer your services to different teams. You don’t even necessarily want to start with the major teams. Go after the organizations such as farm teams or AAA teams. Remember, many of the guys on those teams move up to the majors. (I’m sure there is an equivalent for most sports.)
And speaking of other sports, don’t forget professional teams that aren’t necessarily as high profile. There are professional lacrosse teams, soccer teams, women golfers, figure skating, boxing and so forth. Many of these people make very decent salaries and have short careers that they can use help with to maximize their time in the limelight and earning power. It doesn’t have to be just baseball, basketball, football, and NASCAR.
Go after the college players who look like they are going to be signing major contracts with the big leagues.
Interact with players’ agents. Most major sports figures and celebrities have a whole team of people that work for them — an agent, manager, publicity person and so forth. You can become a part of that team.
Are their magazines that are specifically geared to team players — trade publications rather than consumer sports publications? Start submitting articles about things that every athlete should know about managing his or her career.
If you so a Pro-Am tournament in your area, sign up for it so that you’ll be teamed with an athlete. Attend banquets where celebrities are a guest of honor.
Start a newsletter for celebrities, small business owners — whoever wants to sign up for it — and offer weekly or monthly tips.
Submit press releases to any of a dozen press release services. Show off what you know. Give them a taste of what they can expect from someone like you.
Heck, you can write a book (or have it ghost-written or co-written with a sport or big time agent) and have it aimed at athletes or the parents of soon-to-be-star athletes about how to many your sports career.
You know celebrities are always saying that when they became famous no one ever gave them a handbook of what to expect, how to manage their career, finances and so foth. Maybe you need to write just that very book.
Hope that helps. Good luck!
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Hello,
My name is Jory Carver and I am a rising senior at the Ohio State University. I am currently majoring in Psychology, but looking to change my major to Consumer Affairs under family management and then minor in psychology, in hopes that this will give me a better foundation in my pursuit of becoming a life coach. My overall goal is to be a life coach to professional sports players and entertainers: somewhat of an agent, however I am not that interested in the legal side (contracts). Although this is my overall goal, I know i need to have tons of experience before I get to the level where I desire to be. There are several reasons I chose to write you. I was wondering if you had any internship programs that would give students like me a chance to get into the field and gain useful experience or if you were willing and in a position to develop one. Also, if you could tell me how you got started at being a life coach and how you d eveloped your career. I think this information would help me greatly in accomplishing the things I would like to accomplish and being the best life coach I could be.