What Makes a Successful Tennis Academy? (Part 3)

What do you want people to see, and what do they see?

In Part 2, we discussed “Where do you want to be?”. We explored how to kickstart, re-evaluate, or grow your tennis academy based on your purpose.

Also, watch out for your free business case as promised in my previous blog.

Remember, purpose is defining who you want to be, what difference you can make, and what your academy stands for. We said you should clearly define your Vision, Mission, Strategy, and Action Plan for your team to understand:

• What you are trying to achieve

• How you are going to achieve it

• How you will measure it to track whether you are achieving your objectives

Start-ups and small businesses battle to spend money advertising their companies, but you must get your business out there in the digital space. In this blog, we will discuss how you demonstrate to your existing and future clients what you are all about and look at the various ways to get the message to them. If the message you want to sell is not in line with the purpose discussed in Part 2, some alignment is needed before you start marketing your brand.

Branding is a non-negotiable

Let’s think of your brand. Remember, you are a business, and a business needs advertising, and fundamental advertising starts with self-branding. Think about it, you are your brand. So how do you advertise yourself when others are watching? Chris Ducker says it well: “Your brand is what people say about you when you are not around.” This is first-line advertising that costs very little but has an enormous impact on your business.

These questions will help you think about how you reflect your brand:

• How do others see you and your tennis academy? Remember this includes current and potential customers.

• What would your players say about you if they had to describe their tennis coach?

• How would their parents describe you and your tennis academy?

• Would they refer you to their friends and future customers?

• How do you present your academy in discussions, especially on social media?

• What facilities do you offer as part of your academy? Are these at a professional standard?

• Do you invest in conventional and digital marketing?

Note: use the above questions whenever you are working with your players. They need to enjoy it, and their parents are watching.

Remember that a happy child wants to come back to play tennis, a happy parent pays the bill, and satisfied clients tell others. They look at how you present yourself, how you interact with the kids, and what your physical business setup looks like.

So how do you advertise?

We advertise our businesses by:

• Everything you do and say when selling your coaching services

• Existing clients telling potential clients about you (word of mouth)

• Actively marketing yourself to new clients through conventional marketing and digital marketing

Real Athletes Tennis Academy, ranked one of the top tennis academies in South Africa and run by national Fed Cup and Davis Cup captain (2014–2015) Earl Grainger along with a host of expert coaches: “I love your website and the newsletter on what makes a successful coach, well written – regards, Earl Grainger.”

There are various ways to promote your business, but today every Google search result will give you 5 to 10 must-haves that go far beyond conventional marketing. Here are a few:

• Pay-per-click Google Ads (also called Search Ads)

• Make videos and showcase them on your own YouTube channel

• Grow your email list and do regular email marketing

• Social media ads, for example Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

• Start a blog page and write regular blogs, which is also good for SEO (search engine optimisation)

• Learn the SEO basics and incorporate them into all the above

The above are all tools for digital marketing and a non-negotiable way of marketing your business in our time. You will have to accept the importance of giving your academy a credible digital footprint to grow to its full potential. Without it, your business might not survive.

I’ve asked my digital marketing partner for some advice, and I include information and tips by Terry Bourquin from Align Digi below:

The first thing that all businesses need to realise and accept is that they must do marketing continually. Marketing is not a sprint, it is a marathon. It requires a continuous effort over time and never stops. However, it is essential that one starts with the basics and grows efforts over time, otherwise it can become overwhelming. Here are a few tips on how to get your digital footprint going.

Start with a great website

Your website is essential to give you credibility, which is vital in our digital world, as any person can put a profile on social media. You must show that you provide a professional service with quality products or services and educate your potential customers about how to use your offering. See your website as the shop window of your business. You have to show people who you are and what you promise with what you exhibit in your window.

Part of a potential client converting to an actual customer is to research your credibility by reading reviews from your current customers on Facebook, Google, and your website. Yes, they will Google your name, and no, they will not think you are a real business if you do not have a professional and updated website. Social proof on your site is vital as it shows prospects that other customers are happy with your product or service, the modern version of word-of-mouth advertising.

Your website is also where your blogs live. This is an essential part of your credibility. Potential customers should be able to read content that gives them value-added information about relevant topics in your field before seeing you as the real deal. Blogs position you as an expert in your area. Blogs are also a big part of the marketer’s solution for SEO to increase your Google organic ranking. The more you write, the more relevant Google will rank your business in your industry, and the more it will push you to the first page when people search for your kind of products and services.

An e-commerce website is an online store where people can view your products and decide what to buy online. It includes a checkout process with secure payment, so that customers can pay for their purchases there and then, which means money in your account immediately. Even if you have only one product to sell, this is vital.

Social media gets you customers

A Facebook and a LinkedIn Business Page are non-negotiable for your business, as this is where potential clients will find you when they search for your product or service on social media. Instagram Business is also growing fast as a credible business channel.

Use these business pages, not your personal profiles, as valuable tools in combination with your website. You can track and respond to messages, and clients can request quotes on these sites. Many people who would not have reached your website can contact you through social media. All your business information should be visible on these pages so clients can find you. Post relevant content regularly to establish your know, like, and trust factor. The more you post, the more your followers will engage with you and the more new clients you will get. In addition, you are required to have a Business Page to run paid ad campaigns on any of these platforms.

Digital marketing begins with paid campaigns

You do not only want free content being posted. It is great for getting shares and likes, but it only reaches about 2% of the people already following you on Facebook. If you are serious about building your business, you need to get the word out to the thousands of people out there who could be potential clients. The way to do this is to pay the social media and search platforms to show your ads to a targeted audience.

Facebook is the largest social media platform and a perfect place to start advertising your business. Facebook owns Instagram, and ads are displayed on both platforms. Their algorithms are built to get your message out to the right people.

Twenty-three million South Africans are active on Facebook monthly (2019 stats), and the average daily time they spend there is 2 hours 48 minutes. Google is the largest search engine in the world. Google SA has a traffic statistic of 83 million visits per month from people actively searching for information and products. LinkedIn is a pure business platform with around 7 million users that you can target.

Integrated digital marketing is when you combine search traffic with social media traffic through ads on Google and Facebook (and possibly Instagram or LinkedIn depending on your strategy) and point them to a sales funnel where you have a special offer running. Through this, you generate sales and leads for your customer database, to be used for continuous email marketing that points to your blogs and your online store. This is the secret to building your business through the power of digital marketing. It is important to start with the basics and progress from there.

Grow your audience through paid campaigns

Digital marketers use Facebook’s targeting methods and algorithms to pinpoint prospective clients in your area. They can run a campaign to encourage more potential clients to like and follow your pages so that you can build your know, like, and trust factor. Engaged social media followers will book with you once they have noticed your business and started following your blogs and posts, because they will feel like they know you already.

We recommend starting with a Facebook ad campaign as a baseline, as many of your potential clients will be active on Facebook. You can opt to do Google Ads or LinkedIn Ads at a later stage if the need exists.

Thank you, Terry, for the action and the 30% special offer for our tennis coaches. When you click on the link above, use “Kick-start” as the promo code in your message.

So does this work?

Yes. But as Terry said, it is a continuous effort. What I like most about digital marketing is that you can measure your return on investment, target your campaigns to relevant clients, and see how many people have visited your campaigns. You have control over your spending, so it is not a black hole where your money disappears without results.

Remember, no business can grow without advertising. The world of advertising has changed dramatically, and you need to adapt and use this to your advantage.

Next steps

• Focus on how you advertise yourself, how others see you

• Focus on how others see your training and the setup of your tennis academy

• Speak to your players and their parents, ask them for testimonials, and use these to advertise your academy

• Ensure your shopfront (website) is up to speed and testimonials are available

• Bring a professional on board to help with your digital marketing

Next month we look at how you set up your academy and what you can do to impress your clients with tools and other eye-catchers.

Please register on our website, and we will gladly forward you a free business case template to assist with your business planning, or email us at info@topspinsa.co.za.

Philip van Antwerpen
Online supplier of tennis and beach tennis gear

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