A collaboration between CIMPSA; the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity, and Sport England, has now launched a new Digital Marketing Hub for the sports and activities sector.
The free training hub is designed to improve digital skills so the sectors’ professionals can better utilise digital tools and techniques to diversify and attract audiences.
Research conducted by the Digital Marketing Institute from 1000 respondents in the industry has found little confidence in a digital future. The institute found that 63% of people don’t have a clear plan to attract new audiences through their digital channels and in response to adapting to new trends and insights, 25% rated their organisations as ineffective.
The online training programme takes a flexible approach to learning. Taking a combination of online bite-size modules, a live webinar series and peer networking opportunities tailored to the sector.
Aimed at small businesses, self-employed professionals and volunteers in activities-and sports-based organisations, the hub is dedicated to getting the sector back on its feet post-Covid-19.
This comes as a myriad of UK National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and sports and activities organisations have written an open letter to the UK Education Secretary to solidify the governments’ commitment to the Primary PE and Sport Premium.
As the school year comes to a close, many organisations are worried as to how the sector can recover when schools are scaling back these initiatives and jobs as a result.
Skills programmes and initiatives aimed at the industry will not only rebuild but keep many more talented individuals in the sector by optimising their opportunities to engage with people across the country. Supporting the youngest in our communities is now of the utmost importance to get them back to physical and cognitive confidence.
For Sport England’s Director of Digital, Marketing & Communications, Ali Donnelly, it is essential for the industry to become more adept in this area, saying:
“More than ever before we are competing for people’s time and attention with sectors that are far ahead of ours in how they market their services or activities. Done well, digital marketing has a huge role to play in making grassroots sport and physical activity reach and engage more people, ultimately driving up participation numbers.”
Sport England and CIMSPA have also recently announced ReTrain to Retain, a new job retention and support package that will benefit 25,000 professionals working in the sport and physical activity sector.
Catch CIMPSA’s Ollie Bell on The Drive Phase podcast to find out more about the future of the sector and our current episode featuring CEO of Youth Sport Trust, Alison Oliver.
For more information on how the programme will work, see here.
