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The NCAA Digital Marketing Approach
The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) uses a multichannel marketing approach to maximize its reach within its broad target market. Their ability to leverage the NCAA.org website, social media channels, and a weekly newsletter helps them maximize subscriber options for all demographic types.
What Is Multi-Channel Marketing
Multichannel marketing utilizes online and offline marketing communications channels to target and engage with your customers (Commentator, 2020).
What Are The NCAA.org Marketing Channels?
The NCAA.org website provides informational material educating current, future, and former student-athletes on the inner workings, policies, and rules regarding the NCAA. They deliver the information via multiple platforms, including the NCAA.org website, Subscribable newsletters, Twitter, and Instagram. Each of the platforms provides a different channel that relates to the target audience. For Example, the NCAA.org website offers links for high school student-athletes who need information on athletic eligibility requirements categorized by NCAA divisions. They provide other individual pages on their website for current student-and former student-athletes that provide eligibility requirements, waivers, and additional information that pertain to student-athletes. The site also offers different links to pages with information for coaches and school administrators. The NCAA also provides information via social media providing information specific channels to follow for student-athletes and future student-athletes.
How Using a Multi-Channel Marketing Strategy Can Be Beneficial
Individuals use the internet in different ways according to a 2019 INC.com article, where the author(s) explain the importance of using a multichannel marketing approach to expand your marketing reach. For Example, not everyone uses the internet; some people like to receive newsletters, while others prefer to read blogs, websites, and social media. Using a multichannel approach, you can expand your potential target market reach (Council, 2019).
The NCAA.org Business Model
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a non-profit member-led organization dedicated to the well-being and lifelong success of student-athletes (VitalSource, n.d.).
The NCAA comprises of three divisions (Division 1, 2, and 3) with 1121 member institutions, 99 athletic voting conferences, and 39 affiliated sports organizations (VitalSource, n.d.).
The NCAA Rule Making Governing Body
Member representatives serve on committees that create, review, and vote on the governing rules for each division of the NCAA (VitalSource, n.d.).
Why is Multi-Channel Marketing Important Within The NCAA Business Model?
Because the NCAA is a governing body representing its member institutions, they need to have as many vehicles as possible to deliver their messages to its member institutions as possible. One of the ways they provide detailed information is through the use of email newsletters, each of which caters to each target audience.
In a recent email newsletter from June 2020 targeting student-athletes and administration, they provide detailed info on the updated student-athlete eligibility waivers for athletes who have been affected by COVID-19. They provide graduation timeline info and business operation hours for the 4th of July holiday.
The NCAA.org website provides a lot of information that pertains to the member institutions and its student-athletes. The NCAA.org site provides essential forms and documents for student-athletes and administrator use. The NCAA.org site is a vital resource that uses a multichannel marketing approach to reach its intended target market.
References:
Commentator, E., & Story, J. (2020, June 03). How to structure an effective multichannel marketing plan. https://www.smartinsights.com/online-brand-strategy/multichannel-strategies/structure-effective-multichannel-marketing-plan/
Council, Y. E. (2019, January 30). The Importance of Creating a Multichannel Marketing Strategy. https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/the-importance-of-creating-a-multichannel-marketing-strategy.html
VitalSource Bookshelf Online. (n.d.). https://mbs-forcefullaccount.vitalsource.com/#/books/1260302717/cfi/6/44!/4/306/2@0:0