Recent statistics show that more than 29 million people play in some form of a fantasy football league. ESPN reports more than 13,000 monthly users of its fantasy football app, and participation in fantasy football grows at an approximate rate of 32% a year. It is estimated that fantasy football added $11 billion to the U.S. economy last year. Wouldn’t you love for your business to do the same? Well, it can, or come close anyway, with the right kind of publicity. And you won’t need a staff or a budget that size.
All you’ll need is to follow four easy steps based on fantasy football principles that apply to placing articles in magazines both in print and online. Now it doesn’t matter if you’re a service provider, a brick-and-mortar shop, a mom-and-pop shop, a regional chain, or a multi-national powerhouse; all that matters is that you have a target market, a message to impart to them, and a marketing funnel to deliver the results. Just like anyone with a smart phone and a little pre-season research is ready for their first weekly draft, you’ll be ready to armchair quarterback in the big leagues.
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1. The Draft/Your Target Market
In fantasy football, research before the draft is key. You need to know the background of the available players so you can pre-rank them according to your personal preference. Trust your cheat sheets (player rankings). You worked hard to prepare them, and you don’t want to let the other coaches sway you into making a mistake.
Many of these principles hold true for your target market. You need to research who they are and where they are. As it’s said, “Whose pain can you solve, and who’s going to pay you to solve their pain?” Now once you determine your target market, this doesn’t mean you ignore other markets. It just means help those you can the quickest and then go move on to those markets that might take a little longer to convert. As to where they are, this means what media do they read, what social media platforms do they follow, and what podcasts do they listen to. Rather than try to scatter your message anywhere and everywhere, why not be smart and position yourself in front of your target market where they already are?
2. Playbook/Your Content
Your playbook is how you manage your lineup. It helps you make better decisions and gives you the tools to collect and share data. Many playbooks even let you switch to different sports, but we’ll stick to fantasy football for now. Most playbooks can be customized to give you the information you need to see based on the team you’ve drafted and the league you’re in.
When writing an article for the communication source your target market reads, you can keep the same principles in mind as the playbook. Focus on the information they want/need to hear, not just the message you want to give them. Make the article informational, educational and entertaining; not self-promotional or advertorial. You can put all the promotion in an “about the author” paragraph at the end. You want the reader to identify themselves in the article, so write it in the ‘you’ tense: “you might have this problem, here’s how you can solve it…” If they like the advice, they’ll contact you from the bio paragraph at the end! Oh, and editors love bullet points. Give them an article about “5 Myths…” or “6 Steps…” or “7 Ways…” or “4 Easy Steps…”
3. Statistics/Pitching and Tracking and Follow-Up
Critical data provided by research and analysis can be the difference when it comes to your success or failure in fantasy football. There are a number of apps and websites that will compile and analyze your data for you, but you’ll still have to do the work to input it correctly for your team to make sure you’re getting educated and receiving informed rankings in your leagues.
Once you’ve got your article polished and your bio paragraph honed (be sure you have a recent headshot to send along with the article), it’s time to start pitching out your article to the editors of the publications your target market regularly reads. Don’t just blast it out anywhere and everywhere, but tease out the benefit of your article to the editors’ readership, and only when they say their readership would be interested, then send them the full text. This gives you permission to very politely go back to them in a few weeks and ask them if they’ve posted your article, or if they’ll be printing it an upcoming issue. If they answer is ‘yes’ to either question, ask them to send you a link, a PDF, or a print copy.
4. Postseason/Marketing from the Placements
If you’ve done your research, played your stats, and your team has won, you’re ready for the postseason and the playoffs! In fantasy football the playoffs can have unlimited teams in their brackets and teams with no salary caps. And don’t forget about the wild card teams! Check with the commissioner of your league on how they conduct the playoffs before your season with them begins.
They same can be said about marketing from your articles placements, you want to be ready for them before you even start writing and/or pitching them. You need to have your organization’s website up to date and your social media platforms current. This is where you’re going to put the majority of your placements as they will be links to the online versions. You’ll want to create an “in the media” or an “as seen in” page on your website to put the links when they come in. Also, LinkedIn has an Articles section on your profile. When you do post your article placements on LinkedIn and/or Facebook, be sure to tweet them out – just don’t copy the whole post again, only link to it.
Whether you’re a wine shop with a monthly article in a neighborhood magazine; or a tire shop with a quarterly article in a men’s newsletter; or a management consultancy with a bi-weekly article in a business association ezine, following these steps will take your business growth straight through the uprights and it won’t be a fantasy!
Author: Russell Trahan is the owner and president of PR/PR Public Relations and Author of Sell Yourself Without Saying A Word. PR/PR Public Relations is a boutique agency with a 25-year track record of getting 100% of their clients’ placements in front of their target market. For a complimentary consultation, visit https://prpr.net/contact-us/.
