Figure 1 An app is arguably even more useful for smaller teams
You will have seen the articles on this site offering name and nickname ideas for your sports team. A name is the first impression your team or club will provide newcomers, so you want to get the message right. Fearsome animal names are always a big favorite but making sure you set the right tone is crucial.
But once you have established your sports team there are countless other things you will need to do in order to make it a success. It may not be at the level where fans are checking online sportsbook reviews to find out where they can place a bet on you winning – but running a sports club takes a lot of work.
That is why it is now an absolute necessity for a sports team to have its own mobile app. If you have any duties relating to your club or team you will instantly recognize just how more convenient and easy it is to use an app. Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of having an app for your team – no matter how big or small it currently is.
Engage with Fans
Everyone uses apps these days. Whether it is as a map to find places or to order your food, we are all used to reaching for our phones when we need something done. It is very likely that almost all of your fans – and potential fans – will have a smartphone. So having an app is the easiest way of getting in touch with them.
Your sports team’s app can be as complex or simple as you like, but it is a great way to engage with your fans and create the kinds of conversations that would be almost impossible face-to-face. Fans want to be involved with their favorite teams and an app is the best way for that to happen.
Build Communities
Engaging the fan base automatically leads on to our second benefit of having an app for your sports team or club. Many fans don’t want to just come and watch the team on a game day and then go home and forget about it all until the next game comes around. They want to be a part of something and build a community.
Incorporating a fans section into your team’s app will give them the perfect place to focus all of that information and energy. Sports fans are some of the most loyal people on the planet and when you consistently make them feel as though they are part of something bigger, their loyalty will only get stronger.
Club Administration
As anyone who has ever had anything to do with the running of a sports team or club will tell you, it is not all excitement, trophies, and cheering on the players. There is a lot of work that continually goes on behind the scenes to ensure that everyone has the best time when game day does arrive.
That work becomes even more important when you are talking about a smaller team. There won’t be the hundreds and thousands of paid employees to help with administration. Quite often it is all done by volunteers. So saving time organizing all that via an app is a huge deal.
Marketing Opportunities
Walk down any street just about anywhere in the world and there is a good chance that you will see someone wearing an item of clothing with a New York Yankees logo on. Whether all of them are completely official apparel is another question altogether – but it is safe to say that the Yankees need no help with their merchandise sales.
But if you are a smaller club without the reach of a professional major league team you will probably need all the assistance you can get to sell replica jerseys, caps, and anything else you can print a team logo on. That is why including an online shop on your team’s mobile app is a financial necessity.
Team Management
There are all kinds of different kinds of apps that can be used for a variety of tasks. But even if you only have one for your team, you can split the sections for fans and players. Just by having a log-in feature, you can use a mobile app to manage everything related to the players on the team.
An app can be used to manage training regimes and even to keep in touch with players about availability if you are not a professional team. The organizational tasks for the coaching team can also be run from one simple app that is available for everyone to see.
Link with Social Media
We mentioned at the top of this article how everyone uses mobile apps for all kinds of daily tasks. Well, when they are not ordering food they will invariably be checking the wide range of social media platforms that are so popular these days.
If you have a mobile app for your sports team or club it is the perfect place to link up all your official social media sites. You should think about covering them all too, as different demographics tend to use different platforms – and you don’t want your messages to be missed by any of your fans.
Figure 2 Everyone connected to a team or cub can use a dedicated app
Latest News
There used to be a time when everyone gathered around to watch the nightly news at the same time on the same channel. But with so many different channels and news sources available these days, it is possible to filter out the news you are not interested in and hone in on what you want to know – and that should include your team.
There is a huge appetite for the latest news with sports teams now and your fans will expect to be kept up to date with all the latest developments. If your team’s app is the first place that they think of looking, it will be doing its job – and you can then think about how you can keep them on the app checking out everything else we have suggested here.