Are You Targeting the Right Tennis Clients?

To be a successful tennis business, you must have a carefully prepared marketing and business plan. As part of your business plan, you must decide whom you are in fact marketing to (your tennis client target audience) before actually setting up any marketing campaigns. Having a clear understanding of your target audience is crucial to be successful with your marketing and to stay ahead of competitors (other tennis clubs or tennis businesses similar to yours).

How to create a customer persona

A customer persona is your ideal customer "profile". Customer personas or profiles can be created by looking at customers’ demographics, locations, buying patterns, and factors that influence their purchase decisions, etc. Since there is an almost infinite number of criteria, we must identify the factors that can be used to create a better connection between their needs and what your tennis club has to offer. I've simplified this criteria selection below, so keep reading.

To begin, think carefully about your tennis business, what tennis programs or services you would like to offer, and write them down. Next, who do you think would want to use those services (take those tennis lessons) and why? Answering the questions listed below will help you form an image of your ideal client (marketing persona). You can also have several different tennis customer personas. If you are not able to answer all of these questions for each of your target personas, you have got some more research to do before you can start any marketing efforts.

• How old are they?
• Are they male or female?
• Do they have children? If they do, how old?
• What is their income?
• What do they like to do and go outside of the tennis court?
• What do they value?
• Are they employed?
• Where do they shop?
• Where do they go on vacation?

Much of this information can be gathered by creating surveys, doing interviews, and researching the competition. Once all of this information is gathered, you can move onto creating your ideal customer profile or persona.

Warning signs you are targeting the tennis clients

1. Low response rate - if you are not targeting the right tennis clients, you will likely get low or no response. That is usually the biggest sign you are targeting the wrong clients.

2. You get the wrong clients - are you offering a toddler tennis program but people in their 50s respond to your ads? If that is happening, you might need to change your verbiage.

3. You feel exhausted or drained just thinking about what is waiting for you - if you just filled a couple of tennis programs with students but you are not looking forward to working with them because you anticipate a season of pain and difficulties managing those groups, those may be the wrong clients you are targeting.

All marketing efforts start with figuring out your ideal tennis clients!

Whenever you are ready to grow your coaching business, be sure to start by following the above steps, and eliminate the people for whom an offer won't be relevant or important. Keep in mind that it is not uncommon for marketers to identify an audience they want to reach only to discover (once they start marketing) that it is not the right one.

So, be open to feedback and be willing to continually tweak your marketing campaigns, so you can get the effective results you are looking for! Additionally, I would encourage anyone just entering a market to answer every single phone call, Facebook comment, message or Tweet, so you can learn more information about your potential clients.

That sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it?

If you would like to work with me, just send me a message, tell me a little about your business, and what you would like to achieve, or how you would like to work together.

You can also check out my eBook on Amazon that will give you more tips on growing your tennis business: "Tennis Club Marketing 101: Marketing Ideas for Tennis Club Owners, Managers, and Coaches".

Have questions? Contact us.