P2P Marketing in Athletics

One of the hottest crazes for new start up businesses, is person-to-person (P2P) marketing. The premise is simply built around a reliance on people marketing for you - word of mouth is your strongest asset. From a century old company such as Northwestern Mutual Financial PLanning, to start up healthcare companies like Advocare; P2P marketing is building a great momentum as a reputable marketing angle.

The biggest focus of P2P marketing strategy is incentive-based persuasion for clients or customers. Example:  “Sign up 10 of your friends and get five free personal training sessions.” For team-based coaching you can put the focus on personal ticket sales for rewards programs. The ability to spin your incentive to cater to your audience makes P2P marketing possibilities seemingly endless and limited only by your imagination.

Northwestern Mutual operated for its first 115 years based solely on referrals. There was no cold calling, rather only introductions by existing clients “You see the value in the services I’ve given you, do you think some of your friends and family members would enjoy these same services? We can help set up their financial future just like we have yours. You think that’s something they might be interested in?” It seems that most people respond positively to P2P marketing techniques as very  few people are going to respond to the concept of ‘introductions’ by saying that ” I have zero desire in helping my cousin, brother, sister, etc. out.”

As the co-director of Dynasty Mechanics, a training camp for elite quarterbacks and wide receivers in the sport of football,, this is the foundation of our marketing strategy. We apply

pressure to our clients and ask them to help in spreading the word. The best way to recruit new athletes to our program is to ask our current clients to target their fellow athletes in their school. With our ability to work parallel elite quarterbacks with elite wide receivers, we can turn one client from one school into four clients over night. To encourage our clients to refer new athletes to our program, we offer incentives, such as, bring a referral to our next camp, get a 50% discount or bring three new athletes to a workout session and receive a free Dynasty Mechanics t-shirt and hat.

The easiest sell for any good or service is the referral. Nike may have an elite marketing department with some of the best ad campaigns in the world, but how many of their products are sold based on the everyday billboard - the customer? How many Crocs commercials have you seen? Yet, a start up company for sandals now is franchised into malls all over America.

P2P, person-to-person marketing is a  booming strategy that is both effective and inexpensive.. The money saved by not buying ad space on TV, radio, magazines etc. can be put back into the company or team itself. For start up gyms, program revitalization or any other position you find yourself in, look to turn clients into salesman with person-to-person (P2P) marketing.