So you have built your SimGrid community and you are active on the platform hosting events across a plethora of sim racing titles.
You now start your quest to become the marketing master to captivate the onlookers and entice new members, viewers & sponsors alike.
Introduction
In this article, we look at several aspects you can do as a host to help your cause to host successful events, be a great marketer and become a successful community.
We all want longevity in this game after all.
Building A Social Presence
It may sound simple but so many fail at this first step.
Create your social media platforms and look after them. In this day and age, you have to be online to be seen. At a minimum, we are talking;
- Twitter/X
With the more advanced social media savvy communities using platforms such as;
- TikTok
Here is where you start to market yourself, your events and your community online.
Using Social Media
Going further than this, you should aim for one post per day as a starting point, this can be images, reels, videos or simple tweets to start engaging with your audience.
The beauty of all this social media is a lot of it can be linked together, so if you post on Instagram, you can link your Facebook account so it posts simultaneously on that platform for you also.
Two birds one stone as the saying goes.
Not only should you be posting your newly created events and content, but you should be engaging with others. This is simple networking online to show people who you are.
There are many Facebook groups where you can advertise your events for free as well.
I must point to the VGTR SimGrid Community Instagram which is a perfect example. They post at least 5 times a week and they create frequent reels that have almost 10 million views. These are just incredible numbers when they only have 2,000 followers.
Build A Website
The next step after all your free social media platforms, is to move on to creating your free website.
Two of the more popular websites you can use that come with a free option are Wix and Squarespace – they have preloaded designs and templates and can guide you through each step.
Of course, they have paid plans that unlock more features, but let’s remember you didn’t have a website before, so even a free one is better than nothing.
I would personally recommend a WordPress website as these have fantastic features and functionality, but they are not free. If you can afford even just the basic plan, you can build a decent website for your community.
You then use the website as your main hub to highlight yourself and your events, show results, your social media platforms, gather event images and more. This is where you build up your brand.
Top tip: Potential sponsors love a website. They love that they can have centre stage on your homepage.
Broadcast your events
If broadcasting your events is something you have never considered before, get yourself set up and ready to roll in 2024.
Drivers LOVE the limelight.
YouTube and Twitch are your two best friends in this department. Again, they are free. If you are not looking to monetize right away, you can multistream on both platforms at the same time.
Two birds….
This is where you build yourself a loyal viewership who tune in every week. Setting up a stream schedule will work wonders for you because it means the viewers know what days and times you are likely to be live, meaning they are more likely to tune in.
If you cannot afford a broadcaster or commentator for your events, unfortunately, this is where you need to bite the bullet. Get stuck in and do it yourself.
It’s like the social media and website. Having something is better than nothing when wanting to host successful events, and a broadcast is another opportunity for you to build a brand and market yourself.
With a live broadcast, you are likely to entice more drivers, because they love to watch the racing after the event, more viewers because teams and supporters of drivers tune in to cheer them on, and more sponsors because it’s all about the eyeballs you have that can be potential customers.
Graphics, Posters and Media
We touched on this in the ‘How To Help Yourself Guide’ but making everything look appealing is the icing on the cake with becoming a master marketeer.
Being able to have event posters in your event info on SimGrid is the start, having posters highlighting your events on social media is the next step, creating thumbnails for your YouTube broadcasts can make it appealing for people to watch too.
A free graphics website that can get you started is Canva. You don’t need a degree in graphic design for this, just a general sense of how you want a poster to look.
You can import images, add logos and text overlays, change designs, add and use template designs and it even lets you choose the aspect ratio so it fits perfectly to most applications like social media, thumbnails, posters etc.
Posters and graphics are great for potential sponsors also. Anywhere they can get branding, they will want.
Combining All This Is Key
Notice everything we talk about is free! All it requires is your time.
When you combine everything talked about in this article, you can be sure you are on the right path to success in becoming a master marketeer for your events and championships.
This is how you can get ahead of the competition. It’s what can set you apart from other communities doing similar things. It’s what can help you fill those grids.
Finished reading? Great, now get to work!
