FOR FANS OF YOUR TEAM: PROMOTE AND COMMUNICATE WITH A TEAM NEWSLETTER

One of the best ways to promote your team is to send out a team newsletter.  It is also a great way to communicate with parents, fans, your administration, and alumni.  People like to read about what is happening with the team.  A simple newsletter can create some excitement for your team or overall program.  With today's technology you have the capability to reach people all over the globe, and can do it so it doesn't cost you a penny.

Creating a newsletter might seem intimidating to someone who hasn't done it.  My response to that is it will be as intimidating as you want it to be.  Your newsletter can be very basic and easy to create, or it can be as fancy as you can make it.  Either way the goal of promoting your basketball team and communicating with the fans of your team is being accomplished.

You will want to be careful as to what kind of information you include in your newsletter.  Obviously you would never want to write about information that could cause any type of turmoil.  Keep the information positive.  Remember you are promoting your team, program, and the wonderful that are a part of it.

Listed below are some things to remember when creating a team newsletter:

1. You can save yourself a lot of money by sending your newsletter via email only.  You will need to compile a list of email addresses to start.  In each newsletter you might need to add a blurb to your readers for them to forward the email (newsletter) to anyone who they think might be interested in receiving it (former players, school alumni, relatives, community members, etc).  In the newsletter you will also want to include a message on how someone could get on the email list to receive future newsletters.  Your email list will grow as a result.
2. The newsletter can be as plain as a simple email or you can create something more appealing with different tools, one being in Word.
3. When sending out your newsletter list it would be advised to use the bcc to include the email addresses.  This will hide all the recipient's email addresses.  Why could this be important?  One reason is that there might be a reader that would rather not have their email address known by someone else.  Another is that there could be a disgruntled parent/fan that could type up an email by hitting "Reply All" and it would be sent to all your newsletter readers.  This is just to protect yourself.
4. Create and send out the newsletter on a regular basis. Weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, and quarterly are times to consider.
5. Information to consider putting in your newsletter:

• A message from you, the coach.
• Upcoming game schedule.
• Information on any upcoming fundraising events, promotions, or special events that are associated with your team/program.
• Action photo(s) of your team.
• A description and diagram of a drill you do in practice.
• News about other teams in your basketball program (youth teams).
• Spotlight on one of the coaches in your program.
• Spotlight on one of the players in your program.
• Spotlight on someone who does behind the scenes work for your team (custodian, administrator, booster club member, etc).
• A motivational quote that you use with your team.
• Highlight recent accomplishments of your team or players.

If you would like to see a sample of a newsletter that I have sent out I would be happy to send you one.  Email me at dietelgreg@gmail.com to request an actual newsletter I sent out.

A newsletter is a tool to use that can keep basketball in the minds of your players, fans, parents, and alumni no matter what time of the year it is.  That alone is worth the time you would invest creating your newsletter.