Promoting Tournaments and Organizational Communication

Fiend at Court Unplugged

There is a very simple thing that the USTA and the broader tennis industry organizations can do to build tournament participation: Notify prospective players about upcoming tournaments. It is an obvious statement yet it is something that isn’t being effectively done. That needs to change.

I have a pretty frequent communication pattern on this topic with USTA insiders, nearsiders, and engaged tournament players that goes something like this:

My Statement	Response
The USTA doesn’t market tennis tournaments to prospective players.	Of course they do! Tournaments are posted on the website.
That only works if the player is proactively looking for a tournament or is already aware that a tournament is scheduled.	Players should know that. It’s right there on the website.
No it’s not. At usta.com, tournaments are not obviously featured on the initial launch page.	Well, it’s easy to navigate to.
No it’s not.	(They then start to step me through the sequence of pages and clicks to get to the tournament query page.)

The most frustrating part of that communication pattern is how consistently the other party completely misses the point. I guess I need to work on my communication skills.

Posting a tournament on a website is not the same thing as marketing it to prospective players. While a central repository of playing events an essential thing to have, it is a “Pull” marketing mechanism. It relies on players that are already actively engaged in tournaments to regularly visit a website.

Attracting new players (and keeping casual ones in the fold) requires outward engagement. A “Push” approach of proactively placing tournament opportunities in front of the tennis consumer is desperately needed.

I have done my own informal Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat (SWOT) analysis of the USTA. Something that is firmly in the “Strength” quadrant is the membership directory that includes demographic data and contact information. The USTA has everything needed to perform effective targeted email marketing to its own membership.

It is befuddling that they don’t.

Positive Signs

I was recently reviewing my own account profile information at the USTA. There is a tab for “Notifications” where USTA membership can opt in and out being informed about various USTA programs. An “Opt-In” mechanism required for responsible sites that don’t want to “Spam” their members. Sending members information that they want to receive is not spam.

There is a single checkbox to opt-in to communication for USTA Leagues, Tournaments, and Play Opportunities.

Checking that box hasn’t produced much communication from the USTA to date, but maybe it will in the future. Additionally, the messages I have previously received are very generalized. A message of “Rah Rah Play a League” is fine, but a message with the details of a League that is currently registering players in my local area would be even better. I don’t recall ever seeing even a generalized promotion of tournament play from the USTA.

In the past I have talked about how some tournament directors use player contact information from previous events to promote their tournaments. It is a violation of a USTA policy that I would argue needs to change. Until very recently, I had not received a targeted email promoting a specific tournament playing opportunity officially from USTA. Last month, that changed.

This is the message that I received. I sincerely hope that it is a harbinger of more good things to come.

This message is clearly focused on previous players that participated in the event. I would love it if all prospective players in the Houston Area who had consented to Tournament notifications were also automatically notified of the opportunity to play.

Suggestion Box

The USTA needs to open the aperture on direct email marketing of tournaments. Players that have consented to Tournament notifications should automatically receive periodic targeted emails informing them of all tournaments within a 50 mile radius of their address on file with the USTA. There should also be configuration options to change the radius at an individual level.

At the same time, I would like more detailed options to personalize my own settings. This is a summary of the notifications that I would subscribe to if the USTA offered a way to do it:

• Notification of every Level 1 event with Senior Women’s divisions in my home Section
• Notification of every Level 1 event with women’s 45+ 50+ 55+ divisions nationally.
• Notification of every Level 2 event with women’s 45+ 50+ 55+ divisions nationally.
• Notification of every Level 3 event with women’s 45+ 50+ 55+ divisions nationally.
• Notification of every Level 4 event with NTRP 4.5+ divisions in my home Section
• Notification of every Level 4 event with NTRP 4.5+ divisions nationally.
• Notification of every Level 5 event with NTRP 4.5+ divisions in my home Section
• Notification of every Level 5 event with NTRP 4.5+ divisions nationally.

Finishing Shots

To build tournament participation, the USTA and the broader tennis industry organizations must notify prospective players about upcoming tournaments. Direct email marketing is a way to do that effectively, responsibly, and at extremely low cost.

Come on, USTA, make that happen.