Yesterday I told you how I made some major changes in my gym when it came to how we staff coaches for our all star teams. If you missed that, click HERE to read. Today, I want to chat with you about marketing, and some of the changes I made in my marketing that ultimately grew my all star program. 

As a lot of you know, I’m primarily a rec tumbling gym. In fact, I have about 500 rec kids, and 135 all star kids right now. Many years ago, I took all the advice I saw on cheer-related Facebook groups and I did it all. I spent tons of time and money getting professional marketing made for tryouts. I printed big posters and small flyers and canvased my town. I put them up on every cork board I could find. I also put out Facebook ads for tryouts. I usually didn’t get a lot of new kids each year, but I’d get a few. All that work was worth it for just a few new kids, right? As much as I love those athletes, I’m not sure it was. I think they likely would have come to us anyway at one point. 

In 2020 I made some changes though. It was partially because of COVID and partially because military moves were delayed due to COVID. It was also because what I had been doing had fairly disappointing results. Instead of focusing on tryouts, I did a few things:

  1. I started a rec cheer team and ran it in sessions so kids could learn all-star like routines, perform for their parents and get a taste of all star cheerleading.
  2. I started a half-year novice team that competed at a local IEP and got a super affordable (and less blinged) uniform.
  3. I marketed to all my rec kids in my program. Novice was just one hour per week and it was a bit cheaper than all star, so they could continue doing the rec tumbling they loved while also doing cheer.

The result was amazing. I got about 30 new novice kids that year. The rest of the year I made sure they had a ton of fun and developed a love for cheerleading. (I also knocked down a wall and stopped separating cheer from rec. It was louder, yes, but it made our whole gym open and feel like one program rather than separate programs operating out of the same building.) 

The next season (2021) we offered full-year prep teams where most novice kids from the previous season registered and then marketed our novice teams to a whole new set of rec kids. Today, I market my novice program a bit. I also market team placements a tad (mostly to make sure my current athletes know when they are), but I focus on one thing: Marketing my rec program. That way, families can decide if they like the sport and like the gym before considering a more intense and committed program. 

I’ve worked with a few gyms on this strategy in the last year, and they have seen amazing growth in their all star programs. With a solid budgeting strategy (like the one we teach in All Star Academy), you can also make sure your programs are family-friendly AND profitable (yes, it’s possible to do BOTH!) 

As we start moving toward 2022-2023 budgeting, all star packets and team placements, I’d recommend the rec programs like mine consider this strategy. It’s a great way to grow your program and get those rec kids more involved!