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Get help to find what you need

Club Matters offers support and guidance to clubs in a wide range of topics.

To help find what you need, select the option below which best describes your current situation.

Back

  • Get started >

    My club is new or in the process of getting set-up

  • Keep it up >

    My club wants to maintain what we have and check we're doing the best we can

  • Get back on track >

    My club is struggling in one or more areas and is looking for some specific guidance

  • Raise the bar >

    My club is keen to develop and wants to improve our current offer

  • >

    My club wants to achieve Clubmark accreditation and/or I want to understand more about Clubmark

Get started

If your club is new or in the process of being set-up, we recommend exploring our Start a Club section.

This section is split into the following topics:

  • Things to think about before starting your club
  • The rules and structure your new club will adopt
  • The facilities and funding you will need in place
  • Raising awareness of your club
Go

For further information on the support available across Club Matters, visit our Get Started with Club Matters section.

Keep it up

If your club wants to maintain what it has, or check you’re doing the best you can, we recommend exploring our main topic areas in more detail.

Sign-up to workshops which cover key topic areas such as business planning, marketing, club structures, finances and tax.

Register for free for full access to our resources

Click on these boxes to access toolkits, online modules and interactive content. Have a look around to see which areas your club could benefit from.

For further information on the support available across Club Matters, visit our Get Started with Club Matters section.

Get back on track

My club is struggling on one or more areas and is looking for specific guidance.

We need help growing or maintaining our membership levels We need to manage our finances better We are looking for guidance on applying for funding We need more volunteers to help run our club We are unsure what good governance really means or how we can improve We don’t know if our club’s legal structure is right for us We need support with our facilities or lack of facilities We want to better understand our members and what they want from the club

Top Tips

1. Think about the best way to market your club to reach potential new members

2. Make sure your club is welcoming and inclusive to appeal to new members

3. Make your club experience extraordinary, so that your current members want to stay

Links

Check out the following pages for specific guidance:

Marketing Inclusivity Members and Participants

Top Tips

1. Get into a routine of checking your club’s financial position and keeping records

2. Plan for the future and develop a budget, to help you keep costs on track

3. Get your income from a variety of sources, to stay sustainable

Links

Check out the following pages for specific guidance:

Managing Money Budgeting Generating Income

Top Tips

1. Create a clear club development plan to show funders that you have realistic goals

2. Research the best funding for your club

3. Don’t forget the other ways to raise funds for your club, including fundraising, forming partnerships and gaining sponsorship

Links

Check out the following pages for specific guidance:

Club Development Plan Funding Guidance Generating Income

Top Tips

1. Look beyond your current volunteer base - don’t just rely on those who already have a link to the club

2. Convey the wider benefits of volunteering, such as improving a CV or boosting self-confidence

3. Improve the experience of your current volunteers to reduce the risk of them leaving

Links

Check out the following pages for specific guidance:

Finding Volunteers Developing Volunteers Keeping Volunteers

Top Tips

1. Governance is all about having the right people, policies, procedures and structure in place at your club

2. Protect your club’s reputation by creating, communicating and following a robust set of policies

3. Have an effective committee with clear roles and responsibilities, skills and experiences

Links

Check out the following pages for specific guidance:

Governance Policies and Procedures Effective Committees

Top Tips

1. Explore all the options available and consider seeking legal advice

2. Incorporating your club creates a separate legal entity and protects your committee and members from entering into contracts in their own name

3. Adopting charitable status or becoming a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) can provide benefits such as tax relief for your club

Links

Check out the following pages for specific guidance:

Club structures Incorporated Charitable Status CASC

Top Tips

1. Carry out risk assessments for the facilities you use

2. Hiring or leasing facilities is often the simplest solution if you only need to access them for a few hours each week

3. If you own your facilities, make sure you are clued up on business rates and energy saving measures to keep costs down

Links

Check out the following pages for specific guidance:

Club Facilities Risk Assessment Managing Costs

Top Tips

1. The way people participate in sport is changing, you need to make sure your club is flexible and can adapt to modern lifestyles and demands

2. Seek feedback from your members

3. Every club can improve, keep trying to make your club’s experience even better by creating and following an action plan

Links

Check out the following pages for specific guidance:

Understanding Your Members Understanding Your Offer Delivering a Great Experience Being Consistently Brilliant

Raise the bar

If your club is keen to develop and you want to improve your current offer, we recommend using our Club Improvement Tool.

The tool prompts you to think about how your club is performing now and where you would like it to be in the future. Based on your responses, the tool directs you to specific resources to help you reach your goals.

Go

For further information on the support available across Club Matters, visit our Get Started with Club Matters section.

Clubmark

Clubmark is Sport England’s universally acknowledged, cross-sport accreditation scheme.

If your club wants to achieve Clubmark accreditation or you want to find out more, we recommend exploring our Clubmark section.

Go

For further information on the support available across Club Matters, visit our Get Started with Club Matters section.

Club Matters Sport England > Club Marketing > Marketing Options

Club Marketing

Marketing Options

club-marketing-header

There are a variety of marketing options available to your club.  It is worth spending time exploring the benefits and limitations of these before deciding on the best ways to reach your target groups.

Marketing Options

In the past, most clubs have focused on using traditional marketing techniques, typically ads in local newspapers or sending out leaflets and flyers. Today, there is much more emphasis on digital marketing, which focuses on using the internet to spread the word about your club, through social networks, mobile apps or websites.
 
You’ll probably find that having a mixture of traditional and digital marketing will work best for your club.

Getting started

The following tips are useful to bear in mind when thinking about your marketing options:

  • Identify your target market
  • Know what you want your marketing to achieve
  • Identify what you can afford to do- establish a mini budget and seek approval from your committee
  • Keep the objective of marketing in mind, you can't appeal to everyone all of the time
  • Consider the seasonal nature of your club – think of ways to maintain interest outside of the main season
  • Keep marketing consistent- it should feel like everything comes from the same home
  • If you have an online presence- keep it up to date
  • Evaluate marketing regularly- don't waste resources on something that isn't working

Options checklist

Use the following checklist of things to think about when you are evaluating your marketing options:

  • Previous experience: What has your club has done in the past. Did these activities achieve what you set out to do?
  • Budget: How much (or how little) money do you have to invest in promotion activities?
  • Time: How much time commitment will it require?
  • Skills: Do you have someone with the necessary skills available?
Start exploring the different digital and traditional marketing options available using the links below:
Sponsorship

Sponsorship is an excellent way for your club to raise revenue while raising the profile of the organisation that is sponsoring you.

Electronic Newsletters

Newsletters can be a great way to advertise your club, promote events, send competition updates and share general club news.

Social Media

Social media allows conversations to happen between your club and the people important to your club, whether that’s your members, volunteers, players, supporters, parents or sponsors.

Websites

A website can be a really powerful way to let people know about what your club can offer them. Find out more here about creating a website and what you should consider before doing so.

Posters and Flyers

A great way to contact existing or potential members and volunteers is through posters or flyers, to tell them about the benefits that your club can bring to them.

Maximising the Media

Increasing media coverage can significantly raise your club’s profile in your local area, helping your fundraising efforts and advertising your activities and events.

Alternatively, access the Evaluating Marketing Options online module, to help you choose the best marketing methods for your club.

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