CIMSPA & DMI Partnership: Empowering Sport and Physical Activity Professionals through Digital Marketing Training

The Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA), funded by Sport England, partnered with the Digital Marketing Institute to create dedicated training tailored to the needs of the sport and physical activity sector, ranging from digital strategy to social media and email marketing. This partnership has grown to include webinars with industry experts, resources and toolkits, all provided through the free access to a Digital Marketing Hub (DMH), an online learning and community hub to enhance the digital marketing capabilities of those in sport and physical activity.

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Overview

CIMSPA is the professional development body for the UK’s sport and physical activity sector, committed to supporting, developing and enabling professionals and organisations to succeed and, as a result, inspire our nation to become more active. By setting clear regulatory standards for success, and continuing the development of a modern, prosperous and respected sport and physical activity sector, CIMSPA helps to nurture talent, develop careers and inspire professionalism.

How non-profit organisation CIMSPA created an award-winning Digital Marketing Hub to upskill over 8,000 sports and physical activity professionals.

Sport England awarded funding to CIMSPA for the creation of a Digital Marketing Hub, an online learning and community hub to enhance the digital marketing capabilities of those in sport and physical activity.

“We are delighted that the Digital Marketing Hub has been acknowledged as an industry leading people development programme for digital marketing skills in the sport and physical activity sector. This amazing free resource can help people promote their activity sessions and clubs across digital platforms.” explains Tara Dillon, CEO of CIMSPA.

“So many professionals across the sector have told us how much the Digital Marketing Hub has benefitted them in terms of increasing their confidence in using digital marketing and helping them to build greater engagement with new and existing customers and participants.”

The Challenge

At the start of the programme the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI) were commissioned to research the delivery of digital marketing across sport and physical providers. The results from over 1,000 responses identified a clear need to improve digital marketing.

Organisations highlighted an overall lack of awareness, skill and capability to deliver effective digital marketing. In many cases one person was tasked with carrying out digital marketing, often as a non-marketer and alongside a full work programme of other business functions.

“When we started exploring digital marketing across sport and physical activity, we found that 63% of respondents, according to the research by CIMSPA and the Digital Marketing Institute, didn’t have a clear plan to attract new audiences through digital channels – even though 81% said that attracting new participants was very or extremely important,” says Ben Wilson, Executive Director of Sport England.

“This evidence was compelling enough to create the Digital Marketing Hub to help us close the skills gap so that the sector could emerge in an even stronger place than it was prior to Covid-19,” Wilson concludes.

The Solution

To empower volunteers and professionals across the sport and physical activity sector to deliver effective digital marketing, CIMSPA created an accessible learning and community platform with a focus on digital marketing. Working with a range of sector bodies and digital marketing partners the Digital Marketing Hub (DMH) was born.

After exploring a variety of training providers on the market, CIMSPA partnered with the Digital Marketing Institute to create dedicated training tailored to the needs of the sport and physical activity sector, ranging from digital strategy to social media and email marketing. This partnership has grown to include webinars with industry experts, resources and toolkits, all provided through the free to access DMH.

“Our commitment to supporting the sports and physical activity community and professionals in achieving marketing success is driven by our mission to help marketers reach their full potential. In collaboration with CIMSPA, we’re thrilled to offer a variety of webinars, toolkits, digital marketing lessons, and more to enhance their digital marketing capabilities,” says Mischa McInerney, Marketing Director at the Digital Marketing Institute.

Following its launch in September 2021, CIMSPA expanded the initiative to deliver a coaching program in January 2022 followed by a Gold Accelerator program in January 2023.

In April 2023 the DMI were proud to sponsor the inaugural Digital Marketing Festival, hosted by the DMH.

The Results

The award-winning Digital Marketing Hub has made its mark on the sport, physical activity, fitness and leisure sector with consistent results and a wide reach across many organisations:

Achieved 8,300 registered individuals across all roles and settings of sport, physical activity, fitness and leisure
Improved 88% of members’ skills and confidence in digital marketing
Delivered 67 live webinars across a range of topics including social media, websites, SEO, content, email marketing and more
Generated 4,729 attendances through the webinar program with a user average rating of 8.5/10
Engaged 944 learners with the Digital Marketing Playbook, the 6 module course developed by the DMI
Won Silver at the Learning Awards 2023, hosted by the Learning and Performance Institute

As one DMH member puts it:

“Wow, what an amazing resource. It’s jam-packed full of useful posts, in-depth webinars on a massive range of topics and a whole wealth of knowledge. Crucially the vibe is incredibly supportive whether for first steps of encouraging the more capable in the community to stretch even further. So pleased to be a member.”

Kate Dale, Director of Marketing at Sports England says: “If you’re trying to reach new participants and retain existing ones, digital marketing is an incredibly valuable resource available – quite literally – at your fingertips. But it can be quite daunting knowing how to make best use of the channels, tools and techniques on offer.”

In terms of changing behaviour, DMH members reported that:

88% gained more confidence in digital marketing
83% improved their digital marketing skills
66% felt more confident communicating in an inclusive way
54% improved how they communicate with people from low socioeconomic groups
Over half were active in digital marketing with 19% starting digital marketing for the first time
63% applied new skills from the DMH to improve their social media marketing and 42% applied new learnings to a digital marketing strategy
55% saw increased awareness around digital marketing and 46% reported increased engagement

Specific results from attending the Digital Marketing Festival included 64 percent of attendees feeling more confident in their digital marketing skills, and 100 percent reporting that the event made them more positive about digital marketing.

As this user comments:

“The DMH has given me an understanding of all elements of digital marketing and how to integrate it into daily practices in bite-sized pieces and add it to the overall business strategy.”

The DMH has a range of offers and events scheduled for Autumn and Winter 2023. This includes the new Bronze Programme, a series of six webinars delivered by the Digital Marketing Institute. Anyone interested can find out more and join the Digital Marketing Hub here.