Welcome to the third edition of the Locker Room Labs Sports Technology Spotlight. In this series, we sit down with industry partners and experts to discuss the evolving world of sports tech including the incredible innovations being developed in the space. The next professional featured in this series is sports marketing expert, Aaron Eisman of Eisman Digital Consulting. We sat down with Aaron to discuss his perspective on topics that are trending in the sports tech and sports marketing industry.
Attracting and retaining new users is key. From a user acquisition perspective, what marketing channels have proven most effective for promoting sportsbook apps and fantasy platforms?
The most effective social media channels are Twitter or X, Instagram, and TikTok in my opinion. They each add different values. Twitter or X you can build a community of sports fans and gambling fans around your content and send them to your website or download app links when they are loyal fans. Instagram is effective because you build great content that engages the audience, which allows the potential user interest to connect further with your company and its goals. Finally, TikTok is more of a brand awareness play, but it’s a platform that allows you to do more brand educational content that can target and attract the right demographic for your users.
Some say the customer is always right. Can you recall any notable instances where user or client feedback significantly influenced your improvement in the sports marketing field?
Yeah totally! My company always reads customer’s DMs whether they are positive or negative. It’s good to hear feedback and figure out the customer’s needs. Based on that, we can alter the social media strategy to best fit what the customer needs in that product. The better the social media strategy is catered to the audience, the more impact we can have on them being longer-term users/loyal fans of that company.
You wrote the book The Evolution of Sports Social Media. What inspired you to write the book and could you give us a small summary for our audience?
First off, my goal a long time ago was to publish a book before I turned 30 (and I did that!). I was inspired to write the book because of my experiences in the sports social media world at places like Turner Sports, Bleacher Report, and the NFL. I believe I learned best practices at these companies and thought that I could apply these best practices and experiences to more people in the sports industry. The book is about how sports social media has evolved over the last 10+ years. The book discusses how ESPN developed its social media practice in the early 2010s, how Bleacher Report disrupted the space from 2015-2018, Omar Raja‘s story (the founder of House of Highlights), and more! It also shows how taboo it was for an athlete to have social media and now pretty much every athlete in the world has at least one social media account. Lots of valuable tidbits from over 100 people that I interviewed for the book.
When you created Eisman Digital you had many hurdles to overcome. What do you believe are the most significant barriers for new startups in the sports technology industry?
The most significant barriers are the ability to establish a strong foundation for the business, utilize your resources as best as you can, and ask for help or assistance when needed. Building a foundation for success is paramount. It allows you to understand your niche audience or client and best sell to those customers to land them as clients. It’s not easy running a business these days since there is a lot of competition, but you need to do your best to block out the noise and focus on your strengths. Everyone has resources to better their business but it’s being selective on which resources to use and at the right times. There are a lot of tools these days to help your business grow, so why not research them and use the right ones to grow your business? Finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Be a sponge! There’s always someone in the world or your network that knows more than you. So, be humble and listen to their advice. It could provide a lot of benefits to your career and business.
What are the key sports marketing trends that professionals should pay attention to in 2024?
I would say there are three that come to mind:
No. 1 – Authenticity in building your community is very important. You need to have relatable and engaging content that the community loves and shares with their friends. Doesn’t have to be memes all of the time, but the best content will always do well and the numbers will show if it does or doesn’t.
No. 2 – Short-form vertical video content will keep being relevant. Between YouTube Shorts, IG Reels, and TikTok, you want to keep your content under 1 minute and highly entertaining if possible. The algorithm rewards this type of content, so you should do more of it.
No. 3 – NIL and other forms of monetization are just heating up. Make sure to follow this trend and be a part of connecting to the Gen Z audience through the power of the athlete. Athletes have a huge responsibility to be almost like a hero to their fans, so showcase the NIL athlete if they relate to your business.
About Eisman Digital Consulting (EDC)
EDC was founded in 2019. It is a social and digital media consulting firm for athletes, startups, and micro-influencers. The company was founded by Aaron Eisman who has over 10 years of experience working for Turner Sports, Bleacher Report, and the NFL. During his work experience, he has posted nearly 50K times, which has resulted in over a Billion interactions, 3 Billion video views, and 29 Million new followers added. To reach Aaron and EDC, visit their website here.
About Locker Room Labs
Locker Room Labs is a US-based and software engineer-owned development team specializing in sports, betting, fantasy, and iGaming. From UX Design and MVP Development to Custom App Development and Staff Augmentation, Locker Room Labs is tailored to bring sports software to life. A testament to their innovation is “The Playbook,” a proprietary sports platform-as-a-service that accelerates development time to market and curtails custom software build costs for clients. To reach Locker Room Labs, you can visit our website here.
