S&PA Professional Magazine - Autumn 2021

ADDRESSING THE DIGITAL SKILLS GAP

The new Digital Marketing Hub is designed to improve the digital skills of both individuals and organisations to help the sector recover and rebuild from the pandemic

September saw the launch of a fantastic free facility to plug the sector’s digital skills gap. The new Digital Marketing Hub has been created to help people and organisations improve how they apply digital marketing tools and techniques, to encourage more people to play sport and be active.

Jake Humphrey, TV presenter and host of The High Performance Podcast, along with a panel of marketing experts kickstarted the launch of the Hub with a session explaining the importance of digital marketing and the aims of the Hub.

This was followed by a webinar with the irrepressible Joe Wicks. The bestselling author and fitness coach has taken over the world of fitness and nutrition. He has hosted his own Channel 4 series, broken a Guinness World Record for the most viewers for a fitness workout live stream on YouTube in 2020, earned another Guinness World Record for the largest high intensity interval training class in 2017 and was awarded an MBE in October 2020 for his work during the pandemic.

In the webinar, Joe shared how social media has played a huge role in developing his business and shaping his entire career, including over the last 18 months.

APPETITE FOR DIGITAL TRAINING

The Hub was launched in response to research conducted by the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI) on behalf of Sport England of more than 1,000 people involved in sport and physical activity marketing and communications. The research showed a clear appetite for digital training and resources. According to the findings, 81% of respondents said that attracting new participants was very or extremely important, but 63% said they don’t have a clear plan to deliver that through digital channels.

This research also found that the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the digital skills gap and made engagement more important than ever before.

www.cimspa.co.ukThe launch of the Hub addresses two of the issues outlined in Sport England’s Uniting the Movement strategy – the need for the sector to recover and reinvent following the pandemic, as well as the need for innovation and digital skills to tackle inequalities and ensure everyone has the opportunity to be active.

GOOGLE TRAINERS AND MENTORS

The Hub is tailored to small businesses, self-employed professionals and volunteers at frontline organisations and clubs, as well as marketing and communication professionals at larger organisations.

Funded by Sport England through the National Lottery, with content curated by lead partner, the DMI, the Hub is free to anyone involved in delivering sport and physical activity in England, from coaches and volunteers to grassroots organisations.

It contains a wealth of resources to give individuals and organisations the skills to communicate digitally so they can re-connect and re-engage with members, partners and communities. These include expert led video lessons, toolkits, templates, webinars, walkthroughs and mentorship. All DMI content is on-demand so participants can curate their own training, scheduling and focus on the areas most valuable to them. Also included are a host of benefits, including discounted access to web platforms.

CIMSPA has entered into a strategic partnership with tech giant Google, which enables anyone in sport and physical activity in England to access free advice and resources from Google experts to help enhance their digital marketing skills. Benefits include tailored one-to-one mentoring from digital experts at Google, a series of 12 Google Digital Garage live webinars designed to get businesses discovered online and find new customers, as well as signposting to specific and relevant courses available in the Google Digital Garage.

Google Digital Garage is one of Google’s flagship investment programmes in the UK, providing free digital skills training to individuals and businesses. Since its launch in 2015, Google has visited more than 500 villages, towns and cities across the UK and trained over 600,000 people face-to-face and online. The Google Digital Garage webinar series allows participants to access free live training designed to help them grow their business, jump-start their career or develop new skills – all from their own home. The live webinars are free to attend and open to everyone – delivered by expert Google Digital Garage trainers ready to help and support the learning of individuals, whatever their goals.

“We are very proud to deliver this fantastic new resource for the sector and are extremely grateful to Sport England and the National Lottery for both the funding and the vision that has allowed the Digital Marketing Hub to become a reality,” said Tara Dillon, CEO of CIMSPA.

“We know that the successful delivery of sport and physical activity is dependent on the quality of the professionals engaging with the public. With more people online than ever, digital marketing has an increasingly important role to play in engaging audiences and encouraging people to be active, especially for self-employed and freelance professionals, who rely on it to reach their customers.

“By improving the digital skills of the sector, we have the opportunity to engage more people in sport and physical activity than ever before helping businesses and individuals to build back stronger as we emerge from the pandemic.” Register for the Digital Marketing Hub at https://digital.cimspa.co.uk/