You spoke, we listened… We spent a lot of time researching what you wanted to gain from the DMH throughout year 1. 

Following the success of our group coaching programme in year 1, we know that being part of a group of learners benefitting from the support of a trainer and sharing with your peers is important. This type of support really helps individuals and organisations to bring their digital marketing strategy to life. Activation is fundamental to digital marketing, so we are now getting ready to launch the DMH Gold Accelerator programme.

What is an accelerator programme?

Accelerators are short fixed-term development programmes, with the DMH programme lasting 6 weeks. Attendees from similar business types are brought together into cohorts that benefit from a focused curriculum of knowledge.

What sets accelerators apart from other types of business support programmes is that they combine an educational programme with mentoring and networking opportunities. Participants have unique access to exemplars that can provide unique experience, expertise and connections.

What is the Digital Marketing Hub Gold Accelerator?

The Digital Marketing Hub Gold Accelerator has been created to provide ambitious individuals with a new way to expand their expertise in digital marketing beyond that currently available in the Digital Marketing Hub.

Successful Digital Marketing Hub individuals from application, will go through a six-week programme starting either on 9^th January or 27^th February (we will match groups to availability), whereby they will attend a one-hour session each week on a fixed day and time.

All sessions will be held virtually through the Digital Marketing Hub. Following the six-week programme we will be hosting an in-person event at the Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park to allow Gold Accelerator participants to meet each other, as well as the coaches and mentors they’ve interacted with during the programme.

Who is the Digital Marketing Hub Gold Accelerator for?

The Digital Marketing Hub Gold Accelerator is for anyone who has registered for the Digital Marketing Hub, can commit to all sessions of the programme, and have developed a digital market strategy or plan, even if it is a draft at this stage.

Individuals selected to join the programme will have demonstrated that they are: 

Ready > (by engaging with existing Digital Marketing Hub content and creating a Digital Marketing Strategy)

Committed > (by attending the webinar as part of the application process)

Available > (by confirming they are available to regularly attend sessions in at least one of the weekly slots; slot days and times TBC)

What will I learn on the Digital Marketing Hub Gold Accelerator and how will it benefit me? 

Over the six-week programme participants will be taken through four key topics:

1. Who – Understanding your business, your customers and their persona 

2. Where – Identifying and comparing digital marketing channels and opportunities

3. How and When – Creating social media content for specific channels

4. Executing your strategy and measuring success

Graduates of the Accelerator programme will have enhanced skills and expertise to take their digital marketing strategy or plan to the next level. 

Furthermore, through the programme participants will have the opportunity to expand their network, by creating links to peers, coaches and mentors that are exemplars in digital marketing. Through our accelerator partner, Propel, we have opened up a network of 50+ experts from across sports, health, wellness and digital marketing that participants will have opportunities to meet and learn from.

Interested?

The first round of applications will open at 12pm on the 21^st November and will close at midnight on Monday 28^th November via an online application form which is available within the new community platform. 

Following this, suitable applicants that have demonstrated that they are available, committed and ready will be asked to attend a webinar on Wednesday 7^th December where we will go through the programme structure in more detail and answer any questions that applicants may have. We will then inform all applicants whether they have been selected or not no later than the 18^th December.

Want to register for the DMH? Click here

At 11 am on the 15th November 2022 the all new DMH 2.0 went live. We hope that you managed to get involved and join us for the event.

If you missed it, don’t panic, the recording is available on our community platform. Just make sure you have completed your registration and joined the community.

We had some first class speakers involved and over the coming weeks we will be doing a round up from each of them about the DMH. Special thanks goes to Jake Humphrey for once again hosting the event, which was bursting with energy and the synergy between the speakers was fantastic. As a reminder we had Georgie Lack – British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS),  Nishma Robb – Senior Director, Brand and Reputation Marketing, Google UK, Kate Dale – Director of Marketing, Sport England and Matt Willcocks – Propel Teams, Co-Founder. 

The DMH is set to be the sector ‘go to’ for all things digital marketing related and this event was just the start to set the high standard of expertise and professional content and resources that will be provided.

Not yet registered? Join now

Follow us on social media to keep up to date.

We are pleased to announce that following a successful year 1 and as we gear up for the year 2 launch and beyond, the DMH has been able to create its own social handles on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.

The success of the DMH is all down to the relationship we have with our DMH community. And in year 2 we are looking for more ways to build better relationships. 

So our new social channels will ensure that the DMH continues on its path to reach as many people as possible, engage with our fantastic audience and deliver relevant and fantastic content to all our registered users.

We encourage you to give us a follow to make sure your finger is on the pulse on all things DMH!

Instagram

Twitter

TikTok

We are pleased to announce that a new grant of £520,000 from Sport England will fund the Digital Marketing Hub for another year.

Join us at 11am on the 15 November for our launch event hosted by Jake Humphrey and a panel of VIP guests. Get full access to the Hub and guaranteed registration for our launch event by signing up HERE.

The Digital Marketing Hub is an online resource and learning hub helping those involved in the delivery of sport and physical activity improve their digital marketing. One year after launch thousands of people are accessing the Digital Marketing Hub, helping the sector to recover and reinvent following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Launched in September 2021, and funded by Sport England through a National Lottery award, the Digital Marketing Hub is free to anyone involved in sport and physical activity in England – such as freelance trainers, sport volunteers, marketing executives, and gym operators.

There are now over 5,300 people using the Digital Marketing Hub and the results have been impressive. 77% have improved their skills and confidence in digital marketing, with 72% having improved their marketing.

A whopping 87% of users have changed their behaviour to have a greater impact across their organisations such as talking to others, gathering information and taking action. As a result businesses are seeing an increased awareness of digital marketing, an increased involvement in digital marketing, more members, clients or participants and an increase in revenue.

Its success has also been recognised and has been shortlisted for the Best learning technologies project – public and non-profit at Learning Technologies Award. Finalists were selected by an independent panel of 60 judges organised by the Learning Network, with the winners to be announced on the 16th November.

Sport England’s strategy, Uniting the Movement, aims to confront physical activity inequalities such as those around socio-economic status and ethnicity. Crucially 60% of those using the Digital Marketing Hub now feel more confident when communicating in an inclusive way. 42% state their communication with people from low socioeconomic groups has significantly improved.

“The Digital Marketing Hub is a key resource in helping the sector to recover and reinvent, enabling us to tackle inequalities and ensure everyone has the opportunity to be physically active”, said Adam Freeman-Pask, Head of Digital Innovation at Sport England.

“Within the first 9 months of operating the Digital Marketing Hub has received impressive volumes of visitors and registered users from a diverse range for organisation types across the sport and physical activity sector.

It is hugely positive to see the sector developing in-house digital marketing capabilities in this way, thanks to the Digital Marketing Hub, so that we are more agile and resilient for the future.”

With a successful first twelve months of delivery complete it’s important that the Digital Marketing Hub continues to evolve, keeping up with the latest digital marketing trends and offering the very best in support.

Ollie Bell, Commercial Director at CIMSPA, explains. “The Digital Marketing Hub is an original and innovative solution for the sport and physical activity sector. We are very pleased with the number of people taking part and improving their digital marketing.

Over the next twelve months we are excited to keep improving the support on offer, combining the most up-to-date digital marketing practice and support with a modern, slick, experience for everyone getting involved.

Users can expect to be part of a vibrant community making it easier to find the people and solutions that will have the biggest impact.”

To gain access to the Digital Marketing Hub, and stay up to date with the latest opportunities, please visit https://digital.cimspa.co.uk/.

Research from Sport England shows that almost everyone in the sector wants to attract new participants, but how many have the knowledge and skills to achieve that in 2022?

Quick look:

• Below you’ll find a tool for exploring the results of a recent Sport England study into how people in different roles and organisations use digital marketing
• The infographics reveal the top marketing channels used, the leading marketing goals, and the different ways people are learning new digital skills
• We’ve created this tool to celebrate the launch of the Digital Marketing Hub, a free platform for on-demand digital training, webinars and mentoring.

After the disruption of the last two years, attracting new participants in 2022 is a clear focus for almost everyone who responded to the Sport England survey, with 95% rating this as moderately, very or extremely important.

Engaging with current participants is also seen as essential, with 37% of respondents using digital channels to communicate with their existing audience.

However, the research shows that, despite this almost universal desire to attract new people to use their services or join their clubs, only 37% of people in the sector have a plan for how to achieve this.

Social media is viewed as the most important digital marketing channel, with 71% rating social media as very or extremely important to their organisation’s success. Next up is their website and search visibility (61%) followed by online content (46%) and email marketing (44%). Advertising is seen as the least important, with 35% of people reporting that it is “not at all important” to their future success.

In line with those findings, social media is the digital marketing channel that people in the sector are most interested in learning more about: 73% are very or extremely interested in developing their social media skills, followed by website visibility (64%) and email marketing (56%).

This survey was supported by the Digital Marketing Institute.

Bridging the digital skills gap

Sport England data shows that physical activity rates have fluctuated over the past year, with widening inequalities across different audience groups, and it’s up to all of us in the sector to inspire more people to get active.

Digital marketing can be a great way to reach new audiences, regardless of the size of your organisation or the size of your budget. This might mean shifting to digital booking software, producing regular content for your website, or finding ways to engage people through social media.

To help you develop a plan that’s right for you and to learn new digital skills, CIMSPA has worked together with Sport England and partners including Google, to launch the Digital Marketing Hub.

This free platform is full of on-demand digital training, webinars, mentoring and other resources. Whether you are a club volunteer, self-employed professional or work for a larger organisation, the Hub has lots to offer, helping you to harness the power of digital marketing to get more people feeling the benefits of sport and physical activity.

A CIMSPA Training Provider Partner, Educationwise Academy, received an ‘outstanding’ judgement in its summer inspection report.

The report, published in August, praised tutors and leaders for carefully planning curriculums and said apprentices make “significant progress.”

OFSTED had said they had a “meticulously constructed” curriculum and “extremely positive” relationships with “carefully selected” employers. “For example, they have worked closely with an awarding body [CIMSPA] to ensure that newly developed standards meet the needs of the sports industry and their apprentices.”

The firm began training apprentices in 2019. It consistently scored top marks. Their apprenticeship standards include sports coaching, leadership, and management. They had 135 people working on apprenticeships in sports coaching and development when the report was published.

Nick Preston, Head of Education and Quality at Educationwise Academy, said: “Working closely with CIMPSA has ensured our coaching and fitness programmes not only meet the needs of the sector, but that we can continue to develop high-quality individuals, devoted to inspiring a nation to understand and benefit from sport and physical activity.”

You can find out more about CIMSPA Training Provider Partners here.