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GRITTY HITTERS... need feedback

GRITTYHITTER1

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Jun 18, 2019
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Hi, I'm a retired NCAA 1 Softball Coach that has launched a new website business called Gritty Hitters. I have to admit, that this is NOT in my wheelhouse. I'm learning new things everyday about driving memberships, twitter, facebook, LinkedIn and more. I've invested about $6000.00 to get the site up and running but would like some feedback.
The site is filled with content (Training videos, blog, nutrition, e-commerce, recruiting videos and more.) I believe the business, like many is saturated and worry that I might be missing the boat here? We launched the site in February but have not dumped a ton of money into advertising. My tiwtter @Grittyhitter has about 1570 followers and I'm connected on FB and LinkedIN, but wondering what else I can do to drive traffic to my site. I need some help and open to any advice I can get.
 
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Kalera

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This isn't much of advice, but I like the website. I don't know much about the business and how crowded it is. Maybe you could make some free coaching video's on YouTube. Once people trust you, they will be more inclined to signing up.

Thats just my 2 cents tho
 

GRITTYHITTER1

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This isn't much of advice, but I like the website. I don't know much about the business and how crowded it is. Maybe you could make some free coaching video's on YouTube. Once people trust you, they will be more inclined to signing up.

Thats just my 2 cents tho
Thank you.. I currently have 12 videos in publication through Championship Video and provide most all that content on my site..for whatever reason, it still doesn’t get people to separate with their $

The site is focused on hard work..GRIT..so we’re trying to offer everything an athlete would need to work harder! Our hope is that it’s the niche that separates us from everyone else. Memberships are only $150/year and a new bat is $375 .
 

GRITTYHITTER1

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Jun 18, 2019
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Thank you.. I currently have 12 videos in publication through Championship Video and provide most all that content on my site..for whatever reason, it still doesn’t get people to separate with their $

The site is focused on hard work..GRIT..so we’re trying to offer everything an athlete would need to work harder! Our hope is that it’s the niche that separates us from everyone else. Memberships are only $150/year and a new bat is $375 .
We will also reward kids if they work hard and developed an APP they get when they sign up that tracks their hard work! We surveyed 100 college coaches and the #1 attribute they were looking for was GRIT? I have to figure out how to sell this concept better!
 
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A_Random_Guy

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How about hosting a softball contest in a local college and promoting your products?
Idk if that is cost efficient marketing but it sure is a great way to reach out to the people near you before anyone else does.
I just started learning marketing so I apologize if I sound stupid.
 

GRITTYHITTER1

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Jun 18, 2019
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How about hosting a softball contest in a local college and promoting your products?
Idk if that is cost efficient marketing but it sure is a great way to reach out to the people near you before anyone else does.
I just started learning marketing so I apologize if I sound stupid.
One thing we are doing is promoting and sponsoring a huge softball tournament in July around Chicago. We currently have over 150 coaches and 2000 athletes and will be giving our APP for free for 2 weeks to see if people are interested. We are going to run a competition and award winners that work the hardest over those 2 weeks. The goal is to get them to the website and hopefully they see a value in signing up year round.
We pilot tested it with a few high schools and the results were great. The coaches said their kids showed up early, left late, got creative etc. Regardless, of the 30 kids that participated only 1 signed up. With that said, I don't have a clue whether our Chicago promotion will work or not. It's definitely worth a shot. We need to create revenue through sign ups before we can go full force advertising on the web.
 

Johnny boy

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Hey Randy, I played some college baseball and my sister is a freshman at USD playing softball so this is an interesting post.

I would strongly recommend following what Driveline baseball is doing. I trained with them for a while and spent time training alongside some pro guys including Trevor Bauer.

They have a training facility that focuses on providing extremely high level training and instruction to top athletes. They gain serious notoriety from this and it builds their brand naturally when pro athletes train with them. That's how they attract so much attention from the baseball community in general. Then, they use that attention to sell books, training materials and more to tons of baseball players. It raises the value of their training by going after professional athletes first.

Putting up a pay wall for softball players to watch training videos and track workouts seems like it would not be very profitable since they can watch plenty of drills on youtube and just track workouts on the notes app of their phone for free.

"Grit" is definitely important, but it isn't an attribute earned through an app. It needs something more tangible. You shouldn't get "grit" points for workouts or anything like that. You have grit because you go through something objectively tough that means something. Like being a navy seal. You don't get "tough points" for working out. But everyone respects a navy seal because it's objectively tough as hell.

If you want to market "grit", coach a team that is religiously disciplined and make it the softball equivalent of joining the navy seals. It should be an experience they go through that is different than any other team. Over time it will gain a reputation. Turn it into a recruitment factory that colleges recognize as being the place to go to find "gritty" players and the place for parents to send their daughters to become "gritty" players. You'll own the word and it'll be a conversation topic easily communicated between gossiping parents and gossiping players all around the country. "Did you hear about that one team??"

Then, you can leverage the brand recognition for tournaments, training camps, etc. That's where the "luxury" markup happens and it'll allow you to charge a ridiculous amount and still get tons of signups. There's millions in this if you do it right.
 
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GRITTYHITTER1

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User Power
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Jun 18, 2019
6
1
Hey Randy, I played some college baseball and my sister is a freshman at USD playing softball so this is an interesting post.

I would strongly recommend following what Driveline baseball is doing. I trained with them for a while and spent time training alongside some pro guys including Trevor Bauer.

They have a training facility that focuses on providing extremely high level training and instruction to top athletes. They gain serious notoriety from this and it builds their brand naturally when pro athletes train with them. That's how they attract so much attention from the baseball community in general. Then, they use that attention to sell books, training materials and more to tons of baseball players. It raises the value of their training by going after professional athletes first.

Putting up a pay wall for softball players to watch training videos and track workouts seems like it would not be very profitable since they can watch plenty of drills on youtube and just track workouts on the notes app of their phone for free.

"Grit" is definitely important, but it isn't an attribute earned through an app. It needs something more tangible. You shouldn't get "grit" points for workouts or anything like that. You have grit because you go through something objectively tough that means something. Like being a navy seal. You don't get "tough points" for working out. But everyone respects a navy seal because it's objectively tough as hell.

If you want to market "grit", coach a team that is religiously disciplined and make it the softball equivalent of joining the navy seals. It should be an experience they go through that is different than any other team. Over time it will gain a reputation. Turn it into a recruitment factory that colleges recognize as being the place to go to find "gritty" players and the place for parents to send their daughters to become "gritty" players. You'll own the word and it'll be a conversation topic easily communicated between gossiping parents and gossiping players all around the country. "Did you hear about that one team??"

Then, you can leverage the brand recognition for tournaments, training camps, etc. That's where the "luxury" markup happens and it'll allow you to charge a ridiculous amount and still get tons of signups. There's millions in this if you do it right.
Johhny Boy, Loved your post...thank you. I will take into consideration a lot of your points.
One of your final points about marketing GRIT is truly where my heart is and has been from the beginning. We've been working hard at getting the brand out there to people, but mostly it's my connections to the sport having coached 15 years in NCAA 1. Ironically, I've had a few big organizations approach me about starting a travel ball organization - of which I would call Gritty Hitters and create values that coincide.

I'm going to digest a lot of your advice. You're a smart guy... Hope your a coach! Randy
 

Johnny boy

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May 9, 2017
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Johhny Boy, Loved your post...thank you. I will take into consideration a lot of your points.
One of your final points about marketing GRIT is truly where my heart is and has been from the beginning. We've been working hard at getting the brand out there to people, but mostly it's my connections to the sport having coached 15 years in NCAA 1. Ironically, I've had a few big organizations approach me about starting a travel ball organization - of which I would call Gritty Hitters and create values that coincide.

I'm going to digest a lot of your advice. You're a smart guy... Hope your a coach! Randy

A team named “Grit” would be cool in my opinion. It doesn’t need to be the same exact name used throughout the whole organization (gritty hitters). It’s a matter of opinion but that’s just my 2 cents.

Thanks for enjoying the post. I’m excited to see how things go, being from a baseball family.
 

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