Our studio has been developing official websites for athletes for over 10 years now, and we’re often asked what the key to having a successful athlete site is – the answer without a doubt is the athlete’s agent.

Without the agent’s commitment to the internet, the athlete’s online presence is going to be second rate at best. The agent is the gatekeeper and holds all the keys. For example, the agent can initiate the athlete’s interest in online exposure, the agent has the power to negotiate sponsor integration on the site, and the agent can decide if a capable team will be responsible for the site. Hence, if an athlete desires a successful online presence, they need complete support from their agent.

Surprisingly in today’s digital world, we’ve come across a lot of agents and marketing reps that aren’t quite sure their clients even need a website. They seem to be unaware of all the beneficial things an official website can do for the athlete, so we’ll outline some of the reasons why every athlete should have an official site:

Marketing:
The only marketing deal an agent could ever make to provide their athlete with 24-7-365 exposure to the public is an official web site. Web sites are the only medium that allows 24-7-365 access to an athlete’s brand. It’s that simple and that important. To not have one, is to say you don’t care at all about marketing.

Information Ownership:
Where can a fan go to find out information on their favorite player? His/her official web site should be the first place a fan looks. By not having an official site, the athlete just drives traffic to the ESPN.com’s of the Internet and loses potential fan interaction, loyalty, and revenue. Why break a story through a mass release, and generate traffic for Yahoo Sports and ESPN.com? Why not break the story on your own web site? Get people in the habit of thinking if they want news on the athlete, check their site first – the only all access information hub on the athlete.

Facilitation of PR:
For every athlete it is most efficient if FAQ’s for the press reside on the site and facilitate the process for requesting interviews, schedules, photos, and autographs for charitable endeavors, etc. Help make it easier for the media to tell the athlete’s story and essentially market them.

Sponsor Awareness:
Athlete sites are a great way for sponsors to let consumers know about their partnership. Many times sponsors will run print or regional promos, or in some cases national TV and they will do nothing to support it on the athlete’s web site. So if the consumer missed the print ad, or wasn’t in the specific region, or missed the commercial they would have no idea about the sponsor partnership. This is especially important for smaller to medium sized sponsors of athletes that may have one big sponsor that drowns out the others. The agent can negotiate the integration of sponsors onto the site – from something as simple as a Logo/Profile/Link list, to including advertising materials (photos, videos, interviews) to tying  brands into section content, or even as an overall site sponsor throughout the site in unique ways.

Charity Awareness:
It’s disappointing that there are so many athletes that do great things off the field to help people that are less fortunate, but the majority of the public knows nothing about it. If for no other reason, every athlete that is involved in charity work should have a web site promoting not just their efforts, but the cause in general, and use their fame to generate even more awareness to the charitable cause.

Fan Expectation:
The Internet is so common that in today’s world for many athletes, and certainly the most famous ones it’s expected that they have an official site. When they don’t (or the site is so poorly done that they would be better off without one), it helps to tear down the athlete’s brand.

Leadership of Your Tribe:
Athletes on every level have fans – their “tribe” if you will (per Seth Godin). An official site helps provide an outlet for the athlete to provide leadership of his or her tribe. How active a leader the athlete chooses to be is up to him/her and their marketing team – from nothing all the way to an action-oriented movement – but without an official site the opportunity is lost.

Platform in Retirement:
An official site gives the athlete continued exposure after their playing days are over. Remember that an official site is a 24-7-365 marketing channel, so the spotlight does not have to go dim.

Revenue:
By not having an official web site every big name athlete loses potential revenue from current sponsors, new sponsors, fans, and in some cases they actually lose the money to unofficial fan sites. A recent example of an athlete losing potential revenue is Usain Bolt during and after the Olympics – 4 months after the Olympics and he still doesn’t have a site up and running….and he’s definitely not the only one.

It can’t be understated, the fact that the only marketing channel a brand can have that provides constant accessibility and exposure is an official web site. Unless of course you have your own TV channel running 24/7 programming, but isn’t that what a well run web site is anyway.  Is there an agent that wouldn’t want their clients to have their own 24/7 programming channel – their own official website?