The Pittsburgh Riverhounds and Their Digital Marketing Strategy
The Pittsburgh Riverhounds are a soccer team playing in Pittsburgh in the USL Championship League, the second highest soccer league in America behind the MLS. The Riverhounds are a fast growing team in a city that is dedicated to their teams, no matter the sport. While soccer is not nearly as popular as it is in the rest of the world, the Riverhounds have done a great job with their marketing over the past few years to put them on the map of teams to see in the Pittsburgh region. According to Soccer Stadium Digest, the Riverhounds ranked 12 out of 21 teams in average attendance for the 2023 season with 5,073 fans per game. This was a huge leap from 2022 where tem club averaged 3,934 fans per game. The team is also starting off the 2024 season with strong promotional nights, as the dollar beer night for the April 27 game vs Detroit set a team record for single game attendance with 6,099 fans according to Pittsburgh Soccer Now. While the Hounds have done a very good job promoting their games, especially as of late, there are still other ways the team can reach out to fans who do not attend soccer games in order to bump their average attendance up even more.
Social Media marketing has risen to being one of the most effective ways to market in the modern day, and has become the most effective ways to market to an under age 25 demographic. Many kids will see something that they like on social media, such as Riverhounds highlights. They will then show their parents about the Riverhounds, and the parents will then buy tickets and Riverhounds merchandise for a fun, somewhat cheap family weekend. Check out these blogs about why TikTok and Social Media Influencers have become the most intertwined with the current marketing landscape.
Pittsburgh Riverhounds Instagram page
SMS Marketing is also another digital strategy that the Riverhounds would be able to effectively use to sell tickets to college students. The Pittsburgh Penguins have had great success selling tickets to college students through Student Rush Tickets. Student rush tickets are limited discounted tickets that are sent through text messages to college students so that they are able to afford going to watch their favorite sports team play at a reasonable price. The Riverhounds should start doing student rush tickets so they at the very least alert college students when a home game is taking place. Since college students are young, if they come to a game and have a good time, they will likely become fans for life. This makes the student rush tickets a long-term investment since they will continue to go back to Riverhounds games long after graduating college.
Another very effective digital marketing strategy that has taken over in the past few years is Podcasting. Ever since 2020, podcasts have taken over the media. People of all ages listen to and create their own podcasts, making the viewers a much wider demographic than in all other forms of digital marketing. There is one podcast that is dedicated to the Riverhounds: Mon Goals - Riverhounds. While having a podcast is a good start, this particular podcast is not advertised very well and could be improved upon. The podcasts page on Instagram currently has 92 followers and there has not been a post since October 3, 2020. The podcast is not run by the Riverhounds, however, if the Riverhounds do decide to buy out the podcast and run it their name, they have a great opportunity to improve public relations. Having an already established social media presence, the team would be able to advertise the podcast the way they chose. They could post updates every time an episode comes out on their social media platforms, such as their Instagram page that currently has 27.6 thousand followers. With the team having full control over the podcast, this gives the players and coaches an opportunity to talk about the team from their perspective. Hearing a player talk about being in the locker room with a team he loves is always an interesting viewpoint that many people are intrigued to listen to. The Riverhounds taking over a podcast is, in my opinion, the best digital marketing strategy they can possibly do because of the positive public relations that would surround it.
Mon Goals - Riverhounds Podcast
To recap, the Riverhounds should focus on three main aspects with a digital marketing strategy: increasing a social media presence, most notably TikTok, implementing a student rush ticket method, and creating a podcast to help with public relations. With the completion of these three things, the Riverhounds can expect higher ticket sales for every game. People will become increasingly more engaged with the team, causing the attendance numbers to rise significantly for every game played in Pittsburgh.