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Marketing Yourself for Academics and Athletics                

 

In this competitive world of academics and college sports, it is critical that you develop a plan to market yourself to colleges and coaches alike. As a base for this plan you should focus on articulating three things: (1). who you are, (2). what you've done; and (3). why you can help them.  It is hard to write about and promote yourself, but it is important that you do.  It takes a little work, but can be the thing that gets you into the college of your choice.  Here are some tips on how you can develop a concise and powerful marketing plan...  I call it 'Marketing Me'

Developing a 'Marketing Me' Plan

 

Here are some of the key elements that you can make part of your plan. These will help to promote you and your skills to potential coaches.  There is no requirement that you have them all.  Create them based on your personal situation.  Also, invent some creative ways to market yourself.

 

  1. A Personal Profile Matrix 

  2. College Profile Matrix - with a short list of schools that fit

  3. Personal Bio and/or Resume - try our template

  4. Profiles on the NEU site, GotSoccer.com and other sites

  5. Introductory e-mail to coaches that presents yourself

  6. Invitation e-mail to coaches that invites them to see you play

  7. Recommendations from coaches and clinics

  8. Game videos and game shorts

  9. Attendance at Showcase Tournaments and Camps

  10. Log of all contact with Coaches and Schools  

Supporting Tools for Your Plan

 

Put that new iPad to work!  There are a number of things that you can do to enhance your Marketing Me Plan.  These things can help you to be more flexible in reaching potential coaches or helping them find you.

 

  1. Make sure that you build profiles on sites that coaches will visit.

  2. Create a separate e-mail account (gmail, Yahoo, other) to track all communications specific to your search.  Otherwise, contacts from coaches may be lost in your hundreds of personal e-mails.

  3. Consider getting a Google Voice number so you don't have to give out your personal mobile number.  It can be done for free.

  4. Create a 'private' You Tube site for your videos.  It's easier to send a link to your videos versus creating and mailing DVD's.  However, have some DVD's for the coaches that haven't made it into the 21st century yet.

  5. Create a Facebook site specific to your soccer career.

  6. CLEAN UP your existing Facebook site and Twitter Accounts! Coaches and College Admissions personnel WILL look at Facebook accounts and Twitter accounts.  Are you comfortable with what's out there now?  IDK, OMG, LOL...better check it out!

Research Tools to Help

 

Let's start here.  Personally, I like FREE.  Always have and always will. There's tons of free stuff out there - websites, blogs and social media sites. There are also a number of pretty inexpensive books available.  TIP: Go to Amazon or your favorite online bookstore and search on college recruiting. Check out the used books available.  A lot of people are getting rid of books once their kids commit.  A few other suggestions to look at:

 

  1. NCSA Website - great for researching schools.  However, they will try and up-sell you to other services - completely your call.  Either way, the free profile and searches on schools is great.

  2. The Princeton Review Website - complete profiles on top colleges and universities.  Great information and analysis of schools.  Also offers access to paid services like: SAT prep training, tutoring, etc.  

  3. The Princeton Review Top Colleges (Book) - great book if you prefer to have a quick look-up reference guide.

 

These are just a couple of examples of things that you can look into.  The available resources are endless.  TIP: strongly lean towards 'FREE'.  

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