ATBA-UK Marketing, review and reflections

I’ve been heavily involved in marketing and communications for the ATBA-UK over the past five years During that time we’ve used many different platforms, strategies and tactics to try to communicate and engage with the UK mountainboarding community. We started with a website and used email newsletters and facebook posts to drive people to the website. As the email metrics dropped and fewer people visited the website we switched to a ‘Social front and centre’ strategy which included putting the content we wanted people to see in the email newsletters and facebook posts so that the reader didn’t have to click through to read the message. The numbers continued to fall. 

Now, with so few mountainboarders engaging with the ATBA-UK through competitions, instructor training, and membership, and with fewer mountainboard centres doing fewer events, there is so little to talk about. Not having much to say means people stop bothering to read anything, which means it is no longer worth the effort to write facebook posts, send email newsletters, snap instagram pics, or tweet. 

So what to do for the best for the future? That is the question. When things get down to nothing it’s often hard to get them going again. Like a mountainboard getting to the bottom of the run, it eventually runs out of momentum. Do we call it a day, or do we pick it up and go for another run?