In today’s world, it is essential to have a website in order to promote your club, share information, and serve as a base of connection for members and the public regarding your club activity. Starting a website for booster clubs is a great idea, but not all websites are equal, and not all websites are functional in the way current users need. If your website still has an old-fashioned, early 2000’s feel to it, it may be time to update it.
The number one idea to keep in mind with website design is to think of the purpose of your website. For example, is it to advertise your club to the public? Is it to communicate practice and game times to your students? Is it to raise money from your families? Is it to showcase the accomplishments of the team or of individual students? Is it to serve as a record of club activity? Is it to drive traffic to your social media? Or drive traffic to your online store? Each one of these, and others as well, may be reasons, or may have been reasons in the past, for various choices you made about your website. Are those choices still relevant to your club today? Are those choices still relevant in today’s technology world?
If you take the steps to create a website, you should also make sure that a member of the club has time to dedicate to it.
A lot of booster clubs put up a website but fail to update it, which can ultimately hurt your organization. Here are a few booster club website best practices.
Don’t Overlook the Basics
If someone ends up on your website, there’s a good chance they are looking for information. Don’t assume that visitors to your website are already familiar with the club.
Basic questions you should address include:
You can profile the officers of your club, a sports team that you’re supporting, or even individual students.
It’s also a good idea to post periodic updates so that visitors know that the website is active. Post about your recent progress, about the success of the students you’re supporting, or a review of your last fundraiser.
Keep Internal Communications Separate
Some booster clubs mistakenly treat websites like an information repository and communication channel for members. This is the way websites were designed in the 90’s and 2000’s. However, the most current designs move all of this clutter to apps, leaving your website available for focused purposes. Since anyone can visit your website, it’s not a great idea to put internal communications on your site. Also, having large amounts of information on your website can make it cluttered and difficult to find information across multiple pages, or scrolling through long pages. There is no need for the general public to know where and when practices are, who is bringing what to the next gathering, and detailed contact info of your membership, for example
A better option for member communication is to use a secure, school-approved app, like BoosterHub, to send messages or reminders and organize volunteers.
Using an app or booster club software isn’t only better for the privacy of the organization, it’s more convenient for members. They’ll be able to get organized information about key events, and even push notifications so they don’t miss anything. All of this is accessible at a touch of their phone, instead of searching through your website.
Asking members to periodically visit a website isn’t an efficient way to share information. An app can send emails or push notifications right to their phones immediately, so no one is left in the dark. With an all-in-one app like BoosterHub, each of the icons for communications, volunteering, fundraising, and store are all on the same page, which makes it exceptionally easy to grab the attention of visitors to the app when they are fully engaged in the business of your club, and get them to volunteer, or buy a T-shirt, or purchase a sponsorship, or any of the other club activities you are trying to promote. What kills engagement is having to hunt for different apps and different websites to conduct each part of your club’s activities: going somewhere for calendar, somewhere else to buy store swag, somewhere else for communications, and somewhere else to find an important file, etc.
Make Getting Involved Easier
If someone from the public visits your website, you have a key opportunity. Make sure it is easy and encouraged to get involved. Use the opportunity to spread the word about volunteering opportunities, support options, and fundraisers. And make donating easy!
Don’t hide your donation page or make it difficult to navigate through. The easier it is to donate, the more likely it is to happen. Keep the website simple and don’t load it up with too much content. If it’s difficult to read or find information, the visitor will likely leave. A bit of information and an image conveying your club’s purpose are perfect. Then make the donation information and button the next most prominent thing on your site.
Information about upcoming fundraisers should be a prominent feature on your website. Visitors should be drawn to fundraising notifications and should be able to easily access key information and ways to support your efforts. Make the number of button clicks as few as possible.
To promote your fundraiser, spend some time thinking about language that will get them interested in attending. Fundraisers call for promotion, so make an effort to advertise your event on your website, in addition to in person and social media outreach. Save the most prominent fonts and the largest photos and space on your website for your most important fundraising and donation information.
If you follow these key tips, your website should be a valuable source of information and an effective way to promote your club.
