How can this benefit my brand?

In this week’s edition, you’ll gain some juicy insights into the following

  • How to make your audience aware of your presence across different social channels
  • The impact that post-fight celebrations can have towards athlete branding
  • Ways to maximise your community relationships through YouTube
  • How to repurpose nationally recognised trends to your benefit
  • How to captivate initial attention through Instagram reels

Take notes from UFC on TNT Sports as to how to make your audience aware of other channels you’re present on

X post from UFC on TNT Sports

ESPN MMA continue to lead by example with TikTok

@espnmma

Vanessa Demopoulos got quife the tradition 😂 #UFC #UFCVegas80 #memes #MMA #combatsports

♬ Vengeance Phonk – TREVASPURA
TikTok video uploaded by ESPN MMA

Following Vanessa Demopolous’ win over the weekend at #UFCVegas80, her traditional celebration has been maximised all over social media from various outlets. 👀

The impact that this can have on her brand is miraculous, such as 👇🏾

🌟MERCHANDISE🌟

Specific merchandise can be branded with Vanessa Demopoulus doing her traditional “jump into the hands of the commentator”, which fans will find appealing and engaging. 💡

🌟MEMES🌟

It’s a chance to expand outside her niche with no context memes across the MMA community and general meme accounts such as Sport Bible, LadBible etc. 

Did you know YouTube offer out Loyalty memberships? 

YouTube upload by Aiden Heaney

I was casually scrolling through my YouTube feed and came across one of my favourite content creators, Aiden Heaney, a playground of personal development tools and knowledge. 💡

As a marketer, I casually scrolled through his YouTube description in his latest upload, I noticed that he has an exclusive membership option for his community to get involved in 👀

This is a brilliant way to grow your community and make them feel valued by being affiliated with your content. 💡

The benefits it can provide long-term are opening monetization avenues, community value, early updates to upcoming news and more exclusivity.

Capitalise on nationally recognised trends to generate brand awareness 

X thread curated by Ash from Norwich City FC

Norwich City FC stole the show in the sports content landscape to illustrate the importance of speaking out about mental health and checking out on your loved ones. 🌟

National trends in the content calendar mark an opportunity for brands, athletes and creators to optimise their brand awareness during a spike in social media engagement from influential brands. 👀

For example, #WorldMentalHealthDay could’ve been utilised as an opportunity within combat sports to illustrate how fighters have openly come out about mental issues they’ve faced, diagnoses they’ve experienced etc. This would have an inspirational effect on the casual fan and illustrate combat sports’ mental power. 

As a matter of fact, this was an initiative I took through my X feed, where I reposted Norwich City FC’s video and then created a thread of moments of influential figures in the combat sports space discussing mental health, having a proactive attitude like this surrounding such prevalent issues around the likes of mental health can be a big deal to add authenticity, transparency and value to your online tone-of-voice 💡

Capture unorthodox moments within your Instagram reels

Instagram Reel from ONE Championship

Most recently, ONE Championship shared an IG reel with their fighter, Amir Aliabari, with the caption promoting who the fans want next for him. 👀

But to captivate the initial attention, they’ve selected a video of himself getting his nails cut before he goes to compete 💅

What this does is humanise your content while captivating the attention of your audience 💡

Now that’s a wrap! If you found any other juicy content insights inside or out of combat sports this week, feel free to let me know!

How can this benefit my brand?

This week’s edition of ‘How Can this Benefit My Brand?’ includes insights surrounding how to efficiently repurpose other channels to form long-form content, how YouTube SEO can be optimised, ways to meet the needs of the TikTok algorithm, how X posts can maximise the same impact as a blog post alongside a super engaging way fighters can optimise Instagram reels.

Wow, I’ve officially been featured on the DAZN x Series YouTube channel. 😱

YouTube upload from the DAZN X Series YouTube channel. My X post features from 7:21-8:11

Now that’s a big deal! Ahead of #KSIFury, Misfits Boxing has gotten crossover boxer Slim Albaher to react to comments from the crossover boxing community around updates in the industry. 👀

One of these posts came from me posting on X about how an anticipated fight between AnesonGib & Slim would’ve been electric, but unfortunately, due to financial issues between Gib and Mams Taylor, Gib is currently unwilling to be affiliated with Misfits Boxing… 

However, combat sports athletes and brands can learn from this YouTube video alone to use comments and fan-led reactions across different channels to be repurposed through reaction videos like this. 🔥

It clearly pays dividends and almost makes your marketing strategy work like a human skeleton where every channel you have is interdependent towards growing your brand in some shape or form. 🌟

How can combat sports athletes optimise their YouTube SEO game through descriptions? 

YouTube upload from VIDDAL

None other than Viddal Riley became an English cruiserweight champion this weekend, and there are many tick boxes that he’s applied to marketing this incredible achievement. 👀

Firstly, he’s affiliated with his hashtag through the custom keyword feature on his YouTube upload, allowing him to optimise visibility through his content. 🔦

Secondly, he’s remembered to endorse his sponsor, Myprotein, alongside utilising the discount code ‘VIDDAL’, which can act as a tracker to show how influential Riley is towards an ambassador for the brand. 🌟

Thirdly, he’s plugged his editors responsible for crafting this vlog of his fight which can inspire other fighters to consider using them for leverage. 👀

Last but certainly no means least, he’s left a link to all of his socials via Linktree! This is great for third-party traffic and gaining more of a community aside from subscribers on one platform. 👏🏾

If I were to be hyper-critical, Viddal could’ve optimised his description further by allocating timestamps of certain parts in his video to give viewers more accessibility towards when particular events occur during the video. 💪🏾

Aside from that, well done to the Rilist! 

Cage Titans demonstrating they know how TikTok works! 

@cagetitans

@Jay Curley is an ANIMAL #wearecagetitans #fyp #mma

♬ original sound – 💕🅼🅰🆂🅾🅾🅼💕
TikTok reel from Cage Titans

When it comes to producing content on TikTok, it’s essential to capitalise on viral trends/audios/content to maximise the impact of your personal content! 

In MMA, Khamzat Chimaev is a big deal who has gone from strength to strength to becoming one of the biggest stars in the West. 🔥

As a result, many other things will get attached to him, such as popular audio used for user-generated content pieces, fight compilation clips, catchphrases that will be a part of his fighter slogan and nickname and much more! 

Cage has maximised this by promoting one of their fighters, Jay Curley, with some fight highlights accompanied by audio centralised around Khamzat Chimaev clips. 🌟

To maximise brand engagement on the platform, they’ve even taken time to respond to comments about the video, which is fantastic for community building and growing an audience. 💡

Match of the Day demonstrates how to optimise an X post. 

X post from Match of the Day

Away from combat sport, MOTD has shared some content surrounding speculation around the Spurs vs. Liverpool game over the weekend. 👀

Regarding how they’ve optimised their X post for this, they’ve included a branded graphic that follows the MOTD logo’s colour schemes, an essential code for generating brand awareness towards prospective audiences. 💡

Secondly, there’s a VERY comprehensive alt-text description about what the imagery is illustrating, which makes your content more accessible towards disadvantaged audiences who might be visually impaired; it’s a good tactic for making your content more inclusive.💡

Thirdly, including three hashtags relevant to their content house style is key, such as #BBCFootball for general fans, #LFC for Liverpool supporters and #THFC for Spurs supporters. 💡

There are three simple ways for a brand to make its content brand-sensitive. 💪🏽

Joshua & Joel Iyalla & Glitch Boxing show us how to make boxing tutorials engaging in Instagram Reels.

Collaborative Instagram Reel from Joshua Iyalla, Joel Iyalla & Glitch Boxing

If you’re a fighter with an upcoming event, utilise the location to endorse engagement, virality and culture to optimise your brand. 🌟

What I mean by this is both Joshua and Glitch Boxing have their socials on point to educate their audience about boxing knowledge through tutorials, tips and tricks. 💡

However, both gentlemen have optimised an opportunity at a beautiful spot with a view of the Eiffel Tower to undergo what would be regular content for both creators. Therefore, think proactively when it comes to content creation opportunities. 💪🏾

That’s enough from me. Do you have any further insights that I may have missed out?

How can this benefit my brand?

We reach the end of another week, and there’s plenty of content to learn from once again, which includes the following, 

👉🏾 What content works for TikTok

👉🏾 Methods YOU can optimise media exposure

👉🏾 How you can maximise engagement through Instagram reels

👉🏾 How can LinkedIn serve combat sports athletes to gain sponsorship? 

👉🏾 What can the UFC teach us about optimising SEO on YouTube? 

Easy content works on TikTok

@ksi

This or that with @Anthony Joshua

♬ KNOCKED OUT – Canon
TikTok upload via KSI

As always, consider content that’s not just you at the gym! Combat sports fans have various interests; the industry is driven by entertainment, so treat it like that. 💡

For example, KSI & AJ had content through this TikTok Reel, which, away from boxing, consisted of food, music, gaming, energy drinks and pets. 👀

Like I’ve said, create content outside of your niche. There’s a reason why personalities like Colby Covington, Israel Adesanya, Anthony Joshua and more have successfully driven revenue and PPV. Because they understand how the industry works 💡

How can you maximise third-party media exposure?

YouTube commenting on Arnold Allen’s X post

MASSIVE. MASSIVE. DEAL! 

The official YouTube account on X has endorsed UFC fighter, Arnold Allen’s, food vlog episode on his channel, a big lesson for combat sports athletes, focus on creating content away from the gym, training etc. 

Here’s why 👇🏾

Regardless of being an athlete, sports fans have a habit of other stuff, such as food, drink, music etc 🧑‍🍳🥤🎼

Therefore, championing those other content themes as part of your brand will pay dividends through sponsorship, brand engagement, reach and media exposure. 

Also, you can use endorsements like this, even as an athlete, to contribute towards media exposure and content creation. 

For example, include a branding graphic of YouTube’s comment as a part of your intro sequence, and utilise it through fun short-form content.

For marketing tips, advice and guidance for combat sports athletes, brands and marketers, give me a follow. 😁

Misfits Boxing demonstrate how to optimise video engagement through Instagram reels

Misfits Boxing Instagram reel

Plenty of media outlets utilise this content format now when it comes to reactions, compilations, comparisons etc. 

What works well with this symmetrical video format is that it gives the viewers two bits of engaging content relevant to one another. 👀

A common theme around this also involves online creators cutting out bits of a live stream on Twitch at the top. Then it will be accompanied by a GTA mod at the bottom, once again, two engaging pieces of content that are captivating attention from your consumer. 💡

How can this help grow your brand? Well, whenever an opportunity like this arises, keep consistent with it and it can be used for multiple purposes 👇🏾

👉🏾 fight promotion

👉🏾 memes

👉🏾 comparing training footage 

👉🏾 And more

How can sharing your personal story enhance you to reach more audiences via LinkedIn? 

In the words of the great Wayne Gretzky: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

For me it’s not if the ball went in or not, it was over coming my fear of getting to the court and going on paralysed and having fun.

Overcoming the people staring at me as I tried to play and as Michael Gervais says to stop worrying what other people think of you.

What shots are you not taking in life because of inner fears you may have.

Go take that shot today my friend and have fun when doing taken it.


#nike #mindset

David Smith MBE is a Nike athlete who’s been through a whole load of experience recovering from paralysis. He’s recently shared this VERY inspiring clip of himself shooting a basketball hoop and the main message via the caption is “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” 🏀

The message is brilliant and is something that combat sports athletes can benefit from through sharing their personal stories, marketing their core values on LinkedIn and engaging in similar conversations with like-minded personalities for endorsements 💡

The UFC once again smash it when it comes to YouTube description optimisation

UFC 294 official trailer via the official UFC channel

With UFC294 coming up next month, it’s about time for the promo to start kicking in! Now, what’s understood doesn’t need to be explained, the content team smashed it with the trailer 🔥

However, I’d like to focus more on the YouTube description and how proactive the YouTube content team were when forming it together. 

👉🏾 firstly, they begin it with a summary of what the event is about, such as the story with the two main events. 

👉🏾 secondly, they include a whole load of back links to drive traffic to their other marketing profiles which is superb for brand awareness and engagement. 

Whether you’re a combat sports athlete or brand, take notes of this, reason being is a comprehensive description can be a deal breaker for optimising your content to be ranked higher for your desired target audiences 🌟

Now that’s enough from me, has there been anything I’ve missed out 🤔

With regards to this blog post, if you found it valuable, do feel free to get in touch with me for a consultation call to help me help you with your marketing needs 😁

How can this benefit my brand?

In this week’s edition, there are various lessons we can learn around repurposing content from other channels, the influence of illustrating your struggles, the value of athletes promoting themselves on LinkedIn, transferable knowledge fighters can take away from KSI and how YOU can get the TikTok algorithm to work for you.

Keep your content as simplistic as possible

Instagram post by ESPN MMA

Once again, you can tell ESPN MMA is one of my favourite accounts to follow about how they set out their content creation strategy. 🔥

When it comes to creating content across social media and building a community, it’s important to make that community aware of where they can find you across the ‘digisphere’, for example, as a part of your Instagram strategy, as well as using specific features available through the platform, consider using it to raise awareness about your brand being present on other platforms, such as X 🤔

ESPN MMA has done this by screenshotting an X post by Shavkat Rakhmanov through an IG graphic. This makes your audience more likely to follow you on other platforms while making an impression on a different one. 💡

Combat sports athletes, don’t underestimate the power of documenting your struggles.

X post by The Players Tribune

ONE Championship athlete Angela Lee recently spoke out about her mental health struggles. Unfortunately, it resulted in her attempting suicide following on from her sister, Victoria Lee, taking her own life last year. 🙏🏾❤️

Following this, she’s featured her story through a blog post on the players’ tribune, and the responses to her story have been rather positive and advocational. 💪🏾

Many have complimented Angela for her resilience, courage and weathering the storm amid adversity. 🌟

With combat sports, there’s still a stigma surrounding the mental health of athletes and how they have to remain headstrong no matter what. However, back to square one, they’re still humans who fluctuate emotions like regular individuals. 🧠

Plus, I’ve experienced something through my brand by illustrating my story through dedicating combat sports poems to fighters that inspire me is leverage from the boxing & MMA community. That’s been through endorsements from supporters and fighters. 

It’s totally understandable to keep particular details private; however, the more authentic you are about your story as a human being and an athlete, the more that will benefit you in growing real relationships with your community. 🌟

Is there any point in combat sports athletes being on LinkedIn? 

Despite not seeming like a go-to platform for athletes, it’s clear that being an athlete is not a long-term career. Therefore, if you’re a combat sports athlete reading this, consider joining LinkedIn for the following reasons. 👇🏾

👉🏾 It is an opportunity to manage your professional network, whether that would be sponsors, business owners, or employees you’ve hired to manage your assets. 🧠

👉🏾 Organic reach. The level of reach you can gain through organic content is quite impressive; therefore, even if you are an active athlete who happens to be running a campaign, dependent on its values, nature and culture, LinkedIn could be an optimal platform to utilise 💡

Many combat sports athletes, such as UFC fighters Michael Chandler and Max Griffin, are currently on LinkedIn. 

And not forgetting ONE Championship athlete, Milana Bjelogrlic, whom I had the pleasure of designing her LinkedIn cover photo, which you can view for yourself 😁

Keep creating content outside of your niche.

KSI’s most recent YouTube upload

KSI’s most recent Try Not To Laugh challenge has had me in hysterics, and they do most of the time anyway 🤣

As I’ve mentioned multiple times throughout my weekly blog posts, understand your fan’s behaviours and interests and create content around that, as that will drive the interest. 💡

Keep your content centred around combat sports, but think outside the box occasionally. It’s what has made crossover boxing so successful, a bunch of YouTubers and influencers who have built an audience by producing mainstream-type content and then drawing those eyeballs into a sport with a niche demographic. 🧠

If we dig deeper into how KSIs team has optimised this piece of content, ensure your description has links to your other channels that you’re active on, raising awareness about upcoming fights/events that are coming up for you, create a hashtag that can behave as an identifier for your brand. 💡

Plus, something else that works well on YouTube is timestamps. If you want to maximise impact with your community, get your YouTube content time stamped into the comments or description to ensure the retention of your videos is optimum. Plus, be as responsive to the comment section as possible to maximise engagement and awareness. 💡

Play TikTok at its own game.

@successfuleraa

Live you life. #motivation #mindset #success #antonyjoshua #edit #fyp

♬ original sound – Successful Era – Successful Era
TikTok upload from successfuleraa

I’ve noticed on TikTok that motivational content is highly appreciated via the algorithm. 🌟

This is something that I’ve synergised strongly with through combat sports; I find the athletes so inspirational considering the journey of hardship they go on, the intense weight-cuts building up to fights, the general disciplined lifestyle of an athlete and the life-threatening factor each time they compete. 👊🏾🥊💪🏾

That is an opportunity for every combat sports athlete to use TikTok to their advantage; every individual in the sport has a story to tell, to inspire the average person through motivational quotes and values that inspire them each day. 🌟

Also, the amount of repurposed content with motivational videos you’ll come across on Instagram and YouTube is countless; therefore, utilise that trend to grow your brand. 📝

That’s enough from me, and if there’s any content I’ve missed, let me know. 😁

How can this benefit my brand?

In this edition of ‘How can this benefit my brand?’ I’ve looked into how combat sports athletes can act as the lead for illustrating dodgy content, transferable lessons to take away from tennis, and optimising fan behaviours through content creation alongside how to maximise impact through YouTube SEO.

Be the lead for making your audience aware of “deep fake content”

X post promoting a deep fake clip from the Logan Paul vs Dillon Danis face-off

Ahead of #KSIFury on the 14th of October, none other than Logan Paul & Dillon Danis are anticipated to compete in a co-main crossover boxing event.

Press conference clips have been circulating all over X of Dillon Danis being manipulated into a deep fake endorsing Logan & KSIs Prime hydration beverage.

AI content certainly has its benefits with optimising engagement and reach; it’s obvious from the analytics from this video achieving over 33m impressions.

The content can easily become exploitable as many people will fall for it, and it can hurt brand identity.

Therefore, if you’re a combat sports athlete, marketer or brand account, make it your job to educate your fan base about spotting scam-worthy, fake and manipulative content. This will help pay dividends through building authentic relationships with your audience on a long-term basis.

There’s no harm in merging different sports together 

@sportscenternext

Precision practice 🎯🙌 (via @alena.1vanovaa/IG) #precision #tennis #tennisdrill #tennisdrills

♬ original sound – SportsCenter NEXT
TikTok video from SportsCenter NEXT promoting a girl playing tennis

The SportsCenter NEXT TikTok account recently posted a short clip of a talented young girl performing a tennis drill.

The video is receiving multiple positive endorsements of the youngster’s ability, and it could retain some of the audience to pay attention to her story in the future, considering she’s tagged in the post.

What works well with the video is that you’ve got a merge of different sports. A girl playing tennis, a basketball hoop and a short-sided football goal

If you’re a combat sports athlete, brand or marketer, this screams brand awareness and engagement to merge your content ideas into different sports.

This can be transferable through the following.

  • Kickboxing training while using a football during the intervention
  • Receiving boxing body shots every time you miss a hoop or shooting a basketball
  • Using tennis-based interventions to practice head movement and blocking drills in MMA

Each of these ideas is not only innovative but they expand your brand appeal to audiences that are away from combat sports, meaning you’ve got a new audience to capitalise on.

Combat sports athletes, value content outside of your niche

Instagram Reel from ESPN MMA promoting fan-led content

Regarding athlete branding through Instagram Reels, ESPN MMA knows what they’re doing.

  • 622k views
  • 36.9k likes
  • 470+ comments
  • 6k DMs

Despite combat sports being a sport, it’s a global entertainment business at the end of the day. For that reason, lead your content strategy through the fan habits of your demographic.

In this case, ESPN has focused on utilising short-form interview questions surrounding some athletes’ favourite music artists, food, other sports stars, etc.

When building your personal brand, ensure that you have an open approach to expressing your authentic personality online to grow your audience, which can be monetised and viewed as a community.

DAZN Boxing execute the Logan Paul vs Dillon Danis face-off to a tee

Logan Paul vs Dillon Danis face-off YouTube upload via DAZN Boxing

Regarding the promotion ahead of #KSIFury, it’s certainly been one to remember. Just for you guys, I did a marketing analysis on my X feed, providing lots of juicy insights into how YOU can optimise your brand across YouTube marketing.

X thread by Ash Sports Media analysing DAZN Boxing’s upload of the Logan Paul vs Dillon Danis face-off

To summarise, the following are the core lessons to take away about what DAZN Boxing did.

  • Identify which version of marketing works best for your personal brand
  • To optimise YouTube SEO, pay attention to specific details in descriptions and keywords
  • Think beyond your niche when producing content

That’s enough from me, if I’ve missed anything out, feel free to let me know 💡

How can this benefit my brand?

On this week’s combat sports marketing newsletter, we dive into various topics surrounding the customisation of widespread content, establishing your tone-of-voice, the influence of meme marketing and transferable content lessons we can learn from football.

🌟X makes a lot of noise for UFC5 ⭐

Cage Titans UFC5 customised X post

If you’re a combat sports fan, you’ll have heard that UFC 5 is out on PS5! The combat sports world has gone mental over it, and from a marketing perspective, it’s an opportunity for brands, athletes and promotions to customise content around it to benefit brand awareness and engagement 💡

New England Fight Promotion, Cage Titans, have done a terrific job at this by customising their own UFC 5 cover with their fighter Joe Gianetti 👀

This provides many benefits from a branding perspective, such as 👇🏾

👉🏾advocating for your athletes by placing them in your creative design

👉🏾 following a long-term trend through user-generated content

👉🏾 optimising an opportunity to get noticed by a global brand, such as the UFC 👀

🌟Know your tone of voice online 🌟

Instagram Reel via Elusive 2.0

One of my close networks, Elusive 2.0, created a reel this week illustrating some educational hints around the differences between journalism between different sports, predominantly boxing and football ⚽🥊

Raf is a combat sports analyst and has identified the opportunity not only to perform his regular fight analysis daily but also to educate his audience about other insights that are involved with his job 🌟

If you’re a personal brand trying to keep growing, think outside the box when creating content related to your niche 💡

🌟Keep the memes flowing🌟

Mojahed Fudailat YouTube video

The MMA community knows Mojahed Fudailat very well now, and ahead of UFC293, he’s done one of his comedy skits around Adesanya vs Strickland 💪🏾🤣

It is absolutely hilarious, and he’s hit the nail on the head with the references, voiceovers and animations 👏🏾

🌟What can combat sports learn from football?🌟

@jesselingard

Wish i’de of knew sooner 🙃🙃

♬ original sound – Jesse Lingard
Jesse Lingard TikTok

👉🏾 4.5m+ views

👉🏾 301k+ likes

👉🏾 3.8k+ comments

👉🏾 10.7k+ saves

👉🏾 50.7k+ shares 

This single TikTok has now become one of Jesse Lingard’s most engaged bits of TikTok content this month 👀

As mentioned, TikTok has announced a speed-up feature for their content, increasing the appetite for their demographic to repurpose it, meme it, customise it and the LIST. GOES. ON. 

Therefore, as a combat sports athlete, pay attention to updates and new features on your social channels and optimise them while they’re fresh 🌟

This will bring YOU the following advantages 👇🏾

💡Ranked higher in the algorithm 

💡Likely to receive greater volumes of engagement

💡New creative ideas for content 

That’s a wrap! As always, if I’ve missed anything, let me know!

What marketing lessons from #UFCParis can help you with building a brand? 

Last weekend, Ciryl’ Bon Gamin’ won emphatically against Sergey Spivak following a defeat earlier this year against UFC fan favourite Jon Jones. However, for those who know me, I thought I’d share an analytical review of #UFCParis to support yourself with building a brand as to whether you represent a combat sports athlete, brand or are a marketer yourself. 

Cultural sensitivity is key when growing your brand

X post from the UFC capturing Bruce Buffer

None other than Bruce Buffer made a statement with his iconic introduction at UFC Paris, and he’s loving it. This can be transferred in various ways to optimise your online presence, such as. 

– Welcoming your audience through videos in their native tongue.

– Adapt your branding assets specifically to represent the colours of the flag that the demographic represents.

– Using native vocabulary to communicate with different audiences. 

From personal experience, I’ve been to France, and they appreciate it even if you attempt to speak a bit of their language. 

Acknowledge combat sports athlete nicknames

Ciryl Gane entering UFC Paris

Ciryl Gane has ‘Bon Gamin’, Kamaru Usman has ‘The Nigerian Nightmare, Israel Adesanya has ‘The Last Stylebender’ and so on. Athletes pay meticulous attention to detail when marketing their nicknames in combat sports. It can be utilised for promotional purposes such as. 

– Merchandise deals with other creators. 

– Meme-related marketing tactics.

– Securing trademark rights to give them more media leverage.

However, how can you transfer this piece of knowledge? 

– When it comes to working with clients as a marketer, be as supportive towards them by giving them nicknames

– Lead social media content with fan-led decisions by undertaking regular audits to understand what your fans have an appetite for

Pay attention to what your community are saying

No context meme post relating to UFC Paris

If you’ve been following me, you’ll know I’m a big fan of user-generated content. They lead brands’ corporate decisions to customise more engagement for their audiences. Particularly when it comes to social media marketing, it’s fan-led. Therefore, you can utilise this in multiple ways, such as: 

– Creating memes that are recognised in line with your brand

– Setting up groups/streams/online communities where your fans feel they have an authentic voice to share their views as a part of contributing to your brand

– Creating challenges led by hashtags that encourage others to endorse your brand awareness online sub-consciously

Maximise ad-related opportunities during live events

X ad promoting weight loss

While scrolling through the latest updates on X, I saw an ad for weight loss interventions. To be fair, it makes sense. The UFC is a sport. Sport helps with weight loss, and a brand has utilised this opportunity to focus its advertising efforts on those key themes to develop traction. 

What can Morgan Chapa teach us about personal branding? 

X post promoting Morgan Charriere winning

Following an immaculate display at UFC Paris, Morgan Charriere, known as ‘the last Pirate’, received much endorsement from UFC and affiliated accounts. The majority that I noticed was through pirate flag emojis, and so many monetary opportunities can be elevated for the young man following his success over the weekend, such as. 

– Branded merchandise affiliated specifically with his win. 

– Pirate-themed content promoted across his socials. 

– Collaborating with pirate-themed social accounts to expand leverage outside his niche. 

To summarise, when it comes to building a brand, consider the following

– Cultural sensitivity

– Personalise your approach to engage with your audience

– Lead by community-led decisions

– Be creative with advertising opportunities

– Think outside the box

By all means, if there’s anything I’ve missed out on, do inform me 😊

How can this benefit my brand?

On this week’s edition, there’s plenty to learn with regards to keeping your content as accessible as possible, optimising repurposed content, keeping content engaging with little effort alongside optimising live chat content through YouTube.

The Lionesses lead by example as to how to keep your content inclusive and accessible

An X post by the Lionesses

Adding alt text to your images across social media makes your content more accessible, considering the algorithms appreciate content that promotes inclusivity 👀

Long story short, the more people that can benefit from your content, the higher it will likely rank across the social media algorithms to make an impression on your current and prospective audience 💡

The best thing about this is that it takes as little as a couple of minutes but makes such a massive difference to audiences that have limitations such as visual impairments ⏲️

For that reason, if you’re a combat sports athlete who has uploaded a recent highlight reel of your training, make sure you alt-text it; if you’re a brand sharing something of a similar brand, alt-text it 🌟

To discover more about the value of alt text, check out this post by Hubspot https://bit.ly/45xZAWR

Nina-Marie continues to lead by example as to how fan-led creators can optimise comments to attract engagement 

Instagram post by Nina-Marie

Nina-Marie has rapidly become a well-known creator across the MMA space who has landed interviews with many UFC stars such as Sean Strickland, Jorge Masvidal, Belal Muhammad and more 👀

The young lady’s content format tends to be very engaging, eye-catching and entertaining. Three themes that Instagram appreciates, and they are often remixed from previous posts as well. Therefore, she’s expanding outside of her niche audience to prospectively grow her demographic 💡

Plus, this means she doesn’t need to put so much effort into her comment section regarding encouraging people to comment. Literally, the content she’s produced speaks for itself. The three best comments will be pinned 📍

To discover other ways to practice Instagram, check out Sprout Social’s most recent post 👉🏾 

https://bit.ly/45LNqKF

Israel Adesanya showcases how to repurpose content in an engaging fashion on TikTok

@freestylebender

🫴🏾🍑 Behind the scenes it ain’t what it seems. #UFC293 #focusonme #holdmypocket

♬ original sound – FREESTYLEBENDER
TikTok post by Israel Adesanya

The last stylebender has a title defence against Sean Strickland in the next couple of weeks and has utilised a compilation of clips from a press conference they shared last year when Izzy defended his belt against Jared Cannonier 👀

Three themes that worked really well with this involved Israel ending up having the upper hand, an engaging audio to accompany the video clip and a reflective interview of Sean’s fight against Alex Pereria, an opponent that Izzy has a strong history with 💡

To understand more about how the TikTok algorithm works, check out this link from Hootsuite 👉🏾 https://blog.hootsuite.com/tiktok-algorithm/

Sky Sports Boxing illustrate how to optimise live streams through YouTube

Soon coming is the rematch between Liam Smith & Chris Eubank Jnr, and as usual, as a part of the fight promotion the gloves are off 👀

During the live stream, YouTube has a live chat function you can use to optimise comments, and this has multiple benefits 👇🏾

👉🏾 You can repurpose it through other channels

👉🏾 You can share it as a part of other bits of fight promotion (e.g. Athlete avocation, meme marketing)

To discover more ways to moderate live chat through YouTube, click here 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3qUBDKE

That’s enough from me; let me know if I’ve missed out anything!

How can this benefit my brand?

It is exactly the same as combat content wrap-up; however, I’ve just made the title more relevant to what you can expect to help you. This week, we’re going to explore the following.

  • How to optimise voice-orientated content
  • The importance of colour codes contributing towards brand recognition
  • The leverage AI can make towards your online profile
  • Creative ways to repurpose press conference content

Now, let’s get into it!

🌟Don’t look past voice notes 🌀

Instagram reel from Ed Bowers

One of the best sports industry masterminds in the game, Ed Bowers, recently released a podcast this week and simply released a reel that had a clip of his conversation with Muhammed Turkmen 🔊

The conversation alone is very engaging; however, what else caught my eye was the graphic had a timer until the end of the conversation, captions to accompany it and a call-to-action in the post caption ✔️✔️✔️

Ultimately, these are 3 core themes that social media algorithms appreciate. Making your content as inclusive as possible 🌟💡

Good job, Ed 👏🏾

What can MMAFighting teach us about the importance colour schemes have in contributing towards branding?

X post from MMA Fighting

As you might see, the logo for MMA Fighting consists of black and yellow for its colour codes ⚫🟡

Then, when it comes to creating content to highlight stuff going on in MMA, they follow this with meticulous attention to detail 👀

The point is that colour codes play a crucial role in brand recognition. Therefore, whether you’re a fighter, brand or creator, ensure you stay consistent with colour coding as many pieces of content as possible when producing digital. It makes a difference to a user to stop scrolling past your hard work 💡

Take advantage of AI voiceovers

@futcapcutt

#ronaldo #voice

♬ Originalton – cristiano
TikTok reel from futcappcut

This made me laugh big time 🤣 45.4k likes, 8.1k saves, and 2.3k shares; says a lot for leverage. 

However, from a marketing lens, driving your content through AI makes so much sense, especially scripted voiceovers 🌀

Many tools exist now that allow you to make AI voiceovers. Therefore, use it to grow your brand. 

In context, if you are a fighter and you have an event coming up, use AI voiceovers to accompany your trash talk to your opponent or for some of your heroes to advocate in your own corner 🌟💡

It makes a lot of sense; it drives traction, entertainment and is innovative 💡

How to get creative with press conferences 🤔

YouTube video from True Geordie

True Geordie is one of the fans’ leading voices regarding opinion expressions across the combat sports scene. Most recently, the #KSIFury fight caused a lot of noise online 🔊

When Geordie was reacting to the pressa, he was also giving scorecards to each of the fighters depending on their trash talk 👀

This is quite an innovative way to generate traction online through combat sport; considering trash talk is such a big selling point, use it to your advantage wherever possible 🌟

When it comes to the event, even setting up the likes of a scoring system and comparing it to how things will evolve in the actual fight is something that you can work on 💡

Combat Content wrap-up ed.8

How can you execute ambush marketing with ease on X?🌟

X thread by Ash’s Sports Talk analysing Dillon Danis’ promotional tactics ahead of his bout with Logan Paul

This October, Dillon Danis is highly anticipated to be competing against Logan Paul in the KSI vs Tommy Fury co-main event.

Conor McGregor’s former training partner, Dillon, has certainly been making a lot of noise on X with some ambush marketing tactics. The theme is him making remarks to Logan’s spouse through multiple posts. Despite it being unlawful, it is captivating much engagement across his channels and one of the twists and turns of the combat sports industry is that controversial antics generate more interest than authenticity when it comes to entertainment value.

Typically, away from the controversy, ambush marketing is an effective method to enhance brand equity, cost efficiency and awareness as a small brand. Therefore, as a creator or brand representative, consider it.

What can combat sports content learn from football?

@avfcofficial

Asking the squad what song they listened to on their way to training… #AVFC #AstonVilla

♬ original sound – avfcofficial
TikTok video from Aston Villa FC players sharing some of their favourite songs

There are many brilliant things about TikTok, such as the easy format to work with interpreting analytics and editing content. Plus, there’s lots of content from other industries that can benefit combat sports athletes, gyms or fan led accounts.

Earlier this week, I spotted the above through my feed. Very simple and engaging format of Aston Villa FC players sharing what some of their favourite songs are to listen to ahead of training. The results were outstanding from an analytical perspective. Just under 1m likes, 9m views and just below 50k saves.

As a combat sports athlete, trainer, gym member or similar, you can easily repurpose the theme of this by doing similar. Such as

  • Sharing playlists that you listen to during your training camps
  • The favourite songs saved on your athlete’s playlists
  • Synchronised dances/fighting drills to your favourite hits

As a marketer, I’ve learnt that TikTok is a highly sensitive platform towards cultural trends. Therefore, regardless of your industry, optimise them like that.

What’s the point of acknowledging your audience as a brand?

Instagram post promoting the UFCs latest main event on the 19.08.23

87k likes and 527 comments. That’s exactly the results you could look at by including user-generated content (UGC) within your social media strategy. There are plenty of positives that UGC provides you from a brand perspective, such as

  • Encouraging your audience to create more content orientated around you results in increased impressions and engagement.
  • You’ll be on your way to building an engaged community of super fans where you can potentially open up monetisable opportunities you can capitalise on with a growth in interest.
  • It saves time and resources. Less time creating the content for your channels alongside the thought process behind it.

How can YOU apply this to your own brand? Utilise hashtags to generate a competition-led element to encourage your audience to think creatively. Plus, make the messaging clear that your community will be rewarded through acknowledgement via your channel.

Now, get creative!

What are the benefits of being your own self-promoter?

Israel Adesanya, the current middleweight champion, will defend his championship against Sean Strickland soon. To promote himself and the miraculous occasion, he has hosted his own interview through his YouTube channel, talking about his thoughts, feelings and emotions about the occasion, alongside other developments throughout the promotion.

Despite Israel receiving plenty of leverage through the UFC himself, he’s digging his teeth deep into his own marketing activity through YouTube in particular. The benefit of being your own self-promoter is it helps increases your own marketability, allows you to gain additional sponsorship/monetisation opportunities that you won’t have to share with other parties. Plus, combat sports promotions tend to appreciate putting bums on seats, for that reason, having a strong set of marketing assets is the gateway towards making that happen.

Now that’s it from me, do let me know if I’ve missed out anything!