Successful ocean rowing websites - My 10 top tips
I have worked with ocean rowing teams on their websites since 2016 and in this blog I share my ultimate top 10 tips for making your ocean rowing website as successful as it can be.
Over the last 6 years, I have seen many of my teams have some truly spectacular outcomes by making the most of their website. There is no quick fix - you have to put the work in, but as some of the evidence below shows, when this is combined with your campaign efforts the results can be as amazing!
I would love to hear your feedback or any of your own tips in the comments below.
1) Your team name and how to get the best results from Google
My first bit of advice is that Google likes words to be spelt right. Google will try and correct any misspellings and offer the searcher results based on what it thinks they might be looking for.
The fondness among Ocean Rowers to use words ‘Row’ or ‘Oar’ in a team name can cause some issues with Google, so please be wary of this. It could affect how Google lists your website, especially at the start of your campaign. Google will try and come back with listings based on proper spellings of words over misspellings. So ‘Rowed to Enlightenment’ or ‘Oarsome Friends’ has Google scratching its head until you have other sites linking to you…then, what it thinks is a ‘typo’, will have more gravitas.
If you want to do a little reading (after this blog of course! ) Increasing your Domain Authority and Backlinks will help with any team name that is oddly spelt to accommodate a good Ocean Rowing pun. Its just worth knowing what you could be up against, as you may have some odd Google scenarios to try and outwit!
You should also check to see if anyone has used your team name before! Even with different variations of spelling, this might cause your website results to be lost or confused with previous teams.
As your campaign and website grows with more content, you will move up pages. Google favours updated websites over dormant ones so older teams, who are no longer posting content will, in turn slip down the listings. So a great reason to keep your website growing and current.
Another factor to consider is that oceans are full of other people! Your team name could also be in competition with lots of other businesses, boats and other adventure teams that are also connected with that ocean. For example, cruise liners, charter boats companies, sailing teams could all have a very decent web presence ….but don’t panic! These initial issues can be worked through with my top tips so read on.
2) When to start your website
The sooner you can start your website the better. I have had teams get in contact with me with 8 months to go to the start of their row, and others with more than 2 years. It is always the teams that give their website 2 or more years that are the most successful with their campaign.
Good SEO ranking can take up to 6 months and this is can only be achieved with frequent, relevant and fresh content on your site. Having a website that is launched and lies dormant, without updates will negatively affect your SEO.
“It makes so much Google sense to start early with your website, even if you only have a few pages up, you can build from there. Start now, get perfect later!”
3) What website platform to use
Having a website platform you can use and feel comfortable updating is always the best option.
Your audience will want to follow your journey, so updating them with blogs about your preparation, training and latest news is vital. Sponsors will want to know, like and trust you before investing in your campaign and charities will want to share your story.
The more your site is visited, shared and backlinked to, the more domain authority you build with Google and the higher up the search engine listings your website will be.
I always recommend Squarespace as a platform for ocean rowing teams, as it serves two factors. One, as a web designer I can custom build a website with a focus on professional design, good SEO and website best practice. Then two, hand that site over to teams who are then able to manage the website themselves.
Being able to update your own website will grow your authority with Google as it will see you posting;
your latest blog
showcasing your new sponsors
creating a wall of recent donations
or adding your latest press clippings
All of these regular updates will bring more and more visitors to your site, spending more time reading and sharing your content. All in all, a successful, valuable website in Google’s eyes.
There are so many positive reasons why I use Squarespace for web design with ocean rowing teams.
4) How previous teams can help you (Plus a great PR tip)
There are so many great ocean rowing websites out there, all with unique and innovative ideas. A great tip is to research previous teams websites and look for any unique approaches to fundraising or sponsorship they may have. Make a list of things you think are a good fit for your campaign and add your own spin.
( I am not recommending plagiarism here just inspiration!)
Work with your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) if you have one. Ocean rowers are an amazingly friendly and helpful bunch, so if you know of a team that is; located near you, has fundraised for your charity before or could be connected with your campaign in any way - get in contact! You never know where that connection could lead - It could provide you with some great PR opportunities.
Journalists love to follow up on highly successful stories, so if you know of teams that have rowed previously that might be connected to your county, vocation or USP there could be some great PR opportunities to tag onto.
5) The secret sauce to growing your sponsors
The secret sauce to growing your sponsors is start with one small sponsor and build from there.
Showcase your first sponsor on your website (and on your social media) and ask them to share your story and backlink back to your website. This will help build credibility and trust in your campaign and will attract more sponsors and the cycle can continue.
By not adding sponsors to your website until the end of your campaign, you could be missing out on many sponsorship opportunities, either by association, recommendation or just with how credible you look from your website. Remember your website is the ’24 hour shop window’ for your campaign, so make the most of it while you have it!
Trust and credibility are a huge factor in gaining sponsorship. You are, after all asking sponsors for a chunk of their marketing budget and they need to know you are not a risk and can provide them with a return on their investment.
Photoshop your prospective sponsor’s logo onto an illustration mock-up of your boat and add this into your pitch presentation. I know many teams that have had fantastic results with this approach - I did exactly this for Row4Victory (See illustration below)
6) How to get sponsors and donators to take action
At the start of your campaign the focus will be on obtaining corporate sponsorship and showcasing your sponsors. Your website should be part of your sponsorship packages, so it makes good marketing sense to grow your website with updates and fresh content.
At this time you should make it easy for sponsors to see your sponsorship packages and get in contact. Make sure as a team, you are either manning a group mailbox or provide a form that is monitored, and responded to, within two working days.
Add a Call to Action button at the top right of your website that says ‘Sponsor us’ to make it really easy for sponsors to get in touch. In fact add a few buttons!
“Make the most of your contact us page, either by adding other sponsor’s quotes or PR and media stats about your row/race. That way you are making it really enticing for companies to get in touch - Remind them of the possible benefits in sponsoring you!”
The latter part of your campaign will see the focus move towards getting charitable donations and your website content emphasis should reflect this. Again, change the focus on the Call to Action buttons to ‘Donate now’ and make sure your donation process is working perfectly.
Add lots of ‘Donate Now’ buttons across your site. People like to be told what to do and you are inviting them to participate in your journey by doing a great thing - that is donating.
7) How to keep followers engaged on your website and social media
Tell your story! Everyone loves a good story and as Ocean Rowers, you are telling a brilliant one!
Your followers will be so intrigued by what you are about to undertake, they will love to follow and share your journey and will have a 101 questions! “Where do you sleep?” , “What do you eat?” and “ Where will you go to the toilet?!!” are just a few you can expect to be asked over and over again!
You can invite your audience into your story by answering their questions in your blogs and on social media. (Perhaps try posting on TikTok) No detail is too trivial and once you have hooked someone, you will have a super fan for the rest of your campaign.
Keeping your news fresh not only builds super fans and sponsorship opportunities but also has a hugely positive impact on your Google rankings. The longer people are on your website reading your blog or sharing your news, by linking to your website, the higher up the Google pages you will travel.
Never underestimate the power of your social media. Twitter especially, is great for celebrity ‘shout outs’ and these can work wonders for your website hit rates (Sponsors will love you too) and I have seen teams go viral with high profile celebrity endorsements. This puts your teams campaigns into the spotlight with journalists, the race organisers and other media. So take advantage of it and share it everywhere!
8) How to make your website more appealing to sponsors
Your website not only serves to market your campaign but is intrinsic to the sponsorship packages you are offering. Take a look at the media and PR stats of any ocean row and you can see sponsors stand to benefit from huge exposure to a worldwide audience. Showcase any media or PR stats from previous rows, if you are part of an organised race, and let them know you are a marketing opportunity – you are not asking for charitable donations.
Add your sponsors logos to the homepage (with a link to their site), showcase sponsors on your blogs, add their logo to your team apparel so they will be seen in all your team photos, talk about them in interviews (posted on your press clipping page) and embedded via your social media feed.
“I have seen my teams’ websites have thousands of daily hits on race finish, so this is a huge audience that your sponsors will be exposed to.”
Picture of Glyn Sadler from Row4Victory courtesy of Chris Shirley @ Haus of Hiatus
9) Get journalists to love your website
As I mentioned before journalists love a good story. The easier you can make it for journalists the more likely they are to run with your story. Include an interesting bio for each member of the team with photos, back story and some interesting facts or ‘sound bites’.
This is your opportunity to showcase your teams personality, tell your story and build an emotional connection.
10) How to maximise your charitable donations with my top secret tip
Ending with my top secret tip. Race/Row finish day will see your biggest ever website hit rates to date, so make sure you take advantage of this and make it incredibly easy for people to donate - this will maximise your charitable donations.
Donating needs to be 3 clicks away (from any location on your website) to someone visiting your homepage. Make it effortless to donate with prominent and repeated ‘Donate Now’ buttons across your site. You cannot over do this! Even if you link to a Just Giving site or similar, make it easy.
Organise this before your row, or make sure you have someone you trust to implement this for you. I cannot emphasise the importance of this enough.
I have seen my teams raise over £30,000 on race finish day alone - so a ‘Contact Us’ button going to a form, won’t maximise your donations!
Summing-up
What you are doing is unique and pretty bloody amazing to most people and they will want to follow your journey and share your story. They will only do this if you give them a story to share.
Keep your website content fresh and relevant. Ask sponsors to link to your website. Ask people to share your blogs on their social media channels and get your website word out there!
I would love to hear your feedback on this blog or any of your own tips in the comments below.
Want an ocean rowing website that works for you?
My ocean rowing website package will boost your credibility, wow prospective sponsors and ultimately raise a ton of cash for your campaign and charities.
Book a free 30-min discovery call to see how my ocean rowing website package could help you.
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