Our Serve: Playing Up PlayTennis.com
We hope that as a part of the tennis industry, you’ve been aware of the site PlayTennis.com. More than that, we hope you’ve listed your business or services on the site (it’s free) and that you refer people to the site to help them get into the game and become consumers of tennis play, products and services.
Why is PlayTennis.com important? It was created with one simple goal in mind, to get people to do exactly what it says: Play tennis.
From its beginnings, TIA Executive Director Jolyn de Boer envisioned PlayTennis.com as the simple URL that all industry stakeholders can use to get people into tennis, in all ways — by connecting them to players, courts, facilities, programs, instruction, teaching pros, retailers, and much more.
Importantly, PlayTennis.com is “unbranded” — visitors aren’t assaulted by company logos and marketing hype. The site only pushes “tennis,” the one thing that all companies, organizations and people in this industry have in common.
Many executives in other sports have remarked at how unique the tennis industry is. Under the TIA umbrella, manufacturers and others put aside the competition that marks their daily business lives, and they come together to simply grow the game, grow participation, and grow business for everyone. PlayTennis.com does exactly that — and it belongs to this entire industry.
And the site is gaining momentum. During Wimbledon, Visa, which has more than 7 million “likes” on Facebook, linked to PlayTennis.com on its Facebook page and Twitter feed, after their research showed the site aligns nicely with the hundreds of millions of consumers with Visa cards.
In many ways, PlayTennis.com is a social media-based marketing platform for the sport, creating awareness and connectivity to tennis. It will provide greater visibility for campaigns to help grow the game, it will engage retailers and consumers through common promotions, and it will grow the base of players through partnerships and expanded search and player functionality.
How can you help? Go on PlayTennis.com now and see what’s there, including marketing materials you can use. Make sure, also, that your information is in the database of searches that consumers will use to find you. It’s easy and free, just go to the “Get Listed” tab. And make sure consumers you’re in touch with also “get listed,” so that when the “Find A Game” player match service goes live in the next month or two, they’ll help populate a nationwide, searchable database of thousands, and at some point hopefully millions, of players.
PlayTennis.com will continue to be enhanced and improved, so it can offer the best experience for providers, consumers and the industry overall. This unified, single-stop gateway to tennis is doing its part to help this industry grow because, in the long run, if we’re not growing, we’re hurting — or dying.
Help out your industry and support PlayTennis.com. No matter what you do in this business, it all comes down to one brand: T-E-N-N-I-S.
Peter Francesconi, Editorial Director
peter@racquettech.com
See all articles by Peter Francesconi
About the Author
Peter Francesconi 
is editorial director of Tennis Industry magazine.
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