West Coast Conference Basketball Marketing: #8 St Mary's

It's time to begin our team-by-team breakdowns of the West Coast Conference, looking at how programs are communicating to young athletes (or fans) from a digital point of view. Websites and digital marketing are the great equalizer -- a place where every program can share what they stand for. And I'd argue all of this is even more critical for the Mid Majors out there. Smart marketing can help build that connection that gets you the athlete you need.

Let's roll.

#8 St Mary's

The Digital Scouting Report

Strengths: The Gaels have a nice video player to build upon.

Weaknesses: Essentially no ways to learn about the program or stay connected.

Full Scouting Report:
Hitting the Gaels home page, here, and you definitely get hit with a lot. It took me a minute to reset myself and get a feel for what I was after.



I decided to use the left hand menu and click on "Multimedia", which took me here - to a very nice video player that was full of last year's postseason press conferences. It's a nice section, but it desperately needs to feel like it has this year's squad pumping through it. And I'd like to see this elevated to something beyond "Multimedia". Perhaps "Gaels Video"?



There was really no other content on the program at the home page level, so I moved into the hoops section, here.



Unfortunately, the Hoops section also doesn't provide much info on the program either, simply making their current Media Guide available to download as a PDF. (Shown here)




Coach Bennett makes it easy to contact him, as his bio includes his phone and email. I like this, but it is all passive - putting the onus on the recruit to engage the coaches and not vice versa. This is a chance for the Gaels to make it easy to get inside his world -- What he looks for, and how he is feeling about this year's program.


I know a program like St Mary's has a lot to be proud for. Patty Mills led a team to a couple of great seasons and is now at the next level in Portland. And the high school athlete needs to be reminded of this success, to be inspired to become a part of something special.

So, all in all, St Mary's has the foundation in place from a video player standpoint but is definitely missing an opportunity to connect us to their program.

Come back next week as we keep rolling through the WCC...