Mountain Bike Manufacturers Dream
2022 should be an amazing year for manufacturers, resorts and bike shops in the mountain biking industry. And the Covid 19 pandemic seems to have only fueled greater interest in mountain biking culture, product technology and sporting events.
The industry has support across many age groups, yet younger riders are making this one of the fastest growing sports across the world. It’s not a local phenomenon and there is an intense culture and vibrancy that drives participation and sales revenue across the globe.
Mountain bike companies such as Orbea, Norco, Trek, Cannondale, Santa Cruz, Specialized, Yeti, Fuji, Diamondback, Salsa, Kona, and smaller manufacturers such as Druid, Kross, BH, Thömus, compete for visibility and sales in a crowded marketplace. Small local bike service shops too will be clamoring to be heard in a market that’s being squeezed hard by Google and Facebook. They will be in need of more creative and powerful mountain bike marketing strategies.
With the help of a talented marketing agency or SEO consultant, you can build a profitable business in the mountain biking sector. It’s overflowing with opportunity for bike builders, service shops, bike resorts, hotels,, as we’ll discuss in this post.
New Technology Plus an Economic Recovery
With new carbon fiber mountain bike prices reaching above $10,000, mountain bikers must see a tremendous benefit from the sport of mountain biking. We’re tapping into something really important in our culture.
And many riders have put off their adventures, travels and mountain biking holidays due to the pandemic.
New mountain biking trails and resorts are popping up around the world because business people know mountain biking is a lifestyle, not just a sport. The revenue potential as you’ll see below is going to attract big investment. This is just the beginning. It’s the bike technology that will tame the mountain terrain and open up a level of excitement tourists and recreational athletes thought impossible.
The demand for adventure tourism will explode after the Covid 19 virus vaccinations are delivered.
What Drives Mountain Biking as an Industry
These 6 elements of this biking culture make it an economic power:
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- popular sport with billion dollar spend worldwide
- advancing bike technology that attracts big money consumers
- associations with destination vacations
- social occasions for groups, families and friends
- eco friendly type of activity
- health, fitness and excitement
- big sporting events to create awareness and excitement
- repair and maintenance services draw in local community businesses
Many billions of dollars in expenditures draw investors into the mountain biking market. From bikes to bike parks to mountain biking tourism, this is a fantastic business to be in.
There is plenty of opportunity for digital marketing consultants to help mountain bike manufacturers and retailers grow sales and marketshare. It is competitive, yet creative imagination, immersion in mountain biking culture, and top notch marketing technology can build a substantial edge in consumer reach, engagement and sales revenue.
A Dynamic Market Place
The full mountain bike market is composed of mountain bikes, rider and bike accessories, vacations, bike parks, repair businesses, tours, and more. There’s plenty of innovation as well in bike branding and custom building. A good reputation in the industry can translate into strong customer loyalty.
For entrepreneurs with an eye on the big picture, there are many paths to profitability ranging from products to adventure experiences. With demographic changes, bike technology advancements and the travel and event tie ins, there is huge opportunities for creativity.
Big Mountain Biking Resorts Provide Big Boost
Big mountain bike parks and resorts in Switzerland, USA, Canada, France, and other countries draw millions every year. The spinoff economic activities and the fact ski resorts need to fill summer season bookings, ensures mountain biking will remain an essential part of the vacation marketplace.
The brand boosting value of these big resorts and events shouldn’t be ignored as part of your marketing mix. Video, photos and merchandise from the events allow marketers to keep them alive continuously and capture excellent brand value. And events are powerful focal points for social media marketing campaigns.
The mountain bike marketing sector is not mature and plenty of room for creative innovation, SEO and social media promotion exists. And there is plenty of funds in this industry from manufacturing and ecommerce to hotels, restaurants, tours and more.
With an expected market growth of 5%, there is more reason for mountain bike manufacturers, mountain bike park operators, mountain bike adventure vacations and hotel operators (destination marketing) to capitalize on digital marketing excellence.
Mountain Biking Market Growth Forecast
Stats on the mountain bike segment aren’t easy to find (except expensive research reports) however, Technavio suggests the market will grow by 2 billion. One company below, Accel is selling one billion euros in sales each year. It’s a big market for bikes and accessories alone, and no one company is even close to claiming a dominant market share.
Add on assembly and repair services, online sales, adventure travel and accommodations, along with events, and an entrepreneur or SMB manufacturer has a golden opportunity. With powerful marketing strategy, the limits are high.
The market for mountain biking has grown due to a number of factors:
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- development of mountain bike parks and more trails
- cross country, downhill, freeriding, and dirt jumping submarkets
- development of mountain bikes
- evolution of materials and component technology
- development of electric mountain bikes
- availability of low cost mountain bikes
- popularity promoted through Youtube and self-video craze
- growing young demographic
- mountain biking is a thrill
- growth of adventure travel
- family vacations often involve casual mountain biking
- growing number of kids and female riders
- growing variety of MB clothing and accessories
Top Priorities for Mountain Biking Related Businesses
Bike manufacturers need reach, visibility, impact, engagement and more just like any business in other other industries do.
The culture of mountain biking is a key issue as mountain bikers all strive for better bike technology, better skills, and more exciting mountain biking experiences and destinations.
Content Marketing for Mountain Bike Manufacturers
Content for mountain bike manufacturers include full color pdf product sheets, event and bike demo videos, and full color photographs.
Just watching a few mountain bike videos on Youtube or Vevo lets you in on the sense of excitement, adventure, ambition, and technology use in this amazing sport.
The big Crankworx Rotorua events held at Whistler BC, New Zealand, Australia, and other exotic and prestigious locales around the world only makes the sport reach legendary status with the mountain biking crowd.
Here, even non mountain bikers are thrilled with the tricks, racing events, and spectacular race park terrain with its stunt jump features.
We know it’s a big industry, with big brand names, big event locations, and a diverse and growing consumer market. But are there opportunities to grow marketshare and even dominate a sector?
Absolutely, there are plenty of marketing niches/segments from beginners, to kids, to carbon fiber to the new electric mountain bikes. And spending on mountain bike marketing could be much higher in the years ahead. All markets mature and competition will increase. Marketers will need to work smarter to maintain share and sales revenue.
Given the poor search results on Google and lack of reach on Facebook, and lack of high visibility in other media, we’d have to say that an effective marketing campaign including SEO could be very effective.
Videos for new products can be very powerful if they can gain consistent and high ranking reach to buyers via Youtube or Google.
How To Excel at Mountain Biking Marketing
The Basics:
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- conduct an digital marketing audit: you must know your market and what UVP will resonate with your audience, and what digital assets you’ll need to win.
- create your brand statement and determine how your digital assets will get that brand positioning across
- plan your assets: video, product/service photos, spec sheets, keyword focus, content topics, and who will be your content (blogs, social posts, photos, video, web design) producers and how much it will all cost
- create your SEO and content strategy and your social media strategy
- set up analytics and tracking
- keep optimizing your content and sale funnel conversion rates
Good Content Ideas
Bike shops and manufacturers both benefit from focusing on key benefits the new bikes present:
bikes should focus on carbon fiber, long throw suspension, and 29″ wheels since these are in demand and can help you build significance to customers
- develop blogs with suspension details, stats, photos, illustrations and stories – describe for the suspension makes the ride more fun, safer, rolls over big obstacles, and makes tough situations easier and helps reduce rider fatigue which may lead to accidents
- describe the benefits of the lighter, stiffer carbon fiber frames and technology, and talk about the carbon technology itself to take the mystery out of it so they know it’s a wise decision
- interview top riders such as Kilian Bron or Danny Macaskill about what they look for in a bike
- interview top Youtube mountain biking influencers and celebrities
- a blog about why mixing components in a custom built bike is the wisest decision
- do a head to head comparison of bikes where your brand will stand out as better
- include some videos where you ride down a resort trail, and thus get your audience truly engaged with you (authenticity)
- do some instructional videos where you explain techniques and how the suspension of your bikes is key
- do blogs and videos about specific mountain bike parks (major and some they haven’t been to)
- blogs on nutrition and flexibility training
- stories about the first mountain bikers which broadens the context of the user experience
- review specific mountain bikes and discuss key features that average riders will appreciate
- a guide on how to choose the right mountain bike
- a post on why a mountain bike needs to be custom size and custom designed
- posts on the best mountain biking vacation destinations (go on one and take video)
- posts on big mountain biking events such as Whistler or Megavalanche
- a post on families who mountain bike together (interview one such family you know of)
- a post on the best mountain bike accessories and best MTB tires
- a post on mountain bike trail building
- a post on the different types of mountain bike trails (technical, flow, dirt jumps, cross country, free riding)
Of course, the more immersed you are in the sport
Great Video is a Big Driver of Engagement in Mountain Biking
These 6 videos peak all the right emotions via the audience’s desire for excitement, belonging, friendship, challenge, fright, coolness, accomplishment, adventure, and impossible terrain. They reflect the diverse allure of this sport and the inspiration, adventure, and accomplishment that mountain bikers seek.
It’s hard to deny the power of video today when you see the number of views and shares they generate via Youtube alone. Videos like these can propel very successful marketing campaigns for mountain bike brands.
This first video has been popular for 10 years!
Mountain bikers are increasingly diverse in gender and age, but they all love the excitement of the sport. Great video is a must for any mountain bike manufacturer.
Major Mountain Biking Event Marketing
Big events in mountain biking draw a lot of attention online. Events such as the Crankworx Festival in Whistler BC is perhaps the top one in the world. The village, the bike course, and the village area are spectacular in every way.
It’s one of the events you must attend, even if you’re not into mountain biking. The atmosphere is exciting and inspiring. Big events can really help you boost your brand, build a following, and create a focal event to create urgency and impact with your audience.
Crankworx is a must do event, and I can tell you having been to it in Whistler, it is a spectacle. And with the best riders and sponsors in the world, you can leverage this type of visibility for your bike brand or resort. It draws many of the most dedicated, even fanatical participants, and many are upscale consumers.
Trek Bicycles
This company has risen due to strong marketing and growing franchise locations. A popular brand and one that has risen in stature with serious riders. However, their social media performance appears to be lagging badly, and you’ll find this a common fact with companies not willing to hire the talent and spend online.
Switchback Travel
Switch BACK Travel is an all purpose recreational equipment review site. They have reviews of mountain bikes and present them in an easy to read format on their website. They’re ranking well on Google which is really important.
With 65,000 followers on Facebook they’ve done well, however overall on their social media sites, they’re not getting good numbers of shares, likes, and links from their posts.
From these examples, you can tell there is demand in this mountain biking related product and service sector. For an ambitious entrepreneur, the upside is unbelievable.
Unfortunately, much of the marketing being done now is too passive and non engaging. It will take more than videos. It’s your value proposition demonstrated many different ways that builds intent in your audience. That requires a full content marketing effort that reaches customers continuously, carrying them through their purchase.
It could be, this realm is so new, and dominated by nomadic, innovative and rebellious young people who might be reluctant to use intellectual strategy, tools, processes and other marketing assets to dominate. Mountain biking marketing can leverage viral marketing well, given the amount of video, products, and events visible on Youtube.
If you’re a bike manufacturer and can see the full potential of mountain biking marketing, I’d like to speak with you. Please reach me at 416 998 6246.
AI Marketers provides digital marketing services (content, SEO, social media, PPC) for software companies, manufacturers, hotels, recruiters, moving companies, publishers, sports equipment retailers, building supplies companies, window and door companies, Realtors, investment companies, IT companies, clean energy, consumer products, branding consultants and many more.
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