17/07/2023
A few weeks ago I completed the craziest challenge of my life. 🚀
I competed in the Belgium Championship Time Trial for women.
But besides the sportive goal, it entailed a professional as well:
Starting out as a Sports Marketer specialized in activations and campaigns, focusing on out of the box ideas that people will talk about for years.
How did I tackle my own branding? 💡
About a year ago, I started my own company, Leentje From Marketing, as a freelancer providing marketing consulting services. Of course you have thirteen in a dozen of these, so I began thinking about how I could stand out. How could I promote myself in an original way?
And then I found it:
Participating in the National Time Trial Championship! It's been a long journey, where I had the opportunity to test many things:
✅ Living like a professional athlete to better understand my target audience.
✅ Sharing my story on different channels (TikTok, Instagram) and gaining a better understanding of them.
✅ Figuring out my ultimate goal as Leentje From Marketing.
Point 1 has been a great success! 💪
By eating, drinking, and training like an athlete, I realized the sacrifices they make, the amount of organization required, and the financial support they need. Because I can better empathize with what they go through, I can provide them with very concrete tips for their content strategy or how to approach potential sponsors.
On social media, I've tried various things. 📸
My goal was to reach 10K followers on TikTok and 2500 on Instagram. Although I haven't achieved this yet, I'm still growing every week. Now that it's part of my daily and weekly organization, I can keep pushing forward and continue monitoring my progress.
And finally my own purpose with Leentje From Marketing 🙏
When I started LFM, the idea was to help athletes, clubs, and brands with their branding. Now, a year later, I work with THE association Cercle Brugge and I want to primarily focus on original, out-of-the-box campaigns and activations. So even this has changed during my challenge.
There is also a new approach.
I want to assist sponsors of sports clubs and events in maximizing their investment. How can they attract the attention of visitors at events/clubs and potentially turn them into customers?
And that’ll be my focus for the next few years.
I’m so proud of the journey it has been and the results I’ve achieved. And now I’ll continue on this path, which I’m glad to share with you!
Here are some news articles about my challenge and some pictures of the last year, enjoy!
- HLN: https://www.hln.be/brugge/van-feestbeest-tot-concurrente-van-lotte-kopecky-op-bk-tijdrijden-in-298-dagen-dit-is-het-inspirerende-verhaal-van-leentje-34~ac162855/
- Sporza: https://sporza.be/nl/2023/06/20/hoe-leentje-zonder-fietservaring-haar-weg-vond-naar-het-bk-tijdrijden-nog-nooit-op-een-tijdritfiets-gezeten~1687275263409/
- Sporza: https://sporza.be/nl/2023/06/22/leentje-van-meirhaeghe-realiseert-sprookje/
