Division II conferences are finding creative ways to reach their fans these days. At least two leagues have turned to online, subscription-based newsletters to keep fans updated not only about the athletics achievements of their favorite teams but also about the strategic direction of the conference and of Division II.

The efforts are digitally “green” and don’t clutter inboxes since recipients choose to subscribe. And the benefits are threefold: The target audience gets the news it craves, the conferences expand their outreach and Division II tells its story to more people.

Newsletters from the Peach Belt Conference and the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association display how their members’ athletics programs engage with communities and tout the academic success of student-athletes. They also feature human-interest pieces on individual players and special accomplishments (both athletically and otherwise) from various teams, athletes, coaches and staff members.

John Semeraro, director of external operations at the Peach Belt and former chair of the Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, said his conference’s communiqué (the “Peach Belt Buzz”) is designed to identify creative communication avenues to better tell the league’s story. 

“We obviously want to continue to generate exposure for our conference and showcase the excellence our student-athletes are displaying on and off the field,” Semeraro said. “But we also wanted communication that is easy for PBC fans and constituent groups to access.”

The Peach Belt Buzz is offered monthly, but Semeraro said the conference plans to increase the frequency to weekly by August.

The MIAA’s newsletter is called “MIAA Update,” which is available to registrants as news warrants. MIAA intern and the publication’s editor Emily Moses said the newsletter can be tailored to meet different audiences. For example, if the league has information it needs to get to its officials, it can develop an update and deliver to the officials in the league’s e-mail database. “That’s much more efficient than sending individual e-mails,” Moses said.

Both conferences are using the newsletters to build their audiences as well. Semeraro said the Peach Belt has grown its database by about 600 percent. MIAA Commissioner Jim Johnson said his league already has captured about 3,000 e-mail addresses.

“You can have the best e-mail newsletter known to man, but it’s no good if you don’t have anyone to send it to,” Johnson said.

The newsletters represent a commitment from already time-strapped DII conference staffs, but those who do it cite high returns on the investment. Semeraro says he spends about 8-10 hours per month on the Peach Belt Buzz, which is in addition to the league’s more routine press releases and updates that he and Assistant Commissioner Ken Gerlinger publish on the conference Web site. Semeraro also relies on e-newsletter templates from Presto Sports, and a number of the stories already are compiled by Peach Belt schools’ sports information personnel, which streamlines production. 

Both conferences say the online publications have helped drive more traffic to the league Web sites.

“That was a goal for us,” the MIAA’s Johnson said. “We were looking for a way to reach out to the general public, specifically in the Kansas City area, without depending on people to go to our Web site. But the interest Constant Contact generates actually sends more people back to our site, which in turn feeds our subscriber list.”

Division II also benefits from such efforts. Both the Peach Belt and MIAA brand their newsletters under the Division II umbrella and include stories that reflect division-wide initiatives.

“Adding the ‘I Chose Division II’ branding and additional Division II news has helped create more exposure and knowledge of what the Peach Belt offers across the board as an NCAA Division II conference,” Semeraro said. “For instance, rather than just providing athletics news, we are able to showcase the various initiatives involving sportsmanship, community engagement, game environment and Make-A-Wish directly into our fans’ inboxes to create a ‘one stop shop’ for all PBC material. We are finding in our region that once individuals are educated and well-versed about the PBC and Division II, they become intrigued and want to learn more.”

Both newsletters also have a revenue component, since they link to the conferences’ online stores for league apparel. Corporate partners also have a presence. Other links lead readers to member-school Web sites as well.

“The great benefit about the e-newsletter is that it is a simple marketing communication tool that can cover a diverse selection of conference news,” Semeraro said. “We try to balance each newsletter so the content displays the reasons our conference and member institutions choose and believe in Division II.”

Visit the Peach Belt and MIAA Web sites for more information or to subscribe to the e-newsletters.