Setting the Right Expectations

Now that your organization has made the decision to invest in IMLCARecruits, it is extremely important to (1) empower your athletes to get started on the platform right away and (2) make sure they are aware of all the tools at their disposal! 

The most successful way to do so, is by relaying that you and your staff will be leaning on IMLCARecruits to drive the recruiting process. This messaging should offer athlete-driven objectives that establish a foundation for a successful recruiting process on the platform. Just like in practice, setting clear expectations and holding your athletes accountable are the best ways to ensure they are successful. With the IMLCARecruits messaging system, you and your staff have an extremely easy way to communicate directly with all of your athletes at once as well as centralize all lines of recruiting communication in one place.

Below is an example of a message to send to your athletes that provides them with key milestones to hit on the platform. We recommend giving your athletes a weekly "challenge" to complete on the platform to guarantee they are maximizing their time and energy on IMLCARecruits!

Example Message to Send to Your Athletes

Athletes – 

Our program is using IMLCARecruits to make sure you have all the tools necessary to tackle your college recruiting process.  Please take the time to read this full message and check out the resources linked throughout.

It is crucial to have an online presence where college coaches can find you, review your information, and evaluate you as a student-athlete in one place. Whether you are brand new to the platform, or you’ve been using the platform already, below are a ton of helpful resources the SportsRecruits team has shared with me to help you be successful in your recruiting process and make sure you get the most out of the platform. 

To get started, you are required to watch the following video: 

• IMLCARecruits Student-Athlete Training. It's only 9 minutes and will walk you through all the features of your new profile. 
• For quick access, once you sign in, you can add your profile to your phone home screen, similar to other phone Apps

After you've gone through that quick video, I've outlined challenges below to help you get started. Keep in mind that your profile is an academic and athletic resume, and each challenge increases your discoverability or exposure to college coaches on the platform.

Challenge 1: Verify & Build Your Profile 

• The verification process is 3 steps on your “Essentials” tab: 1) Upload a profile picture 2) Add your grad year and 3) Add your position(s)
• Follow this article on Building Your Student-Athlete Profile and take 10 minutes to add as much academic and athletic info as you can when you first sign in. 

- WHY -  Verified athlete profiles receive 2x more profile views from college coaches than athletes not verified. 

Challenge 2: Get Video On Your Profile

• You can Upload or Embed unlimited video to your profile. 
• To create a highlight reel(s):
  • Use the In-Platform Highlight Reel Editor to clip your uploaded film into full reels or specific skills videos. Publish it once it is complete.
  • Through your membership on the team, you have UNLIMITED FREE professional Highlight Reel credits, which includes isolation effects, title cards, and music.

- WHY - College coaches can filter their Discover Feed by “Video” to show only athletes with video visible on their profile. Without video, college coaches cannot evaluate you as an athlete online.. 

Challenge 3: Build a List of Schools

• Find schools using the Advanced School Search to filter schools by division, conference and college major to determine schools that are of interest to you. Click the heart icon to add the school to your Favorites List.
  • The Roster Needs feature gives college coaches the option to publish the positions and academic credentials they are recruiting. You can use the Roster Needs filter to find schools that “Match” your position and grad year 
    • How to Filter through Roster Needs 
    • Note: Over 95% of Roster Needs require video to become a Full Match
• You can stay organized by personalizing your favorites list as you start to reach out to these coaches. Building a list of 20-30 schools is a great place to start.

- WHY -  College coaches can search for prospective student-athletes using an “Interested in Us” filter to show only athletes who have favorited their school or sent their school a message on the platform. 

Challenge 4: Introduce Yourself to College Coaches

• Start using the messaging system to express interest in programs on your favorites list
  • All messages are sent directly to the coach’s IMLCARecruits account and personal school inbox: What Do Messages Look Like To College Coaches? 
  • Here are some ideas on how to introduce yourself: Sample Recruiting Email to a College Coach 
• Every message you send through the platform will include a link to your profile, which will give that coach direct access to this 'online resume'
• You'll then be able to tell exactly which college coaches have viewed your profile with IMLCARecruits’ complete transparency.

- WHY -  Reaching out to college coaches is the best way to share your profile and get on their radar. 80% of committed athletes contact at least 10 different schools over the course of their recruiting process. Get started with the schools on your favorites list!

Completing these challenges will set you up for success no matter where you are in the recruiting process, and it’s up to you to put in the work! For more information, you can also learn some best practices in the SportsRecruits 101 Webinar (~25 min), in addition to the free recruiting webinars hosted each month by the SportsRecruits Team. All webinars are scheduled on the following page, and the recordings of previous webinars are at the bottom: SportsRecruits Webinar Landing Page.

The SportsRecruits Team is also available if you have questions from how to sign in or reset your password to how to add something on your profile. You can email help@sportsrecruits.com or the SportsRecruits Help Center is also a great place with FAQs, how-to videos and more. 

Let’s get it going!

Coach