Best email marketing for sports coaches and clinics
Send one drill a week during the season. Put clinic dates in front of your list before you post them anywhere. Use a Smart Page as the sign-up link. SendFox is free up to 1,000 contacts, then $29 once for 5,000.
Free up to 1,000 contacts. No card.
SendFox is the best email tool for most sports coaches and clinics: a signup page for parents and players, a welcome email, and schedule updates, free for 1,000 contacts and $29 once for 5,000. Pick MailerLite if you want to sell bookings from your email tool, EmailOctopus if you want the lowest monthly bill, and GetResponse if you also run webinars.
A demo setup you can copy
The walkthrough below uses a fictional demo account. Its sample emails, schedule and screenshots are teaching examples, not the featured creators’ accounts or results.
Coaches open emails that make practice better on Tuesday. That's the whole strategy. Send a useful drill every week and the clinic announcements take care of themselves.
The example is Full Court Clinic, a made-up basketball clinic that runs weekend sessions for youth coaches, led by Coach Dre. The clinic isn't real. The drills, the emails and the screenshots are.
The drill of the week
This is the email that keeps coaches opening. One drill, why it works, the setup, and one thing to watch for. It fits on a phone screen, which is where coaches read it: in the car, before practice.
Copy the text of this email
Coach,
You know the 3-man weave. This week, add one rule: every pass gets a name called out loud. No name, the group starts over.
Why it works: quiet teams lose close games. This makes talking a habit before it matters.
Setup: 3 lines on the baseline, full court, 2 trips each. 6 minutes total.
Progression: add a defender at half court on trip two.
Watch for: kids who call the name after the pass. Early or it doesn't count.
[Button: Watch the 40-second video]
Winter clinic registration opens to this list Thursday. 40 spots.
Coach Dre
Best email tools for sports coaches & clinics
I make SendFox, so it's listed first. Each tool below says what it does better than us. Prices are at 5,000 subscribers. How we checked.
| # | Tool | Best for | At 5,000 subscribers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SendFoxBest value | Clinics that email schedules and sign-ups | $29 once |
| 2 | MailerLite | Selling session bookings from email | $49/mo |
| 3 | EmailOctopus | The lowest monthly bill | $31.50/mo |
| 4 | GetResponse | Webinars in the same tool | $54/mo |
| 5 | Mailchimp | Teams that already live in Mailchimp | $100/mo |
01 SendFox Best value
- Price
- Free to 1,000 contacts. $29 once for 5,000. Pro from $19/month.
- Moves
- Imports from Mailchimp, Kit, Google Contacts or a CSV
Good
- Free for 1,000 contacts and 3,000 sends a month
- $29 once for 5,000 contacts and 300,000 total sends
- Smart Pages and subscriber referrals on every plan, RSS-to-email from the $29 plan
Not so good
- The $29 plan has a send pool. Weekly to 5,000 people uses it in about 13 months, then you move to Pro
- No CRM or sales pipeline
- Paid newsletters and removing branding need Pro
02
- Price
- $49/month at 5,000 (Comfort).
Good
- Website and landing page builder included
- Preference center and 100+ integrations
- Sells digital products and bookings
Not so good
- Free plan is now 250 subscribers
- Comfort caps you at 10 emails per subscriber a month
- Jumps to $89 at 10,000
03
- Price
- $31.50/month at 5,000 (Pro).
Good
- Cheapest monthly price we found up to 50,000 subscribers
- Unlimited users and landing pages
Not so good
- Free plan puts EmailOctopus branding on your emails
- Free keeps only 30 days of reports
04
- Price
- $54/month at 5,000 (Starter).
Good
- Webinars on the Creator plan
- Abandoned-cart emails and funnels
- Advertises a 50% nonprofit discount
Not so good
- Starter has 1 custom automation
- Free plan has no autoresponders
05
Mailchimp
- Price
- $100/month at 5,000 (Standard). Free stops at 250 contacts.
Good
- Deep ecommerce integrations and product recommendations
- Huge template library, custom-coded templates and popup forms
Not so good
- Counts unsubscribed contacts toward your plan
- Adds overage charges past your limits
Film a 40-second clip for every drill. Coaches trust what they can see.
From the SendFox teamSay you have 1,800 coaches on the list. If 50% open the registration email, 900 coaches see it.
If 3% of the whole list register, that's 54 coaches for 40 spots. You'll have a waitlist before you post it on social.
Rough math, not a promise. Round numbers for illustration; they aren't SendFox data, and your list will do its own thing.
The form, field by field
- Fields: First name and email. Every extra field costs signups.
- Button: "Send me the practice plan"
- What they get: A free 10-drill, 90-minute practice plan for 10 to 14 year olds.
- Where signups go: the Drill of the week list, which starts the welcome automation.
Use it as a hosted link (your bio, a QR code, the back of a book) or paste one line of code to put it on your site.
Clinic sign-ups with a Smart Page
Coach Dre makes a second Smart Page for each clinic: dates, location, price, what coaches will leave with, and a form that adds people to a "Winter clinic 2026" list. The list gets the logistics emails. Nobody else does.
SendFox doesn't sell tickets. If you take payment, link to your registration or payment page from the Smart Page and the emails, and use SendFox for the list and the reminders.
Announce to your email list first, 48 hours before social. Your list is your most loyal coaches. Rewarding them with first dibs is how clinics fill without ads.
Then send three reminders to the clinic list only: two weeks out (what to bring), two days out (parking and schedule), and the morning after (slides, drills, and next season's dates). The morning-after email is the one that sells the next clinic.
The welcome sequence
Runs every time a coach joins the Drill of the week list:
- Right away"Your 10-drill practice plan"The PDF and a note on how to adjust it for younger kids.
- 3 days later"How I run the first 10 minutes of practice"The warm-up routine and why it matters more than the drills.
- 8 days later"Want to coach alongside us this winter?"The winter clinic dates and a link to the clinic Smart Page.
Lists and tags, with exact names
Create these on day one, with these exact names, so every email has an obvious place to go.
Drill of the weeklistEveryone who downloads the practice plan.
Winter clinic 2026listRegistered coaches. Logistics only.
attended-clinictagCoaches who came to a clinic. They get next season's dates first.
A season of sends
- Tue Oct 6
Drill of the week.
- Tue Oct 13
Drill of the week, plus "clinic registration opens Thursday".
- Thu Oct 15
Winter clinic registration opens to the list. 40 spots.
- Sat Oct 17
Post the clinic on social.
- Tue Oct 20 to Tue Feb 23
Drill of the week, every Tuesday of the season.
- Mon Nov 30
Winter clinic list only: what to bring, parking, schedule.
- March to July
Off-season: one email a month. Film study, summer camp dates.
Go quiet in the off-season, not silent. Once a month keeps you in the inbox so the preseason email doesn't land in spam.
Subject lines
What a clinic uses in SendFox
Smart Pages
One for the practice plan, one per clinic.
Free: 1 · Lifetime & Pro: unlimitedLists
Drill of the week, plus a list per clinic for logistics.
Free: 3 lists · Lifetime & Pro: unlimitedScheduling
Write six drills in one sitting and schedule six Tuesdays.
Every planResend to non-openers
For the registration email, 2 days later.
Every planSettings for a clinic list
| Setting | What to set | Why |
|---|---|---|
| From name | Coach Dre (Full Court Clinic) | Coaches know Coach Dre. |
| From email | An address you actually read | Replies go to your from address. Replies are the best signal you'll get. |
| Send time | Tuesday, 6am | Before school, when coaches plan that afternoon's practice. Campaigns schedule in your time zone. |
| Double opt-in | Leave it on to start | Confirmed subscribers mean fewer typos and fake signups. Single opt-in is available on Pro, or on Lifetime after a one-time domain setup. |
| Lists and tags | Drill of the week, Winter clinic 2026, attended-clinic | So each email goes only to the people it's for. What each one is for is spelled out in the lists and tags section. |
| Engaged only | On for promos, off for must-read news | It sends only to people who opened in the last 90 days or joined recently. |
| Footer | Nothing to add | SendFox adds your mailing address and an unsubscribe link to every campaign. You'll need to enter your address before your first send. |
What it costs
Free
1,000 contacts, 3,000 sends a month. 1 Smart Page, 1 form, 1 automation.
Lifetime
5,000 contacts and 300,000 total sends. Unlimited automations, Smart Pages and forms.
Pro
From 5,000 contacts and 100,000 sends a month. Paid newsletters, teammates, no SendFox branding.
| Plan | Price | Contacts | Sends | Smart Pages, forms, automations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1,000 | 3,000 / month | 1 of each |
| Lifetime | $29, once | 5,000 | 300,000 total | Unlimited |
| Pro | From $19 / month | 5,000 to 250,000 | From 100,000 / month | Unlimited |
Free and Lifetime emails carry a small SendFox footer; Pro removes it. Pro also adds paid newsletters on your own Stripe account and teammates. Lifetime and Pro get the full API and MCP server; Free gets a limited set. Current plans: sendfox.com/pricing.
Free up to 1,000 contacts. $29 once for 5,000. Bigger coaching lists move to Pro from $19/month.
How that compares to 12 other tools at 5,000 to 100,000 subscribers: email marketing pricing compared.
How we checked
Every price comes from the vendor's own pricing page, read on October 14, 2026, at monthly billing unless noted. We priced each tool at 5,000, 10,000, 25,000, 50,000 and 100,000 subscribers on the plan named in the table. The ranking is for sports coaches & clinics who email one list regularly. Nobody paid to be on this list. SendFox prices come straight from our billing system, so they match what you will pay.
FAQ
What is the best email marketing platform for a sports clinic?
One that makes weekly emails fast and clinic sign-ups simple. SendFox is free for 1,000 contacts, then $29 once for 5,000, with Smart Pages, lists and scheduling on every plan.
Can people register for a clinic through SendFox?
They can sign up to a clinic list through a Smart Page or form. SendFox doesn't take payments or sell tickets, so link to your registration or payment page for that.
How often should a coach email their list?
Weekly during the season, monthly in the off-season.
Can I email only the coaches coming to one clinic?
Yes. Put each clinic's sign-ups on their own list and send logistics to that list only.
Copy this setup this afternoon
Free for 1,000 contacts. $29 once for 5,000. Import from Mailchimp, Kit or a CSV.
Free up to 1,000 contacts. No card.
Keep reading
Featured newsletters link to public creator pages and public emails. The walkthrough and screenshots use a fictional SendFox demo account, before any emails were sent.