Mon Mar 1 2010

Golf Marketing 101: in-house or the out-house?

Many golf and sporting facilities are missing out on the basics of marketing products and services to their specific demographic target. Most facilities are primarily supported by a client base that is only within 20k of their location, but it is still common practice to soley rely on newspaper, radio and magazines advertising to the targets outside this 20k area. It is fine to use this form of advertising if you are trying to attract more external visitors, but the costs involved in producing and the time element in planning can sometimes be detrimental to the original goal you are trying to achieve… Getting customers to your facility and having them come back again and again!

The most inexpensive and in most cases the most highly productive marketing strategies are to look internally - to the customers that walk through your door on a daily basis. How many players, members, and guests do you already have come through your facility every week? What are you currently doing to actively engage these valuable customers to play more often or to spend more money at your facility? What information are you gathering about these customers? How can you get them to come again or to bring a friend?

1) Have the golf course starter or other nominated staff member ask every player/patron for their email address or mobile phone number when they book a tee time or before they tee off for play. Use this valuable information to email or SMS any specials or to fill an empty day due to a corporate group no show. Set your team a goal of how many emails you can get in a month.

2) Get a phone number of every guest that comes or calls into your facility asking for information regarding membership, weddings, golf or a corporate day.

3) Hand out a coupon or "bounce back" offer to all patrons using the restaurant or golf course, inviting them back for a special rate that week or month. The idea is to build repeat business and extra spends.

4) Introduce a simple eNewsletter for your members and general database - this helps tremendously with communication and remember to always offer a promotion of some kind.

5) If you use an electronic reservation system, set it up to auto-respond with a confirmation message and include directions to your facility, your cancellation policy and some kind of promotion.

6) If you offer a member in-house billing system, use the tax invoice you generate as a marketing opportunity - add a small promo message or reminder of an upcoming event.

So ask yourself… would you rather continue to spend $500+ for an ad each month that may give you the required one-off return on investment (if you are lucky and are properly tracking results), or spend the same or less money on some basic staff training and in-house strategies that gives you an ongoing return on your money?  The answer is a strategic mix of both mediums. Golf Industry Central can assist you in figuring all this out.

By Mike Orloff, Golf Operations Specialist © Copyright Golf Industry Central September 2008

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