Closing Out Your Season Strong
The season is almost over for a lot of golf courses and I venture to guess they are nowhere near their targeted goal as far as rounds or revenue is concerned. This is a vicious cycle most golf courses go through each year. They start out the season with the enthusiasm to go after Moby Dick in a rowboat but by August they are floating in a sinking vessel with no oars and no direction.I am here to assure you this does not have to be the case. Designing a yearlong marketing strategy will ensure steady traffic throughout the year and not just during your prime season. Golfers are going to golf during the season and the only thing you have to do is give them emotional and logical reasons why they should play their rounds at your golf course as opposed to your competitor’s course.
It’s the off-season times when you must put on your “marketer’s” hat and jump into this role with both feet. Remember – no one gets paid if the course is not raising enough revenue to make payroll so your focus must be on driving in traffic. I know you are a professional or you wouldn’t be in this business; the question is, are you a marketing professional? If you own the course you are definitely a business professional, if you are the pro you’re absolutely a golf professional but neither one of those titles qualifies you as a marketing professional so let me share the basics with you.
Here are four things to keep in mind when designing your post-season golf marketing campaign:
- Identify exactly what your local golfer’s emotional needs are and how your course/club can meet those needs.
- Identify all of the relevant characteristics (e.g., age, gender, income, and educational level, etc.) i.e., the demographics/profile of your golfer.
- Decide on the media and/or platform that best targets your golfers e.g., blogs, direct mail marketing, mobile text messaging, traditional media (radio, TV, newspaper, magazine), cold calling, social media, etc.
- Decide on what technique you will use to draw the golfer in; whether it’s a catchy slogan, quick visual, rich informational content (e.g., golf tips that meets the needs of your target market).
Success doesn’t happen by accident, it happens by design. Start designing your golf marketing strategy today and be prepared to drive some traffic into the course next month.
If you want to end the season better than you have ever before; call MMC® today and let us run a no-risk/self-funding (the campaign completely pays for itself and we require no up-front fees), data-driven, performance-based (we are paid solely on a success basis), turn-key (we design and manage the entire campaign from conception to close-out) golf marketing campaign.
Thank you for partnering with MMC® today in growing the game, your golf course and your golf career.