Food for thought #16

If your local sign company gave you four billboards for free, for two months in the busiest intersections of town, with the stipulation that your club had to advertise, “Hands down, the best Ladies program in (name of your city)” or “You won’t find a better Junior program, anywhere”…could your club pull it off?

If not, why?

What would you have to do differently?

Rebooting your Marketing, part 2

Where are the course tours these days?

Why aren’t they on your website?

Do you want google images and golfclubatlas.com (which I love) to get traffic or your club?

Here’s a simple one done on wordpress by my good friends at Sweetens Cove outside of Chattanooga, TN:

http://www.sweetenscovegolfclub.com/#

If you want to be a bit more ambitious, Oak Ridge Country Club in Oak Ridge, TN has a cool flyover.  Bonus points for narration:

http://oakridgecountryclub.org/aerial-tour/#close

Not having a course tour but needing members is like having a hotel website without views of the rooms.  It’s lazy.

(Copy this) The best pin sheet I've ever seen

This is absolutely genius.  So clear.  No ambiguity.

Sedgefield Country Club, Greensboro, NC

Rebooting your Marketing

Your people (service) and your product (golf course, calendar) are what sets you apart from your competition.

A great golf professional is like a pied piper – if he (and your club) understands the power of marketing.  One area I see few over 35 golf professionals embrace is You Tube.  In short, your website and social media sites should direct people to your professional staff on an at least weekly basis.

Why?

1. It’s free.  Literally, you pay nothing to reach thousands of people.  That should excite anyone without an aol account.
2. It works.  If the the videos are good, people will watch your content, save it, try it (tips, tricks), and then (here’s the powerful part for you) share it.
3. It takes very little time or expertise.  A phone camera and a steady hand are all you need.

Here’s what I would do if I sold less than 20k in lessons per year:

• One tip per week, better if you show real members.
• Include women, juniors, seniors…they statistically take more lessons than males under 40.
• Content:  Etiquette (you would be surprised what people miss), pace of play, rules, basics of golf, advanced techniques, fitness, and the mental game.
• Always include a call to action at the end – 10-15 seconds.
• Encourage questions by including your non-aol email account.
• Keep the videos 2-5 minutes tops.
• Make sure to film on non-windy days.
• Be consistent, post the same day/time of the week.

Domino’s, Ebay, and your Pro Shop

Have you tried the new (well, it’s really not that new now) Domino’s Pizza Tracker app?  Place your order…and the application shows you in temperature gauge fashion where your pizza is step by step until completion.  Really fascinating that the company put so much time and thought into a $7-12 item.

Ebay is another remarkable application.  Individuals sell items to other individuals…and without fail, whether the item is a $5 book or a $50 Hines Ward jersey, tracking information is provided within 24 hours of paying for the selection.

I ordered shoes via the New Balance brick and mortar store a month ago…same thing, but in person.  “Sir, it is showing in stock and we can have it here by Friday.  Should I order it for you”?

Shockingly…I don’t have a ‘membership’ to any of these businesses.

What is the process for ordering at your club, step-by-step?

If sounds like, “we’ll get it ordered and call you when it comes in”, and then your staff is harassed by the member for weeks until the order arrives – That is on you, not your ‘annoying’ member.

$5 pizzas, $10 books, a part for my broken dishwasher all come with adequate arrival information.  It’s not 1975 anymore.  This is blocking and tackling.

Always have an initiation fee

Initiation fees are the ‘temperature’ of your club.  Have one, and potential members will likely view you as viable and healthy.  The absence of an initiation fee is a beacon to the transient bargain shopper.

In short, you should always have an initiation fee (!) – even if you have to concede in another area.

You could creatively defray some of the costs with:

• Cart passes or cart usage included for so many months.
• Guest passes.
• Food credit.
• Locker usage for 12 months.
• Lessons.

…just be cautious when nixing it completely.

The appearance of struggling to survive doesn’t say, “great club, amazing service, exceptional experience, or wow”, it says, “please come, we are dying”.

Easy money, no impact

One of the most underutilized, yet most profitable membership categories (it seems) few clubs focus on, is National memberships.

While any club pro worth his weight in Pro V’s can get his member on 95% of the Private clubs in the United States, some members want more lasting happiness than just a day of belt-notching.

For many, it’s the thought of still being connected to their home club despite moving several hundred miles away. For others, a National membership represents a second club that they can call home for a quick weekend trip, an additional member-guest tournament, or if the course is of a certain pedigree (Ross, Raynor, Tillinghast, etc.), a source of great pride for he and his friends to enjoy on occasion.

Three mistakes clubs make in what should be an easy sell are:

1.  Pricing the membership too high: When it comes to pricing, most clubs want to protect their current, full members. Doing so usually means pricing the National/out of town membership category at roughly 1/2 of their full membership price per month. At $200 (for example), even with no food minimums or add-ons, many potential members who only see themselves coming a few times per year will balk. On paper, it appears to the local members that the National membership is a giveaway…until they do the math and think through the actual impact these folks will have on the tee sheet.

• National members almost never travel alone, so having one member usually means selling 2-7 guest fees each time they visit.
• In addition to the extra guest fees, most National members and their guests will want a shirt or sweater to take with them. Many also eat at the club, which is another source of income.
• Since many have to drive 2+ hours, they can’t tee off at 8 am, and frankly, few want to feel like they are taking a local members ‘normal’ slot, so they are usually open to teeing off a little later in the morning.
• Clubs never factor in the gas, food, and lodging National members incur on the few times they come to town. While (again) on paper, the membership can look cheap, in reality, a day at the club typically costs upwards of $300-500 for the individual. A $2,400 membership suddenly becomes $4,000 even if they only come a few times per year.

2.  Allowing too much access already: No one wants to become a member of a club that they can access with ease. People will pay for exclusivity (or the perception of it).

3.  They spend little to no effort marketing the membership: I’ve never seen a single Facebook or Twitter post focused on attaining National members, have you? Does your club keep track of guests that visit from out of town? Wouldn’t they be a logical choice to be your next National member?

The most unique (and genius) National Membership plan I’ve ever seen lives at the Blackthorn Club in Jonesborough, TN. (Currently) For $1,000 per year, the member ‘banks’ his initial fee. Each time he visits and uses the club (food, carts, guest fees), the fee is reduced per incident, until the initial fee is depleted. For an additional $500, the account is ‘re-charged’ until December 31.

The best way to get started is simple – create an almost give-away plan. Market it until you reach your target member number or sales volume. Raise as needed. Supply and demand will tell you everything you need to know.