How To CUT Your Marketing Budget and Get More Bookings & Enquiries at Your Golf Club

In this article, I will give you 6 proven methods to cut your marketing budget and increase your clubs green fee bookings and membership enquiries at the same time.

But first a little bit of background.

All I've known is golf my entire life...

My dad was (and still is) PGA professional and owned a driving range and my mum played off 5!

I caught the bug at just 2 years old and I was playing in the garden with plastic balls and clubs. 

I joined my first golf club at 10 years old, receiving a handicap of 30 off the red tees and from there I played in hundreds of matches, medals and stablefords and even picked up a few trophies. 

I represented my local county, Sussex, in many county matches and once in an England Golf Southeast Junior Foursomes at Felixstowe Ferry Golf Club, Suffolk. 

I progressed to a handicap of 5, where I got a little stuck, bogged down with GCSEs, A-levels and a university degree-

Why am I telling you this?

Because after playing golf for almost 20 years, I know what makes golfers tick. I know what they respond to, how they talk and their deepest needs and desires...

Because I'm one myself.

So after I practised and ingrained proven advertising formulas and studied the newest, most effective marketing platforms, I ran to the golf industry...

I saw there were many general managers unaware of how to advertise their golf club effectively in the new digital age of social media...

Because it was like a foreign language to them...

So I wanted to reveal my secrets.

So I've decided to share the 6 proven marketing strategies to cut ad spend and increase bookings & enquiries.

1) Stop ALL Offline Advertising Immediately

It's not working!

And if you're saying it is, how do you know?

“What gets measured gets done.” 

Regular measurement and reporting is the key to improvement.

It gives you valuable information and feedback to make decisions to improve your results. 

Offline advertising is useless at this.

Do you know much it costs you to get a new member or a green fee booking?

Do you have any data on your current advertising methods...

Not to mention it's expensive and outdated.

Save your money, cut it off.

2) A 'CTA' On Your Website

A 'Call to Action' button-

By not having one you are losing customers, as the main goal of the website is converting visitors into customers, and having a call to action is the best way to do this. 

So to implement this, here are 3 necessities of an effective CTA button:

• Action Focused

Decide on your most desired customer action then turn it into an order for the customer, e.g. Book a Green Fee or Become a Member.

• God's Spot

Place it in the top-centre of the page just under your main menu as it is the first thing any website visitor sees.

• Impossible to Miss

Also, make it large! We don't want customers missing it.

This will increase bookings & enquiries immediately.

3) Data Collection

Collect their EMAIL.

Yes I know, social media has become the most powerful way to engage with your audience. However, email is still a great way to share valuable content, offers and discounts and stay at the top of a customers mind.

So, how do you collect more emails?

• Offer Value

You MUST offer value first and that doesn't mean subscribing to your newsletter!

You must offer something they actually want in exchange for their email.

A fair deal.

Here are 3 ways you could implement this:

1) You could run a competition (must be worth winning), the better the prize the more emails you'll collect - e.g. 'Enter your email address and you could win a year's worth of FREE Green Fees'. (This would only be 1 green fee a week for a year)

2) You could offer a discount upfront - e.g. 'Enter your email address and receive 20% off your green fee(s)'

(Run it for a week or two - check the results.)

Or my favourite:

3) Offer a free course guide, it could be an online course guide or send an email that allows them to redeem one when they show it to your staff member in the pro shop - 'Enter your email address for a free course guide'

However, it's not just about getting them on your email list.

Customers now have more power to get rid of the irrelevant emails that they hate.

Additionally, email deliverability is affected by the number of opens your email receives, so irrelevant, 'salesy' emails are not going to cut it. 

So, to keep customers on your email list and ensure that your emails have the best chance of being delivered, make emails personal, relevant and provide value.

E.g. golf tips, special offers, latest news - (reasons to stay on your email list).

4) Offer a FREE Taster Session

With most membership models in other industries, it is common practice to offer a complimentary visit to test your facilities e.g. a gym membership allows newcomers a free session to see if they like the facilities on offer.

I think it's crazy to think someone would pay an annual membership fee of ￡900 or more, plus a joining fee without playing the course first.

Imagine how many potential members you lose because of this.

Time for a quick calculation:

Let's say someone joins your golf club at the age of 30 and stays with you until they are 75. Average annual membership is ￡900. Average annual bar spend is ￡500. Average annual pro shop spend is ￡400.

Now I can already hear, 30 until they're 75, that's ridiculous!

At my old club, the Nevill Golf Club, there was a legendary member who joined when he was a junior at around 15 years old. His membership at the Nevill didn't end until he sadly passed away when he was 80.

And I know that every golf club has a similar story.

If you treat your members well, they'll never want to leave.

So, with an average annual spend of ￡1,800 for 45 years.

That's ￡81,000 (45 x ￡1,800) over the span of their membership.

That's without them buying lessons from you, signing guests in, using your other facilities etc.

The lifetime value of a loyal member is potentially worth more than ￡80,000 to your club.

Imagine someone coming to your golf club holding a bag with ￡80,000 in it, what would you do to convince them?

Would you give them a free first round?

If you're confident in your golf course and facilities, it will pay dividends.

Worried that golfers would take advantage of your generosity?

You're right, there will be some golfers who try to take advantage BUT you'd convert so many more interested visitors into members that it would more than balance out.

If you already offer a free round to those interested in a membership, is it made very clear to your customers on your website?

Could you make it easier for your customers?

5) Testimonials

This is one of the most powerful marketing tools that I see very few golf clubs using.

Testimonials will double the number of bookings and enquiries you receive on a monthly basis by just simply providing some 'social proof'.

People trust what others say about your club 10 times more than what you say. Of course you'll say your club has a friendly atmosphere and 'boasts a beautiful 18 hole golf course' but when others say it, it is so much more profound and people believe it.

Customers on your website just need to be nudged over the fence. Some assuring testimonials will provide the last push for those customers that need it.

How do you get testimonials?

• Provide incentives to members and visitors to give testimonials.

How do I present them? 

• The more detailed the testimonial, the better.

A first name, last name, handicap, hometown, age (if you can!)

6) Facebook ads

Let’s face it. The golf industry is a pretty saturated market, especially in the game's most popular countries.

Currently there are 17,000 golf courses in the US and 2,500 in the UK (1,900 of those are in England).

Counties like Kent, Sussex and Surrey each have over 100 golf courses. 

Total numbers have recently declined as some clubs have shut down or were bought out.

In 2018, 8 golf courses in England closed down.

It's no wonder courses this is the case. Many golf courses struggle with standing out, because golfers are spoilt for choice.

With that said, very few golf courses are taking advantage of online advertising to help get them noticed.

Traditional marketing channels like newspapers, magazines, radio, billboards and television are expensive and outdated. 

(To be honest, if you're still advertising on the radio or in newspapers I think you're beyond help.)

However, social media posts are just as bad and are not an effective advertising strategy.

They reach a limited audience, only those who like your page (mostly members), and therefore cannot be targeted (golfers in your local area).

Here's the solution:

Facebook advertising!

Why?

• It's the cheapest way to advertise, with an average cost $0.25 per 1000 people reached, compared to $32 per 1000 people with golf magazines.
• It's the largest social media platform with 2 billion active users. 

And here’s the best part:

• It has more information on its users (your potential customers) than any other marketing platform, that you can use. Making it the most effective marketing platform out there...

Ok, so you've got your tips to cut your marketing budget and get more bookings & enquiries...

(If you've read this far, you're probably looking for some help.)

I have one singular goal:

To help golf clubs GMs to get more memberships enquiries and green fee bookings by creating high-converting Facebook ads.

I have fused my understanding of the golfer's brain and Facebook advertising, and have since developed the ultimate online advertising strategy for golf clubs that generates 50-100 green fee bookings and membership enquiries in 60 days.

If you're interested - send me a message and let's discuss getting ahead of your competition.

Act now to prevent getting left behind in the new age of social media advertising.