Golf Pros – stop doing nothing and grow
Rick Williams PGASeptember 21, 2016content marketing, Content marketing for golf, Golf, Golf Business, golf marketing, Inbound Marketing, people, Social Media
Post navigation
Here’s a quick client campaign success story shows the benefit of “actively engaging” with your golfers. I’ll call it “How to Make $25K in 12 Hours”. PGA Professionals can definitely make it rain.
I hear the comment all too often that “the industry is in trouble, too many people don’t play enough, not enough people are taking up the game, I don’t have time to market myself, my golfers don’t pay attention…”.
I say NO! to that.
I do know that in local markets where golf professionals lead and grow their golf community through great programming and content marketing, golfers respond. When golf professionals make the game more fun, provide learning opportunities, events with value and that focus on the GOLFER, great things happen.
The goal of any golf course is to drive rounds and revenue. But where do those “rounds” begin? Where do the golfers come from? How do you find them? How do you attract them?
How about taking a look at your lesson tee? The golf pro is the engine of growth at any facility. What are you doing in terms of “developing” golfers? Read on!
Case Study – PXG Custom Fitting campaign
Simple, yet effective content marketing campaign. Landing page with “why, how, what” and an offer with CTA of “Schedule Your Fitting Experience”. Fitting days were conducted 3X in August. All 45 minute sessions (12 total hours) sold out. $25,000 in sales. Happy client, happy PXG.
“One golfer booked in for a fitting who had not purchased new clubs in 10 years. He said he heard about PXG from a friend and how much better his friend was hitting the ball and shooting lower scores. He not only bought a driver, he bought 12 other clubs! He’s also a 20 handicap, but I bet he’ll be trending lower”.
Results matter. So does expertise. So does your message. Get active!
Great activity “on the ground” by client, too. Sold out events and huge sales? Awesome.
Working on the “attract – engage – convert – retain – delight” concept, along with SMART (great info from the HubSpot blog) content marketing goals, we can learn how this example worked.
- Specific – Client wanted to sell out the fitting sessions, knowing if he did that, conversion rates would be high (ended up at 98%)
- Measurable – Data collected from the fittings, sales figures and future track/measure data on performance/results. Score!
- Attainable – Client knew if word got around about the experience AND the results, the members would take notice. They certainly did.
- Realistic – Absolutely, and he exceeded his expectations.
- Time bound – We have a 3 week run-up of promotion/messaging, and then 3 weeks of ongoing activity.
I know from experience that when you have the opportunity to get “one on one” time with golfers, you have a great chance of converting that engagement opportunity into business – and guiding that golfer up the development ladder. When you do this, your profitability goes up. Don’t know what the PGA of America Development Ladder looks like or what it is? Check in with your PGA Section, they can help. I love my Philly PGA Section team!
So why is this all important? The golf professional’s value proposition is their expertise in being able to show results to a student, create a positive learning environment for their golfers/members and to enhance the lives of the golfers who engage with them.
That may be increased skill level/proficiency, enhancing the golfer experience (think new golfer), passing through a competitive performance plateau or simply a “quick fix” session that gets a golfer past a barrier. The real value here is creating deeper bonds with golfers through positive engagement activities that showcase myriad outcomes.
When the golfer sees the results of these engagements, they are more apt to play more, bring guests, spend more in the golf shop, purchase custom equipment, eat more food, etc. When they play better golf, they enjoy their time more, and want to PLAY more!
That’s how you drive rounds and revenue and make your golfers (and employers/board members) happy indeed.
I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts, drop me a reply!