Save Your Golf Club From This Economy By Not Following The Traditional Methods of Marketing!

Golf clubs across the country are closing down and going out of business across the United States at a extremely shocking rate. Florida, the state with more golf clubs than any other state, is seeing this more and moreas time goes on. A lot of these “failing” golf clubs are blaming the economy, and some are blaming the current state of golf in general; but I see things differently.

The golf industry is behind the times in almost every aspect of running a business in this day and age. Most golf courses still have a website that provides no information, it does not collect any data from people visiting it, and looks like something that my 12 year old daughter could create in a few hours. These golf clubs need to embrace technology and develop a website that both promotes AND generates business. There are a handful of golf marketing businesses that specifically create websites to help generate more business for golf resorts and their individual needs, why aren’t more clubs taking advantage of them?

Another way the golf industry is behind the times is plainly marketing in general. Look at how much golf courses are promoting themselves. Are they even realizing the amount of effort that their current staff is putting into promoting their golf club? The average golf courses do the following things which they call “marketing”.

• They place an ad in the local newspaper showing how they just discounted the price. This only gets them into discount wars with their competition which only causes them to lose MORE money. They should instead find something that shows that they excel at, create a unique sales proposition out of it, and start promoting their course for what they do best.
• They place an ad in the yellow pages and local phone book that unfortunately looks like every other ad within the book and it draws no attention to the club. Honestly, with the invention of search engines such as Google and the amount of people who use the internet these days, how many people do you think still use the phone book to find information when they could just power up their computer, type in a search term, and have the answer to their question quickly? The answer is that phone book usage is dropping by 10% almost every year because of new technology! These clubs that are spending thousands of dollars a year on this single ad could be directing that extra money towards something more beneficial such as a website or direct mail campaign like I mentioned above
• They place an ad in the local penny saver.  Once again, something that is proven to be ineffective in this day and age. Instead they should be looking into fusion marketing techniques and working with other local businesses to promote their golf course. They could easily go to the local Porsche dealer and give away a free round of golf with every car purchase. Not only will the dealership easily accept this offer, but it will get new people, with MONEY, at the course and they will easily make up the lost green fee revenue by the new players paying for a cart fee or eating after the round at the club house. They will even convert a certain quantity of these players into returning players, which will help increase the residual income of the club. Think about that for a second, if they charge forty dollars a round, and the new players plays on average ten times a year, they just made an extra four hundred dollars off green fees alone. If you get 20 new players a year from the car dealership that’s an extra $8,000 a year from a simple green fee promotion with a car dealership!

Another way golf communities are slowly killing themselves is with real estate. A lot of golf communities that were doing well in the early 2000’s are now drowning in a sea of debt because of unsold lots, unsold homes, and not enough members. What can they do to help fix this problem? Let’s look at what Juliette Falls, which is a Florida Golf Resort, in Dunnellon did. They first got a good website from a company named Legendary Marketing. They built their website into something that looks fantastic and promotes exactly what they do. Well guess what, the economy tanked and now they have over 40 homes that are in the price range of $500,000 to more than a million and no one was buying them. How do they turn this around? They came up with an astonishing promotion that is how! At Juliette Falls you can stay in a Amazing Golf Home worth over a million dollars, play a round of golf, enjoy the onsite spa and eat at a fancy restaurant for $199 a night. If they sell only one night for every day of the year, that is over $70,000 in additional revenue for the resort AND they get new prospects and leads at the course every single day which they can use to promote to in the future! Why aren’t all the golf communities thinking this way?

As you can see, the golf industry is slowing killing itself by being behind the times in technology, marketing, real estate and a host of other things that will be addressed in a future article. If you’re a member of a golf course, or even better part of the members committee, stand up and bring attention to the actions your course is taking. Tell your club they need to break the mold of what they have been doing. Make them think outside the comfort zone! Make your golf management company become accountable for the actions the club takes! It may be the only thing left that can save your golf resort!

Why Golf Resorts Need to Think Outside the Box

Florida has many great golf resorts. When you want to go golfing in Florida on vacation, chances are that you are going to end up staying at one of the popular golf resorts in the area such as TPC Sawgrass, Champions Gate, Sandestin or PGA National Resort and Spa. All 4 of these places are amazing, and honestly, I really can’t say anything bad about TPC Sawgrass.Who really say anything bad about them anyway?

The problem with these four resorts is that they are catering to the same individual all of the time, upper class people making $150,000 plus a year. They don’t allow the real people such as you and I the time of day to come and play at their course, or stay at their resort. Can I blame them… no not really? People are paying the money to play and stay there and they are taking advantage of it just like any good business would do.

Now things have changed in the golf resort world, especially in Florida. When the economy started to slow down, the amount of golf being played, and the amount of people staying at Florida golf resorts also started to slow down as well. The 4 popular golf resorts I mentioned above probably haven’t changed their ways yet, but I can guarantee you that they haven’t changes their ways and are probably losing large amounts of money because they haven’t adjusted to this new economy.

In reality, what did this economy do to the golf world? How has it changed it? Will the economy ever get better? To tell you the truth, I don’t have a truthful answer I can give you because a lot of golf courses and resorts are not being honest with themselves or other professionals in our industry. The economy HAS slowed down play in all areas across the country. The economy has made golfers start to play at cheaper courses, or look for special offers that are occurring at particular resorts. No longer can resorts rely on “regular” customers because a lot of those regulars have ditched their home course in search of the best deal.
What can they do about this? It is very simple; in fact it is really a no brainer. They need to come up with an amazing promotion that drives traffic to their resort. Need an example? I thought you might want to an example of one.

Juliette Falls is a new golf resorts in Florida in Dunnellon. It is only about an hour away from both Tampa and Orlando and is roughly 15 minutes way from Ocala. It is a very isolated town in Florida. Juliette Falls has a beautiful course and the nice golf homes are jaw dropping. So what does a Florida gated community do when the economy slows and homes stop selling? They came up with a plan to make up for their lost income. Juliette Falls decided to start selling packages that allow you to stay in a million dollar golf home and play a round of golf and enjoy all of the resorts facilities for $199 a night. What golfer in their right mind would refuse an offer to stay in a million dollar golf home and play a round of golf for that price; I know I couldn’t do it. What this does is create a new stream of money using assets that they already have access to. If they sell only two stays for every night of that year, that’s $145,000 a year in pure profits! It also could supply a steady stream of potential home buyer leads! Why aren’t other resorts thinking this way?

Golf Resorts need to start trying to think outside of the box. In this horrifying economy it may be one of the only ways to keep a positive flow of income if you not a “distinguished” golf resort!