Kris E. Wilson, president and CEO of The Littlest Golfer Inc., once said, “The first thing golf teaches us is humility; the second empathy, and the third patience.” And all seasoned golfers will agree.
However, patience is not that good of an asset if you’ve been running a golf course for some time now and can’t seem to lead it to growth and success. If you’re struggling to come up with a better business strategy, it’s time to turn to some well-established growth tactics and adapt them to match the specific requirements of golf course management. Here are some guidelines to follow if you want to set up your golf course for success.
What Is a Strategic Plan?
Unlike a standard business plan, which you need before starting a business, a strategic plan evaluates:
● new market conditions
● the work you have done so far
● your established marketing tactics
● the impressions of your customers
Its aim is to determine your facility’s overall direction. As such, it can become a new business plan because it helps you set clear and measurable objectives.
Rethink Your Goals
When you first started this business, you probably had some goals in mind. If you’re finding yourself stuck regardless of how long it has been since you started running your golf course, it’s probably time to see where you’re at and rethink your original goals. A specific target will show you what needs to be done and help you come up with the steps toward achieving it.
Just as an example, here are some goals to think about (of course, the numbers and the goals themselves will be unique to your case):
● Get 50,000 annual rounds.
● Start five new golf instruction programs.
● Sell $250,000 worth of merchandise.
● Keep the operating expenses under $3,000,000.
● Increase customer satisfaction score to a 4.0 average.
Find Your Clientele
Who do you want at your golf course? Is it an elite club for businessmen or a welcoming place for retirees and the neighborhood community? When you get this one clear, it will be easier to create an appropriate environment on the course and in the club, as well as to build a marketing campaign targeting your desired demographic.
Do Market Research
Market research can help you with the previous step if you don’t have any specific clientele in mind. It will tell you where there is room for your business and where you can make a profit. The results you get will give you facts to base your decisions on, instead of assumptions and aspirations. Here are four common market research methods you can use:
● Surveys: This is a qualitative research method that is easy and inexpensive to conduct. It gives you access to a large amount of data quickly, and the data is simple to analyze. Regardless of whether you are at the beginning of your business or you are looking for ways to shake things up, this can be a useful way to get into your customers’ minds.
● Interviews: The most insightful market research method, the interview allows you to dive deep into what your customers or your potential customers want and expect from you.
● Focus groups: This method includes bringing together a group of individuals who fit into your target market and leading a conversation about your business. It can give you some good insights, but if you want quality research, you should know that focus groups can be expensive.
● Observation: Widely considered as the most effective form of market research, observation includes (as the word says) observing how your clients react to your services without influencing their reactions.
Lure the Crowd with Additional Products and Services
Golf players and enthusiasts most value the sport itself. However, they do like convenience, comfort, and easy access to the services you offer. Remember, they want to spend as much time as possible on the course. This means that you can sell golf equipment at the spot or offer various services such as event planning and entertaining. You can also set up a self-service kiosk to make entering orders easier and faster.
Maintenance Is the Key to Longevity
The average golf course size is seventy-four acres, and if you want your clients to keep coming back, you need to make the grass green as it was on the first day. A good maintenance plan includes removing ball marks every day, repairing divots, performing pest control, etc. Of course, don’t forget about regular and seasonal golf cart maintenance if you want your carts to last.
Come up with Different Membership Plans
Most golf courses sell year-long memberships, which need to be renewed at the end of each year. While that is great for having regular clients, it can be bad for customers who are not sure whether they want to commit long-term.
You can diversify your membership options to suit various types of players by adding monthly subscriptions (like gyms or streaming platforms). This opens a wide array of billing possibilities because you can, for example, offer one month free to customers who subscribe for more than two months, etc. Also, you can have different “levels” of subscriptions, where the priciest unlocks some special services, such as sauna use or equipment discounts.
In some private and semi-private courses, there’s the concept of so-called “custom memberships.” This is a good idea to implement (especially for small-scale golf businesses) because different customers have different lifestyles, and it allows customers to choose the services they want from the list of your facility’s offers. The price is then designed accordingly.
Work on Your Reputation
Golf establishments – especially the ones that have a lot of loyal members – are often like large families. As such, they play an important role in the community. That’s why it’s important to work on a club’s reputation and earn the respect of current and future members.
One of the ways of doing that is by hosting charity events. Having a club and a course allows you to organize two types of events: charity dinners and charity tournaments. Additionally, you can host school trips to instill the love for the game in the youngest contestants.
Re(brand)
A business is only as strong as its brand. If you’ve never gotten the chance to get into branding, you can start now, or if you are not satisfied with how your brand is doing, you can always rebrand. Some of the things we mentioned above (especially working on your reputation) are, essentially, a part of the branding process, but here are some more specific steps to make:
● Pick your brand personality based on your target audience.
● State clearly what’s different about your business. (For example: we offer quality time at a golf course while providing relaxing and exciting activities after the match; unlike other golf courses, all of our clubs and other gear are made of sustainable materials.)
● Imagine your brand as a person: What is he or she like? What kind of personality would attract your clientele? Use three to five adjectives to describe the personality of your golf establishment.
● Choose a (new) name that will match that personality. It can be a made-up word or something related to golf and the experience your clients are getting on your course.
● Write a catchy slogan. Think about taglines – something short and descriptive that would look good on a business card and sound good in a radio commercial.
● Choose the look of your brand. Remember that colors define and describe your brand (for golf courses, it’s usually the color green) and use color psychology to get to the right palette.
● Choose a simple font that is easy to read and that goes well with the color palette.
● Finally, design a new logo. Your logo should be something memorable that makes people think instantly about your course upon seeing it.
Revamp Your Marketing Strategy
All the tactics we talked about so far should help you build your marketing strategy. But before you get to work on that, you need to check the success of your current marketing efforts.
You can do this by surveying the customers to see not only how they like the service but also how they discovered your course. When you determine what you’ve done well and where you need to put more effort, you can move on to widening your reach.
Here are some key tactics:
Invest in a decent website
Before deciding to visit your golf course, most people will do their research online. Make sure your website is equipped with all the necessary information and images that represent it properly. Here is your quality website checklist:
● Visually appealing and functional,
● Easy to use,
● Optimized for mobile use,
● Quality content,
● Easy-to-access contact information,
● Clear cause to action,
● Optimized for search.
Write quality content
The website should also have a blog section with content that can position you as an authority in the branch. It will also help to publish golf-related content on other blogs to position your name highly on the Google search engine. Here are some content writing tips you should know (if you are going to write the content instead of hiring a professional):
● Write original content (don’t plagiarize),
● Use short and clear sentences,
● Right content related to your business, so you can stand out as an influencer and a connoisseur in the golf market,
● Don’t write paragraphs that are too long,
● Maintain a careful balance between promotional and non-promotional content. While you want to promote your golf course and the services you offer, valuable information and tips will get you further than simply selling.
● Finally, when writing, keep your target audience in mind.
Invest in ecommerce
You can sell your professional products on your website because you have the advantage of already having a client base that needs the kind of merch you sell.
Monitor website traffic
Use the Google Analytics tool to see where your website traffic is coming from, how visitors interact with it, and how successful your digital marketing strategy is.
Generate online reviews
Ask your satisfied customers to leave a review after visiting your facility. Try to make sure there are no negative reviews, but if you do get some here and there, respond to them politely and use the opportunity to fix your reputation.
Be present on social media platforms
Social media is a great tool for promoting your establishment and communicating with your clients. Whether you’ll be using Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you’ll need to play the marketing game by their rules. Use visual storytelling and engaging posts to get new customers and encourage them to communicate with you.
Here are some tips on how to make social media work for your business:
● Work with influencers. They can be professional golfers or people that are famous on the internet but resonate with your target audience.
● Find affiliate partners who could do some advertising instead of you.
● Run competitions to boost social media engagement (the reward can be a membership or some piece of gear).
● Share live content, especially on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, where visual content is the most important.
● Use Facebook and Instagram Stories. Ephemeral content is very attractive to users because of FOMO (the fear of missing out).
● Run targeted ads.
● Use the information you get from social media analytics to help you learn more about your audience and their preferences.
● Social media should be an essential part of your campaign, not just something you do on the side. So, make sure you have a clear strategy for every platform and a person assigned to operate on them.
In Closing
Just like golf, strategic planning is not only about hitting the ball. It’s about swinging well enough for it to make it to the hole. Use these guidelines to come up with a strategy that works for your business, but make sure you track and analyze your results to see its efficiency. Remember, it’s never too late to change a strategy that doesn’t work.
