My POV On Country Club Marketing

Fore! Yup, this is your warning, Country Clubs.

Pay attention, because I believe your club may be at risk for closing its doors in the next 8-10 years.

The reason I’ve stayed away from working with Country Clubs (and like industries) for so long, is because I have ZERO interest in convincing people who don’t get and value Social Media & Content – and this industry is one of them. I spend no time convincing people who don’t get it and all my time executing with those who do.

But, during a strategy call last week with my colleague, Blake, we decided to put together a list of 11 marketing problems (and some tips) Country Clubs are facing:

1. Too Much Hunting & Not Enough Farming
   • Most of the tactics are based on acquisition – that’s a hunting tactic.
   • Farm your current members, and focus on depth – they’ll market for you. We work so hard to obtain a new member, and then check them off the list and forget about them.
   • Collect & use member data. Now, you can use it to treat people like targets & clicks, or you can use it to treat people like individuals & tribes – I recommend the latter.
   • Blake’s $0.02: Something I see often is once somebody signs the dotted line to join the club, that there isn’t much effort from management to “on-board” these new members. Ya, your club might announce their names in the monthly newsletter or host quarterly new member events, but that’s not enough. One actionable suggestion would be to create an on-boarding plan for each new member. Email automation makes this super easy. Inside your clubs email marketing platform, create an email sequence (1 email each day for the next 4 days.)
   • Email Content Ideas – Drip, drip, drip.
     • Send a welcome to the club email from the clubs GM and let them know how much their valued and detail out what they can expect to receive over the next few days…
     • Club history & current amenities – educate new members on the clubs history and planned additions coming to the club.
     • MGA/ getting involved with the golf community. This email should come from your clubs golf professional.
     • In the last email, give them a free guest pass so they can bring up a friend and potential new member lead.
2. All Chiefs, Few Indians
   • A bunch of big shots talking about things, meetings, calls, but no one executing strategy. Get the right people in place, and have them execute.
   • Leverage your resources. You have (some of) the people, direct them to things that matter – not the stuff you did yesterday (just ask Blockbuster or the Taxi & Hotel industry what that did for them).
3. No Long-Term Strategy & Plan
   • I have yet to come in touch with 1 Country Club that has a (true) marketing strategy. Most simply have a list of marketing tactics (e.g., send direct mail, post flyer on board, say something on Facebook) – that’s not marketing; that’s not a strategy; I don’t even know what that is.
   • Blake’s $0.02: In previous generations, a Country Clubs “marketing strategy” was to come up with incentivized contests to increase membership. While this still works, it should not be a clubs #1 tactic. Hell, it shouldn’t even be in the top 3. Clubs need to focus on developing a true strategy of how they are going to change their brand image within the community. The more progressive clubs are doing things such as:
     • Telling their story through video and member testimonials.
     • Running targeted lead generation campaigns to connect with targeted demographics.
     • Using automated email marketing drip campaigns to bring those leads further down the sales funnel.
4. Ridiculously Low – Or Nonexistent – Marketing Budget For The Size Of The Operation
   • This one baffles me.
   • Blake’s $0.02: Marketing/Advertising have always been taboo words in the private club industry. Club management has always had to walk a fine line as they wanted to keep the perception of being private, that the only way to become a part of the club is by invitation only. This mindset must change for clubs to grow. The old rule of thumb for determining a business’s marketing spend was to dedicate at least 10% of revenue to pure marketing spend. From my experience, I think that number is closer to 5%. Regardless of that number for your club, there needs to be a dedicated marketing budget focused on increasing membership and other profitable events.
5. Communication Tactics Don’t Match The Way People Consume Media
   • Your communication expenditures should match the percentage of where your audience attention is. And, should match the context in which it’s presented.
   • Blake’s $0.02: Peoples mobile device consumes their time and attention. If your club’s communications are not mobile first, you should rethink your communication strategy.
6. Too Many Rules & Regulations Discourage New Members
   • Not to mention, the rules are so grey. It’s rather confusing, frankly.
   • Simplify, get rid of the rules from the 1800’s, adapt, and illustrate what’s left in a welcome video.
   • Blake’s $0.02: All clubs have a set of rules that members must abide by, completely understandable. But still enforcing rules that were set 30+ years ago, simply because “that’s how we’ve always done it”, is not smart.
7. Not Enough Entertainment Value For Dollars Spent
   • Where’s the value proposition? Identify, and storytell it daily. People don’t buy the products or services we sell, they buy the stories we tell.
   • Blake’s $0.02: Individuals interested in joining a club in 2017 are joining for different reasons than in previous years. Clubs needs to be focused on other amenities than just the golf course. To appeal to Millennials, your club needs to be focused on family friendly amenities.
8. No Storytelling &  Not Illustrating The Experience
   • We are all media companies now. So, we must act like one. You are a media accompany first, then a Country Club. I know that sounds weird, but trust me. I’d be happy to elaborate – get in touch.
   • Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. are like Fox, ABC, NBC, etc. And the content we create are like TV shows. We have the ability to act as a media company (at a low cost) and captivate our audiences.
   • Blake’s $0.02: Create a Social Policy & Strategy (Mark can help with this) and empower your club’s employees to contribute. Often, we see a single person managing the clubs digital presence. Why? Your staff is certainly on social, why not have them contribute. They can offer a unique perspective and show different sides of the club. Figure out who on your team can contribute, set guidelines and let them loose!
9. Ineffective Committees
   • Seems like there is a committee for everything, which leads to lots of meetings with little action. Clubs need to set objectives and then allow their managers to manage. Clubs are spending way too much time trying to micro-manage the day-to-day operations with no plan to market and increase revenues.
   • My thought: managers & meetings kills business.
10. MarCom Needs A Revamp
    • It’s sales-y, dilapidated, and spammy.
    • Stop interrupting what people are interested in & become what they’re interested in. Why are brands still creating content that has no value other than talking about their features + benefits?! Content Marketing is a great way to stop interrupting what consumers are interested in and become what they are interested in. This is the difference between an Ad & Content.
    • Blake’s $0.02: Clubs are notorious for putting out poorly designed event flyers/graphics. This is understandable as the club employees creating these are not trained graphic designers. It doesn’t help that the software they are using to create these is Microsoft Publisher (weak)! Something we are putting into place for the clubs we work with is an amazing, easy to use software called CANVA. Two things we’re seeing from our clients that using this program:
      • Cutting down time spent creating club graphics by 50%
      • The graphics look much more professional and stay consistent with your club’s brand.
11. Culture
    • I’ll cover this over a call, drink, juice, or round of golf. This is the single most imperative piece to this puzzle – remember, the fish rots at the head.

To sum this all up, it starts with shifting culture and thinking lifestyle & experiences all while acting as a media company first.

There’s SO much you can do with a Country Club. Storytell about your 9^th hole or the dude that tends your greens. No media outlet is going to do that for you, but in this economy, we have the ability to do that ourselves. We are the media company now.

Businesses tell me, “but Mark, we do, and we are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and are putting out content & stuff.” Ok, sure – but that’s like saying you breathe oxygen. And that doesn’t translate to you living a good life, does it?!

Audit your time and what your people resources are doing at your club, and redirect their allocation of time to things that work in a 2017 landscape.

I have ideas on ideas, and can draw all this out for you on how to execute, etc. But you need to act, be serious, and invest. If this is for you, you know how to get in touch.

Blake & I would be happy to chat.

Good things.