Golf Course Owners Forum - How to Market and Sell Golf

In today's Golf Course Owner and Operator's Forum, we're discussing how to market your golf facility.

I'm leading a discussion on strategies that golf courses typically fail to consider. Golf is what we call a "Considered" buying process. The time it takes to usher someone along the customer lifecycle from stranger to loyal customer is often considerable - 2 to 6 months or more.

The two club owners taking part in the discussion today have two very different facilities, yet marketing principles remain fairly constant. Here are my presentation notes as you follow along - although I don't cover everything and I do jump around a bit.

Winning New Business - The Customer Life Cycle

1. Awareness (top of the funnel)– Basic level…Never or rarely ever tried golf. Not even considering golf as an option in general – never played, too expensive, elite, scary, intimidating, into other things for recreation/exercise. Comparing to other options like hiking, biking, soccer, other sports, family time, gym membership, etc. (why is golf great? Address rejections (expensive, time consuming, elite, snobby, embarrassing, scary, full of rules)
2. Evaluation (conversion, middle of the funnel)– They’re doing heavy research whether or not your offering is a good fit for them. They’ve somehow “raised their hand” and identified themselves. Has expressed an interest in golf, we know who they are, but need time to consider level of involvement or which club to join or call their own.
3. Purchase (bottom of the funnel)– They’re figuring out exactly what it would take to become a customer (facility tour, meeting, membership inquiries, downloads, etc.)
4. Activation (onboarding)– Most excited about new endeavor, validating their purchase, precarious socially (getting plugged in). First 2-3 months vital for longevity
5. Referral (evangelist for the club)– Best possible time is soonest after purchase. New member events, referral promotions (with urgency), personal invites, 85/50 program

• Golf is a considered buying process–
  1. Function of cost – greater cost = longer consideration
  2. Cost is high than just dollars: opportunity cost - Golf is hard, scary, social, expensive, time consuming…could be doing many other things
  3. Typically 2 – 6 months in evaluation stage for average private club (more for beginners and expensive clubs) – sales processes aren’t set up for this!
  4. Numbers: Stranger – Lead – Customer.
     1. Close rate 5% = 20 leads for each new customer
     2. 2% conversion rate = 50 Strangers for each new lead
     3. Total = 1,000 stranger for each new customer
     4. CPM – cost to reach 1,000 qualified strangers
     5. Customer acquisition cost – ads, nurturing, staff
     6. Example: more qualified/targeted advertising is higher CPM, but improve conversion rate from 2% to 4%, and close rate from 5% to 7% = 350 strangers per customer
     7. Member referrals highly qualified, highest close rates, minimal CAC – 100% conv, 33% close = 3 referrals for each new customer