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5 Country Club Marketing Trends for 2019
As 2019 approaches quickly country clubs and golf courses across the US are looking for the top marketing trends to create and optimize their clubs marketing strategy to ensure success online. Well, look no further! We here at Long Drive Agency have been watching the golf industry closely and these are the country club marketing trends for 2019 that we’re seeing!
When you begin to consider the marketing tools you’re going to use to help grow your properties digital presence it’s crucial for you to be thinking about how you can create the best experience for your members and get the most out of the investment you’re making to use those tools.
In order to maximize the impact of your country clubs marketing strategy, you need to be aware of new marketing trends, understand which marketing tools will help you gain the most return, and calculate how much money you need to dedicate to your strategy in order for it to be the most effective. With a carefully considered strategy, access to the best digital marketing tools to help manage your digital presence and generate new member leads your private (or public) golf course is sure to have a successful 2019!
Here Are Our Top Country Club Marketing Trends 2019
1) Start creating video at your country club – like yesterday!
The first major country club marketing trend for 2019 that we’ve continuously seen becoming more popular in the last year to two years is video, but not just any video format, mobile-first video!
Mobile users spend more time than ever with their smartphones. The amount of time spent watching videos on mobile devices has surpassed the time spent viewing videos on more traditional devices, such as desktops and televisions in some age groups.
Social channels like Facebook and Instagram have already begun rewarding pages and advertisers who create videos by prioritizing their content and pushing out notifications to followers when they start a live video. All of this will likely have an even more significant impact in the years to come, in fact in June of 2018 Instagram launched IGTV, a mobile & vertical video-specific app.
Tip: Create video specifically for the platform you plan on posting on. Video displays differently on Facebook/YouTube vs. Instagram/IGTV – use video editors that output your video in different dimensions so that your video fits that specific platform!
Actionable Steps:
- Start compiling video and b-roll footage from around your country club and saving in a cloud file management platform. These can just be short shots (20 – 60 seconds) that you can use in videos down the road.
- Try creating a time-lapse walkthrough video of your club! With any iPhone, open up the video app and choose time-lapse. Then just walk all through your club for 2 – 3 mins total, which will output a short video!
- Don’t have time to create custom videos for your country clubs events? Ask us about The Creative Hub by Digital Range for the first (and only) on-demand custom video editing service created for country clubs and golf courses!
2) Get New Member Leads with Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads are still massively underpriced, and we’ve seen some amazing success from them when running lead generation campaigns. We’ve seen country clubs gain as many as 30 new member leads in the matter of a few days (click here to see the case study).
If you’re a country club looking for a way to gain new member leads, we recommend starting with Facebook Ads. If you’re trying to attract millennials to your country club it’s important to remember where they are spending their time – 84% of 30 to 49-year-old internet users are on Facebook and spend an average of 35 minutes on the platform.
3) Sharing High-Quality Content, Consistently
If you want to boost your country clubs brand awareness, member loyalty, and ultimately revenue, it’s no longer enough for you just to advertise your Pro Shops sales or the clubs upcoming events. Content marketing has become increasingly popular in the last year, and this trend can be expected to continue throughout the next year as well.
Content market revenue is expected to exceed $300 billion next year. Needless to say, this trend is not one that you can afford to ignore.
In order to take advantage of the benefits that content marketing has to offer, you need to make sure you are providing your audience with content that is relevant, valuable, and consistent.
If the information on your blog or your social media posts is not valuable to your followers and members, they will be less likely to continue reading your content. Similarly, if you post high-quality content, but you only do so once in a blue moon, you are not keeping your audience engaged with your brand.
Make room in your budget for content marketing. The most successful marketers spend 40% of their total budget on content marketing. When you consider, the potential revenue that can come from content marketing, this strategy is well worth the investment. Consider hiring a company to write your content for you so that you can ensure that you are releasing exceptional blog posts and social media posts on a regular basis.
Regardless of how you choose to implement your content marketing strategy, make sure that you make it a priority this coming year.
4) Social Selling with Member Engagement
Social selling is another trend that is growing in popularity due to its high levels of success. Social selling, a marketing strategy that involves using social media to engage with potential members, is a great method for helping country clubs attract new member leads and public golf courses develop customer loyalty.
When people like, follow, or otherwise interact with your page, you can answer any questions they might have and show them that your club is helpful and trustworthy. This will keep your brand at the forefront of your potential members’ minds and make them likely to choose your country club when they’re ready to join.
Studies show that for every $1 company put into social selling, the return on investment can be as much as $5. This trend is one that you will want to budget for this coming year.
In order to make sure you are using this method effectively, there are a few steps you should make sure you consider…
- Find the social media platform that will be most relevant for your audience.
- Use tools like hashtags and your social media feed to see what questions or concerns are influencing your target audience, and reach out to these individuals to answer their questions.
- Continue to build and establish a trusting relationship, and eventually, these prospects will turn into members or customers.
While this can sound like quite the undertaking, it really is just being active on your social platforms and using your pages to be the voice of the club.
5) Personalization
If your prospects think they are just another number to your member base, or if they feel that the content that they are receiving via email and other methods could be meant for anyone, they will not feel valued.
Personalization goes a long way in helping your target audience trust your club, which can have countless benefits for your country club or golf course over time. Tailor your content to your audience so that they feel that the information you share with them is relevant. Send personalized emails that show the members of your email list that their business and membership is important to you.
Tools like Range EMAIL give you the ability to tap into your member and customer lists to get the most out of email marketing. By pairing the ability to segment and personalize your emails with the power of automation, creating an engaging and personalized email marketing campaign that will bring in more new member leads while keeping current members informed and engaged.
You can download this case study on email automations to see exactly how we helped Crofton Country Club nurture member leads and welcome new members.
Ready to grow your club? Manage your clubs digital presence and generate new member leads with the leader for country club marketing!
