Long Drive Agency

Going to Greater Lengths

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 02:11:00 GMT

The Long Drive Agency Story.

Blake Davis had yet to pick up a golf club when John Daly ushered in the grip-it-and-rip-it approach to the game in the early 90s.

Consciously or not, however, the soon-to-be-married marketing pro channeled his inner Daly two decades later, winning a long-drive contest on his bachelor party weekend.

While his wedding weekend heroics likely didn’t inspire millions of golfers to tee it-high-and-let-it-fly, that shining moment played a pivotal role in the eventual formation of Long Drive Agency (LDA), the full-service digital marketing firm Davis launched in 2014.

“We wanted to go into the golf space, and my wife and I were trying to come up with names for the company,” recounts Davis, who led the digital marketing efforts for a large media group before establishing his own boutique agency. “She saw the certificate [from the long-drive hole], picked it up, and said, ‘Why don’t you just call it Long Drive Agency?’.”

To be fair, breaking through in the golf industry has been slightly more challenging than winning an on-course competition or naming his company. But now, more than five years in, Davis and his team are helping courses and country clubs of every size build and manage their digital presence, communicate with customers, and generate new leads.

Establishing Ground

Most course managers have only a rudimentary understanding of marketing and communications. Even those who realize the impact an integrated strategy can have on their business often lack the willingness or the resources to invest in it.

Instead, they ignore both altogether, try to go it alone, or partner with someone who doesn’t fully appreciate the nuances of their market and the individual facility.

“Once we got to know the golf space we learned clubs are more likely to work with their tee sheet provider to do their marketing than they were to outsource it to another vendor or partner,” Davis says. “Selling tee times and marketing a club through every stage of the customer journey are two entirely different disciplines.”

Davis knew there was a better way for golf properties to interact with members and guests, so he set out to provide it.

The journey began in 2014 at Eldorado Country Club, a private facility in McKinney, Texas. Davis, who was a member of Eldorado and had recently formed LDA, was asked to help the club evaluate technology partners and enhance its web presence.

Soon after Davis converted Eldorado’s existing site into a mobile-ready platform, Sugar Land, Texas-based C-Bons International Golf Group Management (CBIGG) acquired the club along with a portfolio of other private and public courses. The new ownership was impressed with LDA’s work and hired the firm to overhaul websites for the company’s entire portfolio of courses.

“We were all over the place,” says Dale Folmar, vice president of operations for CBIGG, which now owns and manages 26 golf properties across the U.S.
“Another company was handling our web presence and trying to provide a consistent look, but the sites were antiquated, support was poor, and making changes to content was difficult. Several of the properties weren’t [even] on the same platform.”

Davis was initially tasked with developing websites that were “more in tune to other industries, not like those of an old, traditional golf company,” as Folmar describes it.

In time, LDA began helping with other elements of CBIGG’s digital strategy, essentially becoming a de facto in-house marketing department.

“LDA has filled that void for us company-wide,” Folmar says. “We have the challenge of marketing to public players as well as more than 12,000 private club members, so the messages are often quite different. LDA has advanced along with us, providing various new and exciting tools to better communicate with our customers.”

While working with CBIGG, LDA narrowed its focus to golf, which allowed the agency to “niche down” and concentrate on serving small to midsize management groups, private clubs and high-end public courses. Today, LDA’s client base is split 70/30 among the private/public sectors.

A Different Approach

Unlike many technology-centric companies in the golf space, LDA doesn’t develop back-end software, electronic tee sheets or point-of-sale (POS) systems; instead, the firm partners with clubs to create custom strategies that combine technology with traditional marketing techniques.

Since its founding, LDA has created a host of services to help clubs build their brands, tell their stories, and interact with members and guests in a more consistent and interactive way.

DigitalRange, which was originally developed as part of the solution set for CBIGG, has evolved into an industry-leading tool that enables users at every level of technical sophistication to manage their facility’s website, email, file sharing, forms and social media programs. LDA’s flagship product integrates a full suite of “best-of-breed” digital platforms into one cloud-based interface that’s controlled from a single dashboard.

“One of the biggest improvements since working with LDA has been how easy it is to use Digital Range, especially the website editor component,” says Molly Rawlins, director of communications and marketing for the Northern Texas PGA (NTPGA). “Our communications team is responsible for managing three websites, so it was imperative that it (a technology solution) be simple to use. It’s straightforward and gives us a high-end look.”

LDA’s partnership began with NTPGA began several years ago, when the association was planning to overhaul its corporate website as well as that of its philanthropic arm, the Northern Texas PGA Foundation. That relationship quickly grew into a complete rebrand of the foundation.

“For projects of this magnitude, we needed to do our due diligence to make sure we could execute these projects at a high caliber,” Rawlins notes. “LDA’s industry knowledge and products (Digital Range) really appealed to our needs, and we loved that they were focused on golf. They listened to our current challenges and incorporated our ideas to help build out a plan.”

Similar to NTPGA, Brooke Atkins was spearheading a rebranding effort at La Cumbre Country Club when she engaged LDA. The newly hired communications director was “looking beyond the traditional companies that produce cookie-cutter materials for country clubs and resorts,” and found the agency’s collaborative spirit to be a compelling factor in her decision.

“I wanted a team that handles projects like they work with me, not for me,” Atkins says. “After coming to visit us in Santa Barbara and seeing our club in person, Blake and his team understood what the La Cumbre lifestyle was really about and incorporated that concept into all of our collateral. They take direct ownership of the branding objectives of La Cumbre and its assets like it’s their own club.”

Over time, LDA strengthened its relationship with La Cumbre and now plays an integral role in all of its marketing and communications efforts, including maintenance and ongoing customer support.

Changing with the Times

Technology will continue to reshape the ways clubs communicate with and engage members. To keep pace, managers must be willing to embrace innovation, a fact that will, in many cases, require them to reimagine their club’s overall experience.

“Clubs need to start thinking about themselves as a media company,” Davis says. “Apple and Amazon have trained us to expect and get things more quickly and easily. That applies to [club] members, too.”

To illustrate how those interactions might look moving forward, Davis points to ClubChat, a text message communication platform designed from the ground up by LDA that allows Clubs to communicate with Members in real time, all via text.

The technology, which LDA integrates with a client’s social media platforms, enables users to share information, take orders and reservations, and reach members on-the-go with updates, videos and photos.

ClubChat is the first ever omni-channel communication platform designed specifically for country clubs. It gives them the ability to communicate with members via text, social media messages, email and (in 2021) website live-chat, all in a single cloud-based platform controlled via web or mobile app.

“It’s no secret the majority of clubs struggle with communication and keeping their members informed of everything happening at the club on a weekly basis,” Davis says. “Text messaging is quickly becoming the preferred method of business to consumer communication with its astounding 98% open rate within the first three minutes of receipt.”

Progressive clubs are also turning to novelty offerings like ClubBooth, LDA’s turn-key photo booth solution, to generate additional event revenue. Ideal for weddings, holiday parties and other celebrations, ClubBooth is an easy to implement tool for generating member-produced content and collecting customer data. Launched in late 2019, it’s already been utilized in more than 65 clubs around the U.S.

“The best digital strategy tells the country club’s story across all forms of digital media, from a club’s website to social media channels, email marketing to a mobile app,” Davis says. “It’a combination of all of those that make digital marketing one of the most efficient and successful ways to target golfers [now and in the future].”

Those words, spoken by a 30-something millennial whose marketing agency literally operates at the intersection where technology and tradition converge in the golf industry, should ring true for any club seeking a strategy that will drive positive outcomes for a long time to come. With more than 100 clubs in its portfolio, it’s clear that Long Drive Agency is in for the long haul.

Using Text Messaging with your Country Club Members

Thu, 05 Nov 2020 18:54:00 GMT

Using Text Messaging with your Country Club Members

Think about how you interact with your phone daily…how often do you check your email? Check your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram accounts? And how often do you read or send text messages?

Probably more often than you think…in fact, text messaging is becoming the number one app on a phone that people are constantly checking. That’s why it’s surprising that more country clubs and golf courses don’t use a text messaging service to communicate with their members because it’s such an effective form of instant communication.

And how many times has someone told you, “Don’t bother calling, I respond best through text”? Personally, I don’t answer phone calls from unknown numbers if I’m busy doing something else or if I have a meeting coming up. As a people, we are so inundated with marketing messages cutting into our time coming from social media, our TV, billboards, and the telephone, that it’s easier just to tune it all out to get anything done.

But the one type of medium that people always tend to pay attention to is their text messages. They’re easy to read, hard to avoid, and most of the time relay information that the recipient is interested in.

The average person looks at their cell phone at least 150 times a day, and 90 percent of cell phone users read their texts within the first five minutes of receiving them. On top of that, text messaging is five times more effective than email because your message doesn’t get lost in spam filters or compete with hundreds of other marketing emails.

Therefore, text messaging has become one of the new country club marketing trends- because people pay attention to them and it is the best way to stay in touch with your members. Here are five ways country clubs can use a text message marketing system to increase member engagement by communicating important, timely, or interesting information at the right time:

Using Text Messaging with Members - 5 Real World Use Cases:

1) Engage Members by Texting Them About Operations Changes or Emergency Updates

There are a lot of moving parts within a country club as management deals with everything from maintaining the golf course to making sure its restaurants, swimming pools, tennis courts, and gathering places are clean, safe, and accessible – especially in the time of Covid. Texting your members updates about the state of the golf course, weather forecasts, facility operating hours, and more pertinent updates like power outages in the area can help keep members informed and help build that trust by keeping them in the know.

2) Text Your Members About Upcoming Events

Country clubs are known to support their communities by providing members-only events or hosting a yearly one-of-a-kind charity golf tournament, and text message marketing is one of the best ways to keep your members in the loop about what’s going on. On top of that, you can even send members offers like Food and Drink specials related to the event, making text messaging a viable revenue generating tactic. Send your members a text about Friday afternoon cocktail hours or invite them to an exclusive holiday party…they will be delighted and encouraged to continue interacting with you.

3) Allow Members to place (contactless) to-go orders

In the time of Covid, everything is moving towards touchless solutions and limited contact. Restaurants are creating QR codes so that their diners can easily access the menu via their smartphones. Food establishments have updated their websites to make it more accessible to order to-go food and pick up via curbside. These new processes can also be applied to your members through text messaging. Text your members a link to your menu or send them new menu items to remind them that your restaurant is still open and serving delicious food. Text messaging can also be used as a restaurant buzzer letting people know when their table is ready.

4) Automate special birthday messages to Members

People love feeling part of a family and look for that sense of community when investing in a country club. Therefore, club managers who take the time to automate text messages with a “Happy Birthday!” or reach out during a holiday is a thoughtful gesture that reminds them why they decided to join your club…and it can increase their loyalty and long term rewards for you. Go above and beyond by texting them a gift (like a coupon to redeem a hat from the pro shop or a drink at the bar) to make them feel like a true VIP.

5) Instant communication to your entire staff

A great text messaging system doesn’t have to just be used to market to your members…you can also use it to communicate with your employees. Send broad updates about the weather, conditions of the greens, or other important work updates that your staff needs to know about in a timely manner.

Implement ClubChat Text Messaging Software into Your Marketing Plan Today

Text message marketing can be used to recruit new members, provide exclusive deals to your VIPs, and engage with people of all ages. It is one of the most effective ways to communicate with your guests.

However, broadcasting your message to specific people or groups of contacts needs to be done right so that it helps your ROI rather than hinders it. Fortunately, Long Drive Agency can help you build your phone messaging list, choose promotional keywords, and track who’s responding through its ClubChat software. It allows you to easily segment and manage your contacts, get instant notifications, and have more meaningful personal conversations with your members. We help you set up your account so that you’re in compliance with the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act and integrate mobile messaging best practices into the texts you send to your members.

Want to try out ClubChat? Click the button to schedule a demo today!

Text Message Marketing Guidelines with Club Chat

Fri, 03 Jul 2020 20:54:00 GMT

You’re protective of your cell phone number. While you’ve likely sacrificed your email address for “10% off” or “free shipping” promo codes on one too many websites, you’ve probably hesitated to share your mobile phone number with even your coworkers.

But why?

Cell phones are extensions of ourselves, and when you share your cell phone number, you provide them with access to you at any time, anywhere.

Text Message Marketing is part of the new wave of digital marketing, and we are here for it. We even made our own tool (ClubChat – Check it out here) to connect Clubs and Courses to their Members through text.

But with great power comes great responsibility, and that’s why we’re sharing our Do’s and Don’ts for Text Message Marketing Best Practices.

1) Text as you would like to be texted

Don’t : Send messages that require more than 140 characters.

If you can’t find a logical way to send your message without sharing a paragraph, it’s time to send an email.

Do : Write texts that include necessary information, like date, time, place, and cost.

Don’t : Send multiple messages at one time.

Do : Write a draft of your text before sending it. Like emails, your mass texts should be reviewed for readability, understanding, and grammatical errors.

2) Cater to your Audience

Don’t : Send information that only affects a small group to your full Membership.

Do : Create segmented lists based on interests or involvement to ensure that Members only receive information relevant to them.

ClubChat allows your Members to choose the content they want to receive information about Subscriptions. Learn more here

Don’t : Use trendy text jargon or abbreviations in your messages.

Do : Utilize universal abbreviations, such as “am” or “pm” or “M-F” for simplification.

Don’t : Become too casual in your communication because it’s via text.

Do : Maintain the same level of professionalism and respect that you use in the Clubhouse and via other communication.

3) Provide excellent service via text

Don’t : Leave messages unread or without a response for too long.

Do : Create a set schedule for reading and responding to texts from Members. Be sure to inform Members of this schedule to avoid confusion or anger.

Don’t : Attempt to carry out complex conversations over text.

Do : Start a phone call if questions or answers require extensive explanation.

Don’t : Send messages early in the morning or very late at night.

Do : Set appropriate hours of communication for courteous communication.

4) Only text Members who have opted in

Don’t : Purchase or use lists of phone numbers of people who have not given explicit consent for your messages.

Do : Encourage Members to opt-in for your text messages.

Don’t : Send messages to Members who have opted-out of your texts.

Do : Assess why someone may want to stop receiving texts and find ways to address their concerns if possible.

So, what do you think? Would you give your number to someone who was following these guidelines?

Let us know what you think below! If you found our post helpful, consider sharing it on social media with one of the buttons below.

Want to try out ClubChat? Click the button to schedule a demo today!

4 Steps to Effective Crisis Communication

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 16:46:00 GMT

A quick note

Prior to contacting your Members, it is crucial to come up with an Action Plan. Your Action Plan will ensure that you, along with your Members, employees, and community, have a clear direction to proceed. Based on developments, Action Plans will likely require updates. Be sure to keep Members informed of any changes updating posts accordingly. A helpful resource for building an Action Plan is linked here .

4 Steps to Effective Crisis Communication

I think it is safe to say we did not expect to be writing a blog post about communication during a pandemic, yet here we are! While the circumstances are unfortunate, this past week has given our team the opportunity to investigate and analyze best practices for communication in a crisis.

Check out the post below to explore our guide to creating and sharing effective crisis communication.

1) Show Awareness

The first step to problem solving is understanding the issue at hand. Show Members your plan for the future by sharing your Action Plan.

Share your Action Plan
Calm fears and reinforce trust by sharing your Action Plan on your website, social media pages, and in emails.
Cite your Sources
Strengthen the validity of your Action Plan by citing the sources that informed your decisions. Share links such as news articles, health guidelines, and other useful tips as they become available.
Update your Action Plan
Be sure to revisit and revise your Action Plan regularly. Remember to include your plans for communication even after life returns to “normal”.

Useful Links for Building Awareness

CDC "Protect and Prepare Communities" Graphic

CDC "Keeping the Workplace Safe" Graphic

CDC "Stop the Spread of Germs" Graphic

2) Take Action

As you have likely experienced for yourself, CEOs and brands have been flooding consumer inboxes with messages regarding their pandemic plans. Your Members are probably receiving similar email overflow. To avoid becoming another unread email, increase the effectiveness of your communication by showcasing your Action Plan with these tips.

Send texts with services like ClubChat
Text messages have long surpassed email as the most effective way to communicate. With a 98% open-rate and the ability to add photos and videos, text messages will get your Members’ attention wherever they are. In the rapidly changing climate of COVID-19, your Club needs a quick, reliable means of communication. To learn more about the ClubChat tool, click here . Use promo code: BLOG!

Utilize Social Media
In addition to being a free service, social media is likely already a part of your Members’ everyday lives.

Video
Share a personalized, thoughtful video of your General Manager or another Club official explaining your Action Plan. Be sure to highlight your Club’s already high standards of cleanliness and health, then outline the enhanced actions that are being taken.

Photos
Upload photos of your Action Plan at work. The best photos will highlight “visible” actions, or changes that can clearly be seen. Be sure to choose an image that provides the best opportunity for explaining your Action Plan, like a shot of your serving staff wearing gloves while delivering food to a table.
Update your Club’s Website
Your Members likely use your site to learn more information about your Club already. This is a great way to utilize your already-familiar website.
Pop-Ups
Add a pop-up to your website. Be sure to include important information, such as schedule changes, closings, and cancellations on your homepage.

TIP : Link your pop-up to a more detailed page of updates to provide site visitors with comprehensive information.

3) Employ Empathy

First and foremost, golf and country clubs are in the industry of people. Like you, Members and employees are probably facing many changes to their daily life. It’s important to acknowledge the stresses your Club community is experiencing by practicing empathy.

Speak with Kindness
Be sure to address all audience members (Members, employees, Private Event hosts, the public) in a manner that acknowledges the intensity of these times. Kindness and understanding are essential for maintaining a healthy and mutually respectful relationship during intense situations.
Be Transparent
While canceled events impact Clubs negatively, it’s important to recognize the hassle and disappointment that a canceled event can cause the Event Host as well. Communicate with Event Hosts well in advance and provide transparent information regarding your policies on rescheduling, refunds, etc.
Rally the Community
Growing restrictions and closings are changing everyday life in our communities. If possible, explore ways that you Club can support the local community, especially Member-owned businesses. Putting together a Member Business Directory can be a great way to bring your Club together while boosting the local economy.

Give Back
As everyday life continues to be disrupted, many communities are finding ways to help. If possible, consider hosting a drive for food or essentials such as toilet paper, basic medication, and non-perishable items. If you are not equipped to start your own drive, your Club may be able to partner up with a current effort in some way.

4) Give Hope

While it is easy to become obsessed with the negative, it is important to remember that better days are ahead.

Find the Difference-Makers
Shine the spotlight on someone from your Club making a difference during these bleak times. From Members to employees, there are undoubtedly people in your community who are finding ways to give back.

Lighten the Mood
Without negating the severity of the issue, some businesses have already used their social media pages to give viewers a laugh. From creative ways to clean the house to silly songs for keeping time while washing your hands, people are loving the humorous posts.

IMPORTANT : Always use your best judgment, and never share anything demeaning, dehumanizing, or insensitive.

There should be humor in it for everyone.

Now, for a quick recap!

Effective crisis communication...

Shows awareness of the situation and shares the resources used to guide your decisions
Illustrates the actions being taken to best address the situation as it progresses
Speaks with empathy for all parties involved
Gives hope for the future

We hope that these tips will help you to effectively communicate with your Members during this uncertain time. If you found our tips helpful, consider sharing our post with the buttons below.

Want to try out ClubChat? Click the button to schedule a demo today!

7 Ways Country Clubs Can Attract and Retain Millennials

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 16:12:00 GMT

7 Ways Country Clubs and Golf Courses Can Attract and Retain Millennials

There are now more millennials than baby boomers…what are you doing to entice them to try your country club or golf course?

Millennials have surpassed baby boomers as the largest generation in America and they are showing to be extremely brand loyal (just look at how many Instagram Influencers there are). This means that many country clubs around the U.S. are now struggling to figure out how to position their clubs to appeal to the younger yet influential millennial generation.

I think most Club general managers would agree with the following statement: If your country club is not able to make necessary changes to start appealing to and attracting the millennial generation, then your club is at serious risk of closing its doors in the next 5 to 10 years.

The truth is, if you do not have a strong digital presence or are active on social media, and if you are not reaching out to potential members through events and email marketing, then you’re already way behind. Fortunately, there are some strategies that you can put into effect today to start generating more business.

Here are 7 ways to start attracting millennials to your country club or golf course:

1) Evaluate and Enhance your Club’s Digital Presence

The best way to reach your ideal audience is to meet them where they already are, and everyone- especially millennials- are online. But unfortunately, the golf industry lags when it comes to being competitive in the digital marketing and technology space. Maybe it’s because clubs don’t see the value of digital marketing or even know where to start when it comes to building brand awareness using the internet, but you can get more Membership leads and spend less money when you have a digital marketing strategy done right.

The best digital strategy tells the country club’s story across all forms of digital media, from a clubs website to social media channels, from email marketing to offering a responsive and easy-to-use mobile app. It’s a combination of all of those that make digital marketing one of the most efficient and successful ways to target millennials.

Millennials are the first generation to grow up in a completely interactive digital world and they expect the companies and brands that they spend money on to be as digitally savvy as they are.

TIP: One place to start is to do an analysis of your website…how does it look on a mobile device? Since most millennials look up information via their smartphones, you want to make sure your website loads properly so that web users can quickly find the information they need.

2) Add Text Messaging Into Club Communications Plan

Most millennials don’t even use the “call” feature on their mobile devices anymore… and who answers a call anymore from a number they don't know?!

Text Messaging has proven to be the most effective form of communication, and dominates these days because it’s quicker and easier than talking on the phone

Fortunately, text messaging also gives country clubs and golf courses an opportunity to connect with future millennial prospects. Because let’s face it, who can resist checking a text message? It’s noncommittal for them, and it allows your country club to stay top of mind to those who are interested in getting a membership.

Shameless Plug.... we released a brand new text messaging tool for country clubs and golf courses called ClubChat . We’re giving the tool away to any property to use completely free for 30 days! If you’re interested in getting setup, go here to get started HERE

TIP: Use text messaging to communicate with new Member prospects & your current Members. You can send them your Clubs monthly newsletter, take reservations & to-go orders and send out timely club updates all via text message. It’s the preferred method of communication in 2020 and way out-performs email marketing, so get your Country Club text messaging ASAP.

3) Automate Your Emails

The easiest, most affordable way to attract new members and keep them engaged with your country club is through email marketing since these are the people who are familiar with your brand and they’ve indicated that they want to hear from you.

According to a recent study put out by CMAA (Club Management Association of America), email communication was the preferred method of how millennials want to be contacted that are interested in joining a club. But if you feel like you don’t have the time or resources to regularly communicate with your members or leads, don’t worry- there are now great automated email marketing tools available.

“What is email automation, you ask?”

Simply put, it’s a sequence of emails that you create ahead of time that are delivered based on a defined action or trigger.

Most country clubs have a website with a form integrated into it where interested candidates can request more information about memberships.

After collecting this data, it can then be used to implement an automated email sequence. For instance, a “3-email drip campaign” can be put together to automatically deliver emails to the prospect on day 1, day 2 and day 3…all with different content that drives the lead further down the funnel. You’ll be able to see which candidates have opened the emails and what they clicked on, arming you with more information when you contact the prospect to set up a tour.

4) Improve Your Social Media Engagement

When analyzing the social media profiles of country clubs, we mostly see a basic rotation of only three types of posts:

Images of event flyers ( usually identical to the ones they send out in their monthly newsletters )
Lunch specials ( often just text with no supporting images )
A few golf course photos

While these types of content are okay and we commend clubs for trying, we urge clubs to get more creative!

Every country club is unique, so a social media strategy that works at one club might not be a good fit for another. Tell your story and show what makes your club different so that millennials can easily see what sets you apart from the crowd.
To take a step in the right direction, have your social media manager incorporate some more in-depth and creative content into your club’s feed such as:

Sharing community events and other things going on in your area.
Post glimpses of some behind the scenes action on your what your club is up to via an Instagram Story (We wrote a step by step tutorial on this >> HERE ).
Help your followers get to know your staff by sharing photos and short introductions of them so that they can put a face to the name when they visit your club.
Share info about your junior golf programs and don’t forget to include photos.
Mention family-focused amenities that appeal to more than just an individual member.
Post videos about the course. You can also post educational and informative content such as how to choose the best driver or how to maximize your swing speed.
Share testimonials and quality club photos of members having a good time and all the amenities that they are taking advantage of. (Tutorial on capturing great course photography >> HERE ).

TIP : Don’t be afraid to boost posts that are performing well and getting large organic engagement. The average organic reach for any post is going to be less than 15% of your total audience, so throw a little money at it to further the reach! If you want to really increase your membership leads, check out what we’re doing to help country clubs attract millennials via Facebook ads.

5) Post Videos and Virtual Tours to Your Website and Social Media

Millennials don’t have a lot of time these days in between juggling family, friends, and trying to get ahead in their careers, which is why they want to quickly and easily find the perfect country club that allows them to bond with like-minded individuals that share their same values and interests in their off-time. And as an upscale country club, you are in the perfect position to provide that in-person offline interaction.

However, since millennials are more likely to search online and visit your website before scheduling a tour, it’s great to give them a visual preview of your amenities through a quick virtual tour or video. When millennials can get a sense of what kind of people are hanging out there, what the culture is like, and what there is to do from the comfort of their computer screen, then that may be all it takes for them to sign up for a membership.

TIP: Grab a co-worker and your iPhone and practice walking around the club while shooting a 3-minute video describing the place. Like what you came up with? Then upload the video to YouTube and share the link to your website, social media, and email newsletter.

6) Start a Blog…and Keep It Updated

Reaching millennials in this day and age is all about shifting more of your marketing dollars from traditional advertising to digital methods and getting to the top of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). The best way to do this is to implement a solid SEO strategy that allows prospects to quickly and easily find you when they search for a country club that fits their needs and is closest to them.

Getting to the top of the SERPs comes from a combination of investing in Pay-Per-Click advertising, being active on social media, and generating organic content that you share to your website. Every so often, Google crawlers find this organic content and if they find it valuable, it strengthens the validity of your website thus helping boost your website to the top of the SERPs.

Starting a blog and updating it every so often with new, interesting, and informative content related to your country club is a good way to get noticed by prospective members…and Google.

TIP: Do you have a new amenity or product that you want to tell your current and future members about? Write a blog about it! Shoot for one around 400-1000 words and post it to your website, then share the link to your social media.

7) Host More Events for Current Members (and invite your prospects)

As stated earlier, people like to hang out with like-minded individuals and have a reason to get together and have fun. This is exactly what you offer to your members all the time, but what about the prospects?

One way to bring new blood into your country club is to host events that appeal to members and prospects as a way to give prospects a real-life glimpse into what it’s like to belong. Maybe offer a special get-together just for members but allow them to bring a guest, or host a prospects-only event with some key star members so they get a chance to see for themselves if your club fits within their lifestyle.

TIP : Is there a holiday coming up? Host a Valentine’s Day Golf Tournament or singles party where members have to bring someone who’s never been to the club before. The possibilities of what you can do are endless.

In summary, the 7 best ways to reach millennials are:

Enhancing your club’s digital presence including web, social, email and mobile marketing.
Learning to speak their language by amping up your club’s social media efforts.
Implementing email automation to help turn leads into members.
Text your prospects any upcoming offers, promotions, or events. (You can get a FREE text marketing account with our new ClubChat Platform Here )
Post videos or virtual tours to your website and social media.
Posting regular blogs about anything that’s interesting and relates to your audience.
Have more parties!

If you need further help on how to reach millennials, feel free to contact us at Long Drive Agency. We have tons of ideas about how to help your country club generate more profit.

Want to try out ClubChat? Click the button to schedule a demo today!

3 Ideas For Modernizing Your Country Club

Tue, 13 Aug 2019 18:27:00 GMT

For the most part, the idea of modernizing a country club isn’t particularly relevant to golfers. Beyond basic expectations of up-to-date facilities and necessary comforts, there’s something quaint about the idea of keeping venues like these as they’ve always been. To some extent, a country club is only as good as its course, and the course is best left free of tech or commercial embellishments.

With that said though, there are some more subtle ways in which the average country club could be modernized to expand interest and market to potential new members.

1. Provide Indoor Simulations

Providing indoor simulations is a great way to make a club more accessible, in that it will suddenly appeal to members even when the weather doesn’t allow for traditional play. However, weather concerns aside, it can also tap into people’s modern tendencies to enjoy digital entertainment and expect variety. A high-end simulation can allow a club member to play to his heart’s content, enjoying different challenges, different holes, and perhaps even digital versions of courses from around the world.

Also of note is the potential for an idea like this to appeal to a beginner, or even someone who doesn’t typically fancy him or herself a golfer. You may have heard of Topgolf, which is an explosively popular chain of indoor, almost amusement park-like golf simulation and driving range venues. With massive simulations surrounded by televisions, lounge areas, food, and drink, it’s been called the best way to enjoy golf while knowing nothing about it . That’s not to say the point is to appeal to people who are entirely new to golf – but the right indoor simulation can at least make a club more modern and more appealing to a greater number of potential members.

2. Provide Arcade Entertainment

The idea of a traditional gaming arcade likely seems borderline blasphemous to a lot of golf fans or members of more traditional clubs. But the numbers don’t lie: Various reports in recent years have shown club memberships on the decline, in part because younger generations want a different experience. To include an arcade as part of the club experience doesn’t require that the golf be disrupted at all, and it can be done with just a room or two set aside for further indoor entertainment potential.

These don’t have to be the loud, disruptive gaming arcades of the ‘90s, but merely modern digital entertainment centers. Where legal, casino games could be included fairly easily. Activity variety and convenient game payment options have made digital casino games more popular from New Zealand to the UK and everywhere in between, setting the stage for some easy, screen-based casino entertainment. Virtual reality, too, is changing the arcade experience, given the slow emergence of “VRcades,” where people can play games they may not have access to at home. Options like these could make for small, classy arcades, and turn some golf clubs into more dynamic entertainment venues.

3. Develop Club-Specific Apps

As a brief, final point, a club can also generate a simple but significant advantage by establishing its own app. This is something that’s expected of modern businesses, and yet something a lot of clubs don’t have at this point. But a strong mobile app could be used for everything from digital marketing (which has been discussed on this site before ) to providing virtual sneak peeks at courses. Indeed, when you think of it that way, it’ almost hard to believe more modern clubs don’t already have digital tools like this

5 Social Media Marketing Myths

Mon, 12 Aug 2019 20:06:00 GMT

Social Media Marketing has taken over, there’s no arguing that. But with such a heavily saturated medium it can be easy for myths and falsities regarding best practices to spread. With this blog we’re aiming to clear up some of the most common myths and misconceptions surrounding the world of social media marketing.

Social Post Have to Be Selling Something

That doesn’t mean that you ignore your sales efforts altogether, it means finding more creative ways to presents your followers with the product(s) and or services. Many brands find success by promoting a lifestyle that they closely identify with, doing so promotes a better sense of community drawing a more loyal customer base.

If your profile is just sales pitch after sales pitch, your posts are just going to turn into white noise that your followers will scroll right past. Your followers use social media for interesting content, socialization, and a sense of community not to scroll through sales presentations.

Your goal should be to provide your followers with value. Whether that’s through funny/quirky videos, relevant industry news, or helpful instructional videos giving your followers something in return is the most effective way to create a larger impact with your social media efforts.

Eldorado Country Club just down the road from us in McKinney, Texas does an excellent job of creating short videos to keep their members informed on the Club’s upcoming events. These short, easy to make videos go far beyond simply providing their members with a list of events creating a more memorable post.

You Need To Be On Every Platform

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Youtube, Tumblr, Tik Tok… the list goes on and on.

But do you really need to be on every social media platform that you can find?

Of course not.

But you do need to be on the platforms that your target audience is on.

So start by setting up a profile on the various platforms that you feel your target audience is most active on and work from there. Keep a close eye on how much the platform is performing by looking at the analytics.

If you feel that one platform is just not giving enough in return, then it may not be the right social media channel for your audience.

Social Media is Only For Young People

This myth is simply not true.

Base on analytics published by Sprout Social earlier this year:

Facebook:

84% of 18-19 year-olds

72%of 30-49 year-olds

62% of 50-64 year-olds

Instagram:

64% of 18-29 year-olds

40% of 30-49 year-olds

21% of 50 -64 year-olds

Twitter:

40% of 18-29 year-olds

27% of 30-49 year-olds

19% of 50-64 year-olds

While the younger demographics definitely have a larger presence on these platforms, the amount of older users on social media is far from negligible.

More Is Always Better

With the nearly constant barrage of content being posted from every corner of the world, it can be easy to feel like you need to keep pace.

The truth is there is such thing as posting too much. Similar to over posting content directly related to the products or services you provide, simply posting too often can lessen the impact that your posts have.

Most experts say that posting 1-2 times per day is a solid place to start with minimums floating around 3-4 time per week per platform. Of course these are just general guidelines and if you’re finding success with your own schedule or have information you need to get out to your followers that can take priority.

Social Media Marketing is Free

We’ve all heard the saying “You get what you pay for”, meaning there’s typically a strong correlation between the cost of a product or service and the quality your receive in return.

Social media marketing definitely falls into this category.

While simply having a social profile and posting to it is free of cost, there are several resources available to you the can not only make you social marketing efforts easy but also more affective. Softwares such at Digital Range provide features like Range SOCIAL that take a lot of the leg work out of social marketing. Post schedulers, analytic reports, and content finders are all useful tools to have in your social marketing tool bag.

When To Post To Social Media

Thu, 18 Jul 2019 16:32:00 GMT

Is there a correct time of day to be posting to your Country Club’s social media pages?

Well… yes and no.

Unfortunately, the answer to this frequently asked digital marke ting question isn’t as cut and dry as we’d all like it to be.

The truth is, the best time to post is going to vary widely based on a few factors including; what platform you’re posting to and who you’re ultimately trying to reach. Meaning what works for someone else isn’t going to necessarily be the best fit for you.

So how do we find your ideal posting schedule?

What you’re looking to determine is when your target audience is most active on any given platform. After all, your ultimate goal is to have your posts viewed by as many people as possible.

Good news is you’re not the only one trying to answer this question so there is plenty of data available to help you find a good starting point.

These times are meant to be a general guideline that apply to the vast majority of social media users, not necessarily your target audience.

So setting your posting schedule to these times can be a great way to get started and establish a solid benchmark but that doesn’t mean that’s the end of it. Post timing is something that is meant to be tweaked with and should gravitate toward the times that your followers are most active.

Keep a close eye one your post analytics provided by the social platforms themselves. For example, Instagram provides “Insights” for their business accounts. Insights provide information on your followers such a demographics, where your followers are based, and when your followers are most active down to the hour.

Additionally finding a well rounded social media management software can take a lot of the leg work out of the equation and provide you more control and in depth analytics. Regardless of when you choose to post to your country club’s social media pages, make sure that you are keeping an eye on your analytics to give your posts the best chance to be successful and don’t be afraid to experiment.

Why Your Country Club Needs to Start Writing a Blog

Thu, 27 Jun 2019 15:30:00 GMT

If you want to increase your membership and help your country club become more profitable, writing a blog can help make that possible. While maintaining a blog for a country club might seem like a strange idea at first, blogging leads to more clicks and conversions , and it might be the element you need to boost your revenue and take your country club’s marketing to the next level.

Here are just a few of the ways in which writing a blog can be beneficial to your country club:

Increased Search Engine Rankings

Websites that include a blog have 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links to their website than those sites that do not have a blog. The more indexed pages you have, the higher you will appear on search engine result pages. This will boost your search engine optimization and encourage more visitors to click on your website over your competitors.

People rarely click on websites that are not at the top of their search engine results page. When people look up country clubs in your area, or they search for local places to golf or partake in any of the activities offered by your country club, you want to make sure you are the first result they see.

Increased Revenue

In addition to increasing your profitability by attracting new members, writing a blog can help you grow your revenue because it can be monetized. Once your blog is up and running, and you have a fair amount of people who subscribe to your blog or visit your blog regularly, you can monetize your blog.

Try offering exclusive content on your blog that can be accessed only by country club members or. If you are consistently delivering high-quality content to your readers, some who do not already have a membership or are on the fence about purchasing one might be willing to purchase a membership in order to gain access to all of your content. Allow private advertisements or work with an affiliate marketing network to sell golf and tennis equipment or other relevant products to your readers. There are many ways that you can make money using your country club’s blog.

If you want more people to visit your website and sign up for a membership so you can increase your country club’s revenue, you should create a blog for your country club and update it regularly.

Increased Membership

A blog is the perfect way to share curated content about your country club with your current and prospective members. By creating a blog, you are giving people the opportunity to learn about your club in a way they would not be able to otherwise.

For instance, you could write a blog post giving insight into the history or development of the country club. You can also create articles detailing all of the activities available at your club. There are thousands of golf, tennis, and swimming enthusiasts eager to read more about the activities they love. A well-written blog post about these activities can draw attention from people who enjoy these hobbies and lead to an increase in membership.

If you provide high-quality content that your target audience will find relevant and helpful, they will be more likely to continue to visit your website or to subscribe to your blog. This allows you to continue providing information about the country club and gets your club one step closer to obtaining new members. People feel better about companies that offer content they find valuable, so a blog can help consumers make positive associations with your country club, increasing their likelihood of purchasing a membership in the future.

Need help creating a blog or developing a custom, digital marketing strategy for your country club?

7 Awesome Golf Tournament Formats

Thu, 30 May 2019 15:33:00 GMT

With all of this talk about golf tournaments, we thought we’d go over just a few of the tournament format options that are available out there.

Planning a tournament, as we all know, can be a hectic time for any country club or golf course. But it’s important to remember that you need to make sure you’re providing your players with a fun and challenging Golf tournament. So it’s important to consider your formatting options while planning your outing. Make sure you factor in the relative skill level of the player entering, the type of atmosphere you’re looking to promote whether it’s fun and relaxed or more of a formal golf occasion, and what formats your players are familiar with. The success of your tournament will largely be based on if your golfers enjoyed their time on the course, so pick a format that you think will best promote an enjoyable experience.

1) Scramble

Scramble Tournaments are definitely the most common format and for a good reason. This format creates an informal and relaxed atmosphere for you golfers to enjoy while allowing golfers of all skill levels to play.

The rules of the format are fairly simple. Groups of 2 or more players act as a team, with each player tees off on each hole. The team then chooses the best shot from the team and players then drop their ball within one club length of the best ball to hit their next shot. This sequence is repeated until one player hits the ball in the hole and the total number of best shots is the team’s score for that hole.

2) Stableford

Stableford is a unique tournament format in that it changes the normal objective of scoring as low as possible to scoring as high as possible. Stableford assigns a point value to each possible score relative to par, i.e. a Birdie may be worth 2 points while a par is worth 1. This format allows for quicker play as a score of double bogey or higher are with the same amount of points, so players can just pick up their ball and move to the next hole. Stableford also offers two different scoring systems that can be tailored to the skill level of your players with Traditional Stableford and Modified Stableford.

Traditional Stableford is more suited for higher handicap players with their being no way to lose points based on your score. The number of points awarded for each score is relative to the “fixed score” decided by the tournament officials. For example, if the fixed score is set to par, this is what your scores would look like.

Double Bogey or Worse: 0 Points
Bogey: 1 Point
Par: 2 Points
Birdie: 3 Points
Eagle: 4 Points
Albatross: 5 Points

In a Modified Stableford tournament the scoring system is adjusted in favor of higher skilled golfers by rewarding players for their under par scores and removing points for bogeys or worse. So, if your event has some local pros or just looking to challenge your contestants a bit more, Modified Stableford could be an excellent option.

Double Bogey or Worse: -3 Points
Bogey: -1 Point
Par: 0 Points
Birdie: 2 Points
Eagle: 5 Points
Albatross: 8 Points

3) Chapman or Pinehurst

This format requires teams of two to face-off against each other and plays sort of like a best ball/alternate shot hybrid. Both golfers on each team tee off, players then switch balls for their second shot, following their second shot the best ball is chosen and alternate shot is played until the ball is in the hole.

Sounds kind of weird right?

While the format may seem a little complex, it is ideal for two golfers of different skill levels, allowing for a more level playing field that lets players of all abilities enjoy the tournament. This format can also be played as either a Match or Stroke play event, giving you a little more versatility when planning your outing.

4) Best Ball

Best ball is a simple format that allows golfers to play a traditional stroke play match while completing as a team with another golfer. With this format players play through the hole like they normally would, after they finish the hole, they record the lower score between the two and throw out the high score.

5) Bingo-Bango-Bongo

How can something called Bingo-Bango-Bongo not be fun?

This format rewards points to players for doing more than just being the first one to hole. The scoring system itself is fairly basic with each player receiving 1 point for completing one of the following tasks.

Bingo: Be the first player to get their ball on the green
Bango: Be closest to the pin once everyone has reached the green
Bongo: Be the first to get their ball in the hole

With points being awarded to players for accomplishing tasks before their competitors, it is important that all players follow proper golf etiquette with the player furthest from the pin hitting first.

6) Alternate Shot

Alternate shot is exactly what it sounds like, 2 players form a team and play only one ball, alternating taking shots. Also referred to as Foursome, Alternate shot is the format used the Ryder Cup tournament.

7) Quota

In a Quota formatted tournament, players earn points toward their total in a similar fashion to the Stableford format with each score relative to being assigned a certain value.

Bogey: 1 Point
Par: 2 Points

Birdie: 4 Points
Eagle: 8 Points

The Quota is determined by the tournament officials but is usually set at 36. It is then the players’ goal to accrue as many points as possible with the winner being the individual with the highest score above the quota. To level the playing field, the quota can also be adjusted for players individual handicaps as well. Assuming a player has a 6 handicap at the given course, his/her quota is adjusted down to 30. This format can also pick up pace of play with shots 2 or more over par having no value, so the players can pick up their ball and move to the next hole.

6 Tips to Boost Donations at Your Next Charity Golf Tournament

Thu, 23 May 2019 13:40:00 GMT

Running a successful charity golf tournament is no walk in the park.

Golf tournaments require months of planning, booking, and promoting before anything even starts to come together. But without donations coming in the door the effort could all be for nothing. So we wanted to highlight a few ways you can ensure that your charity golf outing is a fundraising machine.

Sponsors (You really can't have too many)

Bring in a wide range of sponsors to your event, the more the better. Do so by offering a wide range of sponsorship levels so companies of all shapes and sizes have an opportunity to get in on the fun.

Hole Sponsors
Title Sponsors
Cart Sponsors
Lunch Sponsors
Dinner Sponsors

The list goes on and on and it pretty much boils down to if you can put a sign in front of it you can get someone to sponsor it. Not only can sponsors provide your tournament with some great prizes and hand outs, but they can widen your reach considerably. So when looking for sponsors, make sure you consider their market as well.

While banks, dealerships, and law firms are great sponsors to have, look for some sponsors that might attract a younger audience to your tournament as well. Local trendy bars/restaurants, gyms/recreation facilities, and small tech based companies can all widen your tournament’s marketing reach to a younger crowd.

Fundraise with a meaningful purpose

Make sure that the charity that your tournament is raising money for is the focal point of the whole event. Large golf events typically have a large number of sponsors that accompany them and with corporate logos and tents every few feet it can be easy for your tournament participant to lose sight of what they’re out there for in the first place. So no matter what worthy cause you decide to raise money for make sure that everyone knows their story. Your participants are much more likely to keep the donations rolling in if they can associate a face or story with the cause.

On Hole Contests

We all know of the more straight forward contests like the hole-in-one challenge, longest drive, or straightest drive. And while those options are almost too easy to leave out, here’s a few alternative contests that shouldn’t be forgotten.

Pink Ball

Each grouping of golfers is given one pink golf ball at the beginning of the match. The ball is rotated between players at each hole, with the score with pink ball is recored after each hole. At the end of the tournament the group with the lowest pink ball score is the winner.

Beat The Pro

The course pro is stationed at a hole on the course (usually a Par 3), the pro is the first to tee off before each grouping. The participants are then allowed to place a bet that they can get their tee shot closer to the pin. If the pro is closer to the pin the money is donated, if the participant gets closer they get double their wager back. You’ll obviously want to find someone who is consistent and accurate so you can raise as much money as you can for your charity.

19th Hole Contest

A 19th hole contest lets the contestants compete against everyone. The first 10 or 20 contestants to turn their scorecards into the 19th hole(the clubhouse) are entered into a raffle to win a prize. To make sure everyone has a chance to join in on the fun, you can also sell raffle tickets to the other contestants that weren’t able to get to the clubhouse in time.

Regardless of which contests you decide to include in your tournament, the key to it all is creativity. Make sure that while you’re trying to raise money for your charities that you’re also making sure that your participants are having a fun time in the process.

Host an Auction

Auctions are a time honored tradition in the fundraising world for the simple fact that they work. Not only does it give your golfers another chance at winning some awesome prizes but it also gives their friends and family who may have not participated in the event to join in on the fun. The only question is which auction method is the best for your event.

Silent auction

Definitely the easier of the two options, silent auctions require very little effort once the items are gathered up and put on display. Popular items include; sports memorabilia, golf vacation packages, concert and other event tickets and the list goes on and on.

Live Auctions

To run a successful live auction it maybe in your best interest to hire a professional auctioneer to attend your event. Live auctions are something of a spectacle and a professional auctioneer knows how to excite crowds and drive up bids.

Regardless of which auction method you decide to use, it’s important that you make sure you offer a wide range of items, big and small.

Golf Entertainers

In the digital age that we’re all currently living in, viral content is king, and in the golf industry that usually means trick shots and long drives. This opens the door for a lot of opportunities in the golf tournament and fundraising industry. Companies like Charity Golf International have taken advantage of this trend and turned it into millions of dollars in donation revenue.

CGI drives donation revenue by providing charity golf tournaments with a World Long Drive Professional. These professionals station themselves at one of the course’s Par 5 holes and entertain the participants with their signature 400+ yard drives and trick shots. To help drive donations, participants have the chance to buy in to a “Hole-in-Two” contest by donating to the tournament’s charity. In the Hole-in-Two contest, the long drive pro drives a ball within 100 yards of the green and the participants are given the chance to chip in for a double eagle with a golf vacation of a lifetime on the line.

Make it a Multi-Day Event

Hosting an opening or closing event can be a great way to add value to your event and further incentivizes your participants. Find a local bar or restaurant to host a celebratory dinner to welcome or thank your participant. This can give your club added face time with the players and give you more time to drive donations.

Team Connor Childhood Cancer Foundation does an excellent job raising money for their foundation by hosting the III Forks Golf Classic. III Forks Steakhouse in Dallas, TX plays host to their kickoff dinner the night before the tournament. At the dinner, players and their families are updated on all the wonderful things Team Connor has done with the money they raise through these events, participate in silents auctions, and enjoy a fun night. In previous years, the kickoff dinner alone raised upwards of $200,000.

3 Golf Tournament Marketing Ideas

Fri, 17 May 2019 13:44:00 GMT

Golf tournaments, when executed properly, can bring a long list of benefits to your golf course or country club. Not only can a tournament bring in additional revenue or donations for a worthy cause, but they can also serve as an excellent tool for your club grow it’s brand and reach.

But as with any business event, proper marketing and promotion is required. So we wanted to show y’all just a few methods you can deploy to ensure that your club’s next golf tournament is a success.

Webpage

Having a prominent landing page for your clients and potential clients to see can make or break you. After all first impressions are extremely important. While this one is a given, there are still a few steps you can take to make sure your webpage is everything it needs to be.

Email Registration Form

Even if the person visiting the webpage isn’t ready to sign up for the tournament, steer them toward signing up for your tournament’s email list. Once you have their information, it’s much easier to follow up with them after the fact to make sure they don’t forget about you tourney.

Course Information and Media

There are a lot of golf tournaments out there and while the camaraderie and charitable cause can be a large part of your tournaments overall draw, the course it’s being played on is just as important. So make sure your course is putting its best foot forward on your tournament’s page by highlighting it’s beautiful and unique features with some high quality imagery, course map, and any other relevant features.

Online Registration

Lastly having a quick and easy online registration should always be a top priority. While it is a minor feature, it can elevate the customer experience from step one. With the many modern software available today, such as Digital Range , it is easy to offer your tournament participant with an easy to use online sign up form.

Social Media

In this day and age, having a comprehensive social media presence for your event or tournament is a near requirement. It is the perfect tool to both market your tourney and keep your players informed and up to date in the months leading up to the event itself.

As a marketing tool

Assuming the tournament you’re hosting is an annual affair, Facebook and Instagram are the perfect platforms to post to before, during, and after the event. The posts leading up to the event will drive registration, while the posts during and after might get those people who chose to pass this year to join in on the festivities next year.

As a communication tool

While email blasts work well to communicate with your participants in more of a long-form manner, your tournament’s social media pages are ideal for quick reminders, last minute changes, and any other announcements that need to be communicated.

3 Ways to Increase Country Club Memberships

Fri, 03 May 2019 15:43:00 GMT

The importance of membership growth is something we can never under state, after all without members nothing else really matters.

While making sure your club has a well rounded marketing strategy to grow your club is vital, some times you need an extra boost to drive membership. Finding creative ways to bring in new members and new membership leads can be the difference maker when it comes to the success of your golf course or country club.

Incentives

Incentive programs are a fairly easy way to get those potential members that just haven’t pulled the trigger quite yet. Golf and Country Clubs memberships are often seen as a luxury, any added value can change the way people look at cost itself.

Incentive Ideas:

Discounted rates if you sign up by a certain date
Pro-Shop gift certificates included with sign up
Buy-One Get-One deals
Free Clubs and other equipment from the Pro-Shop

Eldorado Country Club in McKinney, Texas does a great job with incentive programs and is currently running a special that offers a free set of irons when you become a member at their club.

Referrals

Referral programs take advantage of one of the most effective means of communication in the marketing world, word of mouth. You can read every Google and Yelp review available on a certain business and it just won’t mean quite as much as an opinion from a trusted friend or family member.

Our client, CBIGG Management owner of 27 courses around the country, hosts an annual championship golf tournament in Phoenix, AZ. This tournament is used as CBIGG’s referral based incentive program. Members earn points by referring members to their club with the top earners winning a trip to the tournament.

While this referral program is on a bit of a larger scale, the concept remains the same, encourage your members to be your own club ambassadors

Digital Marketing Through Digital Range

Lastly, without a comprehensive and modern digital presence how can you expect new members to find you?

At Long Drive Agency, we focus on developing customized solutions that help you better manage your digital presence and marketing strategy. Our digital marketing platform, Digital Range, is a comprehensive tool that gives our clients the ability to manage their entire digital presence in one location.

Need more information about the success we've had generating leads for our clients, checkout our case study!

How to Always Have Marketing Content for Your Country Club

Thu, 25 Apr 2019 15:16:00 GMT

At this point there’s no reason your club shouldn’t have a sizable media catalog available to fill all of your marketing needs.

As we’ve highlighted in a past blog , smartphone camera capabilities improve with every update, anyone is capable of capturing high quality images at any moment. The trick is being able to identify the best moments to capture the images that will most benefit your future marketing efforts and your digital presence.

With this blog we want to show you a few of the photography opportunities that regularly present themselves in the everyday operations of a golf course or country club and the benefits you reward yourself by building a diverse media catalog.

Value of a Diverse Media Catalog

It shouldn’t be a surprise that we are an extremely digital society and with that comes certain realities that we must accept when we build out our marketing strategy.

Marketing, regardless of the medium in which it is channeled, requires captivating imagery.

From email marketing to your club’s digital presence, the photos and other media you choose to use directly reflects how your audience perceives your club.

Images To Be On The Lookout For

The name of the game when you’re out collecting marketing content is “General”.

While you don’t want to be completely random when it comes to your shot selection, it helps to think generally by looking for moments to capture that produce an image that can have a few different uses. The goal is to collect a wide variety of quality content to build out your media library, not just a lot of content.

To help we put together a short list of what you should be looking for.

1) “Stock” Images

While stock images can be quick and easy, they also have an impersonal feel to them. Stock photos are made to be intentionally vague, with the models doing various activities that could be applicable in different situations.

Creating your own “stock” photos is easy and if done well can give your website and marketing material a much more authentic feel.

Simply plan a few “photo shoots” with volunteer employees and members to get you started with stock photo collection.

Have your volunteers run through a few staged employee/member interactions, member/member interactions, and other activities around your facility. Make sure you’re of focusing on the photography basics, ensure full, even lighting and that the subjects are properly framed.

Planned shoots are a great way to get a lot of content at once but it isn’t always the best option, after all, sometimes it’s just difficult to stage a “genuine” looking moment.

So always be on the lookout for those great candid moments when you go about your day to day tasks, the moments will present themselves.

2) General Course Photos

Obviously you’re going to need some images that show off your course and all of the amenities that come with it. However, there’s only so many shots you can get from your signature hole or viewpoint.

Branch out to some other spots around your facility and look for shots that show some of the lesser seen spots and activities, remember you’re looking to build a diverse catalog so think outside the box.

Golf tournaments, despite their chaotic nature, are the perfect time to gather content. Candid shots of players warming up, interacting with staff, or simply taking a moment to take in the course are all easy shots to find and also gives your course a human touch.

3) User Generated Content

This is by far the easiest method for gathering content, make your members do some of the work!

While user generated content won’t always produce the highest quality images, it won’t really matter for social media purposes.

Encourage your members and guest to snap some shots of themselves having fun with their friends and family while at your Club.

By using a specific hashtag or tagging their location, you’ll be able to see what others post and gather content from there. This method is great for driving word-of-mouth by having your members promote your club for you.

However you choose to promote your club, it’s important to make sure you have the appropriate media catalog to back it up. With a high quality camera in everyone’s pocket, building these catalogs is easier than ever. Once you make it a habit to be on the lookout for great photo opportunities, the rest should come naturally.

If you’re looking to grow your Country Club’s media catalog

and start creating eye-catching advertisements, we can help!

Country Club Instagram Marketing Tips

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 13:30:00 GMT

Well if some of you are sitting around waiting for the Instagram fad to pass it’s probably time give in and try to figure out what the platform is all about. In a previous blog we’ve highlighted the steps to take when setting up your profile and touched on the basics of the social network. But for this blog we wanted to discuss how each of Instagram’s posting methods can best be utilized to promote your Country Club.

While other social platforms like Facebook are a great way to promote your business and sell your product, Instagram is the perfect platform to show off the beauty of your club to your followers and truly give them a behind the scenes look at what makes your facility so great.

Instagram is a platform centered around visual content and with three different ways to send your followers content it can get kind of tricky trying to figure out the best way to organize your content and promote your brand.

Instagram’s sharing methods can be broken down into three categories:

Posts
Stories
Highlights

Let’s take a closer look at each one of these methods and how you can maximize your results.

Instagram Posts

Instagram posts are the main way your followers are going to see your content. Your posts will compile into a gallery style portfolio that will be seen by anyone who visits your page making it very important that only be best content makes it.

Instagram is not the place for your promotional flyers or ads, instead use this platform to show off your course and facility. Posting quality images of the views around the course will help you build an easy to access portfolio for your followers and potential clients.

Along with quality content, your posts can be accompanied with hashtags and geotags to help users who are not following you find your content. For golf marketing purposes using a small handful of hashtags to identify your course and to identify with other general golf terms to tie your club into the golf community on Instagram. Geotags on the other hand tie your posts to a specific location so users can locate you easily. Use of geotags can bring in potential new clients that are looking for courses in your area or if they just come across your post and what to look into your club closer.

Here’s a short list of post ideas

Views of your course
Dining Room/Bar Area
Pictures and Videos of members playing
Grounds crew working the course

And no this doesn’t mean you have to hire a professional photographer to pull this off, fortunately most smartphones are more than capable of achieving the quality of photography you’ll need to excel on instagram.

If you’re looking to improve your smartphone photography skills check out our blog on Golf Course Photography .

Instagram Stories

Instagram stories allow you to share images and short videos to your followers that only stay up for 24 hours before being removed. These posts collect at the top of the users’ main feed and will only play when selected. Stories are the perfect way to let your clubs personality shine, by posting daily short videos of your staff interacting with members and having fun lets your followers see your club from the perspective of the members.

Instagram Highlights

Highlights are exactly what the name leads you to believe. You can select a certain videos and images from your Instagram stories to stay up indefinitely for your followers to view from your page. This is the perfect posting method to give your followers, new and old, and summary of your Club. These highlights can be organized into categories to better summarize your facility.

There are many ways to go about organizing your highlights but here are a few ideas to get you started:

Course walkthroughs
Speciality menu items
Golf tips
Amenities
Upcoming Events

Regardless of how you choose to organize your posts, it’s important to make sure you’re putting the best of what your club has to offer up for everyone to see. Instagram is the perfect platform to showcase your facility while having fun and interacting with staff and members. Creating an Instagram profile that truly lets your club’s personality come through should always be the main goal, doing so will let your club market itself.

Are you ready to take your Country Club Instagram Marketing to the next level?

An Introduction to Retargeting for Country Clubs

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 16:48:00 GMT

An Introduction To Retargeting For Country Clubs

Businesses live and die by their marketing strategies. As the world grows ever more digital and online marketing slowly becomes the main face of marketing in general, targeted strategies like retargeting are growing in popularity. And it’s for a good reason. Retargeting or is the digital equivalent to old fashioned follow-up marketing. Retargeting allows you to directly target users who have previously visited your website.

Despite the rise of online marketing, only about third of digital marketers take full advantage of tailored marketing strategies. If you want to be someone who gets the most return on their advertising dollar, then consider investing in retargeting and joining that 30 percent of companies enjoying one of the most cost-effective ways to sell their products.

What is retargeting?

Retargeting is a form of remarketing that allows you to reach a target audience either through an existing database of potential clients or by reaching out to people who’ve previously viewed your site but did not engage. The two main types of retargeting that are frequently used are; pixel-based and list-based.

Pixel-based: This type of retargeting is one that we are probably all too familiar with as it is the reason behind all the tailored ads you receive from products or services that you’ve previously researched. It utilizes cookies to tag internet users who visit your website. Once someone has visited your page, Google (or your platform of choice) will remember and show them your ads periodically for the next month or so. Online customers are very picky about their website experiences and don’t always engage on their first visit to a site. Remarketing reminds those customers of you as they browse.

List-based: List based retargeting is quite a bit simpler than the “cookie” collection process used in Pixel-based. Using already existing email lists, list-based retargeting reaches potential leads through social media ad campaign tools. This method puts those potential leads list to use by

Why bother with retargeting?

Retargeting is overall more effective than just throwing traditional banner ads all about the internet. But it has some other advantages as well. One is a high return on investment. Retargeting is pay-per-click, and the clicks will be coming from customers who are already familiar with your product (and thus more likely to make a purchase). Very little money is wasted on ads that don’t result in customer engagement. Online marketing is already cheaper than most traditional marketing methods, and remarketing ads are even cheaper still. Many retargeting ads come in at under one dollar per click.

Another advantage of retargeting is how it helps to establish your brand . Even the ads you don’t pay for (the ones no one clicks on) still spread your brand. Name recognition counts for a lot in the world of marketing. Even if people don’t immediately engage after seeing your ad, it’s still a good ad if they remember you. Free advertising doesn’t come around often, but it’s a pretty sweet deal when it does.

Retargeting in the golf industry

Retargeting is a useful strategy for any industry, but it can be especially effective in growing the brand of golf courses and country clubs. These are seasonal ventures, with tournaments and tee times constantly changing. Retargeting allows your ad output to change with them in real time. It’s a way to advertise what people are already looking for, increasing sales.

Retargeting is a one-to-one marketing strategy that provides both direct and indirect marketing to customers. It allows course managers better insight into not only the aptitude of their marketing dollars but the success of different company products. It can bring more sales to the clubhouse and more golfers to the tees. The Old Links can survive on its name alone, but for the rest of the country clubs out there, a successful and cost-effective digital marketing strategy is vital.

Are you ready to take your Country Club Instagram Marketing to the next level?

Country Club Membership Leads With Facebook Ads

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 15:33:00 GMT

“If Your Country Club Membership Is Not Growing, Nothing Else Matters.”

Being able to generate new country club membership leads, effectively, and without coming across as being too “salesy” can prove difficult for many country clubs. Your Club has to walk that fine line of what’s advertising and what is. Our agency has worked with hundreds of clubs and we have invested so much of our efforts into understanding and optimizing lead generation strategies.

After strategizing, testing, analyzing, and testing again we found many properties we’ve worked with seeing maximum return on investment with Facebook Ads.

While we went over the step by step process to posting ads to Facebook in one of our previous blogs , we wanted to take this opportunity to show you some of the strategies we implement when building Facebook Ad campaigns for our clients. Although Facebook ads can be used to promote just about anything, we’ve narrowed our scope to 3 categories; Membership Promotion, Event Promotion, and Brand Promotion.

Country Club Membership Promotions

Riverton Country Club is located in Cinnaminson, New Jersey. Located in the Philadelphia metro area, Riverton is setting on top of an extensive market and wanted to expand their reach and generate new member leads.

Focusing on the country clubs features and top qualities:

A Family-Oriented Community
A top-rated junior golf program
Donald Ross designed course

We built a campaign that highlighted the best of what Riverton has to offer. By creating multiple campaigns designed to capture different demographics, we grew Riverton’s lead list extensively in the first month of the campaign.

Club Event Promotions

With membership growth being the defining statistic for most country clubs, event hosting can sometimes fall by the wayside when it comes to club promotion.

Establishing your country club as a prominent event venue is another crucial step in growing your brand. Not only can event hosting contribute to revenue, but it can also keep that membership lead list growing.

For The Fox Valley Club in New York, the focus was to bring in more event bookings for their venue. By shifting our focus to wedding promotion we focussed on the venue itself. While the scope is significantly narrower when promoting a venue rather than a country club the goal remains the same; garner interest through the use of eye-catching imagery and creative copy leading to a landing page with a contact form for more information.

Brand Awareness

While Facebook ads are a great way to promote your club for membership lead generation and event bookings, it can also be used to jump-start the launch of a newly designed digital presence.

Designing a campaign to build anticipation of a new website, initiative, or event is a crucial part of any digital marketing strategy. Our most recent launch campaign was built around the new NTPGA.com , as it marked the official start of the NTPGA’s new digital presence.

The week-long campaign, built around the hashtag #GrowingTheGame, used a series of creative photos and videos to highlight their newly expanded foundation and outline their Section’s goal to grow the game and making lasting impacts in the North Texas region.

While the partnership is still new the use of Facebook ads and other social media outlets are just a few of the ways we look to grow the game with the NTPGA.

Are you ready to grow your country club's membership leads?

Long Drive Agency Partnership with Northern Texas PGA

Fri, 22 Feb 2019 03:32:00 GMT

We’re excited to officially announce the Long Drive Agency partnership with Northern Texas PGA (NTPGA) for marketing and creative strategy.

On Friday, February 15th, 2019 Long Drive Agency launched one of the most significant projects the agency has been a part of, to date; the redesigned NTPGA.com and the launch of the newly named Northern Texas PGA Foundation (formerly known as the NTPGA Junior Golf Foundation).

We wanted to create this blog to give more insight into the strategy, development, and execution of how the partnership with Northern Texas PGA came together.

@NTXPGA Announces New Creative Partnership with @LongDriveAgency. #GrowingTheGame

The Northern Texas PGA Section has been in the headlines frequently over the last several months following the announcement that The PGA of America is moving its headquarters from Palm Beach, Florida to Frisco, Texas.

The NTPGA wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to continue furthering their mission of serving PGA members and growing the game of golf through the expansion of the NTPGA’s charitable arm.

The first step in accomplishing their goal was through their decision to rename the Northern Texas PGA Junior Golf Foundation to the Northern Texas PGA Foundation and launching a new website for the NTPGA Foundation.

The renaming comes as the NTPGA Section is expanding its Foundation programs beyond just junior golf. The five pillars of the Northern Texas PGA Foundation will now include – junior golf, college scholarships, fellowships, inclusion, and military & veterans

The new NTPGA Foundation website was designed with the intention to be a resource for those seeking additional information about how they can engage with or give back to, the Northern Texas PGA Foundation. The unique, modern-designed website is also intended to reflect that although the original NTPGA Junior Golf Foundation was founded in 1983, its mission remains the same – to positively impact lives and communities through golf.

Long Drive Agency, as a full-service marketing agency, intends to provide the Northern Texas PGA with much more than just the redesigned NTPGA.com website and the launch of the renamed NTPGA Foundation website.

We have the intention to continue working alongside the team at the Northern Texas PGA and supporting their mission through the collaboration of marketing strategies and integrations with our industry-leading software, Digital Range.

What the Long Drive Agency Partnership with Northern Texas PGA Means

Mark Harrison, the Executive Director/CEO of the Northern Texas PGA said: “Overall, our organization needed a better online presence and strategy.”

The NTPGA didn’t just want a new website; they needed to create a more modern and unique digital experience and a technology-stack that would continue to grow and adapt to their needs and allow them to stay ahead of the curve as technology advances.

One of the many approaches we’ve taken to help implement better technology that allows for automation and optimization is by providing access to our easy-to-use website management software, and an enhanced overall mobile experience. The back-end of the new NTPGA and NTPGA Foundation website, Range WEBSITE, sets the foundation for the future of the partnership between Long Drive Agency and the NTPGA.

With the ever-changing digital landscape, it’s imperative that organizations use the best tools and technology for growth and efficiency.

Long Drive Agency will continue to work with the team at the Northern Texas PGA Section to create and implement marketing strategies and the creative direction needed to ensure continuous enhancements across the NTPGAs online presence.

Kicking Off the LDA and NTPGA Partnership

The Long Drive Agency Partnership with Northern Texas PGA kicked off with the launch of the new, redesigned NTPGA.com and new, renamed NTPGA Foundation website. Although the websites both launched on February 15th, 2019 the strategy, design, and collaboration between LDA and NTPGA has been ongoing since late 2018.

To help announce the launch of the new websites, Long Drive Agency worked with NTPGA to create a multi-day social media campaign.

In coordination with Molly Rawlins, the Director of Communications & Marketing for the Northern Texas PGA, we created a 5-day strategy to build anticipation and spark conversation around the launch of the websites using the campaign hashtag – #GrowingTheGame.

The campaign hashtag was simple, yet powerful. We wanted to ensure no confusion around the goal of the new websites, or the mission of the Northern Texas PGA, to serve PGA members and grow the game.

The hashtag also expresses the long-term commitment of that very mission and the NTPGAs ongoing innovations to serve its members.

The social media campaign consisted of 24 pieces of unique creative, both image and video content that was shared across the NTPGA Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram profiles.

The 5-day campaign gained a total of 27,769 impressions and 51 new followers, all through a 100% organic campaign with no paid advertising.

Within the first three days of launching the new NTPGA and NTPGA Foundation websites, we saw a 170.48% increase in their website page views.

Long Drive Agency, along with the team at the Northern Texas PGA see the campaign as a complete success and were very satisfied with the results that were gained through the organic-only social media campaign.

What’s Next for Long Drive Agency and NTPGA

The Long Drive Agency partnership with Northern Texas PGA is just getting started; throughout the multi-year partnership, we will be joining the NTPGAs efforts to serve PGA members and grow the game.

Through innovative experiences, creative approaches, and strategic marketing we look forward to helping the Northern Texas PGA Section make lasting impacts throughout the PGA and the entire golf community.

Click here for the official announcement by the Northern Texas PGA.

Want to work with us?

Introducing ClubBooth

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 21:32:00 GMT

We’re hard at work developing a brand new tool that allows Country Clubs to create a new revenue stream for events, get Club visitors/ Members to share user-generated content via their social profiles and collect a list of new membership leads…

Launched in late 2019, ClubBooth is the first (and only) photo booth app created strictly for country clubs and golf courses. The innovative and easy-to-use marketing tool we’re developing is very easy to set up and even easier to use!

How does ClubBooth work?

When your club gets started with the ClubBooth solution, you Club receives the photo booth stand, iPad, and access to the app that you keep at your country club or golf course to rent out to events hosted at your club.

When someone walks up to the iPad they’ll see an easy-to-use interface where they can decide if they’d like to take a photo, video, or a GIF. Once they capture their media they can text or email it to themselves by providing their contact information. When you create a new event in the admin dashboard you can even specify if you’d like to collect membership status’ when someone is sharing their media – a great way to collect potential membership leads!

In the admin dashboard, you’ll be greeted to the same easy-to-use user-friendly interface, which is accessible from right inside your Digital Range dashboard. That means if you’re using one of the other Digital Range features, you can access all of your favorite marketing tools from one place!

The admin dashboard is also where you can easily create and manage your events, frames, and data that has been collected for your country club or golf courses events. You can also download the data that has been collected and easily import that file into your email marketing software or other CRM.

Once you’ve created the event and customized the settings for that event you can activate it (or any other events your club has created previously) and the activated event frame will automatically update on the iPad app! People can begin using the app, snapping pictures, videos, and GIFs and sharing them with themselves via text message or email.

Creating a new event takes a matter of seconds!

ClubBooth Basic Revenue Breakdown

Just one of the benefits that ClubBooth offers is an effortless revenue stream, so let’s breakdown how you can start increasing your clubs revenue!

Let’s assume your club rents ClubBooth for 10 – 15 events per month
At an average hourly rental rate between $175 – $250 with a 2hr minimum
You’ll collect between $3,500 – $5,500 in monthly recurring revenue

In addition to the added revenue, you’ll leave your guest with a fun social media worthy image that promotes your venue and reminds your guests of the fun they had while they were there.

Contact us today to get on the early waitlist to be the first to know when Range BOOTH is available and follow us to stay updated on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Contact us today to get on the early waitlist for ClubBooth!

Client Spotlight: Willow Fork Country Club

Fri, 11 Jan 2019 15:27:00 GMT

In an effort to highlight the amazing ways our clients take advantage of the tools and services we at Long Drive Agency provide, we are starting a client spotlight feature to give credit where credit is due.

Willow Fork Country Club is a private club located in Katy, Texas (just west of Houston) with whom we’ve been partnered with since early 2018. Willow Fork prides themselves in being a member-focused and family-friendly club. While bright smiling faces paired with unmatched facilities and service makes achieving those goals easy in person, making sure that level of service is matched on the digital front can present different challenges.

I spoke with Maura Rowell, Willow Fork’s Member Relations Director, to learn more about how LDA and Digital Range helped them achieve their goals in regards to their social media/digital presence.

While Willow Fork truly does take advantage of the full list of benefits that come with the use of Digital Range; what stood out to me most is their ability to let their personality resonate through their use of social media. From showcasing their fun events to giving behind the scenes looks, their videos humanize their brand.

With help from Range Social, Willow Fork has been able to streamline communication with their members through social media while simultaneously reaching a wider range of demographics within their membership. Willow Fork stays very active on both Instagram and Facebook as they see the value behind diversifying their social presence and keeping their brand in the minds of their followers, regardless of age.

It only takes a few seconds of scrolling through Willow Fork’s social wall to see how often they host special events and outings for their members. Successful events like these don’t just happen without a considerable amount of promotion in the weeks leading up to the matter.

Through the use of Range Forms and Range Emails , Willow Fork is able to promote and book all of their events. With over 90% of their reservations coming in through online forms, their integration of LDA’s Digital Range software has been a tremendous success.

This was only enforced further after speaking with Ms. Rowell as she mentioned that they like to post from a “wish you were here” perspective rather than “wish you had been there”. This mentality is best highlighted through their use of Instagram stories, simply posting stories of the festivities as they happen lets the viewer see the fun live rather than being told about it after the fact.

Regardless of how you look at it, Willow Fork does a fantastic job of incorporating Digital Range into their marketing strategy and exemplifying what we at Long Drive love to see.

9 of the Most Relevant USGA Rule Changes of 2019

Fri, 04 Jan 2019 20:14:00 GMT

It is not completely normal for the USGA and golf world to be in the media spotlight quite as much as they have been this week, but with the new year, the USGA decided to ring in a new set of rules in an effort to modernize the game a bit.

While the list of new rules is quite extensive, the full 30+ list of rule changes won’t affect all of us non-professional golfer. So we at Long Drive Agency compiled a short list of the 9 rules that are most likely to affect the average golfer and might even make your next golf outing a little more enjoyable.

1) “Penalty Area”

The word “hazard” has been thrown out and has been replaced with the term “penalty area”. Simply put, the term penalty area is meant to slightly expand the water hazard area to encompass some of the other unplayable surfaces surrounding the hazard where water may not necessarily be present. Relief maybe taken from the penalty area with a one stroke penalty, using on of three relief options; Stroke-and-Distance Relief , Back-On-the-Line Relief , or Lateral Relief .

2) Alternative to Stroke and Distance

When a ball is lost or goes out of bounds, this alternative, if the local rule is in effect, allows players to create a drop zone between the estimated area the ball was lost or went OB and the nearest edge of the fairway. As this one can be somewhat difficult to explain, the USGA provided a helpful graphic to illustrate the process.

3) Unplayable ball in a bunker

This rule change will come as good news for those who take a few to many trip to the beach during their round. We’ve all ended up with that impossible lie angle where the ball is wedged up against the wall or lip of the bunker, this change will allow for a two-stroke penalty to be taken by using the Back-On-The-Line relief procedure allowing a player to choose a drop zone outside the bunker while still remaining on the same line to the pin.

4) Knee Height Drop

The days of repeatedly taking drops in an effort to get the ball to come to rest in the designated area are over. The new rule’s only requirement is for the ball to be dropped from knee height (formally shoulder height) and fall freely without touching any part of the player’s body or equipment and coming to a rest in the designated area.

5) Accidental Ball Movement

That one obnoxious golf buddy of yours won’t be able to say “one” after you accidentally nudge your ball anymore. Any accidental contact with your ball while on the green or while searching for your ball will not longer result in a penalty, just simply place the ball back in it’s initial location and do your best to recreate the original lie conditions.

6) Repairing the Green

Formally under the “Damage on the putting greens” rule the player would only be able to repair ball mark related damage, with this amendment any non-natural surface imperfections can be repaired.

Imperfections such as:

Shoe damage
Indentions from a club or flagstick
Damage from wildlife

7) Flagstick While Putting

Break out your protractors and calculators as this change will make all of the physics majors out there happy. There will no longer be any penalty should the players choose to leave the flagstick in the hole while putting from either on or off the putting surface. Bryson DeChambeau, one of the Tour’s most unconventional players, was the first to announce his intention to take advantage of this new rule for the 2019 season. While there is still is room to debate if this tactic will actually be beneficial to the player, watching this one unfold in the coming season will definitely be interesting.

8) Rangefinders

Although the use of distance measuring devices (DMDs) or rangefinders for the layman, have been mostly accepted across the country, the previous rule required clubs and courses to draft a specific rule permitting them. This rule change simply reverses that condition and requires clubs to draft a rule to prohibit DMDs should they want to. Although a minor change, this reversal will help clear up possible confusion and also brings the guidelines up to date on an already widely accepted tool.

9) Stroke Play Score Cap

Finally, as pace of play has been a topic of discussion for several years, a new form a stroke play has been recognized by the USGA. “Maximum score” allows players to set a max score for each hole, eliminating the need to hole out on every hole and allow for the pace of play to speed up. Maximums can be set as a fixed number of strokes such as 6, 8, or 10 or as a number relative to par such as 2x par or triple bogey. Should a player reach the score cap on a hole or it becomes evident that the max score will be reach, the player can choose to pick up their ball and move to the next hole.

The USGA is definitely taking a step in the right direction as they continue to modernize the sport. With the stage set for growth, the responsibility falls to us as members of the golf industry and lovers of the sport to see to it that we do our part to make sure golf continues to grow. For more information on how to grow and modernize your golf brand visit LongDriveAgency.com . For the full list of 2019 rule changes visit USGA.org

5 Country Club Marketing Trends for 2019

Fri, 28 Dec 2018 16:46:00 GMT

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!

4 Easy Ways to Boost Your Country Club’s Revenue

Wed, 26 Dec 2018 16:53:00 GMT

If you want to improve the profitability of your golf course or country club without spending an astronomical amount of money on the front end, there are a few easy steps you can take. If you are not retaining customers or struggling to get new customers in the door; offering bundled services, incentive/loyalty programs, and branded merchandise are simple ways you can solve these problems and increase your revenue.

Here are 4 ways in which you can incorporate these revenue increasing methods with your golf course or country club:

1) Product and Service Bundles

Create bundles for your customers that will encourage them to visit your club or Pro Shop and make more purchases. Do you have customers that enjoy golfing, but do not want to pay the price for a full membership to your country club? Offer a cheaper membership tier that offers them discounted round or equipment rental rates if they sign up for a year, or create bundles that offer them discounts on golf equipment if they purchase a certain amount of rounds. Make it easy for people who do not want to purchase a membership to have options that will keep them coming to your business. Southwyck Golf Club makes sure they regularly advertise their promo nights by offering their customers’ bundle packages that help promote other wise slow nights and turn them into a popular events.

2) Incentive Programs

Everyone likes receiving free or discounted items. An incentive program is a great way to show your club’s generosity, build a positive reputation for your brand, and increase your member loyalty. An incentive program keeps customers eager to return to your brand or make specific decisions in order to receive rewards.

While point-based incentive programs, where people earn points for every dollar they spend, are popular and effective, there are many other incentives that can set you apart from competing golf courses and businesses. Try offering exclusive opportunities for people who visit your golf course a certain number of times per month or for people who renew their membership to your country club.

Unlike loyalty programs, incentive programs are a marketing tool, and they should be used to encourage customers to return to your business or take an actionable step that will boost your revenue. Try rewarding your customers for sharing about your business on social media or for writing a Google review about your company. This advertising will help draw in new customers, which will also increase your revenue.

3) Loyalty Programs

Improving member loyalty has been shown to boost revenue. A 5% increase in member retention can increase your profitability by 75% , and loyal members spend more than new members. Create a loyalty program to help your customers and members choose your business over your competitors and make sure your existing customers are satisfied and more likely to return.

In order to increase your member loyalty effectively, the program you develop needs to provide your customers experiences or opportunities they would not have access to otherwise. If your loyalty program consists of an easy-to-lose punch card for a small discount, you are not maximizing your potential to build customer loyalty. Your loyalty program should make it so convenient and rewarding to work with your brand that other brands lose their appeal.

For instance, you could create a mobile app for your golf course. On the app, users will not only be able to earn points or rewards for their visits or purchases, but they will also be able to sign into the app to reserve tee times, keep track of their score, view rewards and discounts, and sign up for tournaments and other events. A program like this will make it more convenient for your customers to visit your course than to visit other golf courses, which will increase your revenue.

4) Merchandise

One of the easiest ways to directly increase your revenue, improve your customer loyalty, and gain new customers is to sell branded merchandise. Create golf shirts, umbrellas, hats, and visors that bear your brand’s logo, and have fun with the logo and overall design. Designing merchandise that breaks the mold and offers a more modern and trendy look that will allow your members to rep your brand regardless of the circumstance. Be sure to give your customers the option to purchase these items at your golf course or online, which will bring you another source of revenue.

You could also incorporate free or discounted merchandise into an incentive program, which will encourage your customers to make visits and purchases. Customers who wear your merchandise are likely to feel more connected with your company, helping them to become repeat and lifelong customers.

Here are 4 ways in which you can incorporate these revenue increasing methods with your golf course or country club:

An added benefit to creating merchandise with your logo is that your brand is being advertised whenever your customers wear your clothing or use your branded products. Designing and selling merchandise can increase your brand awareness, customer loyalty, and profitability.

Need help developing a custom, marketing strategy for your country club or golf course?

10 Tips For Better Golf Course Photography (From Your Phone!)

Mon, 10 Dec 2018 12:00:00 GMT

Thanks to the advancement of technology (and the all mighty iPhone capabilities), you no longer need a super fancy schmancy camera to start capturing better golf course photography for you club!

1) Early morning & late afternoon = GOLD

Finding the right lighting is key to capturing a great image. It’s no secret that golf courses photograph best during the “golden hour”, which is sunrise and sunset. The lower light from the sun rising or setting minimizes the issue of glare. You can also try shooting on cloudy days as this will also eliminate a lot of issues beginners have with shooting under natural light.

2) Start Shooting The Golf Course Wide

The best images for the web and social are shot horizontally, not vertically. So make sure you are shooting in landscape mode to capture wide angles. This will also help ensure that your photo is proportional and balanced, as wide angle shots tend to offer the best view of landscapes.

3) Golf Course Drone Photography/Video

Capturing images from above is a great way to showcase your clubs property. If you feel like getting really creative, you can shoot hole by hole flyovers that can be placed on the course section of your website to give potential members a good sense of the course layout. Drones also offer the rare opportunity for you to capture multiple aspects of your club at the same time. For example a drone photo of both your pool area and driving range would showcase your clubs versatility.

4) Include Your Members

Without members, your club would cease to exist!

One great idea is to capture images of your club’s members doing what they do best… enjoying the amenities of the club! Photos like this make your club more accessible to club goers and is a great way to showcase your club’s social calendar.

Some ideas include:

Golfers getting ready for a club tournament
Members socializing in the dining/ bar area
Kids club area (important to millennials)
Members enjoying the pool area

5) Take Videos on the Golf Course

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then is a video worth a million?

Videos are a great way to showcase what an image cant. A lot of clubs we work with lack videos for a variety of reasons but what we see most often is they are unsure of how to capture quality video.

Our biggest piece of advice to clubs we work with in regards to capturing quality video from a mobile phone is to shoot video horizontally (hold the phone sideways) and do you best to stabilize to reduce shake!

If you follow what social platforms are doing… then you understand that everything is moving towards video so now is the time to start building up your clubs video vault!

6) Use the Golf Courses Branded Merchandise!

Using a golf ball with your club logo, or a staff member wearing a shirt with your club logo not only showcases your pro shop but also proves your club as an established club. Using your club logo in your shots also ensures that your photo can not be used by another club and assures the the photo they’re looking at is actually from your club.

7) It Matters Where Your Golf Course Photos are Taken!

Photography is all about setting up the ideal perspective. Getting a shot from a higher vantage point allows you the get more in your photo. Conversely, you can take a shot of something close to the ground to focus in on an object or feature, for example shooting pictures of the green from the sand trap allows you to put the green in perspective of the hole.

8) Use a Stabilizer

If you are shooting video, you don’t want your end product to look like you recorded during an earthquake. Instead, use a stabilizer to have clean, shake-free video . Stabilizers like tripods are available online. However, there are also smaller hand-held devices, like a gimbal, that can stabilize your camera while you are walking. Stabilizers are also great for taking photos, especially if you have shaky hands.

9) Remember the Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is the most well-known photography rule on the books. When taking a photo, imagine breaking down your image into thirds both horizontally and vertically . This will leave you with nine parts or boxes. The rule of thirds states if your subject of the photo on the intersection of these lines, you will have a better composition. The rule of thirds can be a hard concept to grasp if you do not have the lines in front of you. Simply put, the rule of thirds puts the subject of the image slightly off center of the frame, giving the image a more balanced look. Most camera phones have the option of adding a grid to your screen while taking pictures to give yourself a guideline to go by. IOS offers these feature settings under Camera.

10) Use your phone’s portrait mode

This last tip is limited to those who have smartphones with a dual lens camera system . Even though you might not have one of these phones in your hand right now, with their growing popularity there’s a pretty good chance someone you know might have one that you can borrow to snap a few shots. A dual lens system brings in an element of photography that previously was not as accessible unless you had a professional camera set up. The first advantage of using these smartphones is the introduction of optical zoom, giving you the ability to zoom in on a subject that might be a little further away all while retaining image quality. However, the biggest advantage a dual lens system brings you is the ability to manipulate depth of field . The smartphone’s software coupled with the use of both camera lenses gives your images a shallower depth of field, giving you the ability to blur backgrounds and better isolate your subject from the rest of the image. An extremely easy to use tool that is great to use when promoting your clubs brand with new product pictures, promotions, or if you’re just looking to get your brand out there. The example below is pretty simple but it shows you how a basic change can draw the eye to a specific spot in the image.

Golf Course Marketing Tips for the Winter Months

Mon, 26 Nov 2018 19:37:00 GMT

Unless you’re like us in Texas and have weather suitable for year-round golf, chances are the winter months slow your club’s traffic dramatically. Just because the weather outside is frightful, doesn’t mean you have to give up marketing to new members. Instead of staying silent until the snow clears, you can use the winter months to grow your business, even if the new members can’t come to the green.

Promote Your Venue

Golf isn’t the only event your club is good for. During the winter months, there are plenty of holiday activities that can be held at your venue. You can send out email blasts and post on social media about your great venue space . By promoting your golf club as a venue instead of a golf course during the winter, you can attract big events like large parties, company holiday meetings, and winter wonderland weddings.

Utilize Social Media

Even though people aren’t coming out to play winter golf, that doesn’t mean you have to ignore them until spring. Instead, you can continue to interact with your club members via social media . Use Facebook Live or Instagram Live to host a golf live stream. You can promote it on social a week in advance to gather a crowd. Then during the actual live stream, you can answer questions about your facility and give a behind-the-scenes tour. You can even schedule a live stream giveaway to increase engagement. No matter how you go about it, as long as you make sure your social media pages are being updated frequently your brand will stay in the minds of those who see it, even if the weather is stopping you from opening your doors.

Start Building A Spring Membership Plan

It’s never too early to start planning for next year. During your winter lull, you can start planning your spring campaign to gain new members. You can test social media posts to see what has the highest engagement, so you can utilize that next season. Furthermore, you can A/B test emails to see which receives the most attention from members.

Once you have formulated a plan, you can actually start implementing it during the winter months. Offer deals on early membership or offer early-bird golf classes to drive up membership. By reaching out to people in the winter, you will have a solid member base, even in the early weeks of spring.

Host Indoor Watch Parties

Your club’s Bar and Grill can be used for a lot more than just a quick bite to eat after 18-holes. With football, basketball, and hockey season in full swing, games are being televised nearly every night of the week, so opportunities to host watch parties are more than plentiful. A simple email blast or flyer sent out with the help of the Digital Range forms or email feature is all it takes to notify your members of an upcoming event. Whether it’s the primetime Monday night game or a college football marathon on a Saturday afternoon, watch parties give your members an opportunity to spend time with friends and family all while enjoying the beautiful clubhouse you provide for them.

Informative Classes Indoors

Since club members cannot enjoy the great outdoors in the winter, bring them inside for an educational lesson. You can teach members about hot golf topics like controversial plays and rules. You can also hold indoor youth classes where you teach them the basics of golf before they even have a chance to hit the ball. These youth class will drum up excitement for your junior membership base.

For more help giving your golf course or country club the boost, it needs this winter, visit us a LongDriveAgency.com today

Beginners Guide to SEO for Country Clubs

Mon, 12 Nov 2018 16:21:00 GMT

When you first step into the online marketing world, you will quickly find yourself bombarded by acronyms. From tracking ROI, knowing the difference between B2B and B2C transactions, and implementing A/B testing, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed when you are struggling to learn these acronyms and understand their importance.

While there are many acronyms that you should understand and put into practice, SEO is one of the most commonly used and most important terms you need to know.

This guide will help you understand exactly what SEO means as well as how you can use it to help your business succeed.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization , and it is the process by which companies ensure search engines prioritize their website or webpage within its organic, unpaid search results. Search engines crawl websites in order to view and store the website’s content, and then they use an algorithm to decide the usefulness of that website’s content. This determines where the website will rank on the results page.

Because search engines want to provide the most valuable and useful information for their users at the top of their results page, businesses need to optimize their websites and improve their SEO so that their websites appear higher on the results list than the sites of their competitors.

Why Improve SEO?

Improving your search engine optimization is important because it will significantly impact your profitability. SEO can be as much as 300% more effective for driving traffic to your website than social media, and between 20-25% of organic traffic converts to a lead. If you are not focusing on boosting your SEO, you are missing out on a major source of website traffic and, ultimately, revenue.

How to Improve Your SEO?

If you want to join the 61% of marketers that are making SEO improvement their top marketing priority, there are a few things you should keep in mind to help increase your visibility and your ranking:

Provide Relevant Content

If you want search engines to consider your content useful, you need to provide content that is valuable for your customers. You want your website to be as relevant as possible to the keywords that your target audience is using in search engine requests.

Find out the keywords and ideas your customers are searching, and make sure you include those words several times within your website. Make sure that you mention your keyword in the title of your webpage, the URL, and within the first few words of your webpage. This will let search engines know that your website has relevant information about that keyword, which will keep your ranking high.

In addition to helping search engines rank your page, providing relevant content will help your customers find your website useful. This increases the likelihood that they will visit your website often, and it will draw new visitors to your website. The more visits your website has, the higher it will rank on a search engine results page.

Increase Your Crawability

There are a few technical steps you can take in order to make sure your website is crawlable and will be indexed and categorized properly. As mentioned before, search engines crawl your website to see how relevant your content is and to store your content in their index. If your website is not crawlable, then you will not be ranked highly because search engines will not know how to determine the value or usefulness of your content.

Our Websites are Built With SEO in Mind

Using our Digital Range software, we completely rebuild your website while implementing several tools that help boost your SEO. All of our website’s pages automatically generate sitemaps that notify search engines where to crawl your site. Additionally, we’re given the ability to create custom URLs for any site’s page again providing the search engines with as much easy to find information as possible. And finally, how could I talk about website building without mentioning the importance of a great mobile site? Digital Range automatically optimizes all images for better compatibility with mobile devices, by doing so your site will be ranked higher by Google and will exceed their standards for mobile-friendliness.

For help optimizing the website for your country club or golf course, visit Long Drive Agency and browse their services.

Tips to Improve Your Golf Course Website Bounce Rate

Sat, 03 Nov 2018 18:38:00 GMT

“Bounce rate” is a term that you’ve probably heard thrown around a lot if you run a website for your golf course and have an eye toward increasing the amount and quality of your traffic. It refers to the percentage of your website’s visitors who land on a page of your website and navigate away immediately without exploring further. As the owner of your website and your business, your goal is to get existing or prospective customers to spend as much time exploring your website as possible, so a high bounce rate is never good. Let’s take a look at what you can do and how the services of Long Drive Agency can help get your bounce rates down!

How do you measure your bounce rate?

As surprising as it may seem, Google has the answer. Google Analytics is an extremely powerful tool if you are looking to dig deeper into how your website and web presence is affecting how your customers are finding you. While the use of the bounce rate report tool on Google Analytics is just barely scratching the surface when it comes to the tool’s full potential, it is still a great place to start when diving into the world of web analytics.

Beautiful, Not Sloppy

Keeping your website’s design pristine and easy to use is an important way to make sure your visitors stick around. Outdated, expired information or dead links/404 errors are all great ways to drive your users away and right into the outstretched arms of your competitors. You want to prove that your golf course is the one people should be visiting. If the website itself hurts visitors’ eyes, they might not be so inclined to check out what you have to offer.

Take a look at this side by side comparison of a site that we, at Long Drive Agency, revamped for Berkeley Country Club in central California. While the overall layout of the page remained mostly the same, a brighter, more user-friendly design gives the site a more inviting feel that encourages users to explore the site in greater depth.

Slow and Steady Loses the Race

It’s best to be deliberate and methodical when you’re lining up a birdie putt, but that sort of approach doesn’t cut it on the web. Customers expect a clean and efficient site that provides them with the exact information that they are looking for regardless of the device that they are on.

With help from tech giants Amazon and Google, Long Drive Agency focuses on providing our clients with exactly that, building and maintaining a site that allows your customers to effortlessly explore your club’s website and learn about all the amazing things that your course has to offer. All of our sites are hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) , a cloud-based platform that provides unlimited bandwidth and storage. Additionally, all of our sites are compressed and optimized for faster load speeds through Google PageSpeed . Google uses this PageSpeed tool to rank sites based on their speed and performance.

Hitting the Links

If you have multiple links that navigate customers away from your site and onto other ones, you could be inadvertently fueling your own high bounce rate. When we are building out sites for our clients we make sure that we keep your potential clients on your site whenever possible. Make sure the links on your site are set to open in new windows rather than the same window. This will make it much easier for visitors to return to your site when they’re done with the links they click on, and it will prevent your visitors from falling down the rabbit hole that is the internet.

For more help with improving your golf course’s brand and marketing strategy, visit us at LongDriveAgency.com .

Tips to Modernize Your Country Club’s Brand

Thu, 25 Oct 2018 20:27:00 GMT

Is rebranding the first step toward a fresh start, or just a desperate attempt to keep a sinking ship afloat? It’s important to modernize your country club’s brand, but what’s the right way to do it?

If you’re the proprietor of a country club that’s struggling to attract younger demographics, you’ve probably wrestled with these questions quite a bit.

Golf is a game with a rich history that many see as one of its biggest strengths, but it’s important to adapt to changing times and tastes. Let’s explore some approaches to rebranding that stay faithful to everything your existing customers love about golf but that will also open up opportunities to build relationships with younger customers who can sustain your business for decades to come.

Connect with Millennials

What do young golfers love about the sport? The game has undergone plenty of change in recent years, and in many ways looks pretty different than it did in decades past. Today’s game is all about power, hard-hitting, and club technology, and those elements excite younger crowds.

Ways to attract these prospective members include focusing on digital marketing, refreshing your logo and aesthetic to match current trends, and working with influencers who move the needle with your target demographic.

Adapt to Changing Tastes

Just as millennials appreciate golf in a somewhat different way than previous generations, their tastes and expectations for the country-club experience tend to differ as well. Whereas older clientele often prefers classic, meat-and-potatoes dining options, and mass-produced domestic beers, younger people gravitate toward more experimental food choices and local craft beers, wines, and spirits.

You can play to the tastes of both crowds by crafting a diverse menu that has appealing options for all generations and tastes. If you offer something a customer likes, they generally won’t hold it against you if you also offer something they don’t like. Different strokes for different folks, right?

Organize & Bring it All Together

Perhaps the problem with your country club’s branding isn’t that it’s dated or uncool; maybe you’ve just never had a cohesive effort to make sure your branding is consistent and purposeful. If your country club is on the smaller, more exclusive side, or if it’s a local, family-run business that relies on tradition and legacy to keep customers flowing in, it’s possible you’ve never given that much thought to strategic branding. After all, you’re not exactly Google when it comes to the size and scope of your business, so what’s the point?

Be careful of falling into the trap of that line of thinking. Small businesses can establish strong, widely identifiable branding in much the same way that large corporations do, and it’s just as important. The “starter logo” that you went with when you first opened your doors may have had a scrappy, DIY appeal, but as you grow bigger, it’s time to make things a bit more coordinated and professional. To the right you’ll see the change we made in our logo, the simplification provides a clean and professional look that best represents our brand.

How Can You Reflect Your Mission and Values?

When you’re considering a rebrand for your country club, this is the big question to keep in mind. Above all, you want to make sure your branding is authentically you and gives customers an accurate representation of what their experience golfing or dining at your country club will be like. It’s great to keep apprised of current trends and hot aesthetics, but you have to stand out from the crowd, too. Don’t be afraid to take risks if you feel like those risks will help you turn heads rather than blend in.

Once you’ve settled on a great branding strategy for your country club, the final step is getting the word out! Once you’ve done that well, you can expect to see the benefits arrive in the form of a large, diverse customer base that will stand by you in the long term.

Be sure to check for more on LongDriveAgency.com if you need some help to create a winning rebrand and modernize your country club’s brand. And don’t forget to head to DigitalRange.com to get access to the tools to help create a winning digital presence and online brand!

How to Post a Job for Your Golf Course on Facebook

Thu, 18 Oct 2018 18:26:00 GMT

The golf industry, like many others, is a customer first business. Golf club members expect a certain level of quality when it comes to their interactions with club staff, whether it is the Pro Shop associate, cart barn attendees, or beverage cart attendees. A problem that many golf courses face with their part-time help is high turnover rates, with employees coming and going quite frequently it can be difficult to remain comfortably staffed while maintaining a high standard of quality service for your members. In this blog, we give you our top tips to keep in mind when you post a job to Facebook for your golf course, and a step-by-step guide you can follow to post your first job to Facebook for your golf course!

The ability to quickly and effectively find qualified candidates to bring on is an intricate part of maintaining the quality of service that your club has to offer, which is why we created this blog to walk you through how Facebook can help.

Facebook features a tool that allows businesses to create and publish job postings directly to your company’s page. The feature also allows job seekers to apply directly to the posting without having to leave the social network. With over 2.2 billion active users , Facebook is the perfect place to post and promote any job openings your club might have. Here are a few tips to help your job posting stand out and a step by step process to walk you through the job posting.

A Few Helpful Tips for when you Post a Job to Facebook for Your Golf Course

Start your post with a “Yes” question,

An easy tool often used to provide an additional element of persuasion is the use of “yes” questions. “Looking for a rewarding job in the golf industry?” By asking a question that is going to be greeted with an obvious “yes” gets the reader instantly interested in the question at hand.

Use of graphics and testimonials

Any that can make your company stand out on a Facebook feed can go along way. Use of graphics to fill the screen rather than long blocks of text can make your job posting stand out from the others. While adding more unique bits of information such an actual employee testimonial can humanize your company.

Use of proper titles

Use of proper position titles is an important part of the process, not only for added legitimacy but it also helps the candidates find you. Pro Shop associate, Member Relations Coordinator, Greens Keeper and so on help your posts stand out from the crowd and gives additional information for Facebook to use to ensure your post is seen by the golf community.

Step by step creation of a job

post using Facebook:

1. Create the Post

To create your job post, you’ll first need to access the “Jobs” tab at the top of your Page’s timeline. You should upload a photo or video, enter a job title and thoroughly describe the position you’re hoping to fill. You should also consider adding the job’s location and potential salary.

2. Customize It

Facebook allows you to customize how you would like to receive the job applications, either by email or through your Page’s messages inbox. If you prefer to receive the applications through email, scroll to the bottom of the page and enter your email address below ‘Receive applications by email.

3. Review It

Before you make this job post live, in the right column, you can click Desktop News Feed or Mobile News Feed to see what your job post will look like on both desktop computers and mobile devices. You’ll want to check and double check that all the information you entered is correct to ensure your post appears credible and mistake free.

4. Publish It

Take a deep breath, and click ‘Publish Job Post.’ But keep in mind that it will not be posted right away. Facebook must first verify the information to ensure the job posting and your company are legitimate. Instead, you’ll get a notification informing you that your job post is under review . After everything is approved, it will then be posted live on Facebook within 24 hours of approval.

Boosting Your Post

Once you’ve made your job post public on your page, there are a few steps you can take to boost your post so more potential applicants can see it . First, find the recent job posting and click ‘Boost Post.’ Under ‘Audience’, select ‘People you choose through targeting.’ Choose the ‘Edit’ option. Update your location, budget, and duration and then hit ‘Save.’ You should then confirm that the rest of the information fields are complete and click ‘Boost.’

If you would like assistance with online marketing, graphic design or consulting, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Long Drive Agency today!

4 Tips to Improve Writing Blogs for Your Country Club

Thu, 11 Oct 2018 17:13:00 GMT

Writing blogs for your country club, club newsletters, and other website content are great ways to engage with your members, to advertise and reflect your course’s brand, and to attract your target audience. Companies with blogs can have up to 434% more indexed pages on their websites than companies without blogs, and they receive 97% more links to their websites.

If you want to capitalize on the potential revenue, customers, and brand recognition that can come from providing engaging content on your club’s website, you need to make sure everything you write is purposeful and relevant. Here are a few tips for you to improve your writing and make sure you are providing the best possible content for your customers:

1) Provide Relevant Information

Knowing your target audience and what they find relevant and intriguing is the first step in creating successful content for your club’s blogs and other written content. Monitoring trends and what is being discussed around the golf industry is the easiest way to make sure your content is keeping up with the rest. However, simply mimicking what others are creating is not going to get you the spike in web traffic that you are looking for. Take a trending topic or relevant concept and put a unique spin on it, by doing so you are providing your readers with something that they cannot get somewhere else.

2) Keep Your Writing Concise

When it comes to website blurbs, blogs, or any other written material on your website, less can be more. Your readers will be less engaged if you have long-form paragraphs that take too long to read or are difficult to read on mobile devices. While traditional writing has its purpose, it is best that you keep your writing brief and focus on the quality of your content rather than the quantity.

Keep any paragraphs you write concise and try new forms of sharing information that is quick and easy to read. Use bullet points to share the most important information with your readers quickly. That way, they do not have to search through large chunks of writing to find the information they need. Many people skim blog posts when they are reading, so tailor your writing so that people can see important information first.

3) Don't Ignore Your Headline

The headlines you create for your website, articles, and blog posts should not be an afterthought. A compelling headline can draw customers to your website and build your search engine optimization (SEO). Write your headlines with SEO in mind, so you know that your website will stand out.

Your headlines should help your audience know exactly what to expect when they open your blog post or click on your page. Use keywords that will appeal to your audience, so they will be more likely to click on your webpage over your competitors’ web pages.

4) Proofread!

You can not overemphasize the importance of the proper use of spelling, grammar, and punctuation when you are producing any sort of content for your company. While rereading your work will normally catch the majority of errors made during the writing process, it is always smart to take a break from your work and return later to read over the work again with a clear mind and fresh eyes. Not only can this strategy help you find those smaller grammatical errors you may have missed early but it is a great way to get past the dreaded writer’s block. And finally to give you that extra boost of confidence that your writing is 100% accurate, online tools such as Grammarly can be used to help improve word choice, sentence structure, and many more writing errors that we otherwise might overlook.

Your content can play a major role in improving your digital marketing strategy. If your country club or golf course needs help developing a strategy for growth, contact Long Drive Agency .

Attracting More Women To Your Country Club

Tue, 09 Oct 2018 18:16:00 GMT

Of all the sports, golf is probably the most mired by tradition. Despite a rising millennial player base demanding change and innovation, golf is still haunted by its reputation as a monotonous, rule-obsessed game populated by old men. And it doesn’t take a Ph.D. to know that embracing change and diversity is the only way for a sport to survive the 21st century. So how can golf go about widening its roster and growing its player base? The answer is to attract more women to the sport of golf and your country club.

Although the number of women in golf has been increasing over time, they are still a reasonably untapped market. With 75% of the over one million golfers who use one of the popular tee time booking website, are men. If marketing tactics focused more on attracting women to the game, tee time bookings could grow by 47%. One study shows that golf’s global economy could be boosted by as much as $35 billion if more focus was put on marketing to women.

The LPGA has already taken a few steps in this direction by launching the #inviteHER campaign. #inviteHER launched in late August with the goal of growing awareness and participation among women in the world of golf. The campaign encourages existing golfers to reach out to friends and family with a simple invitation to give golf a try, whether they have experience with the sport or not. However, the initiative does not stop at an invitation, #inviteHER encourages clubs to include group lessons, free clinics, and providing networks to socialize and engage in all aspects of the golf community. Here are a few ways your club can join the initiative and help drive the sport of golf to new heights.

1) Organize Social Events

Events or outings geared toward new female golfers is a great way to introduce the sport and showcase what golf has to offer. Don’t take the easy way out and offer a “Ladies Night,” instead create events that are interesting, fun and highlight the values of women. Organizing social events for women to network is a good way for new golfers to asks for tips and advice from women who have experience with the sport and can tell them all the positives playing golf has to offer.

2) Encourage Women to Bring Their Friends

It is much easier to approach a new sport if you have someone by your side to show you the ropes. Encouraging your existing member to bring in their friends and family is a great way to grow the playing population and further instill a sense of community at your club.

3) Make it a family affair

Much like encouraging female golfers to bring a friend, encouraging them to bring their children will be a great way to capture a younger audience, as well. This step could be as easy as promoting a day where families can go to your club and receive golf lessons at a discounted rate . Playing golf alongside loved ones is a fun way to create lifelong memories.

4) Market Golf to Women

One problem golf is currently facing is the “Men’s Club” feel, golf marketing campaigns, for the most part, are only geared toward attracting men to the sport. The solution to the problem is far easier than one might think. Similar to creating multi-sided marketing campaigns that advertise to different demographics, strategies can be adjusted to market to men and women. Promoting female participation by using creative that illustrates women involvement in golf is an easy way to expand your marketing strategy.

5) Set the Stage for GROWTH

#inviteHER is much more than just getting someone out to a driving range to learn the basics, it is about growing the sport by encouraging, inspiring, and empowering a new wave of female golfers regardless of age. Doing so means providing a network that allows new golfers to meet new people, become a part of a community, and of course learn the game of golf. While setting up lesson programs and clinics are important for learning the technical skills behind the sport, connecting with the LPGA Women’s Network ensures that you are providing everything needed to ensure women get the most out of golf.

Using Social Media To Drive Sales In Your Country Clubs Pro Shop

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 19:56:00 GMT

With the consumer age raising faster than ever, the retail industry is being forced to adapt to keep pace with the ever-changing landscape. While there is still a place for the science behind the sales floor layout and visually pleasing merchandising, the digital age is changing the way consumers arrive at their final purchasing decision.

Here are a few helpful ways to drive your pro shop sales with the use of social media and Digital Range.

Use the brand ambassadors

Fortunately for us, brands such as Nike, Under Armour, Taylormade, and so on have already invested millions on millions in sponsorships with some of the most likable and popular players on the tour. Golf enthusiast pages have started to pop up around the internet and have managed to gain a lot of traction with thousands of followers, with the simple objective of talking golf and golf equipment. Basic posts that provide the follower with close up shots of new clubs, discussions on the latest trends in the equipment industry, and connecting the equipment to a popular tour player.

By using your club’s social media platforms to discuss equipment and players, your posts keep the Pro Shop’s merchandise fresh in the minds of your members which get them that much closer to buying that new tour level driver that the shop just started carrying.

Quick swing tips and how to’s

As some of our previous blogs have highlighted, micro-content is king and providing your followers with frequent quality content is key to driving views, clicks, and sales. Providing your social media followers with something more than just your run of the mill golf course pictures and generic information is a great way to drive customer interaction and increase your digital footprint.

Simple 30-45 second videos with your course pro explaining swing tips/drills, equipment information, and fitting techniques can give your club’s social media pages plenty of useful video content. In addition to providing the viewer with useful tips and tricks, it is easy to integrate information about what equipment and gear is available for sale by the pro shop.

Sell to your Members via forms

The majority of Pro Shop foot traffic is made up of Members and other customers running in and out to check-in for their tee time and maybe grab a new glove and a dozen golf balls for the next round. From a retail perspective, the short time spent inside does not allow for the visual marketing and merchandising strategies to fully take effect as customers do not spend much time working their way around the shop browsing your full inventory of merchandise. This is where the use of Range Forms can really change and enhance how your customers shop at your Pro Shop by introducing new ways to market to your clients on multiple platforms.

Digital Range Forms is an extremely versatile tool that can be used to boost the online presence of your Pro Shop in both social media ad campaigns and email blasts. These easy to use templates allow you to advertise and sell anything and everything your Pro Shop has to offer without the labor-intensive work of setting up an entire online marketplace. By attaching Range Forms to email blasts and social media ad campaigns you bring the Pro Shop to the customer. This process not only enhances your Members’ purchasing experience but simultaneously boosts your Club’s online presence in the process.

ADA Compliance for Golf Course Websites

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 16:44:00 GMT

UPDATED – 11/28/2018

Our agency has partnered with UserWay, a technology company that provides widgets that can be placed on most websites that will make the site meet ADA Compliance standards. This allows us to provide ADA Compliance for Golf Course Websites we provide for our clients.

“UserWay makes available an accessibility the UserWay Accessibility Widget that is powered by a dedicated accessibility server. The software allows the site to improve its compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0).”

More information can be found on their website – https://userway.org

Original Post

While walking out of the office one afternoon earlier this week, I received a call from an industry contact of mine who works for a large golf management company.

The conversation went something like this…

– Contact: “Hey Blake, I’ve got a question. The websites your company builds… are they ADA compliant? We’ve heard of some golf courses being targeted with lawsuits due to the fact their website is not ADA compliant…”

– Me: “Uhhhhh… Let me check into that and get back to you!” ????

To be 100% honest, I wasn’t sure if our websites did meet ADA standards or not. Not knowing the answer to this consumed my evening and I spent the rest of the night and the next morning diving deeper into this topic.

ADA compliance was something I have heard about a handful of times and read a few blogs about but it’s not something our agencies web development team really takes into factor when building out websites for our clients… at least until now!

What Does ADA Compliance Mean?

“ADA is short for the Americans with Disabilities Act , which became law in 1990. It prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life. The ADA, at least for Title III (private sector businesses), only applies to companies that employ 15 or more persons.”

“In January 2018, some new federal regulations will take effect. All federal institutions’ websites must meet AA compliance on all items in WCAG 2.0 by this time. We’ll get into what that means a little later.”

Source: https://hackernoon.com/ada-compliance-lawsuits-and-your-web-presence-797ef03cdef2

This topic is all the sudden becoming a bigger deal because the legal precedent is changing. And believe it or not, there are lawyers out there that are actively looking for a quick payday and seeking out golf courses and operators that do not meet ADA compliance standards and are suing them… and they’re winning!

What Types Of Businesses Need To Be Compliant?

This is certainly a bit of a gray area right now but from what I gathered, it’s any business considered a “public accommodation” and that employ 15 plus people (which are most golf properties).

Depending on how you interpret “Public accommodation”, I believe this would refer to B2C, retail, or any business the general public should be able to use, understand and access easily.

How Can You Make Your Golf Course Website ADA Compliant?

Simple! Just follow the set of 61 guidelines provided by WCAG 2.0

Chances are, your current website already meets a good handful of these requirements. And again, since it’s such a gray area right now and there are no official set of rules, there are only best practices and suggestions to go on.

There are three different levels of compliance – A, AA, or AAA. So at a minimum, you want to achieve an A level of compliance. According to the WCAG guidelines, this includes things such as:

Guideline
1.1 Text Alternatives: Provide text alternatives for any non-text content (images) so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language.
1.2 Time-based Media: Provide alternatives for time-based media.
1.3 Adaptable: Create content that can be presented in different ways (for example simpler layout) without losing information or structure.
1.4 Distinguishable: Make it easier for users to see and hear content including separating foreground from background.
2.1 Keyboard Accessible: Make all functionality available from a keyboard.
2.2 Enough Time: Provide users enough time to read and use the content.
2.3 Seizures: Don’t design content in a way that is known to cause seizures.
2.4 Navigable: Provide ways to help users navigate, find content, and determine where they are.

Bottom line, this is certainly something worth looking into and devising a plan on how to make sure your website meets the minimum standards. I’ve linked a handful of resources below that give more in-depth information about this topic.

While I am certainly no expert in this ADA compliance, I do have a solid understanding of how to look at a website and know the initial steps that can be taken to bring it up to standards so feel free to reach out via our live chat widget at the bottom right of this page if you have any questions at all!

HELPFUL LINKS:

WAVE is a good start, but can produce a lot of false positives
Search Engine Journal posted up a very informative article
Lighthouse can help generate a report on potential issues

Using Video in Your Country Clubs Marketing Plan!

Thu, 06 Sep 2018 19:13:00 GMT

An over-stated stat club managers should already know in a 2018 world is individuals (both young and old) are spending multiple hours every day browsing their social media profiles, reading blogs, listening to podcasts and watching video content.

Our way of consuming media has shifted to our mobile devices.

Ask yourself… how often do you see members around the club with their heads buried in their phone?

Most of us would say pretty damn often.

With this in mind, you should be asking yourself… “How can my Club take advantage of the attention shift and start capturing more attention?”

The answer is producing original video content.

Original video content is an extremely powerful tool for your country club to start utilizing to build a deeper relationship with current Members and start connecting with potential members.

Country clubs need to start adopting the mindset of becoming a media company. Let me say that again, your Country Club NEEDS to become a media company!

So what exactly does becoming a media company entail?

It means telling your clubs story through micro-content (short videos) easily distributed to your audience to capture attention. As humans, we inherently love to consume stories!

How most clubs communicate with their audience

Most of what I see at clubs now is they use 3 different ways to communicate with their members:

Through a monthly newsletter and flyers
Sending out mass emails to their membership promoting current events
Posting these same flyers on Facebook

While all of these are good methods of communication… it’s just simply not enough. Clubs need to elevate their communication strategy and start breaking through the noise to capture more attention! One way to do this is to start producing original video content.

I’ve had many of conversations with Club GM’s around the subject of video and a common theme is they don’t feel they have the resources or ability to produce video content (in a professional way) and I’m here to tell you… THAT’S COMPLETELY FALSE!

Video content on social is not meant to be the same quality as say a T.V. commercial would be. Social video is meant to be raw, unscripted and natural. So please don’t get caught up in trying to make it absolutely perfect, the key to getting started with video is to not overthink and just start!

Getting Started With Video At Your Country Club

ADVICE: I recommend country clubs start creating micro-content, short-form videos that tell stories.

Some examples would be:

Behind the scenes of improvements going on around the Club
Promoting upcoming events
Sharing Member stories
Create a talk-show
Interviews with staff to get to know them
Creating an overview of all your clubs amenities overview
Interview the heads of the different organizations in your Club

I always learn best and get more ideas when I see something visually so I wanted to share some of the micro video content we have helped one of our clients start creating. My hope is by sharing some real-world examples, this helps you get your creative juices flowing on some ideas you can implement at your club!

Something to note – all of the videos below (minus the Meet Our Members video) were shot by staff members on an iPhone. They uploaded the video clips and our creative team added some supporting text, background music, and logos to spice them up a bit.

Here is a look at how we helped one of our clients (shout out Eldorado Country Club ) implement video at their club!

This is a 2-minute video we shot that gave the testimonials of 3 different types of members! They use this video to send out to individuals who inquire about membership at the club as the first initial touchpoint in an automated email.

We also leveraged this video and by chopping it up into short 15 – 30 sec ads. We showed younger demos the younger couples testimony and older for demos, we targeted with the older couples video.

We ran these ads on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Super successful!

This was a club event promo video that was distributed to all members via email & social media.

The analytics on this video was nothing short of amazing!

Download a 2 page PDF with the analytics here >>

A video promoting a Kids focused event!

We boosted this video and targeted members with young children + included a link to drive traffic to a landing page to get Members to sign up to reserve their spot.

A short, fun 30-second video to promote an upcoming event, Lobster & Karaoke Night at the Club! ????????

Looking for a partner that can help your club produce videos on a monthly basis?

5 Country Club Digital Marketing Trends in 2018

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 13:00:00 GMT

We’re just over half way through 2018 so now is the perfect time to sit down and take a good hard look at some of the country club digital marketing trends we’ve seen this year.

It’s also a great time to look back at your country clubs digital marketing efforts, put some thought into marketing initiatives that did and didn’t work, and figure out how you can expand on this years wins to end 2018 off on a high note.

As the importance of shifting marketing strategies from traditional to a digital-first mentality grows, the total global marketing spend is set to reach a massive 1.3 trillion by 2020.

We’ve put together five digital marketing trends for country clubs that we feel you should be putting a lot of thought into and working these strategies into your clubs marketing plan to end 2018 off and before heading into 2019.

1) Start creating video at your country club – like yesterday!

The first major country club digital marketing trend in 2018 that we’ve seen is around video, but not just any video format, mobile-first video!

Social channels like Facebook and Instagram have already begun rewarding users 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.

Tip: Create video specific for the platform you plan on posting on. Video displays differently on Facebook/ YouTube vs. Instagram – 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!
Your club likely has multiple events every month so an easy way to put out video consistently is to create event recap videos. This is insanely simple to create and should take a beginner no more than 15 mins to create. Free mobile apps like Clips on the iPhone or Adobe Spark Video on iOS and Android make this easier than ever to put together quick videos and share them on your clubs social media pages.

2) Grow member relationships with personalizations

Personalization from a marketing standpoint is about more than the subject line in your email marketing campaigns . For country clubs, it’s all about knowing who your members are, how they use your club and engage with them accordingly. Analyzing your member’s behavior and then tailoring your marketing message to speak to those different segments!

In regards to perspective members that inquire about membership via your website, a great way to respond to them is via a personalized email automation. With an advanced email marketing platform, you can setup automations that will send personalized emails with information relevant to that individual! According to Club Managers Association of America, prospective members – expertly younger ones, significantly prefer their first contact by the club to be in the form on an e-mail rather than by phone or direct mail!

3) Mobile-first is no longer optional

You may ask: what is a “mobile-first” website? A mobile-first website is a device-specific version of your website that is built specifically for mobile devices. These types of websites offer your website visitors a completely custom experience.

Mobile is certainly no trend, and usage stats are only going to grow year over year. If your country club website doesn’t provide an amazing experience on mobile for members and potential members, this should be a major priority to get corrected.

Fact: In 2016, Google stated that for the first time in history, there was more searches on a mobile device than there were on desktop!

4) Short-form content dominates

Creating and sharing short content with your followers on social media is one of the best ways to engage them by offering content that is easily digestible and encourages sharing.

People are notorious for skimming content and headline reading, Attention spans are short and are getting shorter every day due to how noisy and crowded the internet has gotten. There will always be a place for the occasional long-form blog or video diving into a topic your audience is genuinely interested in learning more about, but the best way to capture attention and, in turn, new followers (possibly new leads) will be short-form content.

5) Facebook Ads for country club marketing

Facebook Ads are still grossly underpriced, and we’ve seen some amazing success from them when running lead generation campaigns ( check our case study out about it here ).

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.

To learn about how to get your country club started with Facebook Ads, check out this blog !

Long Drive Agency is the leader for country club and golf course marketing, we are committed to growing your properties digital presence. To find out more about how we can help your country club gain new member leads, contact us today !

Country Club Marketing with Facebook Ads

Tue, 14 Aug 2018 20:17:00 GMT

There are roughly 4,500 Country Clubs in the U.S., and all of them are unique in their own way. Some clubs have waiting lists longer than you can count with BIG initiation fees new members will gladly cut a check for, but, those clubs are few and far between. So, let’s talk about Country Club Marketing with Facebook Ads.

If you’re a country club GM or Membership Director and looking for a way to quickly generate more leads for potential new members…you need to be thinking about Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads are hands down the fastest and most cost-effective way to be advertising as of August 2018, especially if you’re trying to reach the younger millennial demo. (another good piece of content to check out is a blog I wrote on attracting millennials to your country club )

The content below is not merely going to rattle off statistics on why your country club should be running Facebook ads, but instead, give you the 4 steps and show you exactly how you can get started today by putting together your first campaign!

First things first, I want to run through some common misconceptions about Facebook ads that I hear fairly often…

“ We’ve tried Facebook Ads, and they didn’t work.. ”
I would chalk this up to user error, poor targeting or awful creative.

“ We’re a private club, and members don’t want to see us advertising to the general public. ”
While this can be true and some members hair might catch on fire if they saw their club advertising, this is not how the majority of the Club feels. Most Club members understand that the Club needs to be profitable in order to keep the doors

Country Club Marketing with Facebook Ads

Below are the 4 steps you need to get your first membership lead generation campaign started – TODAY !

1) Choose a really good image to use for your ads creative

Choose an image that encompasses what membership is like at your club and certainly stay away from all stock images! If you have an iPhone, you can easily take high-quality photos of your course ( and here are 7 tips for better golf course photos!! ). Ideally, you will want to create 2 different ads – one geared towards men and the other towards women.

Here is an example of 2 different creatives that we used for a campaign for a client:

If you would like our agency to spend a few minutes re-sizing or adjusting images, send them to me, and I would be happy to do this free of charge!

2) Come up with some creative copy to use in your ad (tip: use emojis to keep things personal)

I went into some of our best campaigns and pulled the exact copy we used. Feel free to copy and paste these into your ads!

“ Summer is here! Time to check out all the amenities and family-friendly activities our club has to offer! ???????????? ”

“ Make the Hole-In-One decision to experience [your city] top-rated country club. ????️‍⛳️ ”

“ Experience a Top Rated Country Club in [your city]! ⛳️ ”

Ad copy is crucial to getting someone to take action once he or she sees your ad. A few tips on how to compose a great ad copy:

Keep it simple and don’t get too wordy.
Choose a few emojis you can insert in the copy to make it fun and conversational
Have a CTA (call to action) and clearly identify what you want the potential lead to do next.

3) Determine where you’re going to send these new potential leads once they click on your ad

In a perfect world, you would have a dedicated landing page set up to send this traffic to. This landing page would only feature content that was very specific to the ad from which the individual came from.

Now I know this is not feasible for all clubs to have a dedicated landing page (let me know if you need one) but at BARE MINIMUM…do not just send traffic to the homepage of your website, at least send them to a page that has more information about membership and one that has a form the lead can fill out!

4) Here’s a step-by-step guide to start setting up your ad!

Step 1. Login to Ads Manager

You can access or create your Ads Manager account by visiting business.facebook.com/adsmanager

Step 2. Click the green “Create” button

Once you’re ready to create your first campaign you will click the green “Create” button which will let you start building out your Facebook Ad by choosing your objective.

Step 3. Choose your objective

To choose the right ad objective, answer the question “what’s the most important outcome I want from this ad?” It could be sales on your website, downloads of your app or increased brand awareness.

Step 4. Select your audience

Using what you know about the people you want to reach—like age, location or many other things—choose the demographics and behaviors that represent your audience.

Step 5. Decide where to run your ad

Next, choose where you want to run your ad, either on Facebook, Instagram or the apps and websites in Audience Network—or across them all. In this step, you can also choose to run ads on specific mobile devices.

Step 6. Set your budget

Enter your daily or lifetime budget and the time period during which you want your ads to run.

Step 7. Pick your format

You can choose to show a single image or video or multiple images and videos in your ad. Or you can choose to create a slideshow ad or Canvas ad.

Step 8. Place your order!

Once you submit your ad, it goes to our ad auction which helps get it to the right people.

What’s next?

Once your ad starts running, you can begin to track performance and edit your campaign in Facebook Ads Manager, Power Editor or Business Manager. Within those tools, you can see if one version of your ad is working better than another, or if your ad isn’t being delivered efficiently, and make adjustments accordingly.

If you want to get fancy and take the campaign to the next level…I would highly suggest retargeting ads.

What are retargeting ads? Great question!

Simply put, retargeting is showing ads to individuals that have taken a particular action. So for the purpose of this blog, it would be great to show ads to individuals that have clicked on your ad, but did NOT convert by filling out a contact form?

You might be asking, why would I want to show MORE ads to someone that didn’t convert the first time around?

The answer is because people get insanely busy and are easily distracted!

The fact that they clicked on your ad on the first go-around does show intent, so spending a few more dollars on them in the next few weeks to grab their attention and get them back to the landing page is money well spent!

If you have any questions at all about how Facebook ads can help your country club get more new membership leads, feel free to reach out directly – blake@longdriveagency.com

Instagram Highlights Stories on Your Profile

Fri, 08 Dec 2017 21:47:00 GMT

If your reason for not using Instagram Stories is because they disappear, it is no longer valid. Instagram's latest release will now allow you to highlight your Instagram Stories on your profile – titled Instagram Highlights

After only a little over a year, Instagram Stories now has an increasing 300 million daily active users. That is nearly double the amount that the “stories” pioneer, Snapchat, has.

The Instagram release on December 5th removed the excuse of not using the Stories feature because of the disappearing content by allowing you to now add them to your profile.

Stories posted will be saved in the new archive feature (released in the same update), from that you are now able to create Highlights – or a series of past stories and add to them over time with new stories. These Highlights never expire, and as far as we know, there is no limit to the number you can add.

In the past, if you ever wanted to reshare an Instagram Story you would have had to save it to your camera roll, before it expired, and then repost it as a new story.

Instagram Highlights is an intriguing change for the platform and one of the first big differentiators from (debatably) its most significant competitor – Snapchat.
We all may be witnessing the beginning of the end for expiring content.

So, how can your country club utilize the new Instagram Highlights feature?

What about creating a stories highlight all around tennis, so when someone wants to see what it is like to play tennis at the club, they can see a series of stories that highlight the best parts.

You could even do a stories highlight that is about tips to perfect your swing when on the course, which will make you more valuable to users and a resource to come back to!

The ideas are endless for how your country club can utilize Instagram Highlights, but regardless of how you think you can use it, you need to be using it.

Marketing for End-Of-Year Sales

Mon, 04 Dec 2017 14:30:00 GMT

The holiday season is one of the busiest times of years for a lot of small businesses. Many will use this time to look back at the past year, begin planning for the new year, and of course complete any goals for their business! Now is the time to emphasize any marketing for end of year sales you are doing.

You still have time to hit your sale goals for the year, and with the right marketing strategy, it isn’t all that hard!

These are our top ways to help your small business have a successful end-of-year sale!

1) Know Your Customers

In 2017 we saw a big push for businesses to provide a more personalized experience to customers.

Knowing your customers will allow you to provide a personalized sale that will peak their interests and ultimately get them buying.

The most accurate way to accomplish this is by going through your sales history and figuring out what is sold the most. That will let you target your customers based on what they care about most.

With that information, you are now able to do two different strategies depending on your business model.

Option 1 – Run a sale for that product
(i.e., 40% of your sales were for product A, offer 10% off product A)

Option 2 – Run a sale that complements that product
(i.e., 40% of your sales were for product A which goes well with product B, offer 15% off product B)

2. Utilize Your Customer List

Just about every small business will have a customer list that they have built up over the last year. Now is the time to benefit from it.

If you have been segmenting your list like we would recommend, send out an email campaign that is personalized based on their purchase history.

Consider spending the time to find out which customers have shopped with you repeatedly over the year and send them a personal and custom email thanking them. Gratitude goes a long way.

3) Create Gift Guides

Gift guides are one of the simplest and most effective things that any small business can do to help with marketing for end-of-year sales, yet so many don’t do it.

You are literally getting to tell them exactly what they want to buy, and a lot of them will listen because they need help knowing what it is they need!

How many times have you needed help buying a present for someone and googled “what do guys like for Christmas?”

88% of you (internet users) would preferably use the internet to find gift information than ask an employee at a store.

4) Facebook Ads

Use that list we talked about earlier to create a custom audience in the Facebook Ads Manager platform and run some Facebook Ad campaigns to your previous customers.

It is 10x more likely to sell again, or to upsell, to an already satisfied customer.

5) Do something special

The reason small businesses can continue to open and grow is that if done right, your customers become loyal.

Loyalty doesn’t just happen, and it can not be bought, many businesses have tried and failed. In an era where even a car can be purchased online from your bed, we should be extra grateful that anyone goes to a brick and mortar business anymore.

Like we mentioned earlier, it is important to thank those customers who have continued to support your small business over the year.

The best marketing strategy we could give you is this: care.

4 Tips to Utilize Facebook for Your Country Club

Mon, 20 Nov 2017 15:32:00 GMT

So you’ve created a page on Facebook for your country club but aren’t sure what to do next. Or maybe, you’ve had a Facebook for your country club for some time but don’t feel like you’re getting much out of it.

Well, fret no more! We’re here to help!

Take a look at out are four tips to help you utilize Facebook for your country club!

1) Create Events

Earlier this month we created a detailed post on how to create a successful Facebook event for your country club.

Creating a Facebook Event is so much more valuable for your digital marketing efforts than just posting about an upcoming event. It lets people see who else is attending or even considering attending with the “interested” option. It creates a space for people to discuss the event, ask questions and also post pictures afterward. And that’s just a few of the benefits of creating a Facebook Event versus just a post on your page.

2) Post Club Photos

Statistics show that Facebook posts with images perform 2.3x better than those without them.

High-quality, engaging images are extremely powerful when it comes to social media. They can be taken quickly and efficiently with a smartphone or camera. The iPhone today has one of the best capturing quality we have ever seen, so there is no excuse not to be taking photos regularly at your country club.

If you just can’t decide what kind of photos to post, here are a few ideas:

Behind The Scenes
Social media users love seeing what goes on behind closed doors. It makes them feel more connected to your club and gives them a reason to follow you on social media.
Merchandise Images
Show the latest products to hit the shelves in your pro shop or some of the most popular items that continue to be best-sellers. You can even invite members to share their images of something they recently purchased from your pro shop.
Course Photos
On the next beautiful, sunny day head out to the course and take some pictures . Sunset and sunrise course photos get the best engagement on social channels like Facebook and Instagram. Today’s smartphones are so advanced that if the lighting is good they often look professional.

3) Encourage Followers to Engage

So you’ve chosen a great photo, but now you’re stuck trying to come up with a caption to go with it.

The best way to get the most out of each post is to make sure your words encourage your followers to engage with your posts. You can do that by asking questions that relate to your image or the theme of the post. If members tag your club in their posts, share it to your page to encourage more tagging and posting. This is great for visibility and to get the word out about your club.

If followers comment on your posts or ask questions, be sure to engage with them and respond as quickly as you can.

4) Scope Out the Competition

When you’re stumped for ideas, check out your competitor’s pages to see what kind of things they’re posting.

Obviously, you shouldn’t take things from their page to post on yours, but you can get an idea of what kind of content their audience is responding to. Look at big clubs nationwide and smaller clubs locally with a big following. Are they sharing lots of how-to or educational videos? Do they have a steady stream of events each month being promoted on their page?

Looking at which of their content is getting a lot of engagement and which of their content is falling flat is a great way to help you plan your own social media strategy.

Struggling with your digital transformation?

Social Media Stats for Golf Courses to Know for 2018

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 18:43:00 GMT

With 2017 coming to an end, we like to take a look at some of the social media stats during the year to see how we can adapt our own social media strategy, as well as our clients, heading into 2018. 2017 had some amazing new releases for country clubs and golf courses alike to use to grow their brands; from the growth of Instagram to the many new features of Instagram Stories , as well as Facebook allowing ways to create an even better facebook event for your country club and understanding how they rank your posts .

We talked about some innovative things this year as well for your country club using social media – like using Snapchat and ways you can attract millennials to your club , but now we wanted to give you the straight-to-the-point stats that you need to know heading into the new year!

General Social Media Stats for Golf Course GM's

1. Online adults ages 18-34 are most likely follow a brand via social networking (Source: MarketingSherpa.com )

2. 71% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand is likely to recommend it to others (Source: GetAmbassador.com )

3. Visual content is more than 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content (Source: HubSpot.com )

4. Almost 80% of time spent on social media platforms happens on mobile (Source: MarketingLand.com )

5. 59% of Americans with social media accounts think that customer service through social media has made it easier to get questions answered (Source: SlideShare.net )

Facebook Social Media Stats

1. The best time to post on Facebook is 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday- other optimal times include 12:00–1:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays and 1:00–4:00 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. (Source: HubSpot.com )

2. Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images (Source: BuzzSumo.com )

3. 75% of male internet users are on Facebook as well as 83% of female internet users and log in daily (Source: PEWInternet.org )

4. 68% of ALL U.S. adults are on Facebook (Source: PEWInternet.org )

5. 88% of 18 – 29-year-olds are on Facebook (Source: PEWInternet.org )

6. 79% of 30 – 49-year-olds are on Facebook (Source: PEWInternet.org )

7. 61% of 50 – 64-year-olds are on Facebook (Source: PEWInternet.org )

8. 79% of all US internet users are active on Facebook (Source: PEWInternet.org )

9. 100 million hours of video content are watched on Facebook daily (Source: Facebook.com )

Instagram Social Media Stats

1. 32% of internet users (28% of all U.S. adults) use Instagram (Source: PEWInternet.org )

2. The majority of Instagram users are between 18-29 years old, about six-in-ten online adults (Source: PEWInternet.org )

3. 90% of Instagram users are younger than 35 years old (Source: ScienceDaily.com )

4. 26% of Instagram users make more than $75,000 per year (Source: HubSpot.com )

5. 51% of Instagram users access the platform daily, and 35% say they look at the platform several times per day (Source: WordStream.com )

6. Posts tagged with a location have a 79% higher engagement rate (Source: SimplyMeasured.com )

7. 53% of Instagram users follow brands (Source: GlobalWebIndex.net )

8. Brands on Instagram are seeing a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21% (which is 58 times higher than on Facebook and 120 times higher than on Twitter) (Source: Hootsuite.com )

Twitter Social Media Stats

1. 81% of millennials check Twitter at least once per day. (Source: PEWInternet.org )

2. Tweets With Images Get 18% More Clicks, 89% More Favorites, And 150% More Retweets (Source: AdWeek.com )

3. Link clicks account for 92% of all user interaction with tweets (Source: HubSpot.com )

Snapchat Social Media Stats

1. Snapchat reaches 41% of 18 to 34-year-olds in the US (Source: Snapchat.com )

2. On average users spend 30+ minutes on Snapchat daily (Source: OmnicoreAgency.com )

3. 173 million Daily Active Snapchat Users (Source: OmnicoreAgency.com )

4. 18% of US Social Media users use Snapchat (Source: OmnicoreAgency.com )

10 Ways to Create a Successful Facebook Event for Your Country Club

Wed, 08 Nov 2017 19:54:00 GMT

If you aren’t creating a Facebook Event for your country club, you’re going to be blown away by what a difference it can make.

Here are our top 10 tips to get you started planning your clubs next event using Facebook Events.

1) Add the Facebook Event for your country club early

First and foremost, planning is essential in maximizing reach for your event. People need time to plan, and research shows that seeing things 2-4 times helps people remember them better.

If you show your members the event four times in one week, all you’ll do is annoy them. Try to give yourself at least a month to promote your Facebook event gradually.

2) Give ALL the Information

If your audience has to go anywhere else besides the Facebook event to find out more information, you’re likely to lose a percentage of them right off the bat. The only exception for this is if you need to link to a website for purchasing tickets to the event, or to submit an RSVP form.

Give all the details of the event in an organized format in the description. Use headings and separate chunks of information with line spaces to make it easy to read and digest.

3) Have the Right Size Cover Image

This is one of the most often overlooked parts of creating a Facebook event, and it’s one of the most important.

The cover image for your event is an excellent opportunity to give people just enough information to pull them in.

Sub-par graphic design has long plagued the private club industry. This is often due to not having the right tools/ software to create high-quality imagery. Our team has been hard at work creating a tool which will be released in early 2018 that will allow users to create extremely high-quality graphics in minutes by starting with pre-designed templates.

Another awesome feature is the ability to resize the graphic with the click of a button for other specific sizing formats – so with the click of a button, you can have graphics sized for Facebook Events, Facebook posts, Instagram stories, Instagram posts, and everything in between!

We’re super excited to release this tool to the private club community. The feedback we’ve received from our beta testers has been the tool saves them hours every week AND allows them to produce higher quality designs!

Regardless of how you make the graphics though – make sure to include the date, time, and your club’s logo with a high-quality image as the background in the cover image.

4) Optimize for Facebook

There are a few specific things you can do when creating an event to take advantage of Facebook’s resources.

The first is to make sure that a location is added to the event. When creating the event start typing in your club’s name in the ‘Location’ option and when it comes up, select it.

Another way to optimize your event is to use keywords for the tags tab. Use words that your members would likely list as interests on their profiles (i.e., tennis, golf, swimming, etc.) Facebook uses these tags to recommend events to people whose interests match your tags.

5) Let People Get Involved

When you create the event, you will be given the option only to let you, the host, post to the event wall. By not selecting this option, you give the public the opportunity to ask questions, post images and videos and even network with other people who may be thinking about going right on the event wall.

It’s a great way to interact with potential and current members whom may be interested in coming to the event.

6) Cross Promote

Using the link to your Facebook event, spread the word on other social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat.

For YouTube, you could create a quick promotional video using a simple software like Animoto, and in the description of the video on YouTube, you can place the link to the Facebook event. Then, you can share the video on your country club’s Facebook page and in the Facebook Event itself.

Snapchat now lets you add a location and links to your stories so you can promote your event within Snapchat, too. When someone goes to the map on Snapchat, they can view the locations story and see your event. If you link the Facebook Event to the image (or video), you upload they can swipe up and view that event right there!

For Instagram , you can include the link in your story as well as placing it in your country clubs profile for the weeks leading up to it. Be sure to make a few Instagram posts that tell people they can find the link to the event in your profile. Also, make sure to utilize Instagram Stories for the days leading up to the event to show preparation and what to expect!

Another place to share the event link is on your website and in your email newsletters that you send to your members. These are easy ways to directly promote the event to where your members are looking for information on your club and upcoming events.

7) Stay Active in the Event

Solely creating an eye-catching, informative event on Facebook and then walking away just isn’t enough anymore.

You have to tend it like a garden.

Stay active posting in the Facebook event with updates, reminders and even tips or tricks for making the most of the day. Share the event on your club’s Facebook page once a week or so to remind those who were interested and show people who may not have seen it the first time you posted it.

8) Utilize Facebook Ads

After you’ve reached your main members, it may be time to consider running some Facebook ads to reach more people and increase attendance at your event.

We understand country clubs may not want to invite non-members to the events, assuming it is a private event only for members. If that is the case, consider uploading your member list as a custom audience and individually target the ads to them.

Just like you can boost posts on your page, you can also promote events. Choose your target audience and your budget, then click boost and you’re all set.

9) Create Content Around It

Content is still king in the world of digital marketing.

Blogs and videos are by far two of the most valuable content sources today. Creating quick videos is easy with the resources listed earlier when we discussed cross-promoting on YouTube.

You can also write blog posts about past events, how to make the most of this event and on any topic that relates to the event at all. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy; it could be as straightforward as a photo gallery or a video that recaps the event!

Content like this works to boost every aspect of your digital marketing efforts. You can share it in the event, on your club’s social media pages, on your website, and in your email campaigns to members.

Blogs are also a great way to help boost your SEO!

10) Post Recaps

Remember that content you created to help promote your event?

Don’t forget to create just as much, if not more, astounding content DURING the event .

Take tons of photos and videos, or hire someone to do it for you. Use your next email newsletter to show off how well the event went, write a blog post about the highlights of the event and post photos and videos on your social pages . You can even save some of them to use later as content for social and email when you’re running low on ideas.

And look, we get that there is a lot you can (and should) be doing to help grow your attendance at events. We are always here to help! We love to help country clubs and golf courses grow, so if you would like to get someone to make sure it is being done RIGHT, feel free to contact us today !

6 Simple Steps to Get Started with Instagram at Your Country Club

Wed, 01 Nov 2017 20:59:00 GMT

Getting started with Instagram can be a confusing process.

The platform is not all that easy to learn, and as they continue to release new features what seems like every other day, it is easy for your country club to put off getting on it. However, it is a pretty significant platform to be on!

We went ahead, with some help from Buffer, and through this 6 step guide together for any country club GM to follow to get started with Instagram.

So without further ado, let’s dive into it!

1) Set Up your account and profile

If you have not downloaded the Instagram app, you can grab it from the App Store , Google Play Store , or Microsoft Store .

When you create your Instagram account on the mobile app, the app will guide you through a few basic steps for getting set up. Here are two things to take note of:

1. Profile Photo

Your Instagram profile photo will be displayed as a circle in peoples feeds.

So, if you are using your clubs logo, be sure it is in the center of the image you upload, this way it will still appear clearly once Instagram resizes the image. Also, since your profile image will end up looking relatively small in the app, I’d recommend using a more prominent logo or symbol of your club — rather than a logo with lots of text in it.

2. Profile Information

Instagram's app does not prompt you to fill out the profile information for your country club, but it is important to do it regardless!
To fill out your profile information, go to your profile in the app and tap on “Edit Profile.” The two fields to fill out is your country clubs website and a short bio.

If you decide to change your username (i.e., @username), this is where you can change it, but once you determine what it is, we HIGHLY encourage you to leave it like that. Your username will is reflected in your profile URL, so any links you put out would also have to be changed.

Congrats! Just like that, you have set up your Instagram account!

Now let’s get to using the app!

2) Post a photo or video

When you are ready to post a picture or video, just hit the “+” icon at the bottom.

Instagram will show you the most recent photos in your photo library. You can also choose to take a new photo or video by tapping on “Photo” or “Video.”

Then just select your media or take the image/video.

Here are a few tips for creating the content:

If you are choosing photos from your library, you can upload your photo as a portrait or landscape. Select your preferred photo and tap on the icon with two arrows in the lower-left corner of the preview.

You can then move and zoom the photo to adjust how you want it to fit within the frame.

You can also upload up to 10 photos and videos into a single Instagram post. Tap on the icon with two overlapping squares in the lower-right corner of the preview and select your media. These are called “Collections” and are great to upload photos from recent events at your country club!

When you are taking a new video in Instagram, press and hold the record button to start recording your video.

If you want to film a few different things, you can let go of the button, point your phone camera at something else, and press and hold the record button again to continue with the recording.

And of course, some tips on editing and uploading your content:

Once you have selected your media for your post, you can add a filter or edit its orientation, brightness, contrast, and more. When your media is ready to go, just tap “Next” to fill out your post details.

Write a caption: Your caption appears just below your media when your post is published. You can mention another Instagram account (i.e., @username) and add hashtags (i.e., #hashtags) here.
Accounts that you mention will receive a notification about it, and your post will appear when someone searches for the hashtags you used.

Tag People: If you are posting a photo or a collection of photos, you can tag multiple Instagram accounts in each photo.
The accounts you tag will also receive a notification about it.

Add Location: If your media is a photo or video of a location, you could add a location tag to your post.
Your post will appear when someone searches for posts in that specific location.

Social shares: If you have connected other social media profiles to your Instagram account, you can easily share your posts on those profiles by toggling the switch.

Here’s the big moment…once your post is ready, tap “Share, ” and Instagram will publish your post.

Your post will appear in the feed of everyone who follows you.

If you have been following the steps, you have just posted your first Instagram post! Awesome!

One of the best practices for growing an Instagram account is to post consistently. When studying 55 brands on Instagram, Union Metrics found that some brands lost followers when they didn’t post consistently.

3) Use Instagram stories

More than 250 million people post Instagram stories every day.

Instagram stories are a new content format on Instagram. They are photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. Verified accounts can add a link to their Instagram stories to drive people to their preferred website.

Unlike your country clubs Instagram posts that are in news feeds, Instagram stories do not appear on your profile gallery or your followers’ feed. They are behind your profile photo on a separate feed at the top of the news feed.

To post an Instagram story, just swipe right on your Instagram feed. You’ll be brought to the camera mode where you can take a photo or video or upload a media taken in the last 24 hours. Once you have taken or selected a photo, you can add stickers (including hashtag and location tag stickers), draw, and add text.

Here are 3 of our favorite ways to use Instagram Stories:

Promote upcoming events
Talk about specials in the grille
Show people behind-the-scenes at your country club

5) Start commenting on posts

Social media isn’t only about publishing. It’s also about engaging.

To comment on a post, tap on the speech bubble icon below the photo or video. You can either leave a new comment or reply to an existing comment.

When your followers comment on your photos (yay!), such as leaving a remark or asking you a question about your country club, it’s a good practice to reply them as soon as possible to show that you’re listening to them on social media.

Sprout Social found that 70 percent of the people interviewed are more likely to use a brand’s product or service when the brand responds to them on social. When the brand doesn’t respond, 30 percent of them will go to a competitor instead.

6) Make your profile into a business account

Okay, time to get a little more advanced.

Since this is not your account and is for your country club, we recommend converting your Instagram profile to a business profile. With a business profile, you get to add additional information about your business on your profile and promote your Instagram posts.

All you need to convert your profile to a business profile is a Facebook Page.

Here’s how to do it:

Go to your profile on the mobile app and tap on the gear icon
Tap on “Switch to Business Profile”
Select the Facebook Page that you want to be associated with your Instagram account
Fill out the country clubs email address, phone number, and postal address
Tap “Done”

For more Instagram tools, check out Buffer’s ultimate list of 30+ free Instagram tools .

Understanding The Facebook Algorithm for Your Golf Course

Wed, 25 Oct 2017 18:18:00 GMT

Facebook (and social media in general!) can be a confusing place for country clubs and golf courses and it makes sense why. Much like Google, Facebook’s algorithm is always changing and adjusting to the content being put out.

Here is a short breakdown on some of the main things that Facebooks News Feed algorithm looks at when showing love to a post!

What It Loves

Posts with high engagement (lots of likes, comments, and shares)
Posts that receive a high volume of engagement in a short period of time
Posts that receive a high volume of reactions (love, haha, wow, sad, and angry)
Posts with links (ideally ones that stay on Facebook)
Post types that people are interacting with overtime/often
Videos uploaded directly to Facebook that receives a large number of views or extended viewing duration
Posts that are timely or reference a trending topic
Posts from Pages with a complete profile (the about section, website, cover photo, profile photo, etc.)

Things Not To Do

Text-only status’
Clickbait
Like-baiting
Posts that include spammy links
Frequently circulated content and repeated posts
Posts that are frequently hidden or reported by users (a sign of low quality)
Posts that ask for Likes, comments, or shares
Posts with unusual engagement patterns
Overly promotional content from Pages — pushing people to buy an app or service, pushing people to enter a contest or sweepstakes, posts that reuse the same text from ads

For other Social Media Tips, check out these awesome blogs below!

From LDA: 6 Ways Golf Courses Can Use Social Media

From LDA: Using Instagram Stories at Your Country Club

6 Ways to Use Social Media for Golf Courses

Mon, 11 Sep 2017 19:07:00 GMT

Social media is here to stay. As much as you’d like to, you can’t just ignore it and hope it will go away if you want to be successful both now and in the future. It can be challenging for country clubs and golf courses to figure out exactly how to effectively use social media marketing to reach their audience, so this blog is meant to break down exactly how to use social media for golf courses!

Here are 6 ways you can start building your social presence today:

1) Engage

With more than 1.1 billion users, it’s now possible to reach and connect with people from all walks of life, especially golfers. Local community groups, local golf-related groups, and local business pages are a great way to reach out and connect with your community and get more people following you on social media.

▪ Local Community Groups

Regardless of where you live, there are social media accounts set up to engage your local community. In my town, “Chino Hills Connections” is a go-to resource for members of our community. Be sure to engage in local discussions to raise the profile of your social media pages. You can also share events and updates from your business page into the groups. Just be sure to check with each groups’ rules before posting any sales and ads.

▪ Local Golf-Related Groups

You may have seen golf trick shot videos, golf equipment review sites and golf course aficionado social media posts all over the internet. Many of these are shared in Facebook groups that revolve around golf topics. Do a quick search on Facebook to find some that are relevant to your consumer base and start joining them. Just like with the community groups, be sure to read the rules before posting and sharing content from your business page.

Quick Takeaway: This is a great way to find the latest content related to the industry and you can share their content within your own community!

▪ Local Business Pages

Local businesses are a great resource for golf courses to reach out to. Not only are they great prospects for events and tournaments at your golf course, but the people that visit those pages are likely people in your community.

Quick Takeaway: Set up 10 to 30 minutes towards the end of each day to get on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and any other social platforms you’re using and respond (thoughtfully) to people who have engaged with your content and in other local groups.

2) Have Fun with Contests

Sweepstakes, contests, and giveaways have proven time and time again to be very effective social media marketing tactics for engaging an audience. Many would consider a social media contest to be one of the best golf course marketing ideas out there as it will create awareness, provide you with an opportunity to collect lead information, generate customer referrals, foster brand loyalty and much more.

As a best practice, select a prize for your contest that is relevant to your brand and enticing enough to encourage participation.

Quick Takeaway: Try running a contest offering a free round of golf or a discount at the golf shop to get people excited and engaged.

3) Build Your Brand

People love checking-in on social media at various destinations and offering their opinions on the venue. By encouraging your customers to discuss your golf course on social media, you’re opening up the door for them to talk about how wonderful your golf course is.

Sometimes there is no greater way to sell your products and services than your customers!

Use your brand advocates to your advantage!

Quick Takeaway: Start, use and promote a club-specific hashtag. Make sure it’s specific to your club and isn’t already used. Use the hashtag on all your content and post around the club to encourage everyone to use it.

4) Exclusive Contents

Give your audience a view of your golf course from behind-the-scenes that they can’t get anywhere else. A lot goes into making sure your customers have an amazing experience when visiting your golf course and showing them some of your hard work can help them appreciate their experience more.

Social media is a great way to share images that give your fans a behind-the-scenes look at your business and help them feel more connected.

Instagram is the perfect social media platform for sharing these sneak peeks as the site provides you with a number of filters and editing tools to optimize the quality of your photos.

If you need help taking quality photos of your course, check out the 7 tips for better golf course photography using your iPhone blog by Blake Davis !

Snapchat is also perfect for behind-the-scenes content that doesn’t really need any filtering (i.e. at the bar, around the course, etc…)

Quick Takeaway: The second you get to the club tomorrow, go on the course, snap a pic and post it up to Instagram, Facebook and any other social channels you’re using. The key is to just get started!

5) On Course Engagement

The easiest way to get followers on social media and increase engagement from members is to encourage your golfers to follow you with on-course promotions. Some ways you can create on-course promotions to get golfers to follow you on social media are:

▪ Clear Signage

Include signs on your course, in the clubhouse and in the golf shop that tell your golfers where to find you on social media.

▪ Selfie Spot

Identify a popular picture taking spot on your golf course and include signage letting your golfers know this is a great spot to take a photo to share on social media. They will likely follow and share their experience at your course with their friends too.

▪ At the Point-of-Sale

Train your staff to let your golfers know to follow you on your social media channels for special offers, updates and course conditions.

▪ Include a Scrolling Feed

Use a scrolling feed to show your golfers what you’re posting and what your golfers are posting on social media in your shop or clubhouse.

Quick Takeaway: Start brainstorming and creating different signs/promo material to use. Sometimes you may have to try a few variations to see which works best for your club.

6) And Lastly, GET VISUAL!

Text alone is dead. Facebooks algorithms killed it a long time ago.

Visual content draws the viewers into the post and, as a result, gets higher engagement. Golfers are twice as likely to comment on a post that has a picture or video than a post with just text. Visual content can be in the form of photos or videos.

Some ideas include:

▪ A picture of a ball mark on one of our greens before we ask the question.

▪ A picture of one of our golf carts next to the clubhouse.

▪ An aerial video of the 167-yard 12th hole at your golf course.

Quick Takeaway: Don’t waste time with text only posts on Facebook and get in the habit of posting photos with anything and everything! Apps like Canva help you create custom graphics that even a beginner can master and can help tremendously with this problem.

Using Snapchat at Your Golf Course

Mon, 11 Sep 2017 18:30:00 GMT

A large majority of businesses are not fully embracing the current state of marketing as it exists today. They’re leaving customers, opportunities, growth, relevance, and money on the table because of their unwillingness to adapt and try new things! The best place to reach your audience is where they’re already communicating.

If you have an audience under the age of 30 – they’re on Snapchat.

Something we hear often from customers are “how many platforms there are?” and “do I have to be on all of them?” The short answer, yes, but only if you can be effective on each network.

So what is Snapchat?

Snapchat is an app (for iOS & Android) that allows users to share pictures, videos, and text that disappear after a selected duration of time. The appeal of Snapchat for businesses is how quickly you can communicate with users and the ability for a longer narrative via “Stories.”

Why use Snapchat?

Snapchat holds immense opportunity for business marketing because it has yet to be saturated by ads and sales pitches in the way that so many other social platforms have. Connecting with your future consumers and current customers in a casual, down-to-earth way is the key when it comes to this platform. It can add authenticity to your brand and provide valuable resources for your audience.

Here are just a few statistics to help you see exactly what opportunities you’re missing out on by not utilizing Snapchat:

• 110 Million active daily users

• Surpassed Twitter & Pinterest in active users

• 10+ Billion daily video views

• 71% of users prefer Snapchat messaging to any other form of messaging

How can a golf course use Snapchat effectively?

What is so wonderful about Snapchat (and all the platforms for that matter) is the ability to connect you with your members on a much more personal level – showcase that authenticity that consumers are longing for from brands. The ‘Snapchat Generation’ demands more transparency and being an early adopter on an emerging platform allows you to act first and garner more attention. Here are a few ways to use Snapchat for your club or course:

• Send impromptu discount/coupon codes

• Show behind-the-scenes action

• Talk about new merchandise/products

• Review equipment

• Quick golf tips

• Introduce new employees

• Course conditions

The sense of urgency that Snapchat provides is something we encourage businesses to tap into. Your customers pay closer attention because they don’t want to miss out on any deals, news, updates or information (provided that you produce content they’re interested in). The information on Snapchat doesn’t live on forever like other platforms, so the experience feels more real, authentic and exclusive. Your customers are sharing their experiences with you on a more personal level – making interactions more intimate. The overall objective of any marketing strategy is to connect with the customer and build brand loyalty – all in an effort for them to use and recommend your services more frequently by becoming brand ambassadors. We think Snapchat is a wonderful tool for businesses to help them accomplish just that.

Here are few ideas to let your customers know that you’re on Snapchat:

• Add your snapchat username to the “about” section of your other social accounts.

• Use your other accounts update followers that you’re now on Snapchat.

• Use other platforms to “tease” content that is only available via your Snapchat.

• Ask customers to do a “Snapchat Takeover” so that you can leverage their followers.

• Update your website with the Snapchat icon & information.

• Write a blog article or include in your newsletter what you’ll be doing with Snapchat.

7 Tips for Email Marketing for Golf Courses

Mon, 11 Sep 2017 17:49:00 GMT

As golf courses are (finally) starting to understand 3rd party tee time sites are actually bad for business, it’s extremely important to start building your customer email list!

Why?

Because a strong email marketing strategy will no doubt bring more golfers to your course and increase your course’s bottom line.

The very first thing to consider is to make sure you’re using a good email marketing platform. There are a ton out there, so find one that offers pre-designed templates and most importantly converts well to mobile devices. Recent statistics from Litmus say 54% of all email is now opened on a mobile device. Not optimizing your email marketing for mobile can be a catastrophic mistake.

Note: If you’re using a dated email platform that doesn’t offer features like list segmentation and email automation sequences – do your course a favor and upgrade!

1) Email List Segmenting

Segmenting your email marketing lists helps you get better open and click rates, because who doesn’t want emails sent to them about the things they actually care about? By narrowing your focus and sending messages to targeted groups within your lists, your recipients will find your campaigns more relevant—and relevant campaigns get better results.

Imagine this:

You sign up for a course’s email newsletter because you like the course, but then you start to receive emails about some upcoming social events. You don’t want to socialize, you just want to play golf, so you stop opening the emails. Eventually, you get so tired of even receiving these emails that you decide to click the dreaded unsubscribe button.

What should have happened:

Had that golf course segmented their lists and only sent social events to people interested in receiving social event notifications, then they wouldn’t have lost a potentially valuable member on their list.

2) Email Automation

3.2 billion.

That’s how many email accounts there are in the world, and that number grows by the second. Chances are, your members use email and are part of the 91% of email users who check their email at least once daily.

Some questions you may have about email marketing may be:

“How can a golf club use this marketing platform more effectively?”

“How can you use email to nurture your leads, build brand awareness and ultimately increase your sales conversions?”

Email marketing automation is the answer to them all.

Email automations can be used to nurture relationships with members, gain new member sales and turn your new members into repeat players. Email automation campaigns can be as simple or as complex as your business objectives call for and resources allow:

• A simple email automation campaign can be made of a few emails that are sent out on a timed basis to everyone who, for example, enters your online contest.

• A complex email automation campaign can be comprised of workflow diagrams, with decision matrices based on the actions taken by your prospects. For example, you can set up an automation campaign with the goal of getting a sale of your product. The email path can vary based on whether they download your ebook, click through to your coupon page or register to become an exclusive member.

The opportunities are limitless and you can customize your campaigns as you see fit.

Our Top Tips

Now that you have the basics, here are some tips for using email marketing in the most effective way to achieve your marketing goals.

• Easy Subject Lines

Subject lines are your email’s first chance to catch someone’s interest. It’s tempting to write something witty and clever, but this can often be confusing to the reader. It’s usually more effective to write a simple, to-the-point subject line that is easy to understand. Save the humorous stuff for the body of the email. Also, don’t use emojis in your email subject lines. They’re tacky, and many people identify them with spam.

• Use a Call-to-Action

Just about every email you send out should have some form of CTA (Call-to-Action). “Call us today,” “Come visit us”, or “Reserve your tee time” are all reasonable CTA’s to use in your email blasts. Make sure whatever CTA you use is in line with the desired action you want the customer to take.

• Timing is Everything

Try not to send emails out at obscure times. The consensus is that the middle of the day, between 9-11am and 1-3pm, tend to be the best times to send out your email blasts. Also, most golfers tend to plan in advance with their buddies what course they’re playing this weekend. Why not hit them with a reminder about tee time deals early in the week?

• Keep It Short

Try to keep your emails short, while still getting across all the information you want to convey. People don’t like to read cluttered emails and typically don’t read more than a sentence or two before closing the email. Too much information is harder to soak in, due to our ever-shrinking attention span. Valuable information is always welcome, just don’t overdo it. If you have trouble with this, write long and edit short. Write out all you want to include and then go back through removing any information that may not be as relevant as you thought it would be.

• Use Emojis

In an effort to continuously humanize, emojis allow you to keep the mood of your emails conversational and light hearted. Visuals are often preferred over words, so adding them to your emails allows you the best of both worlds. To add emojis, you can use a site called Emojipedia. ( https://emojipedia.org/ ) Here you can copy and paste emojis right into your email copy. There is a huge variety of emojis available for every mood, season, location or subject you could possibly think of. Just don’t overdo it. Try to sprinkle them in very lightly.

Social Media Stats to Know for 2018

Tue, 05 Sep 2017 20:00:00 GMT

For those of you that are still not 100% onboard with the digital transformation that has fundamentally changed the way consumers use digital media, I wanted to list out some of the more eye-opening statistics that prove this is no-fad, but something that all businesses (including private clubs) must fully adopt and start implementing like… right friggin now.

Let’s kick this short read off with a graphic I came across the other day, which outlines some things that did not exist back in 2006…

Google / YouTube:

More Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers
in 2016, searches on mobile devices exceeded those on desktop
YouTube overall, and even YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S.
YouTube is the worlds 2nd largest search engine (Google owns YouTube)
Google penalizes websites that are not built for mobile by decreasing their reach in the search engine

Facebook:

75% of male internet users are on Facebook as well as 83% of female internet users, and login daily
Based on total population, (not just internet users) 68% of U.S. adults are on Facebook
Users on average spend 35 to 50 minutes per day on Facebook
88% of 18 – 29 year olds are on Facebook
79% of 30 – 49 year olds are on Facebook
61% of 50 – 64 year olds are on Facebook
Facebook posts with images see 2.5X more engagement than those without images
In the past two years, content consumption on Facebook has increased 57%

Instagram:

Female internet users are more likely to use Instagram than men, at 38% vs. 26%
51% of Instagram users access the platform daily, and 35% say they look at the platform several times per day
Facebook owns Instagram
Most Instagram users are between 18-29 years old, about six-in-ten online adults
26% of Instagram users make more than $75,000 per year

These cold hard facts prove that digital and social should be a primary focus for any business that wants to connect with a younger demographic. Traditional Media ( T.V. ads, print, direct mail) are not only more expensive advertising methods, but they do not resonate with consumers the way digital does!

As the leader of a digital marketing agency, one thing I try to hammer home with our clients that are still not bought in is consumers attention is on social, it’s where they like to spend their time. All you have to do is take a look around you as it’s hard to go anywhere in public where people are not glued to their devices. ( Even the PGA Tour jumped on-board this year and started allowing fans use their mobile phones to capture content.)

As the leader of your golf focused organization, it’s your job to recognize these trends and adapt your strategy accordingly! Shift your communication strategy and start telling your clubs story where it matters… online!

How to Use Facebook Ads to Target People Traveling

Fri, 14 Jul 2017 20:26:00 GMT

In the past, we have talked about why Facebook Ads matter, and have even talked about what Facebook Ads may be right for your business, but let’s talk specifics!

If you are a public golf course located in an area where people often vacation or just want to reach people traveling through your area, Facebook Ads can hyper-target these individuals and display your golf course right in their news feed!

Facebook Ads allow you to get very specific on who you want to target such as, purchase behaviors, demographics, interests. They also let you choose if you want to target someone who lives in that area, someone who recently was in a particular area, people who are traveling in that area, or all of the above.

If your city is hosting an event that is bringing a lot of individuals to your area, the “people traveling in this area” option is an excellent way to run ads against them.

How can you create these Facebook Ads?

Easy!

Go ahead and create your ad just as you normally would, but when you get to the Ad Set section for location, click the drop down that says “Everyone in this location” and change it to “People traveling in this location.”

Next, add your exact address or city to get as accurate as possible, and continue to complete your ad as normal. Using Facebook Ads like this offer businesses a very new way to target people and start bringing more business through their doors.

Next time your city is hosting an event nearby that is expected to bring a lot of individuals from out-of-town to your area, consider running one of these ads!

If you are looking for some help to run better ads, let us help !

Looking for some help to run better ads?

Using Instagram Stories at Your Country Club

Tue, 20 Jun 2017 19:11:00 GMT

Golf courses & country clubs around the nation are finally getting the message. Without millennials, their clubs don’t stand a chance in the long run and without social media there’s no hope for capturing the millennial audience. The next step in the process is mastering all the new updates that are constantly being rolled out by various platforms. In this case, let’s talk about how you can use Instagram’s Stories feature to amp up your social media presence.

What Instagram Stories Look Like:

1)

If you haven’t seen an Instagram Story yet, it’s good to have an idea of what they look like so you can become familiar with the concept before you start integrating them into your club’s social media practices, so let’s take a look!

Instagram Stories are found at the top of each user’s news feed.

The most recent ones show up first. Stories that haven’t’ been viewed yet have a colored circle around them. To view one, simply tap on the circle and the story will begin to play. Each piece of content is uploaded to last 10 seconds.

2)

Above is what it looks like to view someone’s story, you can see at the bottom there is a “Send Message” button which allows people to either click it or swipe up on that piece of content to send a direct message to the user who created the story.
Another semi-new feature is the addition of Instagram Story Links to the public, which up until June of 2017 was only for verified users. Business profiles with over 10,000 followers will have access to it first, but we expect that it will roll out to a larger audience before long.

Creating an Instagram Story for Your Country Club
Now that you you’re a little more familiar with what Instagram stories looks like, let’s dive into how to use them to enhance the social media strategy of your country club.

To start, make sure you’re on the home/news feed page of the app. From there, you can click the “+” button in the top left next to your circle (shown below) or swipe to the right.

3)

Now that you you’re a little more familiar with what Instagram stories looks like, let’s dive into how to use them to enhance the social media strategy of your country club.

To start, make sure you’re on the home/news feed page of the app. From there, you can click the “+” button in the top left next to your circle (shown below) or swipe to the right.

4)

Next, decide between the type of content you want to post by swiping between the options at the bottom of the screen. This is also where you can switch the camera you are using (front or rear) as well as turn on the flash. You also can click the face button on the right side to add selfie filters.

To take a video, you will hold down the capture button.

5)

Once you have captured your photo, video, or boomerang you can now edit it with filters or stickers. To do this, simply swipe up and pick the sticker you’d like to add.

The location sticker will add your content to the location’s discovery story, which is a public story comprised of the stories of other users that are all located in the same area. It’s basically a collection of all the stories that were uploaded with that location tagged. This is a great way to gain exposure and reach more millennials at no cost to you.

Once you have edited the content and you’re happy with the way it looks, simply click the icon that says “Your Story” in the bottom left to publish it.

What to Post On Instagram Stories at Your Country Club:

The possibilities are endless when it comes to content for Instagram Stories at your country club or golf course, but here are a few ideas for content that we have found to be the most successful.

#1 – Promoting Upcoming Club Events
With the ability to add your content to local public discovery stories, you can reach more millennials than ever before. One of the best ways to use this free perk is by sharing flyers to your Instagram story and adding the location sticker to them. This will make sure they are shared with everyone accessing your local discovery story and help create awareness of not only your event but also your club in general.

Instagram allows you to upload any photo from the past 24 hours by swiping up when on the stories camera screen, so just save the flyer onto your phone to add it to your story!

#2 – Original Content About Your Country Club
The goal with all social media platforms is to provide a human touch when it comes to communication with current and prospective members. As much as that seems counterintuitive to the idea of communicating through a screen, most brands perform best when their social media channels feature a down to earth approach when it comes to sharing.

Instagram Stories is a great way to add content to your profile that is real and consistent with what’s going on around your golf club. One fun way to do this is by having employees take turns doing a “takeover”. Takeovers involve one person updating the club’s story throughout the day or even week with photos and videos of what’s going on from their perspective. This can include their job or role in the country club’s day to day operations along with glimpses into the golf shop, bar & grill, or behind the scenes. Featuring members going about their day while enjoying your amenities is a great idea during a takeover as well.

Note: It’s a good idea to go over best practices with club employees before they start sharing with the public. There’s no take backs if something is posted that isn’t in line with the club’s image. A simple brand policy is a great way to make sure all employees are on the same page.

#3 – Get Creative!
Most importantly, have fun and get creative with the photos and videos you upload! Remember that your audience has to sort through tons and tons of noise to hear your message so be sure you’re offering real value to their day in order to stand out. Make them laugh, get them interested or simply intrigue them with your unique offerings.

Consider doing contests to get followers more engaged in your content. Things like “screenshot this and show it to your server in the bar to get 10% off” or maybe offer early access to prime weekend tee times or golf shop merchandise.

Note: Boomerang is a fun little feature on Instagram stories that will allow your country club to get creative with content easily.

See Who Messaged You via Your Instagram Story
If someone swiped up or clicked the “Send Message” button and sent you a message, you can view the message easily by going to your inbox.

To do this, go to the home/news feed page and swipe to the left. Or you can click the “mail” icon in the top right corner. Note: It looks like a paper airplane.

If you’re encouraging viewers to message you, make sure you take the time to respond back to them! Whether you simply redirect them to your website or give them a full, personalized response, responding to messages is another way to put human touch into your digital marketing efforts.

View Your Country Clubs Instagram Story Analytics
One of the best things about digital marketing is that you can see results in the way of analytics and insights. Data doesn’t lie, which is why it’s nice to see the numbers behind your efforts.

To do this, make sure your profile is setup as a business profile. You can do this by going to your profile and selecting the settings button. If it isn’t set up as a business page, follow the prompts to set it up and check back in a few days to see how your page has been performing. If it is set up as a business page you will see a bar graph in the top right corner.

From here you can see all your profile analytics, but specifically, there’s a section dedicated just to the stories feature. Click “See More” so you can view your stories analytics for up to the last 14 days. You can see a variety of metrics including impressions, reach, taps forward, taps back, exits, and replies.

Time to get started!
Instagram Stories are a great way for your country club to stay active on Instagram, provide valuable content to your golf loving followers and offer your potential members a look inside your golf club!

They don’t need to be perfect, after all the whole point is to show the human side to your business.

For more tips, tricks and golf club marketing content, make sure you follow us on Instagram!

Long Drive Agency

Going to Greater Lengths

The Long Drive Agency Story.

Establishing Ground

A Different Approach

Changing with the Times

Using Text Messaging with your Country Club Members

Using Text Messaging with your Country Club Members

Using Text Messaging with Members - 5 Real World Use Cases:

1) Engage Members by Texting Them About Operations Changes or Emergency Updates

2) Text Your Members About Upcoming Events

3) Allow Members to place (contactless) to-go orders

4) Automate special birthday messages to Members

5) Instant communication to your entire staff

Implement ClubChat Text Messaging Software into Your Marketing Plan Today

Want to try out ClubChat? Click the button to schedule a demo today!

Text Message Marketing Guidelines with Club Chat

1) Text as you would like to be texted

2) Cater to your Audience

3) Provide excellent service via text

4) Only text Members who have opted in

Want to try out ClubChat? Click the button to schedule a demo today!

4 Steps to Effective Crisis Communication

A quick note

4 Steps to Effective Crisis Communication

1) Show Awareness

Useful Links for Building Awareness

2) Take Action

3) Employ Empathy

4) Give Hope

Now, for a quick recap!

Want to try out ClubChat? Click the button to schedule a demo today!

7 Ways Country Clubs Can Attract and Retain Millennials

7 Ways Country Clubs and Golf Courses Can Attract and Retain Millennials

Here are 7 ways to start attracting millennials to your country club or golf course:

1) Evaluate and Enhance your Club’s Digital Presence

2) Add Text Messaging Into Club Communications Plan

3) Automate Your Emails

4) Improve Your Social Media Engagement

5) Post Videos and Virtual Tours to Your Website and Social Media

6) Start a Blog…and Keep It Updated

7) Host More Events for Current Members (and invite your prospects)

In summary, the 7 best ways to reach millennials are:

Want to try out ClubChat? Click the button to schedule a demo today!

3 Ideas For Modernizing Your Country Club

1. Provide Indoor Simulations

2. Provide Arcade Entertainment

3. Develop Club-Specific Apps

5 Social Media Marketing Myths

Social Post Have to Be Selling Something

You Need To Be On Every Platform

Social Media is Only For Young People

More Is Always Better

Social Media Marketing is Free

When To Post To Social Media

Why Your Country Club Needs to Start Writing a Blog

Increased Search Engine Rankings

Increased Revenue

Increased Membership

Need help creating a blog or developing a custom, digital marketing strategy for your country club?

7 Awesome Golf Tournament Formats

1) Scramble

2) Stableford

3) Chapman or Pinehurst

4) Best Ball

5) Bingo-Bango-Bongo

6) Alternate Shot

7) Quota

6 Tips to Boost Donations at Your Next Charity Golf Tournament

Sponsors (You really can't have too many)

Fundraise with a meaningful purpose

On Hole Contests

Host an Auction

Golf Entertainers

Make it a Multi-Day Event

3 Golf Tournament Marketing Ideas

Webpage

Social Media

Sponsors

Need help planning your next tournament's marketing strategy?

Instagram Stories

Instagram Highlights