Motivating Busy Families to Come Play at Your Golf Course
Golf is a great sport that can be competitively played by people of all ages. Whether you’re 8 or 80, golf is a sport that can bring players a lifetime of enjoyment. For players on either side of the spectrum (younger and older), it’s often a little easier to find time to play the game as they have more flexible hours, don’t yet have a family or are in the empty nest and retirement phase of life with a lot more time on their hands. Speaking from first-hand experience, it’s much harder to find time for a round of golf or even a trip to the driving range when you have to pick up the kids, go to recitals and prepare a home-cooked meal.
So the question is, how can you get busy families out to your golf course? We all know the benefits of spending quality family time together, getting kids outside and active as well as the values that the game of golf can instill in young people but the benefits often get lost in the daily shuffle and slip to the back of people’s minds. The solution then is to keep your course and those aforementioned benefits top of mind for local golfers in your immediate area by offering them a worthwhile and memorable experience through innovative marketing and golf course promotion.
You can start by offering things like small promotions and loss-leaders to get families out to your course. For instance offering free soft drinks to kids under 10 or $1 hot dogs after 5pm. If a family comes to your course and their 8 year old girl has a great time eating a hot dog and chasing golf balls around the putting green, there’s a good chance that she’ll have the family coming back for more (because she probably has daddy wrapped around her little finger right???). Families could also be interested in very informal, friendly competitions. For instance childrens putting competitions Thursdays after work. Regardless of the foundation of the promotion or offer, keep in mind that you’ll need to provide a family friendly atmosphere and a memorable experience that will offer something for mom, dad, younger and older children alike.
Of course getting the word out about your club’s promotions is the tricky part. A simple Facebook post about it might not get the traction that you really want or need. More traditional means of advertising can reach a very targeted “hyperlocal” audience in your immediate vicinity. Online ads might sound easy as well and while they can prove very effective in certain cases, they may not be as useful by themselves without supporting efforts across other media outlets. Finding the right combination of where, when and how to speak to families to build interest in your course is the cornerstone of an effective marketing campaign.
At Golf Course Marketers, we love two things: marketing and golf, and we love to help build the game as a whole by getting young people and families involved at their local courses. Contact us today to get a no-obligation quote for golf course marketing services to help promote the game and your course.
