To generate more business, golf course owners and managers should remove their marketing hats and think more like a “normal” person. This was the message from Terri Langhans, c.o.e. (chief of everything) of Blah Blah Blah Etc., during her presentation about marketing at the National Golf Course Owners Association’s annual conference Feb. 20-24 in Anaheim, Calif. At the conference, in conjunction with the Golf Industry Show, Langhans told attendees to think outside the box.
“We spend so much time trying to get away from ads,” she says. “When you put on your marketing hat, you’re joining the chorus. Don’t do what everyone else does.”
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It takes a different type of thinking to generate attention and new and returning business. Start by connecting with customers (and potential ones) before convincing them to give you their business. This isn’t done by spewing out as much information as possible about the facility.
“We love to inhale the aroma of the product, and then we exhale ad nauseum to the target,” she says.
First, think of one or two attributes or attraction factors. What’s the need or want that’s satisfied by those attraction factors? Keep in mind green fees usually aren’t a wise factor to market, Langhans says. Instead, marketers should think about the strategy from their own perspectives and what they would want to hear.
“This will keep you from being poisoned by the exhaust fumes,” she says.
A successful marketing campaign illustrates how a golf course sets itself apart from others. Langhans suggests golf course managers and owners make a list of their facility’s services and note how it’s different from other area clubs’ services. These include signage, voice-mail, the people who answer the phone, letterhead, the Web site and parking. Consider:
- What’s the club doing that’s the same, expected, ordinary or usual?
- Switch it up – what can be done differently?
- How can each golfer’s experience be made memorable? (Example: playing music at the first tee box to ease golfers’ nerves)
- What services would be offered if this wasn’t a golf course? (Example: a hospital started offering valet service)
By doing something different, golf courses can do something remarkable – that is, something that’s worthy or a remark. This is the best way to win customers because the best marketing is word-of-mouth, Langhans says. This is the way to gain publicity rather than “doing” marketing, which is how many people often think of the process.
“Branding isn’t something you do,” she says. “You become a brand. You achieve it.”
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People often make decisions based on emotion rather than fact, so Langhans suggests marketers play to this tendency. Show potential customers the course has a personality.
“Describe the business as if it were a walking, talking person,” she says. “Is it a man or a woman? What usually is a golfer’s first impression of the course or facility? Is the course a wallflower or a mingler? The best marketing in the world sounds like a letter from an old friend.”
Langhans recommends daily activity, something managers or owners can do to spread the word about the course. Attending networking meetings, calling wedding planners to get the word out about the facility and making one person’s day a little better are activities that can add to the daily promotion of the course.
Ultimately, every employee is a member of the course’s marketing department, she says. Each employee’s action has the potential to leave an impact on the customer and could determine whether the customer returns.
“Think of yourself as being in the people business rather than the golf business,” she says.
For more information, visit www.blahblahblah.us.