Increasing Sales Leads Through Membership Marketing
When it comes to expanding your golf club membership sales, especially at private clubs, the first thing that comes to many people’s minds is membership marketing. Growing membership through strategies like membership marketing may seem simple at the outset, but rarely is there a one silver bullet strategy to increase membership numbers through marketing alone.
Here at Capstone Hospitality, we know that membership marketing is a core pillar of driving sales leads and membership sales, but it’s only one part of the puzzle. That’s why we employ a personalized, carefully thought-out strategy borne out of an in-depth club evaluation, our expert membership sales know-how and finally, tried and true membership marketing strategies.
These membership marketing strategies vary from club to club as well as from market to market. The private club membership sales experts on the Capstone team who work on the ground at the clubs we partner with have extensive training, experience and knowledge of membership marketing strategies known to work in the market that club is in; they also take the time to familiarize themselves with your current operations and members to see what other opportunities your club should tap into.
Another important piece of the Capstone experience that clubs won’t get anywhere else is our Lead Generation Center, where sales specialists work from our headquarters to send quality leads to the clubs we work with by utilizing our proprietary lead generator program. These leads play a crucial role in our strategy and work hand in hand with our membership marketing methods.
There are some core fundamentals to our approach to membership marketing as just one of the many tools we employ to increase sales leads and membership sales.
Increasing Membership: Strategies of Membership Marketing
Before we go further, what do we mean by ‘membership marketing’? Very simply, these are strategies for marketing golf club membership to potential members.
In the private club and golf club membership industry, we understand that many new members come in organically. Perhaps they just moved to your club’s neighborhood or they have a friend, work colleague or family member who is an existing member. These are the optimal prospective members because they already have a certain level of knowledge and interest in the club.
But when your club needs to hit your quotas for new membership sales and your pipeline of organic interest is drying up, a critical part of your multi-pronged strategy to increase sales leads should be membership marketing. Some typical membership marketing tactics include:
Email marketing campaigns
Social media
Digital ads and blog posts
Welcome baskets with membership information to new neighbors
Offering a free round of golf or lunch at the club to potential new members
But at Capstone, we believe that it takes more than just new marketing tactics to launch a successful sales leads generation program and cohesive membership marketing strategy. Here are the guiding principles we have at Capstone Hospitality about membership marketing for private club and golf memberships.
Understand That Every Club and Every Market is Different
If there’s anything we’ve learned over the past decade working with private clubs, it’s that no two clubs are exactly alike. When we build a strategy for a golf club membership sales department, we take into account that specific club’s size, location, traditions, current membership and more. We know that one membership marketing tactic that worked well for one club might not work for another, based on these characteristics.
Another factor we are acutely aware of is the fact that each market is different. The culture of private clubs are different all around the country and we rely on our team members' innate understanding of each of these markets to lead them in trying different strategies.
For example, we know which markets have a greater success rate with tactics like a welcome basket from the club to new neighbors or a free round of golf versus other markets that see more sales leads come in through carefully crafted digital campaigns and consistent touch points.
Not to mention we know the typical success rate of certain strategies, like the average lead to tour and tour to sale ratios. We can look at new leads and know exactly when we have too little spending on the club and budget, which is why data can be very important. It allows us to be proactive and provide support to our team members across the country to make sure they're set up to succeed.
Without the expert knowledge of your club’s place in the market and your target audiences, you may be deploying the wrong membership marketing strategies and may not have the resources to test several at once. This is one way working with Capstone can provide exceptional value.
Employ a Diverse Range of Sales Lead Generators for Testing
Using the wrong type of membership marketing strategy is almost worse than no strategy at all. By using time and energy on a tactic that yields no sales leads, you’re wasting valuable resources.
After our sales experts arrive at your club and conduct an assessment of your current sales tactics, they will have a recommendation for lead generators to utilize based on their understanding of your club and the market you’re in. Following the club assessment we’ll recommend and employ a diverse range of tactics so you can find leads in untapped markets and try new methods of selling golf memberships.
One of the most important steps to follow implementing these lead generators is to track how many sales leads come in through each tactic, allowing us to see day by day which lead generators are the most successful and which are dead ends.
Track and Review Sales Leads Data Often
It’s essential to review how each tactic is working so you can pivot your strategy if one is clearly more effective than the other. Our team carefully tracks the leads coming in through each lead source through our very own CRM system, which means we never waste time or energy on something that either hasn’t worked in the past or isn’t working now.
Giving club leadership oversight into what tactics we’re utilizing and why, with data to back it up, is what differentiates Capstone Hospitality’s philosophy from simple marketing fixes. If you instead hire a golf club marketing consultant and skip the highly important step of gathering and tracking data on where your sales leads came from, you’re depriving yourself of the opportunity to build a replicable pipeline.
Membership marketing shouldn’t be about re-inventing the wheel with constantly changing gimmicks or specials. It should be thoughtful and personalized for your club and the market you’re in. The lead generators you put resources into should be backed up by a history of success and data.
How Capstone Creates Custom Membership Marketing Plans
With all of these core principles in mind, perhaps the most important of all is the fact that every club is unique and requires a custom evaluation, plan of action and strategy. Capstone Hospitality does not employ a one size fits all approach.
We carefully evaluate each club, analyze the market conditions and send a sales expert to the club that is the best fit to deliver results. This includes developing and implementing a carefully considered membership marketing strategy based on data and results that adapts to the results of testing.
Any private club seeking to increase the sales of private club and golf memberships cannot do so through membership marketing alone. To gain a better understanding of Capstone’s proven, multi-pronged approach, take action today for an evaluation of your club’s current sales and marketing strategy and to learn how our team at Capstone can help.