Electronic & Social Media Marketing Options

The next few blogs will discuss some free or inexpensive ways to stay engaged with your customers and draw new customers to your facility. I am not an expert in any of these new methods, but I like to watch and learn from what I see happening around me in the golf industry. Any of the methods I discuss are in use around the industry today. What I see most of the time are businesses doing a very good job at one form of marketing but not bringing that energy to multiple methods. Free business listing opportunities, social media sites, a dynamic website, regular promotional and informational email all assist in building a brand consciousness for your facility. Using as many of these methods as possible increases opportunities for success. Here is a sample list of tools to get your message out:

• dynamic website
• regular emails to existing customers (newsletter and/or promotional material)
• regularly writing and posting a blog
• page on facebook
• become the expert on local golf by electronically publishing articles and sending them out
• conduct a survey to determine customer satisfaction and
• take advantage of every free business listing service in your area
• text messages to customers
• twitter postings
• YouTube postings
• free business listings on Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.
• registering key staff on LinkedIn and join industry specific groups

Now before you stop reading this blog because you do not know how to do this and you do not have time to learn, stop and think for a minute about what it would cost to get in front of customers on a regular basis. We have all done advertising the traditional ways such as direct mail, local TV, local radio stations, the crawl on the weather channel, coupons in coupon books and newspapers, special promotions, etc. Think about the cost and more importantly, the “return on investment” ROI. It is worth your time and energy to access and create a presence on as many free or inexpensive platforms. You can always pay a company to do your marketing. There are innumerable businesses out there that focus on marketing golf and golf related enterprises. This is such an important element of your success I recommend that you stay directly involved in promoting your business whether you do it yourself or work with a professional. Either way you need to understand the capabilities and opportunities available in each of these marketing and advertising vehicles.

Click on the hyperlinks above and look at samples of vendors or services to accomplish saturating the marketplace with your presence.

In the next few blogs, I will discuss specific uses of some of these tools for a golf practice facility or family entertainment centers. Feel free to comment on any tools and how you have used a tool to reach and stay in front of customers.

One thing you can start to do today that will assist with this effort is to collect demographic information on customers. Most importantly, email addresses and cell phone numbers will go a long way in using many of these tools.