Content marketing is no longer the future: it’s the present for all marketing strategies. Today, creating valuable, actionable, timely materials for your customers is an absolute necessity. As a golf club marketer, your task is twofold: to create content marketing campaigns that draw attention and last for the long term.
Content marketing might seem like an impossible effort, especially if you have never used inbound marketing before. However, content marketing for golf courses is much easier than you may think. Let’s take a closer look at two US-based golf courses using content marketing, and what they did to be successful. We’re going to check out:
- The Golf Club Of New England
- Reynolds Golf Course & Training Academy
The Golf Club of New England
Sometimes called the Golf Club of NE, this 450-acre landscape is unique when compared to many other golf courses. Not only is it located in a much rockier, cooler climate than the bulk of its competitors, but it is privately owned in a very rural area of New Hampshire. This makes marketing a tricky task to undertake, particularly from a content marketing perspective. Making matters worse, the previous owner of the property had garnered a negative reputation, which would undermine the content marketing process.
Referred to as ‘guerilla marketing’ by company owners, the Gulf Club of New England relied on content strategies that were timely, valuable, and dedicated to making a difference in the community’s perceptions. Interestingly, this golf course relied on more physical content marketing efforts to spread the word about their reopening. This included the creation of open houses, ground tours, and ‘architectural vision stories,’ as well as scheduled community appointments. The company began creating helpful materials about golfing and golf history for local businesses, groups, and sports programs. Even organizations like the Lion’s Club and Rotary Chapters were engaged with the creation of physical content marketing.
After two years of pursuing inbound marketing strategies, the company was able to achieve desirable results:
- Acceptance within the local community.
- Pre-sold all 150 golf club memberships.
- Listed as the 6th best golf course in the entire state.
The company continues to use physical content marketing to capture new memberships, leads, and players.
Reynolds Golf Course & Academy
This unique golf course and training academy was listed in the award-winning book “Content Rules.” The Reynolds Golf Course director, Charlie King, was concerned about the impending recession and how it might affect business. He realized that circumstances would need to change dramatically if his business was to survive. So he began outlining his plan to create an ongoing content marketing strategy.
Charlie set to work creating content that players and potential customers would actually like to see. He started blogging about golf tips for players old and new. Next, he wrote an eBook filled with golf strategies that could be read from almost any device. Finally, he began creating and distributing instructional golfing videos for viewers on his site. This content marketing strategy took a holistic approach to identify an audience and encouraged both new and old players to hone their golfing skills.
It didn’t take long for customers to start noticing Charlie’s efforts. In fact, Reynolds Golf Academy’s enrollment took off.
Despite the economy’s collective crash of 2008, the following year was RGA’s best year of revenue in the history of the company. In other words, content marketing helped Charlie’s business reach a level of excellence never before seen by the organization or its operant.
Now called New Rules Golfing, this thriving golf course and training academy has continued to succeed far into the future. There is no question that content marketing was a large part of its ultimate success.
How To Make A Content Marketing Strategy For Your Golf Course
The concept behind a content marketing strategy is simple. Putting it into practice? Maybe not so much.
Your course deserves its own success story. foreUP has the tools and the experts to make it happen.
Request a demo today to learn what foreUP can do for your business.