The daily-fee course in Freeport, Pa., generated 33,000 rounds last year despite lacking a large local audience by offering pre-sell discounted rounds during the winter, a variety of membership offerings, and creative raffle packages. “The key is, you put packages together where the customer can’t lose,” said Manager Travis Lindsay.
Birdsfoot Golf Club, a daily-fee course in Freeport, Pa., managed to bring in 33,000 rounds in 2016, despite lacking a large local audience, thanks to innovative marketing ideas, Morning Read reported.
One of Manager Travis Lindsay’s main methods is to pre-sell discounted rounds during the winter. He estimates Birdsfoot sold the equivalent of 4,000 rounds in January and February, when the course wasn’t open—about 12 percent of the course’s annual play, Morning Read reported.
“During winter, people like to think about golf and the idea of golfing,” he said. “Once people buy packages in the offseason, they’re committed to playing the course, and they bring other golfers with them. It creates a customer loyalty that’s awesome. And when their package of rounds runs out, a lot of them keep coming back.”
The Spring Membership includes golf (cart included) for March, April and most of May and practice-range use for $149 and comes with a $50 gift card that could be used for green fees, golf balls, shirts, beer, hot dogs or anything else. The package includes passes for four rounds at Birdsfoot (cart included) that wouldn’t expire, Morning Read reported.
The golf landscape has changed, and Lindsay has made sure that Birdsfoot adapted, Morning Read reported.
“It’s a very dynamic business now,” Lindsay said. “Some courses want to charge everybody one rate and figure if enough players come in at that rate, they make their expenses. That’s not how it works anymore. The key is, you put packages together where the customer can’t lose.”
Birdsfoot’s success stems from a failed attempt to build an online booking system in 2010. It cost $3,500 to install and generated only $700 worth of tee times. “It flopped,” Lindsay said. “I was like, Oh, geez, now what do we do?”
Lindsay tried pre-selling discounted rounds as an experiment that winter. “We sold 144 rounds the first week of January in 2011,” he said. “Right out of the chute, it was wow!”
He was initially nervous that a big pre-sell would hurt in-season sales, but he quickly learned it was just the opposite. “That first year, it was like seeding the tee sheet,” he said. “It grew into a full tee sheet, which gave us dependable play.”
That was just the start of his thinking outside the tee box. His wife, Virginia, suggested raffles. She has a sewing business and told her husband that fabric giveaways are extremely effective in her world. So, Lindsay gave away a driver via an off-season raffle. Customers got one raffle chance for each $20 Birdsfoot gift card (good for green fees or Birdsfoot food or merchandise) that they purchased, Morning Read reported.
“The response was off the hook,” Lindsay said.
The raffles grew and became more creative. Lindsay raffled off a set of irons, packages for multiple rounds of golf and memberships, and this year, he raffled a Myrtle Beach golf getaway that was a big hit. It’s all done via email lists, Morning Read reported.
“The idea is to create excitement, and while that’s happening, customers see our name and it gets them talking about us,” Lindsay said. “It all makes people feel like they’re part of something. Instead of putting money into TV marketing, we’re creating word-of-mouth buzz. We pay for the prizes, but that’s just a marketing expense.”
Lindsay offers some other unique membership options. All of the packages come with four additional rounds that never expire:
- The Anniversary Membership, $89, includes unlimited golf Monday through Friday, but with a $20 cart fee. For a higher fee, they can get seven-day-a-week access. The average purchaser plays seven rounds.
- The Day of the Week Membership, $189, allows the customer to pick the one day each week that he wants to play for the year.
- The Once a Month Membership, $200; Twice a Month, $229.
- The King for a Day package allows a foursome to play all day for $200. It comes with a $100 credit that can be used for food or drinks or future rounds.
Lindsay tried a Once a Week Membership, but it didn’t sell. “The golfer has to say, How much can I actually play?” he said. “One thing we found is that people don’t want something that expires. Even the monthly passes, I had to include four free rounds to get people to purchase them.”
The off-season raffles and unusual membership plans are fun for customers and generate sales, but it’s not about that, really, Morning Read reported.
“It’s the sense of excitement,” Lindsay said. “It’s all about getting players to the course. It’s been a game-changer for us.”
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