THE GOAL:Entice new members to join The Club at Longview with a “test drive” opportunity that offers some benefits of membership for 18 months, after which the full balance is due to earn full privileges.THE PLAN: Once approved by its owners and Member Advisory Board and communicated fully to current membership, The Club at Longview offered a Promotional Golf Membership that minimized the upfront initiation fee and provided immediate access to the club for the regular monthly dues. THE PAYOFF: A new group of members are trying the club who tend to be much younger in age and are bringing more, and younger, children to the property. These families are extremely excited about having the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of membership. They are bringing new energy to the club through their use of the golf course, food and beverage operation, meeting rooms, and other areas.

For people biting the bullet on the household budget, where does a golf club membership fall on the priority list? Pretty low, some country clubs are now discovering. As a result, discounted memberships, waived initiation fees and special recruitment drives are all new tactics being taken by a usually exclusive group, as clubs try to make it through the shaky economy.

Instead of offering huge discounts or waivers, though, The Club at Longview, in Charlotte, N.C. is trying a new approach: giving new members extra time to see what the club has to offer before paying the full fee.

The current initiation fee at Longview is $80,000 for a full golf membership. A new Promotional Golf Membership, however, offers prospective members a $5,000 initiation fee for a membership that will expire in 18 months. That member then has the opportunity to pay the additional $75,000 to become a full golf member, or they may walk away. Meanwhile, they pay full dues during their 18 months of “test driving” a membership.

The Promotional Golf Membership includes use of the club facilities and services as well as the opportunity to attend club-sponsored events, explains Chief Executive Officer and General Manager Don Vance. “Members will not be charged green fees or court fees, but will pay the applicable golf cart fees,” Vance says.

“Our club [established in 2004] is still in somewhat of a startup mode, so our membership is only 50% full,” Vance explains. “With the state of the economy and member utilization down, we needed to find a different way to bring in more members. The promotional membership is more of a one-time opportunity for non-members to enjoy the benefits of membership for 18 months, which we hope will then convince them to convert to a full membership after the trial period is over.”

Vance’s research before launching the promotion showed that other clubs offering similar programs have converted 50% to 65% of trial members to full memberships. “While the cash flow [from the promotional  trials] is critical to our club, as is the added membership activity, the conversion ratios were actually the most appealing to us,” he says.

“If we can get half of our incoming trial members to join the club at the end of their promotional period, we will be able to fill our membership to capacity.”

Vance’s staff was especially careful when explaining the program to existing members, who might have been upset if they misconstrued the particulars of the plan.

“Your communications plan has to be very effective,” says Vance. “We accomplished this with a series of letters to our members, along with a promotional mailer and collateral marketing piece and e-news blasts. Once we explained this new program to our members—and they didn’t find out about it through the proverbial grapevine—it became clear that it was a temporary membership and that trial members who opt to stay will pay the balance of the initiation fee.”

Longview has also taken steps to differentiate the new promotional membership from its full golf membership. For promotional members, there are restrictions on playing in club golf tournaments and wait lists for those who want to enroll their children in Longview’s Jack Nicklaus junior golf program. The trial members also do not receive a locker, nor do they have the ability to use the club’s bag storage facility.

“These are tough restrictions,” says Vance. “But we are also using them as a carrot, for added incentive to join the club as a full member after the 18-month trial period.”