Golf Marketing Services is a new business in Ireland founded by Dermot Dalton with the cooperation of Legendary Marketing USA (incorporating Marketing Commander) and Club Prophet Systems.
GMS' offers a systematic approach to golf marketing with golf-specific marketing methodology, the very best available technology and staff training. With hundred's of satisfied customers using our products worldwide, we can deliver the most effective package in golf marketing available for you.
The Legendary approach to golf marketing represents a paradigm shift from playing the big numbers game to results-driven database marketing. We have built into our system the means to track all your marketing activity and give accurate ROI to ensure that your golf marketing is running efficiently and successfully.
Dermot Dalton is the Business Development Manager of Golf Marketing Services. He has worked for many years in the technical world of Data Communications and in the golf industry at almost every discipline from caddying to golf equipment sales and golf teaching. As a golf marketing specialist, he has worked as a Golf Administrator at a private club and Sales and Marketing Manager at a commercial golf club, and also ran his own Golf Hotel Marketing business as part of a Pan-European brand.
Having worked in the industry, he sought to bring the world's greatest marketing and software products to Ireland and believes that now he has achieved that. Dermot has trained extensively with Legendary Marketing and Marketing Commander in Florida and also with Club Prophet Systems. With his in-depth knowledge of the golf and marketing business and partnerships with two of the industries greatest products, he looks forward to being of assistance to you in the coming months and years.
Irish Golf Scene
While it may have been true 15 or 20 years ago that tee times were hard to come by and golf clubs had membership waiting lists, that has all changed radically. Since 1993 over 130 new golf courses have been built in Ireland and 50 of these have been resorts. By 2010 almost every county in Ireland will have at least one golf resort. Proprietary owned clubs now make up roughly 25% of all Irish golf clubs. Between 1993 and 2000 construction of new courses peaked and there were 111 new clubs registered with the GUI.
Golf memberships have gone from roughly 120,000 members in 1986 to 287,000 in 2006. The average full adult paying members per club has gone from 300 to 500 in that time, while the number of clubs has gone form 258 to 440. The average growth in adult membership has been 5% year on year but is slowing down as of the last few years. Memberships sales recently have been greatly revalued, in some cases half or even quarter of what they were, only a couple of years ago. Very few clubs, and only in exceptional circumstances have the luxury of a waiting list for memberships. While demand has grown in Ireland, it is much more gradual than in the rest of Europe, and has been far superceded by supply, so competition for precious membership, green fee and group revenue is fierce and will only get moreso.
Philosophy
Having studied the marketing methodology of Andrew Wood (author of The Golf Marketing Bible and over 20 other books and President of Legendary Marketing and Marketing Commander), our philosophy is one of cutting through the many intangibles of marketing to deliver results, astonishing results, in the most time and cost effective manner possible.
Advertising and PR have their place in marketing, but many businesses place them at the centre of their marketing activities. The right awareness in advertising and in the media can enhance a club's reputation, making your club a “must play” golf course which can increase business and help you keep a strong pricing structure, but the only guaranteed means of attracting the right customers and enough of them is to have them in your customer base, communicate with them regularly and meaningfully and then sell to them regularly and upsell them as much as possible, so that a lead from your website or anywhere else can become a regular paying customer or even a member...put simply: He with the biggest Database wins!
We apply many proven checks to all our systems to make sure they can deliver for you, for example our direct mail campaigns go through a 76-point formula derived from the knowledge and experience of the world's best marketing minds. Our sales methods have been similarly derived and proven. Our website design is based on the best proven principles in web-marketing (for example: did you know that reverse print, white writing on a dark background, while looking classy, actually is 33% more difficult to read!). Our email campaigns are sent only to targeted customers who have indicated a preference for that specific product, service or event.
One other important aspect of our marketing philosophy is that “copy sells.” Despite the multi-media world we live in and the opinion of many marketing experts, we have found that if people are interested in a subject, then the more relevant copy, the better, whether in your website, emails, letters, brochures or other collateral.
Possibly the most important thing you can do in your marketing is to help your staff close more sales! We have found that especially with sales as important as golf memberships, corporate golf and society golf outings, that most clubs do not have staff who are trained or are proficient at closing sales. At GMS we can provide your staff with very specific golf sales training including customized scripts so that they can close more sales than they are doing now…in most cases exponentially…imagine the difference that could make to your bottom line!!!
Marketing Myths
There are various marketing myths out there, which we have consistently dispelled in the real world of golf marketing, working with hundreds of golf clubs:
- People don't read anymore.
It is assumed in our overloaded multimedia age that people don't read anything substantial, but, if you provide them with interesting and relevant long copy, someone who is interested in what you have to say will be happy to read it and will grow to trust you more and more.
- The more people who like your ad, the better your ad!
Good graphics are all very well in their own way, but ads that don't motivate targeted prospects to action are of no great value in marketing. With the right sales copy and calls to action you can have far greater results than with ads that just look good.
- Reaching 100, 000 people in the local paper is typically more effective in generating revenue than mailing to 500 people whom you know for a fact play golf and live in your market area.
It is far more effective for you to have a targeted market (even if very small) of people who live near you, play golf and have the means to pay for golf or membership at your club than to play the “big numbers” game.
- Your marketing should appeal to all business types.
Having done your market analysis and demographics for your area, you should be able to identify which particular group you want to do business with, for instance, are you to be an exclusive members club, does your area depend heavily on tourism, etc. You must be prepared to stand for something definite in order to market effectively.
- If all your competitors are doing something, you too must follow suit just to compete!
If you have a strong defined position in you market and a good marketing plan in place, you don't need to concern yourself with following the habits (often wrong ones) of those around you, especially in matters of, say, discounting your golf to compete, or spending fortunes in advertising.
Top 20 Reasons Why Most Golf Marketing Fails
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They don't collect enough data (golfers' names, emails and so forth).
Knowing who your customers are, communicating with them regularly in a meaningful way will enhance customer satisfaction and trust and allow you to sell more to them, more often.
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They don't do enough with the data they do collect.
Having indepth knowledge about your customers will allow you to direct specific promotions in a targeted manner, helping you to sell more and keep your customers.
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Their websites are ineffective
Your website is more than a shop-window for your golf course, it should be the very centre of all your marketing activity. It's primary function is to collect data and to get people to respond to your offers. It must be constantly updated to keep your visitors interested and it must sell.
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They do not track their ad or promotional campaigns so that they have no exact way of knowing which ads or promotions were really effective.
We firmly believe in tracking all your marketing activity, our Marketing Commander website will allow you to do this, giving you an accurate ROI on all your online and offline marketing efforts, helping you to identify the ones that work and saving you vast sums of money.
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Their ads stink!
Nice pictures and catchy headlines are all very well, but an ad must create a response.
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They run campaigns that people say “look good” rather than one that actually gets the phone to ring.
Graphic design is all very well, but, with good sales copy and a clear call-to-action, you will get a far greater response and the results you are aiming for.
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There is no written sales process or scripting or training of the people answering the phones and in charge of memberships, outings, and banquets.
Your front-line staff are your sales interface with your customers, the difference in having staff well-trained in sales will bring astonishing results to your bottom-line.
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Follow-up of all requests is not automated or systemized, so follow-up is poor.
With a fully-automated website, you can keep in contact with all your customers, by name, giving them all the information they need in a timely manner.
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They do almost the exact same marketing as ALL their competitors; they are afraid to risk being different.
With a clear marketing plan, you will no longer have to follow the pack, who themselves may have no clear idea where they are going. With clear regular benchmarks you can ensure that your marketing is on track, without having to look over your shoulder.
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Brochures, ads and letters are written in boring, generic corporate-speak and wouldn't motivate a drunk to leave his seat to get a free beer.
All of your collateral must be designed to create a response.
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They discount green fees to get more business rather than look for ways to add more value. Discounting is the slippery road to ruin, as only he who can afford to suffer the losses will survive. Finding ways to add value will allow you to keep your price integrity and keep your customers happy at the same time.
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Their budgets are based on a percentage of gross or a number someone handed down from head office instead of being based on the goals they are trying to meet.The only way to budget accurately and effectively is to have a plan for your golf business with clear goals set out and to reverse-engineer your budget to achieve these goals.
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They do NOTHING to set themselves CLEARLY apart from other clubs in their marketplace. If you are the same as everyone else, the only way you can differentiate is by discounting...as above, you do this at your peril.
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Their service is really about 80 percent worse than they think it is! The one thing that gets customers coming back and creates free word-of-mouth marketing is good service, staff who are trained to look after customers will achieve this for you.
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They fail to thank their customers with letters, cards and small gifts as is done in almost all other professional businesses. Obviously this incurs a cost, but when done properly, should be far more effective and less expensive than most marketing activities.
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They confuse "loyalty" programmes with discount programmes! LOYALTY is earned, NOT BOUGHT!Once again we come back to the old discounting conundrum....We can help you to find more creative ways to create loyalty, that will keep your customers coming.
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They fail to outsource the things they don't do well (like Telemarketing). Your staff are not always going to have the time, training and even the talent to be all things to all men, outsourcing is far less expensive and time-consuming.
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They don't capitalize on the automation that's available to help maximize their operations. Successful golf businesses have systems in place to run their operations smoothly and the tools to make these systems work.
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They don't spend enough time studying or doing marketing. Marketing has changed dramatically since the internet age began, keeping up with it demands work and study or the use of available expertise.
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They keep doing what they have always done because it's easier than changing to a more systematic approach that would actually work. If you are achieving the results you desire and are certain that you are not leaving money on the table every year, then you have cracked it, if not give us a shout and we will help you to apply a systematic way to achieve greater success.
SUMMARY
Now you have the key information why most clubs don't get where they want to go. You are ready to do things differently and the get the corresponding successful result!
If you find that this philosophy makes sense for you and you would like to find out more or put the world's only proven golf marketing systems to work for you call us today at 01 8464047
or click here for a FREE CONSULTATION, we welcome the opportunity to work with you...
Marketing Myths and 20 Reasons...are contained in chapter 2 of The Golf Marketing Bible by Andrew Wood, click here to find out more or to order.
