For marketing managers and owners, properly marketing a golf club can be a tricky task. Any marketing endeavors need to be highly targeted to find the right people at the right time who need a new golf club.
Blogging is one often overlooked form of marketing that the golf club industry can benefit from. From increasing traffic to pulling in new members to broad brand exposure, blogging can help golf clubs connect with new and established members.
Ready to learn about the benefits to blogging for golf club marketing? Check out these top reasons to start blogging about your golf club below!
1. Blogs create great content for social media marketing.
Marketing on social media networks like Facebook and Instagram are the new norm for golf courses. Without content to curate or post on your golf club’s social media accounts, there will be little incentive for current or prospective members to follow your accounts. This is where one of the most significant benefits of blogging comes in. By regularly posting on your blog, you’re generating content that can then be shared on your social media pages. To put it simply, blogging is the backbone of social media marketing and is hugely important if you want to up your social media marketing game.
2. Blogging specific golf content can provide helpful tools for readers.
There are so many different things you can blog about when it comes to golf clubs. There are weekly events that can be announced, new updates to share with members, and general golf content that readers will find entertaining. In addition to these, you can also post helpful tips on form, newly released putters on the market, and training tips for new golfers. This will create a resource for readers who have a question they need to have answered. Informative blog posts will also establish your blog as an authority on certain golf subjects.
3. They’re incredibly easy to set up and update.
You do not have to be an expert in terms of design and development to start a blog. It’s about as easy as setting up a social media or email account! WordPress, Blogger, and Wix are all excellent spots to start a blog. Wix, in particular, utilizes a drag-and-drop dashboard that makes designing a blog unbelievably easy (and kind of fun.) Your blog can be launched whenever you want, and you can start writing your very first update or post the day you launch your blog. Keep in mind that hosting and domain names will cost a bit of money, but it’s definitely not much when compared to other marketing costs that golf clubs usually have to invest.
4. You can network on a global scale with a blog.
Golf club blog marketing isn’t just great for pulling in new members. It can also be an excellent tool in terms of partnering with other companies or entrepreneurs in the industry. If you’re interested in expanding your golf club venue into a national or international chain, blogging can be it easier to connect with professionals in different states and countries who may be similarly interested. Having a blog and social media presence can also help golf course owners find new stakeholders and investors as well.
5. Blogs can boost your golf club’s popularity.
This is the primary goal of online marketing. Blogging is a marketing tool, and golf club venue owners will market their businesses in various ways in order to bring in more members. By starting a blog that people enjoy, more and more readers will begin pouring in, and the blog itself will become quite popular. This is going to take some work, though. Remember that blogs do not explode in popularity overnight after just a single post. Your golf club’s blog will need to be consistently updated, and the content posted will need to be attractive, informative, and useful to readers.
6. There is no need to hire a specialist or outsource for blogging.
Golf club marketers can easily take on the task of updating their blog regularly without the need for a specialist. However, it can be quite beneficial to invest in an in-house copywriter or outsourced freelance writer to update your blog regularly. Professional copywriters with blog-writing experience understand many of the same things as marketing specialists, such as SEO, keywords, and hot topics that convert. They are also excellent at writing and can draft blog posts that are well-written and match your brand voice. Regardless, a copywriter isn’t necessary. Your club’s in-house marketer can take on the task, and updating a blog can take less than an hour in most cases.
7. They’re excellent for small businesses.
If your own a small-scale golf club venue or are in charge of marketing one, you already know how tough it can be to stand out from the competition. Even a minimal course can have marketing potential through a blog. A single person can take on the task of posting regularly, such as once a week, without much issue. A blog is simply a platform for showcasing the unique aspects of your golf club and the culture surrounding it. And small golf clubs can have the kind of spark that will shine through a blog.
8. You’ll get valuable immediate feedback.
Any marketer out there knows that the foundation of effective marketing lies in analytics and reporting. What are customers saying about a business after seeing a certain marketing tactic or advertisement? What attempts to relate with a target audience are working and which are not? There are a ton of ways to gather this information, be it through surveys or emails or market research. Blogging is another excellent way to get that valuable, necessary feedback from clients and potential future clients. When you update your blog and share the new post on social media, the number of interactions (such as likes, shares, and replies) is a good indicator of whether or not that specific blog post or subject is connecting with readers. Just as well, comments on blog posts can also provide valuable feedback instantly.
9. Blogs help marketers understand more about certain demographics.
Are you still in the market research or “ideal customer” stage of your golf club’s marketing plan? Starting a blog right away and experimenting with different types of blog posts can help you understand a bit more about potential target audiences. For example, a blog post about tips and tricks for pro golfers may resonate with the established golfer crowd, and those types of readers may be more likely to sign up for your golf club. On the other hand, in-depth tutorial posts on how to start golfing as a newbie may pull in an interested but inexperienced crowd, and they may decide to sign up with your club as well. This kind of insight can help you establish precisely who your club’s target demographics are.
10. Blogging kicks up your SEO.
Search engine optimization (or SEO) is a valuable tool in the digital marketing world for all industries, not just the golf world. Most of the time, a curious golfer will search for certain keywords to see what local golf clubs are accepting new members. Understanding those keywords and implementing them into your blog posts can help bump your golf club’s name to the top half of a certain keyword’s search results page. Visibility is everything, and getting a feel for what keywords target your specific audience is very important. You can’t really take advantage of SEO without a blog of some sort, or at the very least, a website.
11. You can start pulling in those emails.
Email lists are yet another valuable tool when it comes to marketing a golf club venue. One of the most valuable ways to communicate online is through email. Readers who enjoy the blog content you produce can sign up for email updates directly from your blog, which can provide golf club marketers with valuable market research information such as names, locations, email addresses, and phone numbers. You can directly communicate with readers by sending out newsletters and updates on new blog posts in real-time. If there is something important that you need to share with readers, such as updates about your golf club venue or upcoming events, your blog has already pulled in their email information.
12. A blog can be used to sell to members directly.
For example, let’s say your golf club has a new membership plan for seniors. You can advertise this new membership plan by dedicating a blog post to what it entails, what it costs, and how potential members can sign up for it online. Just keep in mind that your readers will likely not be interested in sales blog posts all the time, so try to keep posts like this to a minimum. Your blog should have well-rounded and well-balanced posts that fit various categories, such as product or service announcements, event updates, tutorials, interviews with golfers, etc.
13. Blogs build trust.
It’s no secret that consumers don’t trust businesses as much as they used to. In today’s marketing world, trust is a difficult thing to master. You can pour as many resources as you please into different marketing endeavors, but if your target audience doesn’t trust you, it will all be for nothing. Golf club owners have to earn trust by demonstrating their commitment to serving their members and providing useful, valuable information regularly. Keep your blog posts honest and avoid constant sales-focused posts. You’re not advertising to your readers– you’re building a hub for them to find resources and answers to questions. The more your target market trusts you, the easier it will be to turn leads into conversions.
14. You can better control your online image with a blog.
Maintaining a certain image or persona can be difficult to do from a marketing standpoint. Even if you know what makes your golf club venue unique and what kind of “voice” you have as a business, you’ll need to maintain that persona online. If you don’t have an online persona, there is no way for potential members to identify what makes your club unique and worth signing up for. It’s all about building an online culture and recognizable brand. Social media posts and digital advertising can certainly help, but a blog can do so much more. A blog is a business’s main hub of communication and is often the first place a potential lead will discover your online presence. It’s also a hotspot for your members to read up on what the venue has been up to and what kind of services they provide. Be sure to keep your tone consistent in your blog posts, and stick to the kind of content that is resonating with your readers.
15. The statistics don’t lie.
Probably one of the biggest benefits of running a golf club blog is that, statistically speaking, they are effective tools that pull in leads. 61% of United States consumers make purchases based on informative or persuasive blog posts. And businesses that invest in blogging receive 97% more inbound links than their competitors that don’t have blogs, which are vital for SEO. Why not start a blog?
How was our guide to the biggest benefits of blogging for golf clubs? Tell us how your golf club has benefited from this form of marketing in the comments below!
