Utilizing Smart Email Marketing Tactics for Your Golf Course
Email marketing in the golf world can have some excellent results. From building a reputation to gaining and retaining subscribers email marketing is the way to go. This can help you get personal with your subscribers and build brand recognition so they can better find you when they’re shopping around. In any industry, managing your brand reputation is important, and that's no different for Golf Courses.
Building an Automated Email Nurturing Campaign
Sending a nurture or welcome campaign to new subscribers can be a perfect step in increasing your reputation as a sender. Nurturing campaigns are important to subscribers because they can be used in many ways to provide useful information about your brand.
Create a series of emails set to send out on a timed schedule. These can include hours of operation, amenities, and a thank you for signing up to name a few categories. Once the subscriber has received the nurturing campaign, they can then be segmented and placed on the regular subscriber list.
Building an Automated Email Nurturing Campaign
Sending a nurture or welcome campaign to new subscribers can be a perfect step in increasing your reputation as a sender. Nurturing campaigns are important to subscribers because they can be used in many ways to provide useful information about your brand.
Create a series of emails set to send out on a timed schedule. These can include hours of operation, amenities, and a thank you for signing up to name a few categories. Once the subscriber has received the nurturing campaign, they can then be segmented and placed on the regular subscriber list.
Having DMARC/DKIM Authentication for your Newsletters and Offers
Setting up authentication on your account can tremendously help your reputation as a sender. This can help more of your emails get into the inbox and out of the spam folder.
Setting up a DKIM/DMARC authentication can be pretty tough, we've written a comprehensive guide here. If you set this up wrong, it may harm your deliverability more than help it. Once set up this should boost your open rates.
How to Keep Golf Course Subscribers Engaged
Most golf courses use their emails only for sending constant advertisements for selling tee times. Most subscribers aren’t always going to be looking for a round of golf. If you choose only to spam them with offers, you're going to get a lot of unsubscribes.
Breakthrough the norm with creative content your subscribers want to read. Keep them engaged with dynamic content that brings them back for more. Golf clubs can use email marketing in a variety of ways. Extend your leads for different aspects of your club. Private events and wedding venues are a small fraction of what you can advertise for in your club.
How Segmenting Contacts Can Be Used to Your Advantage
Most golf clubs are sending emails to one massive list with everyone on it. This means that the middle-aged men are receiving the women's tennis tournament emails and it also means that the kids are getting emails about senior yoga classes. When a subscriber gets spammed with content, they don't want, they're more likely to unsubscribe.
Segmenting your list will significantly help retain subscribers. If you decide to include some custom fields when someone signs up that will substantially help you with your segmenting process. If you segment your subscribers into multitudes of categories, then you can send them emails that are meaningful to them and help increase your open rates.
Why You Should Balance Sales and Content
Having the power of email means that you can share your new gear or special sale with customers without having to have them come in, but, it also means that they can see the news you have for them. Don’t limit yourself to selling to your subscribers.
Subscribers will be less likely to open your email if they know it's just an advertisement. Let them know what your golf club has to offer with the latest news, upcoming renovations, special guests, and so much more. Having the content in your email that drives your subscriber to open it helps them understand that you want them to be informed and not just buy things from you. Sharing your news with the subscriber shows them that you care about them and you want them to feel involved with your club.
Making Your Emails as Unique as Your Golf Course
This one might seem a little straightforward, but that doesn't mean it's less critical. Making your emails unique in their style and content helps the email stand out to the subscriber. Show that your golf course is where they should choose to golf with your dynamic theming and branding.
Make a custom header and footer to match your branding throughout other platforms. Fill your creative content with content specific to your golf course. Assure that subscribers can immediately recognize your email when they open it. This way, they will know your brand when they see it and actively seek it out when they choose to go out for a round.
Making Your Emails as Unique as Your Golf Course
This one might seem a little straightforward, but that doesn't mean it's less critical. Making your emails unique in their style and content helps the email stand out to the subscriber. Show that your golf course is where they should choose to golf with your dynamic theming and branding.
Make a custom header and footer to match your branding throughout other platforms. Fill your creative content with content specific to your golf course. Assure that subscribers can immediately recognize your email when they open it. This way, they will know your brand when they see it and actively seek it out when they choose to go out for a round.
What’s the Deal with Custom Headers and Footers?
Including a custom header and footer to your templates creates excellent brand recognition. It's important to have your brand present to make sure that subscribers know what to look for when shopping for tee times.
Place lots of information in your header and footer. Give your subscribers' contact information and an address to navigate to. This will help you bring clients into your club and give them a good point of reference for travel plans. Another excellent part of the header and footer lets you put a social block to connect to your social media accounts. This can let email subscribers know that your branding is on other platforms and this may entice them to follow you.
How to Continuously Keep Your List Cleaned and Why It’s Important
Keeping your list clean is almost as important as the content of your emails. Continually cleaning your lists keeps up your deliverability by lowering your bounce rates. This can also help assure that you’re sending to engaged subscribers.
Cleaning out unengaged subscribers, taking out hard bounces, and sending out user feedback forms are a way to prune your lists. User feedback forms are important to help you understand how many emails users want to be sent so you can adjust accordingly to keep them engaged with the content. Remove hard bounces right away from your lists to keep your deliverability high. This will better your reputation as a sender, so your emails will get to the inbox smoother. Remove contacts that have never engaged with your content. This can also help your reputation and deliverability, but it can also help lower your spam complaints.
Why Subject Lines Matter
Subscribers won’t see the content you’ve created for them without opening the email. The most important part of getting them to do that is the subject line. There’s a multitude of ways to capture the attention of a subscriber so don’t limit yourself to just one style.
Subject lines can be created in different ways to attract your subscribers. Try asking a question, thanking them for subscribing, telling them the new golfing news, and even adding an emoji or two. These all can become extremely personal and can work well with your segmented lists. Check your open rates and try different types of subject lines to see what gives you the better open rate. Don't be afraid to try new things.
How to use Viral Marketing with Email Marketing
Viral marketing can be a great way to grow your lists, increase your open rates, and share your brand. This falls in line with your emails creative content. Being able to start a forwarding chain because your email is excellent publicity.
Create an email with something funny, exciting, or intriguing. A good example of this could be a link to a YouTube video of a crazy golf play. This might be a video that subscribers want to share and forward to friends. Making this become a send that goes to multiple people is great for both your brand and email open rates.
What Creative Offers Can Do for You
Using offers in your emails as an incentive to click can be a great way to increase your open rates. Think of the age-old idea of email marketing for golf courses, selling tee times. Yes, this works, yes you should sell tee times, but, don't only do this.
Create ways of selling other items to be unique in your approach. Think of all of the other services that you offer. Letting people know about these offers can help you stand out in front of your competitors. Placing creative, informative, and compelling email content first before the call to action can be the most efficient way to have a sale.
Why the Content of an Email is So Important
Email content is important because it’s what your subscribers have signed up to look at. Having creative content that your viewers look forward to every time you send is the goal. Having sale after sale can be harmful to your open rate, only asking people to buy things isn’t good for any business.
Email content can be anything from pictures to pdf attachments. Place in events, special offers, articles, and pictures of your course. Utilize an email well with enjoyable content that your subscribers will want to read. This will increase your open rates, clicks, and ROI by making your subscribers feel unique.
How to Use Events to Boost Sales
Create sale events with your golf course that align with special golf related events. This can be anything from a player’s birthday to a golf tour. Sending emails about the event can create a great opportunity to create a campaign for it. These can have a countdown timer with different information in each email about the event.
A good example of this would be creating an event for Arnold Palmer's birthday. This can have discounted tee times, sales on clubs, and unique theming over the weekend for your courses. You could make special Arnold Palmer drinks, and have an email campaign based off of that.
How to Use Events to Boost Sales
Create sale events with your golf course that align with special golf related events. This can be anything from a player’s birthday to a golf tour. Sending emails about the event can create a great opportunity to create a campaign for it. These can have a countdown timer with different information in each email about the event.
A good example of this would be creating an event for Arnold Palmer's birthday. This can have discounted tee times, sales on clubs, and unique theming over the weekend for your courses. You could make special Arnold Palmer drinks, and have an email campaign based off of that.
How to Use Contests to Increase Opens
Creating a comment contest, a picture caption contest, or a tweet in contest can help increase your open rates. In doing this, you're enticing people to click by telling them there's an opportunity to win.
Utilizing your subject lines, email content, and these contests can altogether increase your ROI and open rates. Create a caption contest with a giveaway to the winner that includes something unique to your brand. Subscribers will jump at the opportunity to see the details inside.
Sending them to Your Store
Send Subscribers to your store, in person or online, with your email content. Assure that the creative content is there to provide something that the subscriber was happy they opened it, but then always include the call to action.
Create a link to your online store in a non-intrusive way. This can be great to urge people to shop by letting them see the store link but know that there’s other content in the email. Another great thing to do is let them know you have a physical store on the course. This will assure that subscribers know of all the options for purchasing your gear.
Promoting Your Golf Membership Through Email Marketing
Once subscribers are signed up, and you have made them feel welcomed through a nurturing campaign, let them know about your membership options.
Create an email campaign walking subscribers through different aspects of the membership. Pricing, types, and the perks are great places to start. Golf club attendees will be interested in a membership too. This will help you grow your email subscription lists by asking them to sign up to get the latest membership emails.
Promoting your Venues through Email Marketing
Promoting your venues can add to the significance of your emails. Those subscribers that go to your course for things other than golf will love to hear about the other things they can do with their time.
Let subscribers know that you have event rooms and concert halls. Make a promotion about booking their next big event with you. It’s always good to promote the other aspects of your golf course. This way, those who go for a drink at the clubhouse every now and again, those who shop around for clubs, and those there supporting players know of the available offers specific to them.
Adding Value Instead of Discounting Prices
Instead of sending coupon after coupon, cut in front of your competitors by adding value to the price. Entice subscribers to come in through email with special offers that include more added bonuses.
Send out emails with special events advertising bonuses like a free cart, free club rentals, and 6 free balls. This can increase your open rates and clicks with the use of great subject lines. Letting subscribers receive more for what they pay is a great way to drive home the offer.
Now you know how.
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