How free marketing boosted club’s membership

Despite being a club that has hosted the final qualifying round for the Open Championship several times, Lytham Green Drive is by no means a financial juggernaut, even in an era of golf’s tight purse strings.

So it was of particular concern to the club that in the not too distant past, it, unfairly, grew a reputation for having a waterlogged parkland course.

“People thought you needed wellies to play it in the winter,” said Tony Barlow, a member at the club. As a result membership levels deteriorated and £300,000 of bank loans was invested in drainage, which significantly improved the course. However, this in itself was not enough to bring back members.

“We knew that with the course in such a good state that people would be encouraged to become members if they visited the club during an open day where they could view prices and see the club,” said Tony. “But the key was how to publicise it.”

With little money to spend on marketing, Tony resorted to the equivalent of begging, borrowing and stealing. Well two out of three anyway.

“We approached the members in the club who worked for printing companies and asked them for free favours and they generally accepted. From that we created several posters and leaflets. Then, we hit the local areas,” said Tony.

“We spoke to the shop owners and told them what we were doing, and that raising the profile of the course would enhance the local area – a nice golf club would be good for the economy and the more societies that come the more likelihood that people would use these shops and facilities.

“So we put posters and leaflets advertising the open days in several shops and commercial buildings within the local area. It didn’t cost us a penny, but it was hard work.”

One of the reasons why Tony knew about the occupations of the members was because he’d previously raised £19,000 from members’ companies which sponsor every tee on the course. “I got 18 different sponsors,” he said. “We said that three of the tees were ‘prestige’ tees – the first, the last and the tenth, which was new, and these tees sold for more money. Otherwise the rate was £750, which kept the business’s name on the tee for five years.

“And the money raised was spent on new tee markers that improved the course no end. These signs also raised the club’s profile.”

Following the success of the tee sponsorship, the club then sold advertising space in the strokesaver books in much the same way.  Each member that sponsored a tee bought an advert for the corresponding hole in the book, at a rate of either £150 for one year or £400 for three years.

Perhaps most impressively, the marketing department discovered that one of the sponsors, an estate agent, had a web site offering virtual tours of houses. Tony agreed a deal with the website designer that if a virtual tour of the course could be provided on Lytham Green Drive’s web site for free, then the designer could have free advertising on the site. It was a reciprocal arrangement both parties were happy with, and for no money has given a distinctly professional feel to the club’s site.

Furthermore, the club has encouraged male members to get their wives to join as social members for a fee of £70 plus an annual subscription of £35, where they can attend the impressive functions the club regularly hosts.

“Everyone likes having those here,” said Tony. “For instance, in one weekend in June we’ve got a wedding on the Friday and a summer ball on the Saturday, in which we’ll use our massive marquee. We had a wedding planned for the Sunday, but it was cancelled, so I marketed to a new company that had started up locally, and they’re having a golf day on that day instead. The whole weekend will be worth £3,000 to the club.”

Other recent benefits for the club were a tariff with two local clubs, North Shore GC and Knott End GC, in which members of any one of the three clubs could play either of the other two courses for £10. Tony has also negotiated a cheap deal with a local radio station to obtain a year’s worth of advertising.

“Marketing is the way forward for clubs. It can be a battle to get a budget as some people in the industry don’t appreciate it, but if you look at Lytham Green Drive we are now reaping the rewards,” said Tony.

Those rewards are that in one 18 month period, the club increased its full male members by 75, lady members by 30 and social members by 67.