Adapting to a new generation of golfers

5 websites offering free golf marketing advice

By Kris Hart

As a golf course owner or PGA Professional, wouldn’t it be nice to get some free golf marketing advice versus having to hire the National Golf Foundation or a large consulting company to come into your business and help you understand your customers?

As the CEO of Nextgengolf, a golf entrepreneur and one of those “millennial golfers”, I’m offering some free advice to anyone affiliated with a golf course. Some people would charge you to run a “study” about your customers, but why not hear it from the horse’s mouth for free. Below are 5 websites that provide real time, quality, customer feedback for you and your business. Let me know if the below free advice for golf professionals is helpful for your golf business.

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5 websites providing free golf marketing

golf_advisor_golf_marketing_course_page.png1) Golf advisor – This website owned and operated by the Golf Channel is the latest and greatest site for customer reviews about golf courses. Since this website is only a few years old, the amount of review is less than I would like to see, but if your golf course has been reviewed on this site, the review should be fairly recent and can give you some perspective on what consumers really think of your golf course. Hop on to the site and see what people are saying about you. See an example of a review below from Golf Advisor. Isn’t it nice to see comments and feedback like this?

2) Facebook – As many golf courses say, I’m on Facebook! Most golf courses are “on Facebook”, but rarely do I find a course using this social media tool to their full advantage. Did you know customers can “check-in” at your business, “like” your page and most importantly, “review your business?” Facebook reviews is a fairly new addition to the Facebook platform, but it is becoming more and more meaningful especially if you get great reviews. I’d suggest logging on to Facebook and seeing who likes you, reviews you, and checks-in at your facility. What are customers saying and how are you responding to their positive and negative comments? If you are active on Facebook, encourage your best customers to review your course. This will help get your posts seen more often and shed a good light on your business.

twitter_golf_marketing_search.png3) Twitter – Need some real-time feedback? Even if you are a golf course that does not have a twitter account, there is a good chance customers have tweeted about your golf course name and talked about you on twitter. Without even logging in, you can search for your golf course name on twitter and see what people are saying about you. See the example below from a random course called Panther Run in FL. This type of feedback would be helpful for me running my golf facility! Run a golf course twitter search.

4) Yelp – Although Yelp is mostly known for restaurant reviews, any business that has a physical location is on Yelp. Did you know your golf course is listed here? Check out the customer reviews about your facility. I would not recommend paying for yelp advertising and business tools, but I would claim your business page and respond to any and all feedback. In my opinion, Golf Advisor will be replacing yelp in the future as the go to place for customers to review golf courses.

google_golf_marketing_courses.png5) Google – When is the last time you searched your golf course name on google? This is simple and easy. After you search for your course, there is typically an address box that comes up showing a map of your course, the website, a star rating, and reviews by customers who have visited your course. If your golf course has a wedding or banquet business, are these reviews trumping any golf reviews you may have? Encourage your customers to leave reviews about your facility on google! See the below example of how this looks.

Need some additional help? Check out Instagram to see what pictures customers are posting about your course. If you run a golf resort or are a golf course in a travel destination like Boston, TripAdvisor might be another good review option for you. If you are really sophisticated, I would suggest downloading apps like the Grint, 18Birdies, and GolfMatchApp which encourage their customers to write reviews about their rounds. There are a lot of resources out there where consumers are saying good and bad things about your business. Hope this free golf marketing advice helps!

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Topics: Golf course marketing