And How Golf Clubs Can Get More Members Following The Same Ideas

It’s no secret that the Ladies European Tour has had some struggles over the last few years. Losing events, losing sponsors and even losing players as they head over to the LPGA. You even hear that some of the top players still need part time jobs, which is ridiculous.

And yet when you browse through Twitter all the chat is about how the LET doesn’t get enough attention, how it’s not aired enough, and there appears to be a demand for more.

This article is not about the ins and outs of the organisation. It’s simply a look at what they could do from here to grow their brand. And if you are looking for tips on growing your golf club, then take note, all these tips could help you too.

A Look At How The LET Can Grow Their Brand, Increase Sponsorships & Increase Prize Funds

Clearly they need to increase the prize funds so that players can afford to play the LET.

Now to increase prize funds we need to increase the value of the tournaments and the tour itself… so how do we do that?

Who Decides How Valuable Something Is?

Ultimately…. We do! The consumer! The market decides how valuable something is. How? By the numbers of people that tune in & how many people go to the events.

Does That Affect The Prize Fund?

I would imagine so! I would guess that part of the reason that the prize money is so much bigger in the men’s game is because there are so many more people watching & paying to go watch, which in turn means the more the sponsors are willing to pay more to be seen at the event, and thus the prize funds will increase.

I mean just look at this… The most viewed LPGA tournament in 2017 was the British Open, which was watched by an average of 1.1 million viewers in the USA. The US Open in the same year had 5.1 million viewers in the USA. Of course sponsors are going to pay more if they are going to be seen by an extra 4 million viewers.

It’s the same reason there is less money in men’s badminton compared to football. The market is totally different.

So if we want to get prize funds up for women’s golf… which I think we all do, then we need to get more people tuning in!

What About The LPGA Vs The LET

But lets remove the men vs women argument for a minute. Lets look at the differences between the LPGA and the LET…

The financial gap between the two is astonishing… An article in 2017, stated that “As things stand, 20th on the LPGA money list has collected $634,000. In Europe, the same position is worth just under €39,000.”

So that’s around… £497k vs £35k… Just the £462,000 difference!!

Why is the LPGA able to generate such higher prize funds? I would guess again because there are more people watching the tournaments. But the important thing here is note that the higher prize funds are totally possible to achieve.

Just as example let’s take a quick look at the social media numbers…

On Facebook, at the time of writing, the LET has 38,201 fans compared to the LPGA with 1,248,064 fans. While on Instagram the LET has 14.2k and the LPGA, 188k fans.

Even a quick look at individual players tells a story. Georgia Hall has 20.9k followers while Lexi Thompson has 376k followers.

Now I am not saying that the number of followers on Instagram is a sole measure of success by any means. BUT if each organisation and each player has all those followers and a percentage of them tune in to watch. The LPGA is getting WAY more exposure!

And sure I also understand that Lexi will have more followers because she gets more exposure on TV etc.

The LET Are Losing Events & Losing Sponsors

Why? I would guess that it comes down not enough demand from the viewership. If there were thousands of people going to watch the event live and hundreds of thousands/millions tuning in to watch on tv, then the demand for events would increase and sponsors would be wanting to throw more money at it, not less.

You see, a lot of problems in business can be solved with good marketing and sales! And I believe that’s the same here!

The Ladies European Tour has a marketing problem!

Stop Blaming SKY & Other TV Companies

We need to stop blaming the tv companies… they are a business, they put on whatever they believe is going to get eyeballs watching their show. Why? Because then they can charge more for advertising around it. If no one is tuning in then they won’t run the show, plain and simple. It doesn’t make business sense to them.

So how do the LET get more people watching the game… and YES it’s the LET’s responsibility, not Sky’s.

Could Sky and other tv networks help by giving women’s golf more exposure…. OF COURSE! But it’s not their responsibility to do so.

Ideas To Help The LET Grow Their Brand & Audience

Now I don’t know all the in’s and out’s of the LET. I don’t know all their revenue streams etc. So I am merely sharing things that I believe they could do to take their brand to the next level. They might even already be doing some of the things I suggest which would be awesome.

1. Go to Netflix And/Or Amazon

Most of the younger generation are watching TV here anyway, create deals with them to get the sport on there. So many people under the age of 30 are scrolling through Netflix right now looking for something to watch, not Sky.

And Netflix and Sky have just created a partnership which means if you are a Sky subscriber you now have Netflix too… Shows what Sky thinks of Netflix. I’d be worried too if I was Sky.

Amazon have already agreed a deal for 2019 with the Premier League to broadcast 20 of the games…. I am telling you this will only increase in years to come.

Then, for sure the market has to decide with their money if they want to watch on any of these, as sometimes it will mean an extra monthly subscription.

2. Invest in Marketing on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube

Take a big chunk of the marketing budget and invest it into Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and get the audience engaged in the places they are hanging out. Engage them and get them to switch on the tv and tuning in… or maybe Netflix in the future.

Facebook Ads… Really?

Hell, freaking, YES! It’s such a cheap way to get traffic to where you want it to go!

And by the way who actually watches tv adverts anymore? When was the last time you actually watched an ad on tv? Like, you actually sat there, without your phone in hand and watched the ads?

You don’t do it, you either fast forward, get your phone out go onto… Fcaebook/Instagram, or walk out the room to make a cup of tea and then scroll through Facebook or Instagram while waiting for the kettle to boil.

People’s attention is on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube…. Amongst lots of other places. Be there.

3. Invest money in marketing EVERY tournament to the local audience and get them to come and watch live! (Yes More Facebook Ads)

Part of your Facebook ads budget goes to promoting each tournament, locally. Target people within a 50-100 mile radius of the course and get them coming to the event! The more people you get to the event the more the sponsors will pay.

4. Run competitions – with sponsors – build a massive audience online, engage with them!

A great way to drive traffic would be to run competitions with sponsors – this ads HUGE value to the sponsors as you are actively promoting them in your marketing.

5. Help promote all the players

Do things that help promote the players, help build their audience, create more engagement with the fans.

6. Help the players understand the importance of building an audience

YES the players are a business in themselves. The bigger the audience they have the higher the sponsorship money and better deals they can personally get!

7. Use Influencers

The Jazzy Golfer is doing WONDERS for women’s golf! At the time of writing, she has 26,500 followers on Instagram. And I see the LET have done a great job of getting her on board, I saw that she was interviewing the pros at the recent Costa Del Sol Open de Espagna. This is BRILLIANT! More of that please!

Why? Because a lot of The Jazzy Golfers audience will then tune in to those interviews too and then tune into the tournament as well.

8. Create More Content

Be a media company! Create more content around the tour. The opportunity is HUGE. Show the behind the scenes, interviews, don’t just show the tournaments and stop there. Allow the audience to get to know the players, give us an insight into the LET.

9. Get More Women Into The Game Of Golf

This I know is one of the LET’s goals, and for sure if you increase female participation, naturally those same people will be tuning in to watch their hero’s play!

This is a whole other conversation and not one I am diving into now.

All of these things I have mentioned will help increase the overall viewership of the tournaments and thus increase the demand for tournaments, increase sponsorship and increase the prize money!

What Can Golf Clubs Learn From This?

Now if you are a golf club reading this, you’re probably thinking, that sounds great Chris, but how do I apply this to our club? Well take the same principles and apply them to your club, like so….

• Take personal responsibility for the growth of your club – stop waiting for a magic pill or someone else to do something. It has to start with you.
• Run Facebook Ads to your local community (target your ideal members)
• Run Competitions – with other local businesses.
• Create your own content and release it on Facebook. Show the behind the scenes of the club – The Green Keepers stories etc. (Sure you might not be able to get Amazon or Netflix to create a show about you, but create your own and put it on Facebook)
• Make your members feel famous – post about them on Facebook etc.
• Use influencers and micro influencers – get people with a good following coming to your club and creating content, or even being a member of your club. They don’t have to have millions of followers, they just need to have… influence. It doesn’t even have to be an “Instagram influencer” it could be someone in your town who everyone knows and listens to.

If you have more members, more people coming to play, and your club in turn makes more profit, you are able to better serve your members. You can have improvements to the course and clubhouse, you can put on special events for members, you can give them things to increase the value of the membership. If your club doesn’t make money, you can’t do those things.

Let’s Connect

I am going to be writing a weekly piece around the world of marketing, sales, random business thoughts and ramblings. We will talk strategy, tactics, how to’s and more. From Facebook & Google Ads to sales and business models. So if you are in the golf world and like to join in these types of conversations, make sure we connect. Include in your message that you read this.

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