By Rob Carey_Aug/DigitalDelight.jpg "Digital Delight")
Facility and web site overhauls are driving members and business to Braemar Country Club
When a club that’s more than 50 years old becomes essentially new again, it’s a safe bet a lot of money is riding on the outcome. That was certainly the case when Dallas-based ClubCorp commissioned a full redevelopment of Braemar Country Club in Tarzana, California, that included renovation of its clubhouse, construction of a fitness center and a two-tiered driving range, and culling of 36 holes to what membership director Debbie Faulkner calls “27 much better holes, with several being of signature quality.”
Entrusted with growing membership to realize returns on those considerable investments, Faulkner devised a plan that incorporated strategic communications and a word-of-mouth campaign led by current members eager to be ambassadors for the club. Fortunately, ClubCorp in early 2010 had begun a company-wide digital initiative just as Braemar’s redevelopment got underway. The effort included upgrading the quality of all Web sites in the company’s portfolio, making them easier to view, navigate and, most importantly, control content. This power has helped Faulkner immensely in her task at Braemoor, and it provides a blueprint for any operator whose online presence isn’t yet seen as a major asset in acquiring and retaining members.
To make each facility’s Web site robust but still easy to maintain internally, ClubCorp’s program generates certain types of content through its copywriting team at the corporate office. “General copy that we want to make sure is optimized for search engines plus other information that we want to come across well from a marketing standpoint is handled centrally,” says Banks Baker, the firm’s vice president of marketing. Meanwhile, club-specific content (calendars, social-event details, restaurant specials and other organic materials) is handled at the property level.
Though many facilities don’t have the resources to employ a copywriting staff, Baker does advise those operators to work with a digital marketing manager at least on a part-time basis. A seasoned professional can help implement best practices in online marketing and search optimization, even if club staffers will generate the site’s content.
Another feature ClubCorp provides that most operators will soon have to adopt or risk being left behind is “publish-once, view-everywhere” capability. Content formatted for mobile phones, tablets and touch-screen interfaces can be generated on site, providing added value for members and prospects who don’t need a laptop or a phone to access information about the club. Obviously, this often comes with a learning curve.
At Braemar in particular, Faulkner had to “educate the marketplace on a club that has been here more than 50 years but which has changed completely.” To impress site visitors, she used professional photography to highlight new components of the club, including the clubhouse entry and foyer, the fitness facility, the dining room and bar/lounge area, and new outdoor terraces. The second wave of photography was posted to the site just recently, once the turf on the reconstructed courses and the driving range filled in.
As engaging as an appealing design and timely, informative content can be, it’s arguably more important that a site be positioned so it pops up in the right places to attract prospects. “People used to think if you put up a new site, you’d automatically get traffic,” Faulkner notes. “But that’s not true. We had to create a buzz in other ways to get the target audience to learn about the site.”
Faulkner started by placing Braemar’s Web site address on all collateral materials, pitching local media outlets to get editorial coverage, and buying advertising in select media. A direct-mail campaign helped the club and its Web site stay top-of-mind for several months, as did a series of meetings with local community groups. On property, Faulkner began using tabletop tent cards and cart signs to encourage members to frequent the Web site. Features such as billing statements and online tee times will soon be part of the offering.
Truth is, motivating current members is perhaps the most important part of driving prospects to the Web site. “You really have to work from the inside out, getting members talking about the club to their friends and neighbors so that they say, ‘I should check out that club’s site,’”Faulkner notes. “You’ll hopefully get a lot of the visitors to be impressed enough to at least make an inquiry and leave their e-mail address or phone number. That’s where the rubber finally meets the road—now you have to convert them.”
The means of converting prospects differs based on how each prospect wishes to communicate. If Faulkner gets a phone number, then she knows she has a serious inquiry. (The club’s highest conversion rate comes from such prospects.) But when an inquirer leaves only an e-mail address, a different set of tactics come into play. “We know that people will join only by coming in for a tour and having an experience here, so trying to be vague with pricing before they come in has been the norm,” Faulkner says. “But online inquirers want to know all the facts, so they don’t like when a club is coy on pricing and other key elements.”
In such cases, Braemar’s marketing staff creates an electronic photo book and sends it via e-mail with pricing and other facts. They also offer up a loss-leader price for a limited-time membership experience to get them to respond.
Faulkner has taken on the online inquiries herself so she can accurately measure the effectiveness of different approaches. So far, the results of the online-focused strategies have actually surprised her. In one week in early summer—even before the courses and driving range were fully grown in—she converted five of 10 online inquiries.
“That was pretty remarkable,” she says. “None of us expected such a result from online leads.”
Rob Carey is a New York-based writer and principal of Meetings & Hospitality Insight.