Attracting new members to a course

[justino21]

Like many courses around the country, my home course has been losing members in this economy.  I was wondering what types of promotions you've seen in your area and any types of marketing your clubs have done to increase the membership?  Were there any special promotions or changes made that you thought had a positive impact?

Thanks is advance

[meenman]

Originally Posted by justino21

Like many courses around the country, my home course has been losing members in this economy.  I was wondering what types of promotions you've seen in your area and any types of marketing your clubs have done to increase the membership?  Were there any special promotions or changes made that you thought had a positive impact?

Thanks is advance

Our club offers a 25% reduction of dues to a member and the member they refer (figuring the *buddy system* will kind of keep both there) - it has basically kept our membership numbers flat.

A couple of years ago there was a promotion where new members paid no cart fees for the first year, which was a total disaster - not one of the families on that plan stayed after their first year.

[clubchamp]

I got my initiation fee waived when I joined a country club a couple years ago and my monthly dues have never gone up.

[johnclayton1982]

My club in Louisiana has some fun leagues.  Thats why I joined.  Like leagues not meant for awesome players.  One really popular league is match play best ball.  You play with two-somes and have a won loss records like team sports.  Its pretty fun.  If it wasn't for those leagues I wouldn't really see the value in my dues.

[RFetters]

The first step in the process is to actually determine exactly what the financial situation is of the club.  If your club just needs a few members to retain financial stability its different than when the club is in serious financial trouble.

Obviously if the club needs only a few members, offering a reduced initiation fee, or one that is partially deferred can be all that's needed to attract the members needed.  Usually just announcing the offer to existing members and encouraging them to spread the word will work.  Unfortunately, most clubs wont do this and find that some members resist any sort of promotion to just recruit a few members, that dont pay the current fees and initiation.  And instead they go with the status quo, and hope to wait out any deficits with emergency funds, refinance debt and etc, and hope that somjetime in the future the membership will increase.

The other scenario, and perhaps your club's situation is a bit different.  When a club is in real financial difficulty, it's important for the members to realize that the past is gone, and if they want the club to survive and thrive, some big  changes need to be made.  Some of the well off members will resist, saying that fewer is better, since their friends will still be members, tee times more available and any increase in dues is something that they may even support.  The problem is that without being at the desired membership levels plus natural attrition this doesnt work.

The most successful membership drive I have seen was:

1.  Each existing voting member was given one new and free membership to sell.  The member could either sell it at full price, a discounted price or just give it away.  The only qualification for the new member was a quick review of the application and the sponsoring member's referral.

2.  Each new member wasnt given full-voting rights until they had paid 24 months dues and paid their bills on time.

3.  Once 24 months passed, each new member was given full voting rights and could even sell their membership for market price.

4.  Once the desired membership level was reached, the drive was ended, so some free memberships were never used and expired.

At the end of the drive, we had the membership at the desired level, with monthly cash flow to not only cover expenses but also enough for a surplus that was used to replenish the emergency fund, and over time the surplus created opportunities to make significant course improvements as well.

When a club is in financial trouble, the main goal shouldnt be to retain the initiation fee, and to lament the potential decline in value of transfering a membership,,,its increasing the membership so that monthly cash flow is enough for the club to remain healthy.  When membership increases, all the other elements of the club improve as well,,ie,,the bar, dining, and the pro shop.

[justino21]

Thanks for the responses.  It seems a lot of clubs are in a similar situation as people have less expendable income.  There are a lot of great deals out there and it is becoming harder to both retain members as well as attract new ones.  A believe a bigger issue is whatever new offers the club puts out, it ends up rubbing certain members who have paid full initiation and dues the wrong way.  It is a slippery slope.

[neophytea]

Clubs:  The competition for members is great.  The new member is a value thinking consumer.  Is the cost of joining and playing a club comparable to playing public courses that are just as nice.  Why would I want to pay a lot more to play your club instead of public courses that are just as nice. I belonged to a country club that cost me $5000 a year to play 50 rounds a year ($100 per 18).  I quit after a year and played three public courses that were as nice or better and paid $1750 for 50 rounds ($25 to $38 per 18).

Public courses:  The competition for players is great.  Is your course one of the nicest courses in its price range?  Are there enough customers available in its price range?  How do you treat your customers?  One of the courses where I used to live started to have a number of people sneak onto the course, so they started to treat all their customers like shoplifters by rudely checking receipts while playing.   A lot of paying customers refused to ever go back, and total number of customers dropped.