Membership incentives for golf's next generation...

[percy_layer]

Some clubs have a membership deal where, for example, you pay £250 and get to play a certain number of times, you then have the option to pay a 'top-up' to play more games.

This caters for the golfers who only play rarely and who feel a membership is not worth it to them. And, golfers who play frequently will pay more for their years membership and golf than those who hardly play.


Whatever package structure that clubs decide upon needs to be advertised, promoted and sold to make it work. It's not enough to just inform the current members, to bring people into the club the membership packages and benefits need to be communicated to as wide an audience as possible. And the club environment needs to be friendly and welcoming for everyone, not just the established few.

 

[SyR]

I'd love to join a club, but despite having a well-ish paying job I just don't have the spare income to justify the cost of membership in my area. I'm in my twenties and all my spare income is going into saving for a deposit for my own home with my wife. Given the percentage of loan to value banks are asking for these days before they offer a reasonable interest rate, the deposit required to buy a place in the South is immense.

A lot of places near me are waiving their joining fees but it's still too much (over £120 per month). Some are offering 5 day membership packages which are much cheaper than the 7 day packages, but these 5 day packages are useless to people with Mon - Fri, 9-5 jobs.

My ideal package would be a 3 day membership (Fri - Sun) as an alternative to the 5 day package, but I can't see any club doing this.

I hope I can somehow afford membership next year, another year without golf would be horrible.

 

[viscount17]

Whatever package structure that clubs decide upon needs to be advertised, promoted and sold to make it work. It's not enough to just inform the current members, to bring people into the club the membership packages and benefits need to be communicated to as wide an audience as possible.

You've got this right charlie-h. I know most clubs think a website is built once then never touched (hence their p-poor quality) but it makes no sense to me that clubs do not disclose membership costs on their websites.

Wake up! this is a competitive market.

 

[Dodger]

Whatever package structure that clubs decide upon needs to be advertised, promoted and sold to make it work. It's not enough to just inform the current members, to bring people into the club the membership packages and benefits need to be communicated to as wide an audience as possible.

You've got this right charlie-h. I know most clubs think a website is built once then never touched (hence their p-poor quality) but it makes no sense to me that clubs do not disclose membership costs on their websites.

Wake up! this is a competitive market.

Errr Steve isn't that what he rightly saying?? Think you may have to re read his quote.

 

[Marko77]

but it makes no sense to me that clubs do not disclose membership costs on their websites.

I'm guessing it is because alot of clubs do not have the expertise in-house to build/maintain the website so the job is outsourced and unless you know someone the job is not the cheapest.

Clubs will put alot of basic information there but anything that can potentially change, green fee's / membership fee's, etc I can understand why they don't due to the cost of re-employing the firm to make that wee change.

Or it could just be they are lazy?

That's where a mixture of website & link to blog/social network works well - all the latest info in the blog which can be maintained by anyone with access to the net and has the username and password.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I'm still not convinced by this linking to social networking for main sites. My club, the one HID works at and a fair few others offers a main website for visitors with general information including green fees and we then have a members only (needing a password) for items specific to the membership.

Our secretaries do update the members part pretty regularly but it's more a case of not housekeeping out of date stuff that irritates me more. I'd love the opportunity to run the website for the club and make sure everyone has access to the latest information but don't see the benefit of running it via facebook etc