How To Guide: Holiday Revenue Ideas

It might seem like a blur, but with Black Friday and Cyber Monday behind us in 2021, the Christmas holiday season is upon us!  This time of year is usually the time to prepare your strategies to further liquidate inventory levels over the winter months and secure new memberships, membership renewals and highlight gift cards as a great gift option. It takes a few small strategies to take advantage of this and create additional holiday revenue before the end of the calendar year.

Cater to Your Target Demographic

Most of our clients have several different types of customers, from casual golfers that visited the course only once or twice a year, to the dedicated avid members that play a high number of rounds annually.  It’s a good strategy to send these groups different offers based on their individual purchasing behavior.  Segmenting your database based on actual purchasing behavior is the best way to create targeted groups of people based on what they have OR have not purchased from you!

First Timers/ Millennials Players

2021 continued to be a good year for golf, with demand retreating a bit from 2020, but still landing ahead of previous years.  As a result, your property likely encountered a couple thousand golfers that either hadn’t played you in the previous 12 months or had never played your course at all in the past.  Getting those players to return for even a single round is a significant boost in your retention annually, and likely to add 1,000 or more rounds the following year.  These are the golfers that can receive your most aggressive offer for a round of golf, and if possible, having them pre-pay for a future round of golf solidifies a future visit to your property.

Avid Members

Many of our clients had significant growth in their membership in 2021, and are looking for smart ways to capitalize on this larger and more active membership.  From our conversations with clients, we also recognize that it’s very possible that you capped or limited golf memberships in 2021.  Do you plan to continue that plan into next year? 

1- Membership Renewals:

Offering your membership a chance to secure their 2022 membership is a great way to get early commitments and a nice holiday gift for themselves or a special person in their life. These early renewals can be given a discount, but that is not a requirement.  Early membership renewals can be rewarded with a retail discount in the golf shop for holiday shopping, an invitation to a private event in 2022, or provided additional value in a membership renewal gift (logo jacket, cart fee punch card, range card, etc.).  It is even better when membership renewals can be purchased directly in your online store, with full member renewal automations happening in real time in the back office of your business management system. Take the burden off golf shop staff and direct your members to renew online and stop the manual entry of ringing in transactions and modifying expiration dates.

2- Member-Only Holiday Sale:

If you don’t already, hosting a private members-only holiday shopping event is a great way to reward members and give them private access to holiday deals.  Or with Covid still lurking around in 2022, providing an invitation for appointment-based shopping experiences with limited and restricted shoppers and a more private socially distanced experienced can be very appreciated by members.

3- Gift Card Sales:

With the exception of Father’s Day, no time of year is better for driving gift card sales as an option for those hard-to-buy-for family members and friends.  Not only will you reserve a little cash for the winter expenses, but you’ll also make sure that gift card recipients visit your property in 2022 to use their balances.  There’s a reason why most major retailers give bonus gift card cash for gift card purchases; it pulls revenue forward, increases cash reserves, increases retention, and includes a percentage of gift card recipients that never redeem and that’s cash that you retain.

4- Prepaid Rounds Packages:

Bundling rounds of golf, whether it be member guest rounds or rounds of golf as gifts, either is a great way to lock in future visits and business loyalty.  Once you have created a strong offer, check with your POS provider for ways to create promo codes or private ecommerce landing pages that offer that pre-paid round package.  Social media is the best way to target a feeder market or geographic area that you want to target with new customer acquisition.  We have seen some of our clients sell these packages very successfully, even in neighboring cities and states!
 

Want to know how our tools can help you grow your golf club? Send us an email today. 

For more information, please contact:

Lance Merrihew
707-779-2592

707-779-2592

Lance@totaleintegrated.com

About Total e Integrated

Total e Integrated is a leading provider of end-to-end business management solutions for recreation, retail, hospitality and community organizations. For over 20 years Total e Integrated has helped organizations to integrate departments, automate marketing, streamline operations and boost revenues with our innovative solutions and expert consulting services team.