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Eric C. – GolfTourney Staff
The number one issue in the golf event industry, from the golf event provider perspective, is that they are not filling their golf events with enough players. The elusive 144 golfer capacity per event is experienced by far too few golf events each year. The reality of the situation is that the majority of events get fewer than 90 players (in our experience we’ve seen events get fewer than 70, on average).Luckily, in this day and age there are a number of cost-effective & time-effective methods to draw more golfers to your events.
Disclaimer: As a biased founder of GolfTourney.com, I would love to tell you that our services are the only way to aid your event in reaching full attendee capacity. While this is a great tool to use for digital advertising and registrations it is not going to be the only method that you will need in your arsenal to acquire more golfers.Here are a few key ways to draw more traffic to your upcoming event(s):
- NETWORKING – This is the top way of drawing more golfers to your event. Not just email blasts to your lists but individual conversations can go a long way in drawing more golfers to your event. Take your friends out to lunch and ask them to bring a foursome to your event. Also, ask them for other contacts that they think might be interested. This effective method is used at nauseam from the golf event coordinators are filling their events every year.
- SPONSORSHIPS – The majority of charity events utilize Corporate Sponsorships (and small business sponsorships for that matter). These sponsorships are not only a great outlet for these companies to raise awareness and donate to the charity but sponsors also can participate in the event as players. These organizations have a budget to do “Good” in their community whereas individual golfers have to find it in their personal budget to play in your event.
- EMAIL AND SOCIAL MEDIA – Begin to raise awareness of your event through your social networks and email lists starting 6 months or more out from the event date and consistently up to the event date. This will put you on the minds of your golfers and individuals will be able to mentally budget for the event. Make sure that you post/email quality information about the organization, the event’s impact on the world/country/state/local.
We suggest emailing/posting in the following schedule:
6+ months = Monthly
5-3 months = Bi-Weekly
2-1 months = Weekly
Final month = 3 Times/Week.
Important Thought: Give them the option to unsubscribe from your list. It is the law and is just good practice.
- PREVIOUS PLAYERS – While this one seems the most obvious, it is a probably the most missed by many events every year. If you are an inaugural event you realize how hard it is to derive a list of golfers who might be interested. Golf Events that are past that tough first year really need to individually contact the players who previously attended their event. You’ve probably heard the saying: “It is far easier to keep a current customer than to create new customers.” This works the same way in the world of golf tournaments. Your customer, the golfer, needs to feel welcomed and impactful on the success of the event.Important thought: Don’t come off desperate. Show them that they are important but not that the events success lies only on their shoulders.
If you have any additional thoughts, we would love to hear from you! What has worked for you and your event?
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