Page 14 - GBC fall 2015

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Golf Business Canada
2. Your story. A great story is at the heart of every successful product, company, or religion. Your story is the passion and love you have for golf and all that is great about being involved in the game. The story can be articulated through an article, video, meme, PowerPoint, audio or picture, and you should use every tool at your disposal.
3. Your state is a positive expectation of growth; if you follow this simple plan it will happen! Action always creates opportunity and the more of these positive stories you put in play the more quickly you will reap the rewards.
YOUR SMALL MEDIA EMPIRE
Let’s look at some of the amazing media power every club has at their fingertips and often overlooks. Add that power together and you can out-media the mainstream media in your local area with your positive golf message! Let’s take an average club and say that:
1. Email database: 5,000 names
2. Website traffic: 3,000 visitors a month
3. Facebook fan base: 2,000
4. Physical foot traffic who you can give flyers or newsletters to: 2,000
5. YouTube channel: 500 views
6. LinkedIn account: 500 connections
7. LinkedIn group membership: 5,000 potential viewers
8. We could go much deeper with Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and
whatever else you choose to use and add even more people.
9. Another booster is local newspapers, magazines and blogs who are
running tighter ships than ever and will often welcome well written articles, especially one with a contrarian view i.e., GOLF IS GOOD that they will gladly run for FREE. All you have to do is provide it and reach their audience of 10, 20, 50,000 people for free!
10. Finally, for just a few dollars you can boost every positive post on Facebook and reach a huge local target market of golfers with your positive message.
The above total, without the additional social media, pay per click,
or local media coverage is 18,000 potential viewers, plus the extra traffic from shares and forwards. If your data, fan base and traffic numbers are higher, it could easily be double or 36,000 viewers.
Now imagine if you posted one of these positive golf stories, videos or memes each week on your website, in your emails and on your social networks. That’s 52 positive messages a year and that is only at
“The right message demands a blend of emotional and rational elements that resonate with different segments of our market.”
one club. Imagine if 500 or 1,000 clubs across Canada did this; the cumulative effect would be instant and massive!
Using our initial number of 18,000 potential views, multiplied by 500 clubs, equals 9 million potential views and that is just the basic potential without any boosting or social sharing. The power is there - the message just has to be right.
CRAFTING THE RIGHT STORY
The right message demands a blend of emotional and rational elements that resonate with different segments of our market. I started my own quest with a four- page article on how I got started in golf and why I think every kid should play golf. The response was amazing and from around the world.
That got me excited, and I then wrote a series of positive articles on why seniors should play, why women should play and then went even deeper into the various sights, sounds, feeling and even smells that make golf such a unique game. As you remind people of the simple pleasures golf brings, the wildlife, the friendships, the business deals or just finding a new Pro V1 in the woods, the smiles through the pages are almost palpable.