Email marketing has been around for longer than you would think. In 1978, 7 years after the first email was sent the first mass marketing email was sent promoting DEC computers. Email therefore pre-dates virtually all other types of internet marketing and its been around since then because it works.
According to Experian, for every $1 spent on email marketing, $44.25 is the average return on investment, elevating it head and shoulders above any other form of digital marketing. So, if you are not doing regular email marketing or want to improve it here are a few tips (alternatively you could just employee the services of The Revenue Club if you are a golf course operator looking to get more from digital marketing – apologies for the plug):
Analyse – in last weeks blog we discussed digital marketing in general and the importance of analysing the impact your digital marketing has. Email is one of those formats and you can measure every aspect of an email marketing campaign e.g. open rate, CTR’s (Click Through Rates), conversion rates etc. This will allow you to better tailor your emails and make them more effective over time.
Conduct surveys – you can use email marketing to directly ask customers about their needs, views and opinions. This is perfect for member survey’s as most golf courses are likely to have an email for most of their members. And why not pick a few visitors and send them a survey about their experience, they may even share a few of their ideas on how to improve things – I’m sure your members will in their survey!
Combine email and social media – Email to an extent is a numbers game just like any other form of marketing. If you have 100 subscribers and an open rate of 1% then that means 1 person will open your email. You can build your email subscribers in a number of ways; try sharing links to ‘subscribe’ on your social media or running a competition for those subscribing and promote it via social media. Also make sure you offer the option for people to share your email on social platforms.
Get creative – think beyond a bit of news, add pictures about the new bunker going in, run a competition for the lowest score from a visiting golfer. In short, do something different that will make people want to share your email and interact with your course.
Segregate your database – make sure your database is segregated in whatever email tool you are using, its no use sending green fee offers to members!
So in summary, Email remains one of the most important digital marketing channels there is. Even in this age of social media mania, 91 percent of all email users worldwide check their emails at least once per day!
