How one country club made the leap in implementing a further comprehensive marketing strategy and tripled the number of new memberships in a single year. In this case study, we will expand upon how we – performed a 337% increase from our target membership goal in just 10 months.
The Club at Colony Creek is a private golf course and country club that has maintained an excellent reputation. Amenities for those who hold memberships have access to its 18-hole golf course, welcoming atmosphere, engaging social events, and the best food in Victoria. The staff here pride themselves on providing customers of every generation with enjoyable and fun-filled experiences.
“The Club” has been a consistent market leader in their facilities and is known for hosting a number of the largest “Crossroads” region (Victoria County and each adjacent county) golf tournaments over the years. However, following the economic downturn of 2008, they faced the same debacle many private clubs faced: a decline in membership. This put pressure on ownership and management forcing them to get creative to produce revenue from alternative sources such as social events.
The Club at Colony Creek responded to this obstacle by partnering with Building Brands Marketing in 2021 to take a proactive approach. Working together towards increasing membership and event revenue, The Club at Colony Creek desired a complete rebranding, implemented a search strategy, and utilized storytelling to raise additional awareness of their facility. These efforts helped to leverage targeted content across social media and lead nurturing to convert more consumers into the sales funnel. Application of these tactics with full force ultimately resulted in record-breaking growth of membership for The Club and numbers continue to remain on the increase.
We have been working with Robert Royer and his team at Building Brands Marketing as of January 2021 and have been impressed with significant and successful results based upon their efforts. Robert and his team are always professional, helpful, creative, and timely. We are proud to partner with them and look forward to a continued successful future with Building Brands.
Laurie Eder, General Manager
As The Club’s marketing strategy evolved, BBM and The Club developed content which targets two distinct audiences:
We first had to put together a comprehensive marketing strategy with a defined budget clearing defining our KPIs, with the most critical being 40 new members per year. Needing to develop a strategy that not only would recruit new members but retain existing members, it was determined brainstorming a campaign message and a fitting tagline were to be made a priority.
We all agreed the website was outdated and built on a subpar platform that wasn’t conducive to membership engagement. The first step began with building a new website that matched the brand perception we wanted to create for The Club at Colony Creek at theclubatcolonycreek.com.
This website was built to convert prospective members, allowing them full capability to schedule tours or book events, all the while letting existing members to easily continue following daily specials or club events. This effectively showcased the facility, fully illustrating its unique value propositions without one ever needing to physically step foot on the facilities. This increased our likelihood to convert a prospect entering from one of our top-of-the-funnel tactics we would later deploy.
The course is a beautiful course. The members make The Club a place everyone wants to be. Our team knew these were two stories that needed to be told:
We needed an effective, detail-oriented search strategy which would better capture prospects already searching for our services. Terms provided such as “golf course near me” or “event venue near me” helped to develop a cognizant and practical Google/Bing Pay-Per-Click campaign. We were able to bid on target keywords to gain more qualified traffic to our website that was now built to convert. In addition to this, we optimized our Google My Business profile to have stronger ranking in the Local 3 Pack, obtaining more organic search traffic in our region.
Not only did we want to use social media to build awareness and gain new prospects for membership and events, but we showcased some of the stories we put together through our production strategies in order to retarget individuals in the prospect pipeline to drive them through the funnel to convert.
In a market like Victoria, Texas, it was important we continued to deploy a layered marketing approach that utilized a traditional marketing layer to build brand awareness and stay top-of-mind among the Crossroads community. We utilized a digital billboard rotation in order to increase awareness and member engagement through event promotions.
At end of 2021, we added 134 new members in that year when our target KPI was 40 new members within that year, by end of the year. We outperformed our target membership number by 337%. Since beginning with The Club we have grown the total membership to date to 480 members and counting.
Private clubs today are aware more now than ever that their digital footprint and strong online presence is the dominant driving force behind channeling success in day-to-day operations and reaching revenue objectives. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, The Club at Colony Creek’s website and inbound marketing strategies will continue to play an ever-important role in increasing prominence around golf tournaments, booking new events, securing new social memberships, and uniting golf members to gather to play the game they love, ultimately growing golf memberships. Building Brands Marketing is excited to be a valued partner, guiding and collaborating together with The Club to continue these successes.
Building Brands Marketing is a full-service marketing consulting firm and advertising agency in Victoria, TX. Over the past several years, Building Brands Marketing has worked with businesses across South Texas on building trust, improving reputation, and increasing sales.
Our remarkable team of marketers, advertisers, developers, videographers, and creatives can make your business shine brightly. Building Brands Marketing provides a deep reservoir of experience with large-scale marketing campaigns that drive a desirable ROI for your investment.
We offer digital and traditional marketing services to the Gulf Coast region and we make your business stand out from the crowd. Our clients enjoy a comprehensive marketing strategy that stays on budget with cost analyses to optimize spending.
It all begins with a free, no-obligation strategy meeting between you and one of our marketing consultants.
Are you looking for help getting your business to the next level? Our team of marketing consultants can provide strategic guidance and advice to help you reach your goals. Take the first step in getting a free, no-obligation strategy meeting with one of our professionals. by filling out the form below.