Fore! Your Information - April 2009

IS YOUR INTERNET MARKETING STRATEGY HURTING OR HELPING YOUR BUSINESS? - Have you ever thought about your Internet Marketing Strategy and wondered if you are making the right decisions for your business? At a time when every dollar matters, marketing decisions are more important than ever before. Valuable lessons can be learned from the travel industry's experience with third-party Internet reservation websites. Airlines and hotels once negatively impacted by websites like Expedia.com, Hotels.com, or Travelocity.com, discovered how to properly use these sites so that their partnerships didn't hurt their business or hinder their customer base. 

Take a look at the following websites: Southwest Airlines: http://www.southwest.com, American Airlines: http://www.aa.com, Hampton Inn: http://hamptoninn.com. What do you notice about these sites? They all have a similar Internet Marketing Strategy - they brand themselves. Expedia.com, Hotels.com, and Travelocity.com are not found anywhere on their website. With the exception of Southwest Airlines, these companies do however use third-party sites to help sell their products. American Airlines customers can search flight options at Expedia.com, but at a higher price. They are training their customers to know that the best airfare will always be found on the American Airlines website. Golf courses should adopt this same Internet Marketing Strategy. You are training your customers where they can find the best price, and anyone who tells you otherwise may not have your business' best interest at heart.

So why do so many golf courses use third-party Internet reservation systems on their webpage? Are the golf courses trying to brand the third-party Internet reservation company or the golf course? Click here to continue reading...

FORE! RESERVATIONS USER THRIVES DURING CHALLENGING ECONOMIC TIMES & IS FEATURED AS THE COVER STORY OF PGA MAGAZINE - We would like to congratulate The City of Livonia Golf Division (Livonia, MI) who is featured as the cover story of the April 2009 issue of PGA Magazine. The article details how their three golf courses - Fox Creek Golf Club, Whispering Willows Golf Course, and Idyl Wyld Municipal Golf Course have found a way to succeed during the tough economic times by driving rounds and revenue and retaining customers utilizing effective marketing tools. The City of Livonia Golf Division has been a Fore! Reservations User since 2001. Click here to read the article, and click to page 54.

SPRING REGIONAL USERS CONFERENCES DRAW LARGE CROWDS - Thank you to everyone who attended the New England Regional Users Conference at Leicester Country Club (Leicester, MA) and the Midwest Regional Users Conference at SentryWorld (Stevens Point, WI). Both conferences drew large crowds with over thirty area courses in attendance making them our most attended regional meetings to date. The meetings were an enjoyable day for all attendees who learned how to implement new software features, shared business ideas with one another, and received demonstrations on brand new products. Click here to view photos from the conferences. Click here to view the schedule of upcoming conferences in your area.

BRAND NEW LOYALTY CARD STICKERS - There is a new and inexpensive way to implement loyalty cards, and we think EVERY COURSE should use this new loyalty card 'sticker'. In the retail world, this new and inexpensive way to quickly ring up frequent customers or Awards Program members has fast become a popular alternative to the traditional customer ID card. Instead of a plastic ID card, customers can take a barcode sticker and place it on an existing credit card rather than carrying around an additional card in their wallet or on their set of keys. This eliminates the problem of Awards Program members forgetting to bring their card with them to the course. You can actually get these barcoded stickers for as little as 7 cents per sticker! To place an order contact Kevin Bauman at Platinum Printing at 708-712-7389 or call the Sales Team at 630-789-9705 for more information.

CUSTOMER INPUT TOUCH SCREEN KIOSK CONTEST RESULTS - Thank you to everyone who submitted an entry to our contest. We received nearly 50 entries and selected the top 16 customer database promotions. Click here to view the top 16 entries. A random drawing was conducted from these entries and we'd like to congratulate Cleve Cleveland of Newark Valley Golf Club who won the FREE kiosk! If you would like to order a kiosk contact the Sales Team at 630-789-9705.

DID YOU KNOW? - Did you know that you can customize e-mail messages to include each golfer's First Name, Last Name, Awards Balance, along with many other fields? This is a great way to personalize your e-mail blasts so the golfer feels that the e-mail is more specific to them as an individual. To insert fields in your e-mail message, simply go to the upper right hand corner of your e-marketing template and hit the drop down menu next to "Mail Merge Field". There you will find all the fields that can be put into your message. Once you find the field you want, simply hit "Insert" and it will be inserted into your message wherever you have the cursor. The end result will be your customized e-mail message saying something like "Dear Tiger Woods, Your new Awards Balance is $15.87."

MONTHLY SURVEY QUESTION - For this month's survey we would like to know who you think will win the Masters. Click here to take this month's survey.