|
PGA 2007 Fall Expo
Las Vegas
Viva Las Vegas!
The PGA Fall Expo returns to Mandalay Bay, on The Strip, September 11 and 12! Go to www.pgafallexpo.com for all the information and details!
As always, any GEMA members can call or write for free floor passes to the show. Write to info@golfeventmanagers.com
and we'll sign you up!
|
Not a Member?
Join Today!
Planner Member Benefits
Sponsor Member Benefits
If you haven't joined GEMA
yet, now's the time. Take a moment to explore the benefits of either a Planner or Sponsor Membership by using the links above. Memberships start at only $99! To learn even more, visit our website at www.golfeventmanagers.com or call the GEMA Help-Line at 866-875-7272. Great to have you join us.
|
Introducing...
Golf Event Magazine
In case you haven't seen it
yet, there is a magazine geared specifically for
Golf Event Managers.
It's called Golf Event Magazine
and every planner and golf facility should read it.
Brought to you by Symphony Publishing in Ohio, this magazine comes out 6
times per year. Every issue
is full of valuable tips
and techniques to make
the most of your
next tournament.
Visit www.golfeventmagazine.com and sign up today.
|
|
We have received many
calls on marketing and promotional questions from GEMA members and want to invite all our Planners and Sponsor to write with any questions they may have.
As we focus on Golf tournament sales and
service, we'll take the questions
and publish
answers for all
of
our members.
Visit www.golfeventmagazine.com and sign up today. |
Have an idea or contribution to the E-zine? We'd love to hear from you! Send us your stories, tips,
tricks or advice to info@golfeventmanagers.com and you'll get credit for them.
|
Upcoming Training
Sessions and
Audio Conferences
Have a session at your
annual meeting to fill? Want
to improve sales and need
to train your team? Have
a topic in mind, but
because of time and other commitments, you may want to call in a speaker? Whether you'd like to schedule a
high-energy training
breakout session or design
a full marketing plan, we
can customize a project
to suit your needs.
Current Training Topics for
Golf Resorts include: Prospecting, Selling Skills, Building a Successful Sales Team, Management by Objectives, Accounting for
Non-Accountants and others.
Event managers enjoy
several excellent topics: Negotiating with Hotels and Resorts, Planning a Great Golf Tournament, Fund-Raising Bootcamp and others.
Write to: marketing@
golfeventmanagers.com
|
|
Tom's Tee Box...
 Greetings!
Golf event marketing means filling the tee-sheets, clubhouses and 19th holes nationwide with a very high-end, well-heeled group-- Golfers! Many courses have empty tee-times, and many planners have open tee-sheets because they are not marketing to their target markets, they are marketing to anyone who can swing a club
(and, speaking as a former caddy,
to many people who CAN'T swing a club!).
If you look at the viewership TV ratings for golf over a weekend, you see that unless Tiger is playing, the rating have a hard time breaking 4 points. At 102,000 TV's per point, that's just over 400,000 households, out of the 110 million in the US. The targeting comes
in with the fact that these are the highest-income, best educated
and most avid golfers, a huge and important market.
That's why you see so many investment ads, premium car ads, and the latest in $500 drivers, all advertised during weekend golf telecasts.
This e-zine is focused on rifle- market, not the shot-gun approach used by many clubs and planners to get more golofers out on the course. Hope you see a couple tips to help you drive sales and
sign-ups.
See you on the course,
Tom
 If you have not seen the new and improved Golf Event Managers Association website, we have added all sorts of downloads, forms and formats to make your life and career easier! Go to www.golfeventmanagers.com, and for a limited time, just use "Golf" as your User Name and "Event" as your Password (without the quotation marks) to see all the materials that are available.
We'll be issuing Password-protection soon, so now is the time to see what GEMA can do for you!
Enjoy!
Sponsor Member of the Month:
Absolute Engraving
Tired of fuzzy, unfocused "grip-and-grin" photos of your Member-Guest? Concerned that your Assistant Pro may have had a couple Margaritas while posing the Ladies foursomes around the practice range?
Call Ray Heyer at Golf Event Plaques-- Ray has a team of professional photographers nationwide, who will arrive on time, get every foursome posed and photographed, and deliver excellent momentos of your golf event or course.
Ray has many relationships with courses nationwide, so if
you need someone to deliver an outstanding product, go to www.golfeventplaques.com, or call Ray at 480-232-2345.
Tell Ray you read about it in The Leaderboard, for a special GEMA discount...
"Just the Fax, Ma'am...."
Joe Friday, Dragnet
If you're old enough to remember that line, you are either fairly tech-savvy, (which we'll assume, since you're reading this e-zine!) or a complete techno-phobe, where anything more advanced than an electric can-opener is a major challenge.
In addition to e-mail, websites, and all the latest in  communications, many people still use their fax machines and if your course or organization is not fax-friendly, you are losing a key market. Regardless of where you may be on the technology comfort level, to attract and retain members and golfers, it's important to record and use your members' work or home fax number.
Yes, Faxing is still out there and very popular, either through the normal fax machines, the Biz-hubs and e-mail software that can send and receive faxes. As a logistical tip, be sure your fax machine is not on a shared telephone line, so when you receive responses they are not lost in transmission, due to a busy line.
The advantage of fax communication is that you can send
out a tournament invitatation, with a sign-up sheet for your golfer's name, address, handicap and other information. Golfers can fill out the form and fax it immediately back to you, without have to learn computer programming. Many seniors have mastered the fax in their home or office, but may not sign up for an event on-line, just because they
don't know how.
Keep your fax-lines open, and you'll stay in touch with all of your members.
Yes, believe it or not, spouses are a big part of many golfer's lives, and many courses leave the spouse, and even the golfer at home working in the yard instead of on their short game.
Spouse marketing addresses and includes the spouse in membership and activities. Some excellent marketing options include:
• Have a 9-hole spouse league on weekday afternoons, with a golf clinic and 9-hole scramble for spouses of members. One club here in Florida sponsors the women's group, the "BIPS," or "Babes In Pink Socks" club.
• In addition to the BIPS, the same club fields a men's
9-hole weekday afternoon Nassau with the "SOB's," the "Spouses of BIPS."
• Add a Couples Scramble on the evening before the
Member-Guest or any tournament; it encourages spouses
to participate, meet with each other and develop ties in
the golf community.
• Be sure to have all members add their spouses' name, birthdate (without the year) and their wedding anniversary date on any sign-up format. This allows you to send cards, letters and invitations to both the member and the spouse.
Most importantly, in every situation, be sure address
and include spouses in social events before and after
any tournament. The more involvement they receive, the
better the chance you'll fill those tee-sheets and tee-times.
|
