Tips Three must-capture data points for golf resorts looking to grow drive market revenues.

In the last 18 months, golf resorts have seen two ends of surprising spectrums. On the one hand, they’re riding a wave of interest the sport hasn’t seen in decades. On the other, they’ve been forced to cater to markets that, previously, were not high on their priority list.

Specifically, drive markets.

When someone spends a week at your property, you will – almost without fail – get gobs of data about them and their behavior. Locals? Unless you plan for it, they can be a bit of a black hole.

Luckily, gathering data for this group is simpler than you think.

Email Address

Email addresses are a must, especially from transactions. While you should certainly consider asking folks for their email address in the pro shop, the momentum behind online booking gives you a perfect excuse to put more products online and capture it there. This can also help decrease time and touchpoints once a golfer is on-site.

While emails from non-transactional sources won’t convert quite as well, they certainly hold value if they’re designed around attracting quality instead of pure quantity:

1. Wi-Fi – if you get foot traffic for events, offer free wi-fi that requires an email to access.
2. Sweepstakes – giveaway a free round or package, but require an email to enter.
3. Local Deal List – give locals a reason to join your list with a separate opt-in for deals specific to them.

Mobile Number

One benefit to capturing someone’s phone number is the first three digits. While not perfect, area codes are a simple way to identify rough location for someone who enters your database. Mobile numbers also give you one more channel – SMS/texting – where you can reach them with offers and bring them one step closer to pulling out their credit cards.

Our SMS partner, Mobiniti, has built-in campaigns that make it easy to capture potential golfers and then convert them to paying customers. Things like:

• Contests and sweepstakes
• Mobile coupons
• Loyalty Programs

Zip Code

With a transactions you might get more data, but whether it’s an online form or a script for your team in the pro shop, asking for zip code is a simple way to give you a more granular view of a guest’s location before they convert.

It’s extremely important to remember that a drive market guest is looking for different products and experiences on a different timeline than a destination visitor. Capturing something that lets you separate these folks from everyone else in your database is critical so you can send deals, news, and information they’re most likely to be interested in and, then, act on.

More?

Are there more data points you could capture? Of course. And the easiest way to get those is with an online transaction.

But when you think about all the potential guests in your drive market who haven’t yet entered their credit card number and billing address, finding ways to capture these three bits of information will give your marketing team everything they need to get these locals one step closer to a data-filled transaction.