Data-Driven Digital Marketing

Ian Knox says: “It was the first time we have run an advertising campaign of this sort, and the performance was extremely encouraging.

“By using social media advertising to supercharge our destinations’ lead acquisition strategy, we are helping our partner venues increase their direct bookings.

"Once acquired, the resorts are using intelligent data capture and customer relationship management to then foster nurturing relationships with these customers to ultimately generate conversions.

"The campaigns have driven a significant uplift in web traffic to the destination showcase pages and then on to the destinations’ own websites.

"Le Golf National had a 300% increase in clicks through to its website compared to the previous month, and Pirin Golf & Country Club had 288 more engaged sessions on their showcase page month on month.

“ The exercise has enabled us to find out more about what people are interested in and which ad links they are clicking on. 

“This will help inform other similar campaigns and provides us with useful data we can share with our network venues.”

Claudia Bowman, Head of Marketing and CRM at the European Tour Group, explains: “It is getting harder to reach specific audiences on Facebook and Instagram because of the ways the platforms are moving.

"People are also becoming very conscious of their privacy and the tracking around it. 

“So, it is getting harder for golf destinations to collect data on their customers. However, the richer the data, the more relevant the communication and the better the relationship.

"Yet, the more data you try to collect in one go, the less likely customers are to providing it. We found that forms with over three fields of input have a drop-off rate of around 40-50%.

“It is therefore fundamental golf destinations create a unique customer journey through strategic content creation, and use multiple touchpoints to gather owned customer data. 

“By implementing this approach, resorts can expect not only growth in their following, but also a spike in interest and engagement from customers who begin to develop a deeper connection with the destination.”

Explaining the European Tour Group’s approach, Claudia Bowman continues: “Having a welcome journey has really worked for us. People sign up by only filling in three fields of data, so we don’t overload them.

“An automated email is sent immediately afterwards which encourages them to provide a bit more data, explaining why this is required, and also delivering some interesting content, so it doesn’t feel like we’re just asking for information.

“Golf destinations face a similar challenge to what we have at the Tour, but with slightly different objectives. They are trying to attract people who enjoy golf or wider resort experiences. 

“So, it’s a case of working back from there to identify the different offerings resorts have, who are the different audiences who may be interested in these, and then understanding what data is needed to categorise people into different audience segments."

It is crucial that golf venues strike the right balance between engaging content and pushing a sales message. Too much of the latter will drive people away - as Claudia Bowman and the European Tour Group have found.

“We flipped our social strategy around,” she continues. “On Instagram we have specific tournament accounts, such as for the Irish Open and the Scottish Open, and we were constantly trying to push ticket sales on these. But actually, people aren’t necessarily on Instagram to buy tickets. 

“So we’ve changed our approach to an 80/20 rule, where 80% of the content is engaging, entertaining and giving people a connection to an event, while 20% is sales-focused. We were not getting any growth the other way round.”

“CRM has changed immeasurably in the last decade or so,” she says. “Previously, CRM systems were largely used for contact management, storing customer data and tracking interactions. 

“Now they have evolved into sophisticated customer intelligence platforms, using AI to analyse behaviour, predict trends and deliver personalised experiences.

“At the European Tour Group we have various avenues into our ecosystem and we’ve tried to approach it with a simple mindset to centralise all entry points.

“All of our information is now consolidated into one system, so we can dig deeper and find out key insights into our customers’ behaviours, which has immensely  helped us build a clearer picture on how fans engage with us.

“The Tour owns or operates 15 events, five digital products and two merchandise stores. Last year, we delivered over 700 different campaigns - and you can’t do that manually. 

“You need automation to do that work for you, reacting to behaviours and triggers, and sending the right message out for your channel. This investment would be money well spent for marketing managers.”

Optimising CRM through a single-entry point enables organisations to gather more accurate and valuable data, facilitating the development of a one-to-one relationship with customers. 

Ian Knox believes this is critical for golf destinations.

“A golf holiday is a considered purchase, which means there is generally less opportunity to convert a lead into a sale,” he says.

“It’s a high-value, emotionally-driven purchase, often requiring more time to research, compare and plan. This extended decision-making window means the customer will typically interact with multiple touchpoints - such as websites, emails, social media - before committing to a purchase. 

“Each additional step introduces more chance of distractions, of competing offers to capture their attention, making the conversion window smaller and more challenging.

“So, if destinations can immediately start gathering valuable data on a person through a single-entry point CRM, they will be able to start building a profile, learn what that person likes and, in turn, deliver a thoughtful and persuasive sales process featuring personalised follow-ups, targeted marketing and relevant offers. 

“All that helps build a connection between the resort and an individual, earning their trust and making a direct booking much more likely.”