“Golf courses can greatly improve their business with the Internet”. This 38-year-old from Granada, who grew up in Jaén before landing on the Costa del Sol, is called by his friends -although he doesn’t like it- the Internet Golf Guru. Antonio Conde is an advisor to prestigious golf courses in the tempestuous waters of the network of networks.
The present and, above all, the future -he assures- are on the Internet and in what are generically called information technologies, and courses that do not take advantage of the enormous commercial and promotional opportunities that this information technology offers are doomed to be left behind in the increasingly competitive golf tourism segment.
– How did your Internet ‘adventure’ begin?
He says: “After graduating from business school, I was lucky enough to have my first job opportunity in a computer consulting firm, and I say lucky because I discovered that my skills were more in software engineering and computers than in financial engineering.
“After several years working in the implementation of information systems,” he continues, “I realized that the future of organizations would depend on their connectivity with the Internet and I decided to study a ‘Master in ecommerce and Interactive Marketing’, probably one of the first to be developed in our country. It seems that time is proving me right…”.
After more than ten years helping to modernize different types of organizations through the use of technology and the improvement of their business processes, he decided to change sectors completely and thought that his experience and training could be of great value to the golf industry, and specifically to golf courses that lack specialized personnel in these areas. “I only knew golf from the outside,” he recalls, “as a player (although what I do with my 12 handicap can’t be called golf…), so I thought that before advising anyone I should know the business in more depth and decided to study the ‘Master in Golf Course Management and Direction’ taught by a prestigious Swiss school in Marbella. Thanks to this Master and working for some time in different golf courses, I had the opportunity to learn the keys and peculiarities in the marketing and management of a golf course, fundamental when trying to help my clients to be more and more online and ultimately to sell more”.
“Three years later”, continues Antonio Conde, “Golfenred.com is a reality and we are already advising golf courses in different countries”.
– Online technology is already fundamental for the marketing of golf courses. What level is Andalusian golf at in this aspect?
– It is undoubtedly fundamental and increasingly so, especially if we take into account that a high percentage of golf course customers in Andalusia come from countries where Internet penetration is much higher than in Spain. Although the situation is changing, in general there is still a lot to be done since the Internet is still seen from Andalusian golf courses as something of another generation or of a doubtful return. Phenomena such as social networks or the boom of search engines, especially Google, have attracted the attention of golf course managers and owners, but the situation still needs to mature a bit more, since the marketing of golf courses on the Internet is not only about having a profile on facebook or achieving top positions for a given search, because selling a product or service online is more than that.
Let me give you an example: what’s the point of being the first in Google if when people click on your link they arrive at a website where they don’t find what they expected to find, or the information is not updated, is not interesting or is not where it should be to be accessible.
Selling on the Internet is no different from selling through traditional channels, it is necessary to worry about the needs of customers to satisfy them when the time comes, the only thing that changes is the way and the means to do it. Despite this, there are already examples in Andalusian golf that are standing out internationally, as the first golf course in the world to sell green fees directly from twitter, and not only green fees, as an anecdote I can tell you that they have even sold a season ticket through this social network.
What is unstoppable is the progression of sales in these courses. I am going to give you a reference figure for the golf courses we are working with in Andalusia, and that is that on June 30, 2011 all of them have already sold as much or more online than in all of 2010. I think this is the best indicator of the evolution of Andalusian golf courses, which can greatly improve their business thanks to the tools provided by the Internet.
– What are the most common mistakes a golf course makes when creating or developing its website?
– There is a common denominator: the websites were not developed to sell. In most cases they have been made by software development companies or web designers who do not know about e-commerce, let alone golf. Surely there are cases in which the brand image has to be above the sale, but in general most of them are missing a great potential for online marketing of their products. I give you an example of this potential; When we start working with a Golf Course we always review all online marketing channels, the website is one of them, also search engine optimization, email marketing, social networks, etc, etc … and it is usually necessary to work all these channels for a few months before seeing the change in the results, well, recently we had a Golf Course that within 15 days of publishing its new website already had twice the number of bookings that it was getting monthly with the previous website. A miracle? No, online marketing techniques.
The second mistake, even more important than the previous one, is the absence of measuring results. If there is something that makes online marketing different from traditional marketing is the possibility of measuring everything. We constantly study which pages are the best performing on the web, and especially those that do not work, in order to change them as soon as possible. We observe which are our best “sources” and which are the worst in order to promote those we are interested in. For example, if I notice that the visits that come from a certain website or from a certain country are the ones that convert the most, I do everything possible to get more. It’s simple, you just have to observe and take action.
– Would a field not “connected” to the Internet be understandable at this time?
-Would a golf course without a telephone be understandable? Today it is not an option but a necessity, as many of today’s new golf courses are not only
oth customers prefer to make their “first contact” via the Internet. As has happened in other sectors such as the financial or hotel sectors, the customer is becoming more and more autonomous and more active in the purchasing process. They like to get information on their own, surf the net in search of valuable information or the best proposal before making the final purchase decision, which in many cases they make themselves. With this I do not mean that intermediaries no longer make sense, nothing further from reality, but thanks to the Internet the attitude of customers when buying is changing the way in which some sectors were traditionally structured. Intermediaries, tour operators, agents, hotels, etc., are essential for the marketing of golf courses, although the model will probably have to be adapted to fit this new scenario.
On the other hand, there is the administrative simplification of online reservations compared to traditional ones. Let’s not forget that these are unattended systems that are available 24/7 giving not only an excellent customer service at all times, but also simplifying the management of the golf course’s commercial team.
-Online reservations, management, promotion? what else can the internet offer to a golf course?
-Do you think that’s not enough? Well, I would say direct communication with the customer. Personally, I think that the Internet
is providing a unique opportunity for the sector. Until now golf has lived with the stigma of exclusivity, with the idea that golf is only for a few and, from my point of view, the Internet is the right channel to overthrow this false image that hinders the sector and does not allow it to grow at an even faster pace than it already does. Internet reaches with amazing ease to millions of people, I think facebook already has 700 million users, and golf must use it positively. But it must be done correctly, it is not enough to say that the internet is the future but at the moment of truth not accepting the rules of the game. Today’s Internet is the Internet of bidirectionality, of the much talked about but very real 2.0. We have the opportunity to talk directly with our customers, wherever they are, to know first-hand what their needs are, to communicate why we do things or why we stop doing them. We have been talking for many years about loyalty, CRM or knowing our customer, and now that we have been given a new concept, we have been able to
or a tool to do it at the “speed of light” we have a unique opportunity.that’s how I see it.
I know that many Golf Course Managers are afraid to let people comment on their websites or facebook profiles, but there is no reason to be afraid, as a negative comment can be a great opportunity to explain the reason for a situation to thousands or millions of people.
You may have seen that I like to give examples, so I’ll give you another one. Recently we had a fierce criticism on the web from a customer about the state of the bunkers. The Greenkeeper explained on the web the reasons, unrelated to maintenance, that had caused this state, and that harsh criticism became a response of gratitude for the explanation, and expectation that the situation would have changed in his next visit! What I like most about these cases is that not only this person will see it, but the thousands of visitors that every month go through the website of the golf course.
Honestly, I prefer someone criticizing me openly but where I can explain myself, rather than at the Clubhouse bar where I have no capacity to respond.
-Being on the Internet is very easy, but being “visible” on the web is another thing. What are the keys for a website to be better “positioned” in search engines and thus reach more potential customers?
If the goal is to reach the maximum number of potential clients, it will not be enough to be well positioned in Search Engines, but to be well positioned on the Internet, working on what is now called ‘Online Reputation’. Reputation that must be worked internally and externally, since it is useless to project a good image on the Internet or to monitor what is said about us on the net, if we do not take advantage of it to improve internally.
Search engine optimization is an important channel but not more important than email marketing or a good Display campaign (banners) and all of them must be properly coordinated. This is not something new, Sun Tzu or Art of War already explained it in the 2nd century BC: “Tactics without Strategy is the sound that precedes defeat”, so that drawing a proper online Marketing Plan that takes into account all the channels at our disposal and is well coordinated with the golf demand curve throughout the different seasons, is the only way to get the most out of our audience.
But answering your question about search engines, the first thing to differentiate is whether we are talking about Organic Positioning (SEO) or “paid” Positioning (PPC). The first is medium/long term and in no case can be guaranteed because we depend on a third party, basically Google, which is the one who decides who goes in the first results, we can only “help” to make that decision. The second is immediate, if you pay you appear up there, although the truth is that in terms of sales SEO is working better than PPC by providing more qualified visits.
The factors that search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo,…) take into account when positioning a website are many and are also changing, since search algorithms are evolving as the internet evolves to always try to offer the best results. Roughly speaking, the most important factors today are the optimization of the website and the content on it, and the links pointing to our website, although the latest reports reveal that the presence in Social Networks is beginning to be configured as a new weight factor for positioning.
Leave a Reply