Harnessing the Power of Digital Marketing: It's All About Strategy

This blog was updated for relevance and accuracy on December 17, 2024.

Private clubs have long heard about digital marketing, but many still rely primarily on traditional methods like member referrals. While it’s great that many clubs are investing in digital platforms, many still don’t know how to use them effectively to drive membership growth.

Key Digital Marketing Terms Defined for Private Clubs

Digital Marketing for private clubs isn't just a buzzword—it's a targeted, measurable way to attract, convert, and retain members. Think of it as an extension of your club's personal touch, using digital tools to create meaningful connections. Digital marketing is an umbrella term that includes: content marketing, pay-per-click ads, search engine optimization, and other digital advertising methods.

Content Marketing is a part of digital marketing. It includes specific pieces of content that contribute to your overall strategy. This can include social media posts, email campaigns, blog posts, and videos. Essentially, content marketing is digital material that intends to attract and engage prospective members.

Inbound Marketing is the kind of marketing that intentionally attracts prospective members by providing content they are likely to see, click on, and engage with. It is a strategic and engaging kind of marketing. Click here to read more about HubSpot’s inbound marketing methodology.

What Private Clubs Should Be Talking About

Whether you call it digital marketing, content marketing, or inbound, it's about communicating your club's value proposition without hard selling. It's "non-interruption" based marketing, which means that instead of getting a pop-up or targeted ad, it’s providing high-value content that gradually leads prospects to a point of sale. Inherently, that respects the exclusive nature of private clubs while making your club more visible to qualified prospects.

We know clubs must be relevant and non-interruptive while maintaining their prestigious image, and we need a plan to measure membership marketing investments. Take Greystone Golf and Country Club's experience; by implementing a strategic digital marketing approach, they achieved a 440% increase in new contacts from organic sessions and saw a 3.4% increase in organic traffic in 2024 compared to 2023.

Now that you’re caught up on marketing terms, your club can apply them to a strategy that focuses on these four core elements:

1. Content Creation: Showcasing Your Club's Unique Value

Content should be central to your club’s digital marketing strategy. The goal is to help qualified prospects discover and understand what makes your club special. This means creating compelling narratives beyond simple advertising and encapsulating your club’s story. Greystone's comprehensive membership guide, for instance, generated over 1,880 "first-touch" contacts from interested prospects.

Effective content can include in-depth membership guides like Greystone’s, blog posts of updates and member testimonials, videos that showcase life at the club, and emails that nurture prospects’ journey to becoming members. All of these pieces work together to show what makes your club special and unique.

2. Social Media: Elevating Your Club's Presence While Maintaining Exclusivity

When talking about social media, we aren’t necessarily talking about short-form TikToks or Instagram reels. We are talking about sharing your high-value pieces of content to a larger, more public audience. This can include posting major club updates or renovations to Facebook. It can also include small glimpses into club life through member testimonials or advertising upcoming events. Give them enough of a view into your club that prospective members can envision themselves being a part of your community.

What’s most important when it comes to using social media for your private club is using the right platform. Consider your audience and ages of your target demographic. What platforms are they using most? HubSpot says that, for Gen-X and Millennials, they mostly stick to Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Create a social media strategy that embodies your club’s brand, prioritizes posting consistency, and uses the right platforms.

3. Content Offers: Converting Interest Into Membership Inquiries

Your prospects want to know more about your club. Period. The problem is your website leaves them wanting more. It can be timely and expensive to add web pages, so this is where content offers can assist them on their membership inquiry journey. By creating downloadable resources that include answers to their most frequently asked questions, membership category details, and pricing, your prospect will receive exactly the information they are looking for.

If you use marketing automation tools like HubSpot, every download inquiry will automatically be entered into your CRM. You will be well on your way to identifying the most engaged prospects, so you know the perfect time to follow up.

4. Lead Nurturing: Building Relationships with Prospective Members

Lead nurturing is providing existing relationships with high-value content to build trust and strengthen the connection. This is mainly done through email campaigns and personalized communication. According to recent data, 50% of membership prospects need nurturing before joining a club. Supporting this data, Greystone's re-engagement campaign resulted in 35 new memberships over three months, showing the power of strategic lead nurturing in the private club space. A little bit of lead nurturing can certainly go a long way in attracting new members!

Strategy Drives Membership Growth

Digital marketing works for private clubs. We see it every day in results like Greystone's success. But you can't make digital marketing work if you get hung up on terms instead of strategy. Modern private club digital marketing requires:

• Clear membership growth goals and metrics
• Integrated membership marketing tools
• Helpful and relevant content that reflects your club's standards
• Strategic lead nurturing that complements personal outreach
• Commitment and consistency

Testing and measuring your digital marketing efforts ensures you can focus resources on what works best for your club's membership goals. Remember, successful digital marketing isn't about following trends - it's about implementing strategies that drive measurable membership growth while maintaining your club's prestigious reputation.