A Tour Of Home (Pages): The Best Private Golf Club Websites

Your club’s website should be the home and heart of your marketing efforts–the place to kindle all new and existing relationships. It can and should be your 24/7 membership marketing resource. For many clubs, however, the website is nothing more than a static brochure that leaves prospects standing out on the curb. While in the past, your website might have simply been the front door for your existing members, changing digital trends requires clubs to better utilize their public-facing websites. (Don’t worry, the front door isn’t going anywhere, you’re just making things more hospitable to visitors!)

If your club website is not enhancing the membership sales process, it is time for a website redesign. After all, your next generation of members grew up in the digital landscape. They want resources that provide all the information they need without having to pick up the phone or meet in person. When you create a website experience with your prospect in mind, you reduce barriers to membership. Let’s take a look at what the best-of-the-best club websites bear in mind, shall we?

“HOMEY” FEATURES TO NOTE

A Sense of Personality

When you’re decorating your home, you don’t simply furnish your living room with stock images from Crate & Barrel or someone else’s favorite things, right? More than likely, you hang up family photos from vacations, the painting you purchased on your honeymoon, and other sentimental items that are meaningful to your life. These details proclaim who you are, what you’re about, and they make visitors feel welcomed into a real home, not just a showroom. The same is true with your club’s website. A visitor doesn’t just want pretty pictures–they want to get to know what makes your club unique.

Take a look at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, MN. In addition to their clear navigation and custom-templated design features, they showcase stunning photography of the course, in addition to an active blog and videos that highlight member stories, inspiration on ways to get the most out of membership, history, and more. (More on the importance of content, below.) Remember, your website is the first impression for prospective members who are looking to make a connection with you. It should reflect on the outside all that is special about the inside.

Use Images Wisely

As you design your website, you might think that images are just a formality of the web design process. Great photography showcasing YOUR club's assets is a powerful opportunity to let your prospects visualize a "day in the life" of club membership. With this in mind, make sure the photos you feature on your website are not generic stock images. Many clubs use the same technology partner to build their websites and share the same templates, making it difficult to easily delineate one club from the next. Your club community is one of your greatest assets, so use personalized photography that sets you apart. No stock photography is capable of telling YOUR club’s story.

Photos should connect with your target audience, which is why it's important to be clear about who your target audience is. For example, if you are looking to attract families, think twice about using a lot of “the boys club” type photos. Does the photo of your swimming pool look vacant and uninviting? Why not swap those photos out for some that showcase swim team races and summer camp?

To take it one step further, consider video content. In a world driven by visual consumption, videos offer an immersive experience that captivates and resonates with audiences. For private clubs seeking to showcase their unique offerings, culture, and member experiences, videos provide an unparalleled opportunity to tell a story and convey the essence of the club.

From virtual tours of the facilities and exclusive member testimonials to vibrant depictions of events and activities–usually concise, yet interesting–videos bring the club to life, fostering a deeper emotional connection with prospects. The combination of visual storytelling, auditory engagement, and emotional resonance creates a lasting impression that transcends traditional text-based content, and even images. By incorporating video content, you can effectively communicate your value proposition, build trust, and entice potential members, ultimately driving higher engagement, longer site visits, and increased conversion rates.

Share Your Stories

Engaging content is fundamental to a good website experience because it establishes a connection between the club, and members, and your prospective members. Each web page, blog post, video, helpful downloadable resource, etc., offers a chance to share a story and to invite your prospective member to take that next step towards membership.

Remember, familiarity breeds trust and that trust can accelerate the sales process. In the wise words of esteemed CRM guru Siva Devaki, “Sales is not about selling anymore, but about building trust and educating.”

One website doing this well is the Milwaukee Athletic Club in Milwaukee, WI. Their navigation makes it easy to find what you are looking for, such as membership options and amenities. Another example we like is Greystone Golf & Country Club near Birmingham, Alabama for their clear navigation, and top billing of the golf course and use of video. Also, their events show people within their community, and their video testimonials allow the existing members to speak directly to prospects.

Layout and Design

As we mentioned above, your website should showcase the things you value most as a club. For example, if you are a country club and want to grow membership, then making it easy to learn about the golf course is critically important. In the news business, there’s an expression “don’t bury the lead,” in other words, make your website do what you really need it to do first. If golfers  are your ideal lead, make sure golf visuals are front and center so your prospects don't need to scour your website to find what they are looking for.

Far too many websites grant their membership login the prime real estate on their homepage This layout signals “go away” to anyone who isn’t already a member. Remember, your home page should provide a warm and cozy entry point for your prospects.

Read more: What Makes a Good Website? [Q&A With a Web Designer]

Using clear and attractive calls to action is not only good marketing practice, your visitors will appreciate them, too. Calls to action (CTAs) are one of the best ways to do this. CTAs clearly market to prospects with action words that enable your website users to more easily navigate your site and get exactly what they want in the location they expect to find it. 

SEO Friendly

No one will be able to appreciate all the beautiful, personalized touches, and stories you’ve included on your website if they can’t find you. So, as important as it is for your website to look good, making it SEO-friendly is an equally crucial part of having a successful website.

Many elements contribute to a higher search ranking, from overall site architecture, to how many words are on the pages, to the meta descriptions, keywords, and more. One easy element to check is how quickly your page is loading. We all know the frustrating feeling of waiting for a page to load–your prospects feel the same. Don’t put them through it! Slow load time can encourage your visitor to move on to a different search. Check out this free Google tool that you can analyze your page load time.

Also, do not, we repeat, DO NOT launch a website that is not mobile-friendly. It should be as easy for your visitors to scroll through your website/blog/etc. on their cell phones as it is on their computers. Nowadays, websites that aren’t built for mobile are like dinosaurs, and search engines will penalize you for that lag time.

Stand Out From The Crowd

Another way to freshen up your website’s look, feel, and optimization is to go outside of the industry for inspiration. More and more clubs are using “non-industry” web designers to bring a more creative perspective and better-optimized website for both search engines and user experience. Our team at StoryTeller is happy to help you determine whether your website has room to improve and to connect you to the resources you need. We’d love to talk to you! We can accomplish a lot in a short 15-minute conversation.