Posts Tagged ‘Golf’
Out of the Bunker and into the Black
Posted by Julia Zauner | Filed under Advertising, Dana News, Golf, Hospitality News, Interactive, Tips and Trends Series, Travel
Dana recently attended the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida. The Orange County Convention Center was all a buzz with vendors, pros, golfers and media—what a great event! We had the chance to talk to industry insiders and were impressed by their upbeat outlook for 2010. Of real interest to our team was a study released by PGA Magazine, which showed the impact of PGA Professionals on travel decisions…
About 70% of PGA Professionals travel with groups annually. Almost half take three or more trips per year, and their groups average about nine golfers playing about three rounds of golf when they travel together. 75% of these trips are booked more than two months in advance, which is welcome revenue in this era of short-lead bookings.
We were intrigued by the amount of influence PGA Pros have on determining where their groups travel. 86% of golf professionals either select the specific golf destination or narrow the choices to a few on which the group can decide—and more than 70% make all of the travel arrangements. What’s more, the vast majority is asked at least once a week for recommendations on places to stay and play golf.
We’ve all seen the number of golf resorts in the U.S. grow in the past decade, creating a very competitive marketplace. Meanwhile, the number of golfers remains flat, and bookings for corporate group outings have sharply declined. Reaching the 28,000 PGA Professionals who are key influencers on travel is a smart play.
Dana Communications has partnered with Hunter PR to analyze this study’s findings and show how to leverage the influence of PGA Professionals. To see more on these results and learn about getting out of the bunker and into the black, visit www.danacommunications.com/bunker2black.
Get Personal with Your Customers!
Posted by Jared Zech | Filed under Advertising, Media, Tips and Trends Series
Is your data being used to its fullest capacity?
If you don’t know who your best customers are, where they come from, their average spend and during which season they travel, then you are not using your data effectively.
Many hotels and resorts simply take the information in their PMS and dump it into some simple reporting spreadsheets. However, there is much more that can and should be done.
The first step is to take the data and clean it. Remove bad addresses—both email and direct mail. Run a National Change of Address (NCOA) search on it to be sure you have your customers’ most current mailing addresses. Remove duplicate addresses and consolidate guest information into one household. Add variables and append the data to fill in as many of those variables as possible, including first-time stay flags, repeat-guest flags, length of stay, lead time, recency and frequency codes.
Psychographic analysis can then be used on the data to classify the best guests and find more potential customers just like them.
The goal is not to just send out offers, but also to send very specific offers to the right people at the right time. Doing so will improve conversion rates and minimize waste. In addition, it allows you to target your prospecting because you’ll know which kinds of customers respond to which kinds of offers.
So, are you spraying and praying? Or are you really targeting your customers? Let Dana help you pinpoint success. Contact jzech@danacommunications.com.
