Creating a Video Strategy to Grow Club Revenue and Reduce Expenses

Look around online and it’s hard not to find video. From social media feeds to websites, video is everywhere. Yet it’s not enough to produce one video and post it on your club website. Video is a strategic digital marketing tool and it’s critical you have a strategic vision for your video assets. Not only does it help to know what you want to produce, but also how you’re going to produce your video. That way, you can turn your project into a cost-effective tool that can be used in multiple places on various digital platforms.

In this podcast, Ed Heil shares insight on the types of video that will bolster your online marketing efforts and tips for maximizing your video budget. He talks about how to create a video marketing strategy for your club and how to get started.

In this episode:

Before Launching Your Video Strategy (2:40)

• Video isn't art
• Addressing your marketing needs

Knowing Your Target Audiences (15:14)

• Raising awareness about your club
• For people considering your club
• Leveraging existing members

Practical Tips for Creating Video Content (36:33)

• Choosing the right video production company
• How much does video cost?
• Maximize your shooting time

Before Launching Your Video Strategy

It's important that you put some thought into your business' objectives before creating a video strategy for the quarter or year.

Video isn't art

Too often clubs post a video on their homepage and just hope people engage with it, much like hanging a piece of art on the wall and hoping people notice it as they pass by. That may have been the norm 5-8 years ago, but today, that's not going to cut it.

To make real use of video, you need to have a well-defined strategy, offer new content regularly, and provide useful information that consumers are searching for and want to engage with. Video is a dynamic medium, and you need to think about it as a dynamic part of your overall marketing strategy.

Addressing your marketing needs

Before your start allocating funds to produce video content, you need to know who you are as a club. You can't articulate your culture, values, or mission to consumers if you don't know what they are. So, start by taking a comprehensive assessment of your club identity and brand. Then, communicate that through your video content.

It's also extremely important to know exactly what your marketing needs are and where you might be getting tripped up. Maybe you're getting solid website traffic but no conversions. Or maybe you're failing to effectively leverage existing members as a marketing resource. Whatever the issue may be, you need to identify those areas and then develop your video strategy to address those specific marketing needs.

Know Your Target Audiences

Video is a useful tool for any initiative — from promoting an individual event to providing a comprehensive overview of your club culture. But, when most clubs are starting to launch their video strategy, they typically need to address three specific marketing buckets.

1. To raise awareness for your club.
2. As a tool for people who are considering your club.
3. For the evangelists or for the existing members of your club.

Here's a closer look at each.

Raising awareness about your club

Since acquiring YouTube in 2006, Google has consistently prioritized video content higher than written content. That means to rise in search rankings, you need to provide video content that people will find beneficial if they're looking for information online. Offer golf tips from your resident pro or recipes from your chef as a way to get viewers engaging with your brand.

Consider uses for video on your social media platforms, as well. If you have a Facebook page that's open to the public, producing video and posting it to your Facebook page can be a great way to share your story with the world. The more times your video content gets shared, the more people you reach. So, social media can be a great way to raise your brand profile.

For people considering your club

If someone is considering joining your club, they want to know what that experience will be like. That's where a "member overview" video comes into play. Through video, you can introduce prospective members to your PGA pro, the youth swim coach, tour your dining room, and highlight your golf course or other amenities. Sure, you can list all of those things on a brochure, but video helps make that vital emotional connection where the viewer feels like they are part of the "story" of your club.

If your marketing materials simply itemize the features of your club with maybe a few images thrown in, you're missing an opportunity. Through video, you can bring the viewer into your club and help them imagine what it would really be like to be a member. It's an incredibly powerful experience and a major reason why video should be a mainstay of your marketing strategy.

Leveraging existing members

Often, existing members are a club's primary referral source. But even people who were referred to your club want to do their own research. Give your members content they can share online to help recruit new members. If members are posting about your club, their friends will see it, and often those friends are the exact audience you're trying to attract. Video can be great collateral for your members in building a strong and reliable referral network.

Practical Tips for Creating Video Content

Video sounds great for building brand loyalty and gaining new leads, but there are some logistics to figure out before you press record.

Choosing the right video production company

The best videographers and video producers in the world didn't just roll out of bed, grab their iPhone and start shooting video. It's a craft and an art. Yes, anyone can shoot video these days, but if you're trying to create something special and memorable for your club, you need to hire a professional.

Find someone who has experience shooting video for clubs and other corporate entities. Make sure you choose someone who understands timelines and ask them what the timeline for your specific project will be. Ask how they'll execute the process, what milestones they'll use, and how they'll communicate with you. The last thing you need is an unreliable video production team that loses track of projects or drags out the process for months on end. You want someone who has experience managing multiple projects and can deliver your videos quickly and efficiently.

How much does video cost?

It's a horrible answer, but it really does depend. You pay for the quality of the work, so the best advice is to formulate a budget and know how much you're willing to spend.

It's kind of like renovating your kitchen. You want to have a capable contractor who's good at estimating costs and comes in on budget and on time. So, choosing the right video production company is key. Even if the upfront cost seems a little high, you should get quality content and have the opportunity to effectively leverage that content. And we think that's well worth the investment.

Maximize your shooting time

The best way to maximize ROI for video is to use your shooting time as efficiently as possible. Go into the shoot with a very clear idea of what you want to accomplish in the short term, but also think about ways you could use other content down the road. For example, if you're interviewing your club president for an overview video of the club, also ask them about upcoming improvement projects, your dining facilities, or your youth programming. It might not work for the overview video, but you want to capture content you could use for future videos.

This requires you to be very organized and thoughtful about the people you interview and how you're going to use that content throughout your video strategy. If you have a reliable video partner, they can hang on to any video you don't use right away, or you can ask for the raw footage. They'll be more than happy to produce your next video, or you can find a different editor if you're not satisfied with the results the first time around.