Chris Rowe is the PGA Head Golf Professional at Whispering Pines Golf Club, in Trinity, Texas. He was the 2016, 2012, and 2007 PGA Southern Texas Section Harvey Penick Teacher of the Year and was a 2011 US Kids Golf Top 50 Teacher in America.
Chris Rowe on the importance of marketing your business via videos:
As technology changes, so too are the ways in which we can market ourselves as PGA Professionals. It happens on occasion that I’ll have a few minutes of downtime and a thought or idea will come to mind, a tip perhaps or a drill. During these moments, I will take out my iPhone and create a short video, usually only about a minute. I’ll post the video to YouTube and also email it to my students. My students are literally worldwide, and being able to keep in touch, remain fresh in their minds, and provide them with my latest thoughts, is vital to their continued return to Whispering Pines. On average, I’ll do this once per month, but if thoughts and ideas worthy of communication arise, I will create another video. Developing a library of short videos with tips and advice is a valuable marketing tool that costs me nothing at all. In addition to videos, I market myself via long-established tried and true methods as well. I’ll take the opportunity to put thoughts on paper and write. I’ll write small tidbits with tips and drills or a larger article on an important golf topic. Regardless of the subject, the point is, if that piece gets published locally or possibly nationally, it is an ideal form of marketing that doesn’t cost me anything, but time. It is an ideal method of demonstrating my expertise and is helping me make a name for myself in the industry.
Chris Rowe on the business impact of marketing your business via videos:
The benefits of putting yourself out there cannot always be measured fully. Whether utilizing today’s technology on YouTube and other social media outlets, or relying on proven techniques like publication in a golf magazine, these free methods of marketing offset the more costly ways in which we promote ourselves and our facilities. In addition to the millions of potential eyes you can inform, the simple gesture of sending these items directly to your students displays your knowledge and demonstrates that you have your students in mind, regardless of where they are and when last you saw them. This philosophy of self-promotion has helped my lesson revenues increase by an average of 25 percent annually and is also reflected in the fact that my lesson book is full four of the five days we are open, purposely leaving Sunday free. Developing a reputation as a world-renowned teacher has helped Whispering Pines become the #1 golf course in Texas, with international events held, and golfers from across the globe proud to call themselves members.
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email crowe@whisperingpinesgolfclub.com
