How to run a golf club membership drive from start to finish

A membership drive is not just a promotional push. At its best, it's a structured eight-week process that moves prospective members from awareness through to a signed application — with a defined campaign across email, social, and in-person events, and a follow-up process for every enquiry that comes in.

Most clubs approach it as a loose campaign: a Facebook post, an email to the mailing list, a banner on the website. These generate some enquiries. A fraction convert. Nobody is quite sure what worked, what didn't, or how to improve it next time.

This guide lays out a more structured approach, week by week.

Before you start: sort your data

The week before the campaign launches, do a data audit. You need to know:

• How many current members are on your email list, segmented correctly
• How many lapsed members you have contact details for, and when they last renewed
• How many visitor enquiries you've collected in the past 12 months who haven't joined
• How many people are on your general enquiry list

These are your four audiences for this campaign. Each one gets different messaging. A lapsed member receives a very different email from a cold visitor who played once 10 months ago. Clean your data before you start, or you'll send the wrong message to the wrong person and waste the opportunity.

The campaign structure: three phases over eight weeks

Phase 1: Awareness (weeks 1–2)

The goal of the first two weeks is to make your target audience aware that you're actively welcoming new members. This sounds obvious, but many golf clubs do a poor job of simply communicating that membership is available and what it includes.

Week 1 actions:

• Send a campaign email to your full prospect list (visitors, lapsed members, enquiry list) announcing the membership drive. Lead with a genuine reason this is a good time to join — new course improvements, a particularly attractive spring package, a limited availability message.
• Post consistently on social (Facebook and Instagram are most relevant for golf clubs). Focus on what membership looks and feels like, not just what it costs. Photos of members enjoying the club work better than text-heavy promotional graphics.
• Update your website to make membership the most visible action on the homepage.

Week 2 actions:

• Send a second email to your lapsed member segment specifically. This email should feel personal, not promotional. Acknowledge that they used to be a member. Invite them back. Make it easy to respond.
• Follow up with anyone who opened your week 1 email but didn't click through or get in touch. This is a warm audience — they showed interest. Reach them again with a slightly different angle.

Phase 2: Consideration (weeks 3–5)

In the middle phase, you're giving prospective members the information they need to make a decision, and you're creating a low-barrier opportunity to experience the club before committing.

The open day:

Schedule an open day somewhere in weeks 3–5. An open day doesn't have to be a large event. It can be a Saturday morning where prospective members are invited to play a complimentary round, have coffee, and speak to staff and current members. The key elements:

• A friendly, low-pressure atmosphere. Nobody should feel sold at.
• Current members present to talk authentically about their experience. Prospects trust members more than staff on questions like "what's the culture like here?"
• A clear next step available on the day — application form, joining pack, someone they can speak to about the process.
• Capture every visitor's name and email. This is non-negotiable. If someone attends and you don't record their contact details, they are invisible to your follow-up.

Consideration-phase emails:

During this phase, send content that answers the questions prospects typically have. What does a full membership include? How does the booking system work? What's the competition calendar like? What facilities are on site? This content doesn't need to be hard sell — it's genuinely useful information that helps someone decide.

Phase 3: Decision (weeks 6–8)

The final phase creates urgency and closes the campaign. This is where any time-limited offers should appear if you're using them, and where your follow-up process becomes the difference between the campaign working or not.

Week 6: Send a progress email — something like "we've welcomed 12 new members this month" if the campaign has gone well — combined with a clear close date for any promotional pricing.

Week 7: Last-chance email to everyone who engaged but hasn't joined. Keep it brief and direct. "We close our spring membership promotion on [date]. If you've been thinking about it, now's the time."

Week 8: Final message and review. Follow up personally with anyone who attended an open day or requested information but still hasn't joined. A personal email or phone call at this stage converts more than a broadcast.

Following up on every enquiry

This is where campaigns succeed or fail. An eight-week campaign that generates 40 enquiries and follows up on 10 is a failed campaign, however good the emails were.

Every enquiry needs:

1. An immediate acknowledgement (automated is fine — speed is what matters here)
2. A substantive response within a few hours
3. An invitation to visit or come to the open day
4. A follow-up if they don't respond within three days
5. A final check-in at the end of the campaign

With a CRM, steps 1, 3, and 4 can be automated. Steps 2 and 5 need a human touch. The automation handles the volume; the personal contact handles the relationship.

Measuring the results

At the end of the campaign, you should be able to report:

• Total enquiries generated, by source (email, social, referral, walk-in)
• Conversion rate from enquiry to open day attendance
• Conversion rate from open day to application
• Total new members joined during campaign period
• Cost per new member if you spent any budget

These numbers tell you what to do differently next time. If enquiries were high but conversions were low, the follow-up process is the problem. If open day attendance was low, the invitations didn't land. If referrals outperformed all other sources, your member referral incentive is worth scaling.

"The ability to track and manage every lead we receive, as well as send regular email marketing campaigns and follow up with all new leads and enquiries has been an absolute game changer for our business." — General Manager, Stonebridge Golf Club

A structured, eight-week membership drive with proper data hygiene, segmented communications, and rigorous follow-up will outperform an unstructured promotional push every time — not because it's more creative, but because it loses fewer enquiries along the way.

To see how CAPTURE helps golf clubs run membership campaigns and track every enquiry from start to close, book a demo.