Back to School ... Marketing 101
By Alan Stalcup
If you’re not email marketing to students, perhaps you should be. Today’s high school and college students are digital experts. Additionally, most are parent-supported, with plenty of discretionary income, which makes this group very attractive for email marketing.
Some Stats...
Students (18 - 24) have $163 billion in spending power.$34 billion in discretionary spending.
Almost 75 percent of students maintain jobs while attending college, earning an average of $13,000 a year.
More important than what college students spend today is the fact they’re the consumers of tomorrow.
Building relationships now could pay off in a big way down the road, as well as produce sales and revenue today.
For example, in Austin we have 50,000 students at The University of Texas alone, that population rivals some cities! And guess where a lot of them will live after they graduate.
How to Market to Students...
- Taking all this into account, below are some recommendations for email marketing to students
- Be completely forthright in communications. Your promotions need to be value-based and straight forward, don’t create confusing specials - "buy 1 round and get a second 1/2 cart for free".
- Use something like, "students play for $19 in the afternoons", which are probably your slower times, especially in the summers. Compared to your seniors, students eat and drink without regard to price. They’ll order two burgers and have three sodas without blinking an eye.
- Provide something of value that helps sell why students should golf, especially at your course. Maybe a career mentoring program through your membership. Or an internal job fair for local businesses and local students. Maybe a report that shows the correlation between playing golf and high paying careers. Send an email with that report and an offer to join your Player Development Program.
Alan Stalcup is founder and president of CourseTrends, a company that helps clubs capture customer data, create targeted one-to-one marketing campaigns, and generate membership and outing sales leads (www.coursetrends.com).