You’re in the midst of planning your charity golf tournament, and you’ve got some seriously great ideas for the big day. The challenge you’re facing now is – how do I let the world know about it?
Marketing your charity golf tournament plays an integral part in getting golfers signed up, telling their friends and getting excited for teeoff.
You’ll want to plan to promote your event as much as possible, but remember to avoid swinging for the fences. While you want to land that huge sponsor or blow your fundraising goal out of the water – quality and consistency will no doubt generate the best result.
Here’s a few key tips and ideas to make your event more attractive to potential attendees:
Find the right golf tournament website host
Great tournament planning and marketing starts and ends with a great website. It’s where potential attendees will discover you, and where all of your other marketing efforts will lead to. Be sure your tournament website looks clean and professional, and has all of the information potential guests would be interested in: from the location to the charity to the fundraising tracker to the tournament schedule. This may sound daunting, but it doesn’t have to be with the right golf tournament website builder – like the one you’ll find in Event Caddy Software. In fact, the templated designs are so easy, you’ll have your website up and running in just minutes!
Focus on the charity.
In all of your marketing communications, promoting the charity you’re fundraising for over the event itself can go a long way when trying to increase numbers. The fact is, people are far more motivated to get behind something that they believe in – and there’s no better message than giving back to the community while enjoying a day on the course. Be sure to utilize any ideas and resources you can to promote the charity and fundraising efforts. YouTube videos, links to the foundation, or even foundation goals can go a long way in helping a potential guest to make a decision. Plus – when planning name ideas for your charity golf tournament, make sure your cause is made very clear, so potential attendees know your great intentions right off the bat.
Plan personalized email invites.
When planning out your invites, forget the cookie-cutter tournament email invitation templates! Personalized email invites are always the way to go. With charity golf tournament software on your side, all you need to do is upload your contacts to send out a personalized email with a built-in email tool.
Tournament prize & contest ideas.
Let’s face it; nothing beats an event with great prizes and lots of activities. This may not be atop of the list for potential sponsors, but when executed correctly, these fun ideas can bring the players out in the masses.
Planning and promoting some great prizes on your invitations and registration site are a good way to seal the deal with those potential players. Also, if you’re hosting an auction, don’t hesitate to list a few of those items as well. Many players love this component of the tournament as it’s a chance to walk away with some great deals.
Here are some of our favorite prize and contest ideas:
- Hole in One Prize
- Chance to Win a Car
- Closest to the Keg (for those beer lovers)
- Team Skins - Chance for players to win some cash
- Sports Tickets
- Golf Clubs
A simplified registration process.
Planning a charity tournament can have a lot of moving parts, and without the proper technologies in place, it can be hard to keep things simple on your end. With software like Event Caddy (https://www.eventcaddy.com/features), you can have players and sponsors easily register themselves, as compared to the manual process that can involve countless emails and excel sheets.
Tap into your relationships.
Some of your potential event guests are right in front of you! Be sure to let your family, friends and co-workers know about your tournament. More often than not, they’ll be more than willing to play a game of golf to help a friend and support your fundraising efforts.
Plus, if you’re planning a company charity tournament, make sure you contact all of your customers and reach out to those businesses who you are closest to. If your tournament has a committee, make it a task for each committee member to bring in a couple foursomes. You’ll be surprised how quickly things will fill up.
Marketing and promoting your charity golf event can certainly help increase the numbers, but it’s important to remember that each one is different. Throughout your planning process, test and learn these ideas to find out what works best for your event, and keep at it! You’ll be on your way to planning a successful golf tournament in no time.