Golf industry marketing content is a massively broad and misunderstood subject.
Never in history have golfers been subjected to so many golf tips, lessons, articles, shows, discussions, opinions and misinformation.
And never have golf course operators and golf entrepreneurs had so many opportunities to reach their audiences.
It's easy to get stuff out there, but it's not easy to produce high quality stuff.
"Quality" content is totally subjective. For one person that means funny Tik Tok videos. For someone else it means authoritative scientific data that helps them prove how smart they are.
As more and more people publish their stuff online, and as Ai becomes standard operating procedure for creators, "quality" marketing content in the golf business gets harder and harder to come by.
Every Tin Cup wannabe has an instructional video on YouTube and a downloadable E-book available on his website. And they’re all “guaranteed to shave strokes off your game,” or "add 25 yards to your drives in just three swings."
It now takes a lot more effort — a lot more searching — to separate crap from fact. Here's an example.
Used to be, you had to have genuine, proven expertise in golf instruction to get "coverage" in a reputable magazine or newspaper.
Plus, if you wanted to get published you had to get past the editors, and they were brutally picky. Everything published back in the print era would be considered high quality content by today's standards.
Today it's a different story.
There are no editors screening what goes out on the internet. Even the top-name brands in golf journalism routinely publish online articles riddled with factual errors.
Content farms are selling the same articles over and over and over again for $10 a pop. Regurgitation and blatant plagiarism is now being touted as "content curation."
Any knucklehead can post videos to YouTube or start an instructional blog.
Ai's making it really easy to get 500 words about hip rotation, but when you do that, you'll get exactly the same low-brow content that every other blogger or wanna be golf instructor is using.
If you produce content of value — something unique that you and your golfing audience really care about— then the traffic will come eventually.
You have to give, give, give, give and expect nothing in return. There is no shortcut to success, and a genuine human voice will always play better than some anonymous article you picked up and reposted, along with a hundred others bloggers.
Also, always remember how much saturation there is. On any given subject it’s too much information from too many questionable sources. If you don't have a unique spin on the subject, it'll just be in one ear, and out the other.
Here are 3 required elements for golf industry marketing content: Relevance, Differentiation, and Credibility.
Every industry has a default standard operating procedure for content production. Unfortunately, in the golf business it's talking head videos...
You know the type... another no-name pro standing on a teebox talking at the camera, trying to explain some technical nuance of the golf swing.
BORING!
In video industry circles the Talking Head format is to be avoided at all costs. It's a very poor use of video as a medium. Might as well be talking in a podcast studio! Audio only.
There's no credibility in the talking head format, unless the spokesperson is a famous golfing celebrity.
There's zero differentiation. Everyone's doing that!
And relevance is often questionable... The viewer has no idea if a particular video is relevant to his swing or not.
So most golf videos fail on all three counts. Scriptwriters like me, directors and accomplished videographers have always found other ways to show what's going on.
Quality video content employs graphics, visual metaphors and storytelling to illustrate the important points. We away to something other than your head on the screen.
Do your really want the golf industry to devolve into just another self-help yell & sell environment?
Like the diet programs, the plastic surgeons and the get-rich-quick guys. If you're not careful you'll end up sounding like a used car salesman.
The voice is like a third-rate actor in a 4th rate play reciting lines that no one believes in a manner no one respects.
Sometimes I long for the good old days when there were some barriers to entry on the internet. But not really.
We'll all put up with some noise in exchange for the freedom of speech that the internet provides.
And small-business marketing is better for it.
If you're strategic about the content you produce, and if you produce stuff that really is high quality content, you can make a name for yourself and your brand.
Need help with that? Contact me here.
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