Tee Time

Marketing strategies that are a hole-in-one for your practice.

By Don Levine, PT, DPT, FAFS

Getting you and your kids on the golf course is a great way to learn life-sport skills. While some of us may get more exercise than others searching high and low for golf balls, golf offers families real quality time together. The Professional Golfer’s Association (PGA) has designated July as Family Golf Month. The organization provides several tips for families to learn about the game of golf.1 One of the main goals of the PGA is to increase the number of golf enthusiasts. Golf is a very popular sport in this country, and its 29 million enthusiasts are not only passionate, but willing and able to spend money on the sport. How can we leverage our expertise and promote this life-sport?

Team Approach

My community is blessed with a multitude of golf courses that carry many obsessive-compulsive members. Find out if courses in your community are involved in Family Golf Month activities. If they are, team up with them. If not, promote the cause. Either way, you are developing important relationships with your community. Offer your services to provide a memorable experience for families. For instance, biomechanical screens and fun warm-up programs are something that your team could offer to golfers of all ages.

Take the Lead

If you do not have golf courses in your area (or none providing family golf experiences), create your own. If you or your staff members have a passion for the sport, host a family golf day and develop fun family competitions.

Whether you are fortunate enough to team up with local golf professionals or do these activities on your own, do not miss this opportunity to promote a lifelong sport and your practice!

Meet a Need

On another note, July is a time when educational organizations prepare for school, and many of them are underfunded. Community programs are frequently in need of educational materials for their classrooms or after school programs.

Team Approach

Most of us do not have to look far to find community programs that provide educational opportunities for those in need. Rally your team to spend the month of July collecting educational materials for one of these programs.

• Promote the cause through social media to involve the community
• Offer a raffle prize for participants
• Promote the cause in local papers and on radio

You will most likely find a champion for the cause in your company. One of my most memorable experiences was dropping off the collected supplies to the chosen recipients. We have been lucky enough to be invited into a classroom of children with baskets of items. Talk about an awesome reward for all involved!

Making Plans

As practice owners or managers, we are all aware that success does not just happen. Plan ahead and make July count. Meet a need or engage your community in sport. The marketing and PR committee looks forward to hearing about the successful programs in your community.

Don Levine, PT, DPT, FAFS, is chair of the PPS Marketing and PR committee and co-owner of Olympic Physical Therapy, with five locations in Rhode Island. He can be reached at dlevine@olympicpt-ri.com.

NOTES

1. Website: www.pga.com/family-golf-month-creating-successful-family-junior-golf-programs. Accessed April 2014.