Practical FAQ's

With the current financial climate uncertain and golf course play fluctuating, the more savvy courses are realizing the advantages of advertising, mindful of budget constraints.
From the Golf Director/Pro's perspective, a golf yardage guide is viewed primarily as a money making venture, i.e dollars it can turnover and generate for the Pro shop; Secondary, a practical yardage guide and more obscure, if the thought occurs ... it may just work as a marketing tool as well!
Truth be known, every Golf course brochure, every rack card, every printed article, every comment, every act of kindness directed at the client/golfer, be it positive or negative ... has some marketing effect for your course!
Point is, the yardage guide, which the golfer may see as a practical guide primarily, is every bit a marketing tool aimed at impressing him or her, motivating them to want to play your course.
Advertising may appear to be that neccessary evil that drains your Marketing budget, however, you never get a second chance at a first impression.

Reviewing the percentage profit from other stock in your inventory, one would probably soon realize a product with unequaled margins, in the yardage guide. A book that cost perhaps as low as $1 each (with quantity) & sells from 4-6 dollars ......... I doubt balls, clubs or clothing can reach those gross margins? i.e. 50,000 books selling at $5 each, less $1 cost each = $200,000 Gross profit.
However, I hasten to add, their are many more long term advantages with a creative Aerial image yardage guide.

Course guides that are seen and undertaken as a long term marketing tool, are beneficial several fold and often in very subtle ways.
Books sold directly to the golfer rarely get thrown away. Especially the impressive, glossy handbook with colorful aerial and ground photography that just pops off the page (and of course, we supply "point of purchase" enlargements to promote and remind players of the guide)
You can imagine, a golfer who has invested in a yardage book and enjoyed a wonderful round of golf on such a pristine course, is going to take the book back to his home town, his office, his local country club & utilize his "bragging rights" on how he played this course superbly ...... (providing he had a great round), becoming an ambassador for your course!
Your book sold once, has now been viewed several times over, reaching a wider clientele, impressing more potential golfers that could possibly be next seasons paying players. Not to mention the "golf widows" that may be suitably impressed, having an interest in course or area spa/resort facilities, on the next trip.
Now you understand, how positive "word of mouth" is the most effective form of advertising but unfortunately, also the slowest! Hence, the immeasurable, long term benefits.

Obviously "word of mouth" advertising can be improved, supplementing with the likes of promotions and golf shows, giving the yardage guide out as keep sakes.
With modern technology, the Internet has also proven to be a little used but formidable medium for marketing golf.
This may just be how you originally found us!
Most golf courses have an Internet web site, which is only half the web marketing battle. Unfortunately, most courses don't pursue the web marketing actively and leave it to golf marketing associations, consortiums or advertising agencies, to lump the course in with other competing courses, consequently fighting amongst themselves for attention with the prospective golfers.
Once again though, with eye catching photography, this may assist in winning back the advertising dollar, in the form of sales.
Our company pursues web marketing actively, pushing your web site to the forefront of search engines, as a stand alone course, not having to compete on golfing web sites with competitors.

The key to yardage book sales is staff participation. While we realize staff are busy checking golfers in etc. (primary tasks) we also believe if staff keep the yardage book sales in mind with enthusiastic promotion, (even just the beverage cart girl & ranger carrying books in their cart for sale on the course), this can have a significant effect on sales. In fact, some courses pay a bonus (50 cents per book sold) to provide some staff incentive.

The production costs can be "propped up" with the sale of local advertising i.e. Hotels, Restaurants etc. but courses of a higher caliber often object to lowering the perceived marketed image of the course, in this way.
Often times, "cross marketing" between courses within the same Course Ownership base though, is quite acceptable. Ultimately, this has the long term advantage of picking up the second course play to yourselves, rather than an opposition course in the area.
Another acceptable option, if available, is advertising from the reputable golf OEM's, golf club/ball manufacturers, shoe, golf bag & accessory manufacturers, to name a few.
Often related, "high end" advertisers implying quality, status or value, are also acceptable. For example; Rolex, BMW etc.. These advertisers give credence in relation to the quality & prestige of your course but once again, they usually employ only national advertising. This can be overcome with advertising from the local stand point, say, the local BMW dealer but with the ad slanted toward the car branding & not the dealer, so much.

"Print quantity" is another option to reduce book unit costs. The more books printed, the less the per unit price, as it costs not much more to print 50,000 as it does 20,000. However, if you divide this number of books into the total cost, the reduction in "per unit cost" is astronomical, resulting in a bigger margin per book. What has to be analyzed, is the print quantity per year required, which usually equates to about two thirds of the annual rounds played, in regards to storage available & inventory costs while holding stock. However, these costs are minimal compared to total profit margin.

The yardage book proposal includes our team costs of travel and accommodation, as well as labor. It would probably be a minor saving to the course with facilities, to supply accommodation for the one or two nights at the course. We also use an extra person doing yardage mapping and often a saving could be accomplished by a retired senior, or course ranger on a day off, assisting with holding the laser prism/mirror for yardage measurements. These costs would then be exempt from final billing, reflecting only in pennies per book sold but a saving non the less, as a nickel spread over 50,000 books soon adds up. ($2,500)!

By sourcing from one vendor with solid experience in all related areas of aviation, photography, graphics & four color printing, other benefits can be derived from the yardage guide. While on the course, our photographers could undertake a complete ground portfolio to compliment the course marketing package. This would also apply while our pilot and photographer were in the air. Addis Advertising, Inc. has been supplying complete packages of media collateral for over fifteen years now, from photography, through four color printing, Multimedia & internet/web marketing and services.

Our company employs specialized staff (Pilots, photographers, graphic artists) in-house. Our reputation has been built on quality & service. We believe with a yardage book as accurate as ours, there is absolutely no room for any error, therefore, we have no outsourced services, whatsoever.
We own our aircraft & photography equipment, so we don't have to rely on another photographer in the area to supply inferior aerial images, due to lack of experience in the field. We believe with good quality, high resolution photographic images, your client will be impressed with the accuracy of the depiction, helping them play a confident game.
"Graphic illustrations" being notorious for error and inaccuracies, which a serious golfer will pick immediately, only serve to erode the players enjoyment and ultimately, golf course satisfaction.

Our team will visit your course for "yardage mapping" as well as "terrain mapping" ensuring accuracy.
"Terrain Mapping" is identification & collection of terrain information, taken back for graphic artists to interpret for the 3-D effect of the aerial image.
We can but prefer not to utilize sprinkler heads, due to their high inherent inaccuracy with the supplied measurement. Regardless, research shows our clients prefer an accurate, scaled yardage guide, not a sprinkler head locator!
We believe looking for sprinkler heads tends to slow up play compared to a logical yardage book with easy identification of natural landmarks.
Our staff are highly trained in the areas of graphic art, pre-press & photography with a solid understanding in the art of golf. Ultimately the golf pro will have the final say in all aspects of print, regarding his golf course. All existing yardage's supplied are verified and supplemented with additional yardage's, accurately measured to natural landmarks and hazards that are unlikely to change.

Our prices, with quality in mind, are extremely competitive compared to other yardage guide costs and will allow your course a handsome profit on resale. We always try to have a creative purchase plan tailored to suit any budget. Please call for your custom pricing.

Contact us for a free quote!