Alex Pettus

Alex Pettus

Digital Marketing Manager
Thursday, 23 September 2021 08:29

3 Ways To Stay Active During the Off-Season

Many courses are gearing up to face the yearly challenge of the off-season, the difficulties that come with the winter months, and the end of tee times. While it can be challenging to find opportunities for improvement and ways to generate revenue without tee times, this is when the best are separated from the rest. The off-season is the perfect time to make use of some of your alternative revenue sources and to update your marketing strategies in preparation for next season. Here are a few ways you can use the off-season downtime to your advantage:

Utilize Venue Space

One of your most valuable assets in the off-season is your clubhouse or venue space. While many courses utilize their event space year-round, the off-season is the time to aggressively market it. Demand is high this time of year for places to host holiday parties and celebrations. If you aren’t getting the big weddings and birthday bookings going into your off-season, office holiday parties always need local venues. Furthermore, community events, such as bake or craft sales, can draw people to what would otherwise be an empty, unused space. No venue hall? Try making your clubhouse a useable space for some of these small parties and gatherings.

Reinvest in Your Newsletter

During the busy season, it is hard to focus on some of the finer details of your marketing strategy. With so much importance put on social media, paid ads and other marketing channels, your newsletter may have been neglected lately. However, your newsletter can still be one of your most effective means of communication with your membership base and regular customers. Your newsletter is the perfect way to offer off-season specials and event information to subscribers, and it provides an excellent means of keeping them engaged with your golf course when tee times are unavailable. Ideally, you should be working all year to build up a solid email list that you can utilize, but if you haven’t been doing so, now is the perfect time to start building one while you have the time. If you’re working to create a list of consumer contacts, try a special sign-up deal they can use when the course is playable again if they join now.

Bolster Your Marketing Efforts

There is a lot to do for any course during the off season. There’s equipment maintenance to take care of, course upkeep, landscape duties and more. While the physical aspects of your course certainly need attention, this time is also a great opportunity for you to plan and prepare a marketing strategy for the upcoming year. Use this time to create a content plan for email blasts, brainstorm some event promotions, update your website copy and replace any outdated information, and refresh your marketing materials. True success for your course in the upcoming year means planning now, and your off-season is the perfect time to improve your marketing strategy.

Remarketing Ads

While we’re on the topic of your marketing strategy, if you aren’t already investing in Remarketing ads for your course, now is the perfect time to start. While you work on your budget for next season, find some dollars to allocate towards a digital remarketing campaign. Remarketing ads are a cheap and cost-effective way to generate awareness for your course, and to re-engage customers who have already expressed interest in your website. If you have already been running remarketing ads, take the time to update your messaging to relate to your other off-season products and services, like gift cards, your event venue, or memberships for the new year. Keeping your ad images and messages fresh and relevant is simple and can have a big impact on how your ads register with consumers.

Your off-season doesn’t have to be a slow season. With some creativity and planning, you can still generate revenue, and ensure your course’s success in the months to come. These are the times that set apart good course owners from the great ones, and 121 Marketing is here to help you be great! We offer our services year-round, and even have non-ad strategy options for those who don’t want to advertise during the winter months. For more information about the golf course marketing services we provide, or for help with advertising your off-season services, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Thursday, 19 August 2021 10:58

Managing Your Online Reviews & Reputation

Your online reputation is more important than you may think. According to BrightLocal, 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. These days, consumers use online reviews before nearly every purchase, and the golf industry is no exception. Before playing a new course, golfers are increasingly more likely to do some online research, primarily looking to answer two questions: How much does it cost to play and is the course “worth it”. Reviews play a large role in the latter.

Online reviews are a part of an environment that can be a hard to control. For every 1,000 good customers, there is always 1 bad one. The unfortunate truth is that users with bad experiences are much more likely to leave a review than those that have had good experiences. This fact leaves businesses feeling frustrated and helpless. What can you do?

The Solution

When deciding best how to respond to a review, be it positive or negative, there are a few things you should always keep in mind:

  • Never make your response a personal matter. Don’t insult or instigate the customer by becoming defensive.
  • All responses should be written in the same manner as any other content you post to social media or your website: useful, readable, and courteous.
  • A review response isn’t the place for a sales pitch, but can be a place for sharing new information about your business or anything else a customer may have not learned from a previous visit.

Responding to Negative Reviews

No one likes to receive negative feedback or critiques of their business, but negative reviews happen to everyone. When responding to criticism online, try to remember these tips before you reply.

Never respond when you're upset. These reviews are easy to take as personal attacks being the business owner, but it’s imperative that you stay calm or give yourself some time before you respond. Always reply with the same politeness and professionalism you would expect to receive from another business, and stay focused on the issue at hand. You may choose to reply through a direct message, but this rule still applies. Many businesses have seen embarrassing or volatile “private” conversations go viral after being shared by an upset customer, and this only serves to hurt your brand reputation. Decide if the negative review is even worth responding to. If the concerns raised are irrational or are given by someone who could be called a habitual complainer, you have the option to not respond. However, any legitimate concerns by genuine or high-profile customers or negative reviews on popular sites should be addressed.

In some scenarios, you can request to have negative reviews removed from the site. However, this may take some time and your petition may be dismissed by the website administrators. Instead, think about the complaint, and try to understand what happened from the customers point of view. Take this as an opportunity to improve your business and engage with your customer base, and make sure you cover all your bases. Once you have spoken with staff or employees who were on duty, contact the customer privately. Following a few common courtesy items (such as introducing yourself, thanking them for their business, feedback, and apologizing for their experience not being satisfactory), make sure to clearly outline your understanding of the issue and move on from there. Many businesses opt to offer a discount or some other compensation for poor experiences, but this is not a necessity.

If the person doesn’t respond or takes some time to respond to a private outreach, still go ahead and respond publicly. Address the concern in this response and outline what you have done to resolve the issue. Other readers will see you are responsive to even negative feedback and this should boost your credibility.

Make It Easy to Vent

It’s likely that all of you have had such a bad experience with a business that you feel compelled to tell someone, whether you’ve left a bad review online as a result, or just bad-mouth the company to your friends and acquaintances. One effective way to prevent customers from leaving bad reviews in public places is to make it easy for them to complain and feel heard by the management of your business.

Not every customer with a bad experience is going to confront your staff personally, so it’s important to provide a less direct way for these customers to be heard. A suggestion box is one idea, but this still requires that unhappy customer to take action in a public environment. People prefer to leave their feedback digitally these days.

Responding to Positive Reviews

On to the good stuff. Positive reviews are what every business owner is searching for from their online presence. They are validation of good work and physical proof you’re meeting your customer’s needs. Don’t take these lightly though! A good response to a positive review is just as important as responding to negative reviews. This is a chance to not only show off your businesses value, but to show your customers how dedicated you are to good customer service and engagement.

Make sure to not devalue your response by turning it into a sales pitch. Thank your reviewer sincerely, not just for leaving positive review but for their business. Reinforce the positive comment left, acknowledge any concerns or issues they may have raised, and welcome them back to your business.

You can even encourage more reviews by asking each customer if they’re pleased with your business and/or experience, and if so, would they leave a review online. Spread the word of your positive customer reviews by using them in sales proposals, highlight them on your website, display them in your business, and so on. Remember to share them with staff, even if no one is specifically mentioned as it can boost morale and remind staff of the impact they have on customers and their experiences.

Asking for Positive Reviews

Ask nicely. Yes, just simply ask. Encourage customers that have had positive experiences to leave a review on the platform of their choosing. Facebook, Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor are all some of the most popular review sites on the internet, so these are all good options. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how often people will accept the invitation.

However, we all know how it goes. You get busy, forget to ask the customer, and now your opportunity for a 5-star review is gone. Luckily, with the right technology, there are ways to automate this “asking” process completely.

121’s Review & Reputation Management Tool

We’ve developed a tool that allows golf courses to get more 4 and 5-star reviews, prevent bad reviews, and do it all in an automated fashion. Our Review & Reputation Management Tool integrates with the POS system to send an email to golfers after they’ve completed their round. The golfers are then encouraged to leave a 4 or 5-star review, with multiple platforms to choose from. Those that choose a 3-star and under rating are then brought to a contact form to reach out to the management of the course with their feedback, privately. Think of it as a virtual suggestion box.

By automatically inviting customers to leave feedback with our Review & Reputation Management Tool, you’ll improve your online ratings, significantly reduce the number of bad reviews that get published, and receive invaluable feedback to help improve your golf facility.

If you have any questions regarding your online reviews and reputation, or for more information on our Review and Reputation Management Tool, you can reach me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Lately, many methods of education, from schools to seminars, have been forced to improvise in order to continue communication and teaching. Many have turned to virtual calls and meetings. At 121 Marketing, we want to continue to be there for our clients, regardless of the constraints.

We are always looking for new ways to provide open lines of communication with our clients. We want to be flexible, accessible, and take on your issues in real-time, while encouraging community learning. And so…

121 now offers Business Virtual Office Hours! We are live over Zoom every Thursday to help you share idea and, answer in-the-moment questions...there is no set agenda. Join us in a collaborative effort to solve your issues and learn from others at the same time.

Want to just listen in on other customer questions? Simply turn off your camera and mute your microphone when joining the session

For more info or to join our Virtual Office Hour mailing list please reach out to Alex Pettus, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

121 zoomcall example

The last place I expected to learn about marketing was on the golf course, but playing the game has taught me a lot of skills that apply to my work in Marketing as well. How to use the right equipment, practicing and patience are just a few of the skills that I learned playing golf and have applied to my job, and they can help you too. Read the 5 things golfing can teach you about Marketing and put them in your bag today!

1. Expensive Equipment Can Only Take You So Far

Every golfer knows the excitement that comes from a shiny new driver, and the high hopes it brings to your game. The same goes for a brand-new software program or vendor for marketers. We all know the expectation we have for how any new tool, vendor or service will affect your performances, whether it is on the course or on the web. We also know the sting of disappointment when something new does not deliver the results we wanted or does not perform exactly as advertised. The way to ensure you are utilizing your tools and services, for golf or your marketing efforts, is to put in the work to ensure they are successful investments. Tools alone will not make you a better marketer, nor a better player.

2. Be Ready To Adapt

If the Pandemic has taught us anything as marketers, it’s that a constant flow of in-person event leads is never a guarantee. Being adaptable to new challenges in your communication and messaging is a necessary part of you marketing game. Much like marketing, golf is full of unexpected challenges, such as poor weather conditions, new pin placements, or even a simple mishit that you need to make up for with your other shots. Keeping a clear mind and adjusting to new challenges will make you a better marketer, and a more productive golfer.

3. Just Because Something Has Worked In The Past Doesn’t Mean It Works Now

We have all heard the phrase “That’s the way it has always been done” in business, and it is a slippery slope from here to obsolescence. Adapting to new challenges won’t always get you by if you cannot break out of bad habits and old methods. Like golf, sometimes the same routines that you previously used will no longer work for you. Updating some of your business practices that have been “standard” for too long and are not keeping up with the changes you are making may be a daunting task, but it is necessary to take strokes off your marketing game. And a change in your swing speed might not hurt either.

4. Practice, Adjust and Repeat

Now that you are ready to take on new challenges and ditch your old habits, it is time to hit the range. Practicing the new things you want to try is not only the way to cement them into your game, but also to figure out what doesn’t work. When updating and changing your marketing strategy, it’s not as simple as set and forget. You must keep working on it and adjusting when something does not work out the way you wanted. It is important to learn from mistakes, figure out what works and what does not, and continually evaluate progress toward your marketing objectives and overall organizational goals. Know what metrics you need to track and evaluate and figure out how to identify potential gaps and areas for improvement. Continually evaluate your processes, make small adjustments, and repeat to ensure no marketing program or golf game gets stale.

5. Be Patient

One thing learning and playing any sport like golf will teach you is that patience is key. This translates easily to your marketing endeavors. When you are learning a new skill like golf, you must know that it takes time to improve and see all your practice take hold — as well as to break bad habits. The same goes for launching a new campaign, a product announcement, or any optimizations you implement. They take time to yield results and show concrete evidence of success based on the work you have done. Knowing how to sit back and wait can be difficult, but it is important. You also need to be patient with yourself as you adapt, practice, and learn to be a better marketer, just as you must be patient while working on your golf game.

6. Do Not Be Afraid To Get Outside Help

At some point, in both our professions and our hobbies, there comes a time to admit we need help. Understanding that it may take you much more time to develop, create, or quantify results from your marketing campaigns is a type of self-awareness that is important for leaders. Also, if you are involved in the day-to-day aspects of your business, there may be simple fixes that fall through the cracks. While golf is an individual sport and practice and learning are mostly up to you, almost everyone reaches a point when you realize that you might need some professional help. Lessons from a professional are a way to get outside help in the areas you may be struggling with. Typically, a professional that specializes in one skill can find things you would miss after months of practice or running a campaign.

 

That is where we come in. 121 Marketing is your Golf Pro, eager and able to bring your marketing game up to par. For more information on how we can help shore up your marketing strategies, please reach out to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call (321) 710-8918.

Sunday, 28 March 2021 11:15

Managing Your Google My Business Listing

The Google My Business listing is a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. To help customers find your business, and to tell them your story, you can verify your business and edit your business information. This listing can help get your business found in more local searches, rank higher than your competitors, and get chosen by more customers.

While easy to setup and use, it’s not something you can create and forget about. If you want to stay at the top of results, you need to optimize and maintain your listing, just as you would your website.

How do I list my business on Google in the first place?

In this post, I will review why you should keep your Google My Business listing up to date, when you should be updating it, and some simple instructions for claiming, updating, and editing.  Before we dive into managing your listing, let’s first make sure our listing is claimed. All of this is done through your Google My Business account.

Here’s how to create a Google listing, which you will need to claim before making any changes or updates.

For more detailed instructions on creating and claiming your Google business listing, head here.

  1. Create a Google account
  2. Search for your business on Google Maps
  3. If your business shows up, no action is needed, your listing has been created
  4. If your business does not show up, click Add a place
  5. Fill in your information and click Submit
  6. Check your email

How do I claim my Google listing?

As mentioned above, you need to claim your listing before you want to make edits, updates, or changes. Here’s how to claim your listing once it’s been created:

  1. Search for your business in Google Maps
  2. Select your business
  3. Select Claim this business
  4. If you created the listing, you can click Claim and get instant access to your profile
  5. If you did not create the listing, you will have to verify ownership through postcard, phone call, or email

How do I edit, update, and make changes to my Google business listing?

The sections below will go into more detail on specific edits and updates you may want to make, but most of them require the same initial steps. These include:

  1. Log into your Google My Business account (go to https://business.google.com/ and make sure you are logged into the Google account you created for your business).
  2. Select Info
  3. Select the section you want to edit
  4. Select the pencil icon to add or edit
  5. Make your edits
  6. Select Apply

graphic

While some of these updates will take effect immediately, others may take up to 60 days, especially if they involve removing information. Keep in mind that some of the information on your Google My Business listing cannot be edited, updated, or removed, as it comes from other sources.

Why update my Google business listing?

Staying updated and making changes to your listing are some of the essential Google My Business optimizations you can do to help boost your rankings in local search results. The more you interact and improve your listing, the more signals you send to Google that your listing is accurate and trustworthy. This tells Google to rank you higher on google maps and the local side of Google Search. In return, you will experience these benefits and more:

  • Get discovered
  • Further your reach
  • Drive leads
  • Attract customers
  • Improve your SEO
  • Boost exposure

When should I update my Google business listing?

There are many different reasons to update your listing, but here are some of the more important ones:

  • Business moving or relocation
  • Multiple business locations
  • Inaccurate business information
  • No website

You can also utilize posts for local businesses like a social media feed to create and share announcements, offers, new or popular items in stock, or event details directly with your customers. When customers have more access to your business information and updates, they can make better decisions as they browse. This allows you to:

  • Directly communicate with your local customers.
  • Improve your customer experience with timely information.
  • Promote your sales, specials, events, news, and offers.
  • Engage with your customers through videos and photos.

Unlike the days before the internet, your customers are not just driving by; they are actively searching for businesses online. They are on Google Maps and Google Search, searching for products and services near them and doing research to compare businesses. To get found by the people who have the intent to buy from you, you have got to update your Google listing. If this seems above your head or something you may need help with, 121 Marketing is here for you! As part of our marketing services, we will optimize and manage your Google My Business profile so you don’t have to. For more information on how we can help, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Keeping abreast of current and upcoming changes is an important part of succeeding in digital marketing. We wanted to pass along some information regarding changes that will be coming in 2021 on Facebook regarding Apple/iOS operating systems. This will hopefully ease your nerves if you’ve been watching and reading the news about the changes that the two companies announced this week regarding customer data and tracking.

Recently, Apple announced a number of changes that are forthcoming in early 2021 surrounding iOS14. These changes will have massive implications on your ability to market, track, and understand data from potential and current customers. We are still learning complete details about what the changes will be, but there are actions we must take now to ensure we are prepared properly.

fb ios 14 121

Tracking Will Become More Difficult

What we do know is that tracking will become more difficult, our attribution windows will change, and ads will likely be less effective due to a loss of “signals” from users opting out of tracking. We will need to continue developing a greater understanding of how customers are finding us and how we can keep them around using tools like email and a post-purchase survey tool.

Apple has announced that with the mandatory rollout of iOS14 in March 2021 for all Apple mobile phones, it will likely provide an opt-in prompt for users on each app to be able to choose whether to allow third-party sites (like Facebook and other social media sites) to track their user data. User data can include things like conversions, website visitors/tracking (which affects interest targeting), and a few other things. Along with this tracking change, other upcoming changes include: attribution windows, which means your ROAS will likely (via reporting) decrease overall, and only 8 optimization events will be allowed (think purchase, initiate checkout, add to cart, lead, etc.). You can find a more detailed description of the changes here.

If 121 Marketing is running your Facebook ads, then don’t worry! We are still working to fully understand what changes we need to make to ensure it continues to be as successful as it can. However, there are a few things that you and we can do to make sure we’re as prepared as we can be for the change, such as: domain verification, setting up Conversion API and Auto-Advanced Matching, and looking at attribution data so that we have a benchmark for what success looks like when it changes. 

How to Prepare

If you run your own Facebook social media ads, we want to help you be as prepared and up to date as possible. Here are some things you can do right now to ensure you’re prepared for the upcoming changes:

Implement CAPI with Google Tag Manager

This helps you track based on information completed on your site through other means than cache-based pixel events.

Verify your domain

This ensures you’re set up and official to Facebook.

Calculate your delayed attribution multipliers

This helps you understand which percentage of your conversions comes after 7 days.

Decide which eight events for conversions you’ll track. Then customize them in the Events Manager

Reporting will be very different. Facebook states, The 8 conversion events per domain will be ranked based on priority. If multiple events are completed by a user (i.e. add to cart and purchase) only the higher prioritized event will be reported.

Prepare for reporting within Facebook to be less-complete

Facebook states, Certain attribution windows will have partial reporting and metrics will not include all events from iOS 14 users. [It’ll be communicated] when a metric is partial.

Install a post-purchase attribution survey tool, like Prove It Post-Purchase Surveys

You will absolutely need this to understand the true impact of Facebook and Instagram’s ads on your sales funnel.

Read this developer blog post from Facebook here

This is nothing to overreact about now, but just know that we are researching and understanding more about these changes each day, and will keep you informed as more information becomes available. For more information, or to see how 121 Marketing can help with you social media ads, please reach out to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Monday, 12 October 2020 10:28

Managing Your Social Media Strategy

Managing Your Social Media Strategy

Business owners and marketers are aware of social media and its benefits as a marketing tool; its affordable, instant, and far-reaching. It can also be time-consuming and seem overwhelming to maintain a consistent social strategy. But posting consistent quality content is one of the easiest ways to separate yourself from your competitors. Here are a few ways you can take control of your social media presence without it consuming all your time:

Define your goals

A clear and focused strategy is your first step to reigning in your social media presence. It's best to have clearly defined goals so you can promote accurately. Decide what products or events you want to advertise will translate well to Facebook posts. Be careful to distinguish between posts that are just there to generate awareness, and which you want to have actionable items. Having carefully constructed goals in mind will help you narrow down the almost limitless possible uses of your newsfeed for you and your followers.

Define your audience

Speaking of followers, its crucial to your success to understand your audience. Knowing your audience and what they want to see on social media is imperative to your strategy. Curating custom content for your followers encourages them to comment, share, and otherwise interact with your social posts, with the end goal of creating customers. We also want to provide them with actionable content they're interested in to create conversions.

Understand what’s important

Now that we know exactly what our goals are, and who we are targeting, we can focus on what items are the most important to both us and our audience. It's great to have some filler content to buff up your newsfeed now and again, but having quality, convertible posts are what will make your time worth it. This may take more time, but by watching your engagement you can easily see what posts create excitement and encourage people to interact and which are mostly ignored.

Create a Content Calendar

Here’s where it all comes together. With a fully fleshed-out strategy, goals and audiences defined and posts ready to go we can create and schedule posts ahead of time to save time and energy. You can limit the time you spend on your social strategy by creating a content calendar with your posts created, drafted, and ready to send in an instant. With some highly focused and productive time utilizing the above information, you can have a calendar of posts ready weeks in advance, so you don’t have to spend time every day working on your social presence.

If it still seems like too much to handle, 1-2-1 Marketing may be able to help! Our Managed Marketing Services does everything you need to target your social audience on a consistent basis. We find and engage your ideal customers via targeted social posts and emails. Promote leagues, memberships, lessons, events, and more. For more information on our MMS program or any other marketing assistance, please contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Wednesday, 29 April 2020 14:20

Investing in your SEO Strategy

Investing in your SEO strategy

Many businesses are still closed and facing much uncertainty about when their operations will return to normal. This has forced a lot of owners to suspend their paid digital ad campaigns. What is normally a revenue driver can become a drain on limited resources in the virtually closed economy we are experiencing. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t still be successful in the digital space and stay ahead of the game for the resumption of regular business operations. Now is the time to reinvest in one of your most reliable and cost-free methods of advertising; your SEO strategy.

What is your SEO Lacking?

SEO often falls on the backburner for busy owners and marketers. It’s in the back of your mind, but paid initiatives tend to get more attention. Now, with quarantine keeping many ad campaigns suspended in limbo, it’s the perfect opportunity to shore up your non-paid campaigns. Here are a few areas to revisit and improve while paid search and remarketing ads are on hold:

Indexing & Crawl Issues – The first thing you should check is that your site has been indexed. If you want to show up in search results for Google or any other search engine, you need to have your site indexed. And you don’t want to be indexed just once – you want search engines to re-index your site on a regular basis. Here is a simple way to check if your site is properly indexed:

  • Go to Google Search Console
  • Navigate to the URL inspection tool
  • Paste the URL you’d like Google to index into the search bar.
  • Wait for Google to check the URL
  • Click the “Request indexing” button

If your site is already indexed, that’s good news. However, there is always room to improve. Google Search Console (GSC) also allows you to monitor different aspects of your website like when it was last crawled, any indexing errors, security issues, etc. Correcting crawl errors, site speed issues, and security problems will help you rank higher and improve your customer experience.

Keywords – Optimize your page with accurate and unique title tags, meta descriptions, and page headers. The title for your homepage can list the name of your website/business and could include other bits of important information like the physical location of the business or maybe a few of its main focuses or offerings. Try to use brief but descriptive titles. Meta descriptions should accurately summarize the page content and be unique to each page. Use meaningful headings to indicate important topics and structure for your content.

Local Search & Reviews – When reviewing your local listings like Google My Business, there are 5 main things to focus on:

  • Get your listing claimed and verified
  • Enter complete and up-to-date information about your business
  • Make sure your hours are accurate and updated for holidays and closures
  • Read and respond to your customer reviews
  • Add as many relevant photos and videos as you can

Link Building – Building links is a major factor in how Google will rank your web pages in search results. If you have lots of high-quality links leading to your site, Google will consider it popular and meaningful, leading to higher rankings. Remember that this is an outreach activity. You must reach out to people to get them to link to your page, and link building should create backlinks that attract your target audience to your site.

Consistency – NAP consistency stands for Name, Address, Phone number. Creating NAP consistency across your website, business listings, social media profiles, and local directories. This is an important factor for SEO ranking but also helps to keep your customers from getting confused about how to contact you. A simple audit of all your contact info can be as beneficial as it is easy!

What can we do?

1-2-1 Marketing has experts ready to help you get the most out of your SEO efforts. Whether you are an existing customer looking to improve your organic search strategy, or you're looking for someone to help take the reins and manage this for you, we are here to help. Contact me at apettus@1-2-1marketing for more information on how we can improve your SEO initiatives.

Tuesday, 14 April 2020 14:33

What Marketers Can Do During Quarantine

Amidst the unprecedented crisis that is the COVID-19 pandemic, many small businesses are struggling with what to do while their operations are suspended. It’s impossible to ignore the economic repercussions we are already seeing from the forced shut down of the economy, and most industries are suffering in some way. Travel and leisure activities have seen massive drops in website traffic and conversions while most people are avoiding public non-essential places. Staying healthy and safe should be your main priority, however, there are ways to keep yourself occupied and productive even during self-isolation and quarantine.

Google Ad Credits:

In order to help ease some of the pressure for small and medium-sized businesses, Google is giving these businesses $340 Million in ad credits during the COVID-19 pandemic. While no hard timeline for the aid has been released, businesses can expect credit to their account within the next few months if you’ve been an active advertiser since the beginning of 2019. Keep an eye out for this if you have an active ad account. This is all part of a larger commitment that Google has made to support SMBs, health organizations, governments, and health workers on the frontline of this global pandemic.

Spring Cleaning:

One of the most important things you can do for your business during this time is to take advantage of the downtime you have. If you can’t operate normally, use this time for tasks that are normally difficult to complete during operating hours or that may have been put off. This goes double for tasks you can complete remote and without extra expense. Just a few things you can do from home on a tight budget include:

  • Purge email lists
  • Update local listing info
  • Create or adjust marketing budgets
  • Social media posting
  • Write blogs/emails
  • Refresh marketing material

Stay calm and use these and more to minimize the effect the closures may have on your business. We may be limited in our options, but we can still be productive as marketers and owners.

Stay connected

Going hand in hand with a few of our recommendations of things to do, staying connected to your customers through email, blog and social media posts are imperative during this time of social distancing. People are more willing to engage than ever while stuck in quarantine and unable to do much. Let them know you’re here, still working and trying to improve the situation. Let them know what steps you’ve taken to ensure safety at the property now and what you’ll do in the future, especially if you are offering any kind of curbside services. Most importantly, don’t do anything that could be viewed as exploitation during this time of need. This is a short-sited mentality and can hurt you in the long run. Better to spend your time improving yourself for the future.

Wash your hands, follow social distancing orders and stay healthy. These are your main priorities while we traverse these untested waters. Use the time to do what you can for your business, and try to be there for your customers in any way you can. We will be doing our best to update you on new developments and working hard to be prepared for a normal life again, hopefully soon. If you have any questions or would like to know more about what you can do during this time, feel free to contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Wednesday, 16 October 2019 10:01

Optimizing Your Google My Business Profile

Optimizing Your Google My Business Profile

When working on a local marketing strategy, one of your most important resources is a Google My Business (GMB) local listing, and the insights provided by it. While far from perfect, there is much we can learn from the insights provided by GMB. Using Bright Locals Google My Business Insights Study which explored the listings of 45,000 anonymous local businesses to provide an in-depth benchmark, we can explore what is important to focus on when optimizing our local search strategy. Here are 4 key takeaways from the report:

Page 1 of 3

Is your website built to perform?

Find out if low visibility online is impacting your business with a FREE Digital Marketing Analysis.

Invalid Input
Please let us know your name.
Invalid Input
Please let us know your email address.

Subscribe to our blog for helpful golf marketing tips and industry updates.

Please let us know your email address.
Close