Your Website Is Your Digital Clubhouse
Eighty-one percent of people considering club membership visit your website before they ever step on property. For many of them, that digital experience determines whether they step on property at all.
Think about what that means. Your website is not supplemental to your member experience. It is the beginning of it.
Sean Bleyl saw this evolution happen in real time. He spent 10 years working operationally at clubs before moving to the digital side at MembersFirst. That bridge between operations and technology gives him a perspective most people in either world miss.
“Joining a club is not like buying a product. What you are purchasing is an experience. The experience you receive as a member, as an employee, as a guest. The digital experience sets the tone for your team at a club to shine.”
Your website is your digital clubhouse. And just like your physical clubhouse, it either creates a sense of belonging or it does not. Here is what that means for how clubs think about digital experience.
Digital Experience Starts Before Members Arrive
The member journey used to begin when someone drove through your gates. Maybe a friend brought them as a guest. Maybe they attended an event. That first physical visit was the beginning. Those days are over.
Today, the journey begins online. Before anyone visits, they research. They explore your website. They look at photos on your social channels. They read about programs. They try to understand: Is this a place where I would belong?
That first digital impression sets expectations. When someone finally visits your club, they are comparing what they see to what they experienced online. If those two experiences align, trust builds. If they conflict, doubt creeps in.
What this means for club leaders:
Your website is not a brochure. It is an experience. When prospective members visit your site, they are not just gathering information. They are deciding whether this feels like a place where they might belong.
Does your website express who you are as a club? Does it help people see themselves as part of your community? Does it create the same feeling your physical clubhouse creates?
If your digital clubhouse feels generic, outdated, or disconnected from your actual culture, you are sending prospective members elsewhere before they ever give you a chance to make a first impression in person.
Communications Drives Engagement, Engagement Creates Belonging
Sean attended a national industry conference where club presidents and general managers from prominent clubs discussed their operations.
“In one hour-long presentation, the word ‘communications’ was mentioned over 50 times. And this was not a session on marketing and communications. This was a club manager discussing operations. They kept coming back to one thing: how to communicate with members, how to communicate across departments. Communications was the thread running through everything they talked about.”
Communications is not marketing. Marketing sells. Communications creates engagement. And engagement is what generates the attachment that makes members feel they belong.
“The marketing communications department is one department that touches every single person at the club. They generate engagement. And engagement generates revenue.”
What this means for club leaders:
Many clubs treat communications as a cost center. Something that supports operations but does not drive value.
The best clubs treat communications as strategic infrastructure. It is how members stay connected to the club between visits. It is how they learn what is happening. It is how they feel included in the community.
When you underinvest in communications, you are not just failing to market effectively. You are failing to create the ongoing engagement that makes members feel they belong.
Communications touches every department because belonging happens across every department. How you communicate shapes how connected members feel to your club.
Strategic Plans Should Include Communications
Most club strategic plans outline capital projects. Clubhouse renovations. Golf course improvements. Fitness center expansions. All critical investments. But something is missing.
Strategic plans rarely include communications. And that gap creates problems.
“Clubs reach out to us for a project and tell us about their renovations. I would ask, when do you expect to break ground? And they would say, we broke ground a month ago. I am like, oh my goodness. You are just starting to think about that communications plan?”
“The clubs that are most successful are the ones thinking about their projects in advance. They are thinking about how they are going to communicate that to the membership. Members might be putting up 5, 10, 50, or 90 million dollars. Clubs that think ahead are saying, we have this coming up over the next year, two years. Let’s plan how to strategically roll out these experiences.”
What this means for club leaders:
Facilities create potential. Communications helps members understand that potential and get excited about it.
When you plan a renovation without planning how you will communicate it, you create uncertainty. Members wonder what is happening, why it is happening, how it affects them.
When you plan communications alongside facilities, you create clarity. Members understand the vision. They see how it serves them. They feel included in the transformation.
Your strategic plan should answer: What are we building? And equally important: How will we help members understand what we are building and why it matters?
The Digital Clubhouse Requires Operational Thinking
The best digital strategies come from people who understand club operations. Not just how websites work, but how clubs work. What creates member experience. What staff need to succeed.
This operational perspective shapes different questions. Instead of asking “Can we update the website design? Can we add this functionality?” the question becomes: How does this serve the operations that create belonging?
“Usually, most of the projects that clubs reach out for are not really just about that project. They are usually trying to solve some operational issue.”
Digital is not separate from operations. It is a tool that enables the operations that create member experience.
What this means for club leaders:
Your digital clubhouse should work the way your operations work. When you plan a website redesign or member app, involve your operators early. Your membership director knows what prospective members ask. Your golf pro knows what programming drives engagement. Your GM knows what communications members need.
Digital is not a marketing project. It is an operational tool that creates the engagement and belonging your club exists to provide.
The best digital experiences come from people who understand operations. Who have walked in the shoes of the staff delivering member experience every day.
Communications Teams Enable Everything Else
You can invest in the best digital tools available. Beautiful website. Robust member app. Integrated systems. But without a team that understands how to use those tools strategically to create engagement, the investment does not deliver.
Tools enable. Teams execute. And execution is what creates the experience members feel.
“If you do not have the team that is putting the strategy in place, it does not matter how great a website you have. It does not matter how good an app you have. If you do not have the team delivering that marketing communications experience, it will fall flat.”
What this means for club leaders:
Budget for the communications team the same way you budget for facilities. When you plan a clubhouse renovation, you hire architects, contractors, project managers. You invest in the people who will execute the vision.
Communications deserves the same strategic investment. Hire people who understand your club’s identity. Who can translate that identity into digital experiences that create belonging. Who think strategically about how to keep members engaged between visits.
The communications department is not overhead. It is the team that helps every other department create the engagement that makes members feel they belong.
Moving Forward
Your website is your digital clubhouse.
Most prospective members visit that digital clubhouse before they visit your physical one. That experience shapes whether they take the next step.
But digital belonging extends beyond prospective members. It is how current members stay connected between visits. How they learn about what is happening. How they feel included in your community.
Communications is not marketing. It is the strategic function that creates engagement across every department. And engagement is what generates the belonging members feel.
When you treat your website as a digital clubhouse, when you invest in communications as strategic infrastructure, when you plan digital alongside physical facilities, you create the conditions for belonging to happen before anyone ever walks through your gates.
This article draws from Episode 105 of Clubs Made Meaningful, where we explore how digital experience creates belonging and why communications deserves strategic investment.
Schedule a 30-minute discovery call. We will show you how strategic clarity shapes every touchpoint where members experience your club. Explore additional resources at sussner.com/action
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Clubs Made Meaningful
A Podcast by Sussner
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