When building websites for sports clubs, golf clubs, or country clubs, there are several things you must include to attract and retain members. Here are our 13 must-haves for a club website design. From branding to must-have pages and technical aspects, we cover all bases.
Let us know if the Web Bird Digital Team can help. Visit our Club and Hospitality Websites page for examples of our club websites, and see how a dedicated club websites developer can bring your vision to life. Contact us for more information.
Essential Features of Club Website Design
1. Visually Appealing Home Page
A visually appealing home page is your club’s digital front door. “As a niche hospitality website developer, one of the best pieces of advice we can give is to start strong with professional photos or videos that immediately showcase your club’s offerings.
For example, an aerial video of a golf course on golf club websites or an action shot highlighting the sport on sports club websites. A visually appealing home page is a powerful tool for capturing your target audience’s attention and ensuring they stick around to browse.
2. Appetising Food Photos
It’s vital for clubs offering food and drinks to highlight the food (and, to a lesser extent, the drinks) through professional photos. Paying for an experienced food photographer might seem like a substantial investment, but rest assured, it pays for itself.
Customers want to know they’ll have a delicious meal at your establishment. Professional photos showcasing your menu highlights are a surefire way to achieve this.
Speaking of food, it’s strongly recommended that you include your food and drink menu on your club website. Nowadays, most people check the menu before dining out. We can help turn your menu into an interactive flipbook.
3. Cuisine & Dining Experiences
Showcasing the type of cuisine your club offers adds depth to your food and beverage section. Describe the style of your restaurants or cafes, such as fine dining or casual bistro. Mention signature dishes, seasonal specials, and any unique culinary experiences your venue provides.
4. Reservations
Make it easy for members to book a table, a meeting room, or a function hall with a reservation button. It can take on many shapes, like a customised plugin or simply sending people to your email address. Either way, we can help you build the right reservation system.
5. Membership System
This is a two-fold system. You want to make it easy for current members to renew their membership through your website via credit card or PayPal. This improves member retention and reduces administration overhead at renewal time.
An integrated membership system on club websites also entices interested members to sign up online. For example, if they had a great time the night before and are interested in becoming a member, you want to make it easy for them to do so on your website when they’re ready. Ensure the different membership options are listed with prices and any necessary information. If it isn’t easily accessible, you might easily lose them.
6. Contact Details
Make it simple for people to contact your club by creating an accessible and well-organised contact page. If potential customers struggle to find your contact details, they’re likely to move on. Display key information prominently, such as a phone number in the header and both your phone and address in the footer. Include a dedicated contact page in the menu bar for easy navigation. Enhance the page with an interactive map and links to your social media platforms to provide multiple ways for people to connect with you.
7. Regular Events Calendar
Regular events keep members engaged and foster a sense of community within the club. This might include trivia nights, weekly meal specials, and recurring social gatherings. If it’s a sports club website, regular events can also feature sports practice sessions, games, training camps, and fitness classes.
Display all regular events prominently on your website to encourage participation.
8. Special Events Calendar
A special events calendar highlights unique or seasonal events such as tournaments, galas, fundraisers, holiday celebrations, shows, and live band performances. For example, a golf club might feature a special event like an annual tournament. Promote these events with eye-catching banners on the home page and in an interactive live calendar to capture visitors’ attention quickly and boost attendance.
9. Online Ticket Purchase
Regarding events, it pays (literally) to sell tickets through your website to avoid steep third-party ticketing costs. At Web Bird Digital, we’ve created our own event ticketing system, which we can include in our custom club website designs. There’s also the option to generate barcodes or QR codes to expedite entry on the day.
Remember, if you’re integrating ticket sales, you must pay attention to your club website’s bandwidth. If you expect thousands of simultaneous hits, you must ensure your hosting can cope with the traffic hit and won’t crash the website. Our specialised website hosting services can help.
10. Function Information
If your club hosts functions, highlight the specific functions through professional photos. For example, show your space hosting a wedding or a family celebration. If you regularly host kid-friendly functions, include pictures of happy children enjoying your space.
We can integrate a function room calendar to streamline bookings and reduce administrative workload.
11. Kids’ Areas and Play Facilities
Highlighting kids’ areas and play facilities will significantly enhance the appeal of your club to families. Showcase playgrounds, dedicated kids’ zones, and family-friendly amenities with inviting photos.
12. Sport Information
Club websites should include pertinent information to keep members informed. For sports-based clubs, this might include team rosters, match schedules, current standings, and player profiles. For example, golf clubs can highlight upcoming tournaments, leaderboards, and booking information for competitions. Keeping this information updated helps engage current members and attract new ones.
13. Multimedia Gallery
Place all the professional photos mentioned above in a one-stop multimedia gallery to capture your club’s spirit. Showcase food, club events, functions, and members having fun to entice new members to join.
Other Key Factors for Club Website Design
Here are a few more things to consider when building club websites:
- If your club relies on sponsors, including a dedicated page highlighting their businesses is a lovely way to build their credibility and encourage other companies to support your club.
- Start strong with a mobile-friendly website that loads quickly to enhance the user experience. A responsive website looks good on all screen sizes.
- Include a privacy policy to protect visitors’ personal information.
- Keep navigation simple and everything readily available in the menu bar. Consumers will quickly lose interest if they can’t find what they want with just a few clicks.
- If you have the staff capabilities, it can be helpful to feature a news section with the latest news and sporting results. You can also send this information in a weekly or monthly newsletter to keep members informed.
Remember, we have ample experience building websites for clubs across Australia. Contact the Web Bird Digital team for more information on our club website design services.