Bentham Golf Club

Our paths first crossed with the owners of Bentham Golf Course when Manifest was invited to be the marketing expert at a Pop-up Business Café run by the Local Enterprise Partnership’s How Business program.

The free event in Ingleton allowed businesses to benefit from 10-15 minute session slots with a variety of experts like ourselves, from different professional service sectors, giving their time and expertise free of charge. Isabel and Jane Marshall sat down with me and I offered insights into how they could raise the profile of the Golf Club which the family had recently taken on to complement their existing business, Riverside Caravan Park.

They explained that they needed to communicate to both locals and visiting golfers from further afield that the club was enjoying a renaissance due to their investment and drive (pun intended). Not only offering better quality golf, Isabel wanted to position the clubhouse, open all day for light meals, as a community hub for social or business events and a spacious venue for private functions.

Some months later, Isabel and I met again at a board meeting for the Yorkshire Dales funding program, LEADER. She subsequently contacted Manifest to book a marketing audit session at the golf club.

The full day marketing audit session outlined a number of marketing objectives and was the start of our working relationship with the Marshall’s family of businesses. Initially we provided ad-hoc PR support for the club which soon developed into Bentham Golf Course becoming a retained client. Then, with Isabel’s workload growing exponentially with the business, our skill set became more apparent and we now provide a cross section of ‘full service agency’ skills on which she can depend.

Alongside the original PR brief, we now manage the club’s advertising schedule, liaising with a cross section of national, specialist and regional titles, booking space as required and coming up with creative content while co-ordinating artwork from their local design contact.

We introduced a professional photographer, liaise with their web designer, draft copy for brochures, posters, leaflets and other corporate literature, along with sourcing competitive print for direct marketing campaigns. Email marketing is also part of the regular marketing mix, with Manifest either compiling content or providing polish as required.

In the time we have been working with Bentham Golf Course, we have helped to manage its re-branding, assisted in the development of the clubhouse identity as 1922 Bar & Kitchen and have been alongside the team during the exciting creation of Wenningdale Escapes; luxurious new pods and lodges built amid the fairways for holiday hire or purchase. It’s a privilege to work with this entrepreneurial family and to provide the appropriate professional marketing polish to complement their exceptional hospitality standards.

“Manifest allows us to have ‘a Marketing Department’ without the investment in additional staff at our end.”

Isabel Beanlands