Reaching New Audiences Via Research-Driven Personalization

CapTech and the PGA of America (PGA) collaborated on a freshly designed web experience, rooted in research, that personalized the journey for its existing audiences and helped create new connections.

The PGA, a sports organization composed of 29,000 PGA golf professionals, wanted to connect with more golfers – from those just learning to play to golf enthusiasts. But its digital channels lacked personalization and a way to connect with each of these audiences based on their desired golf journey.

The PGA collaborated with CapTech to help reach new audiences through its primary digital channels. CapTech conducted in-depth customer research, which included leading a vision workshop, conducting interviews, and developing four proto-personas to understand the audience, capture pain points and uncover barriers to entry. CapTech also conducted competitive and comparative analyses, a customer survey, and captured future state journeys to inform design decisions and highlight long-term enhancements.

Once the research was complete, CapTech created wireframes and action-oriented visual designs to align with PGA.com and ensure WCAG 2.1 compliance. Along the way, the team examined the current navigational structure to recommend a strategy for inserting the new experience into PGA.com and to plan for future testing. The final step was to map content to drive traffic from existing pages to the new experiences and create engaging new website copy, guiding the audience to their desired golf journey.

This discovery effort accelerated PGA’s customer experience transformation by:

• Expanding PGA’s audience reach: CapTech's research efforts helped PGA identify new audiences, driving increased brand awareness, customer acquisition, and business growth.
• Enhancing golfer loyalty and satisfaction: Proto-personas and customer research deepened PGA’s understanding of customer needs, enabling tailored digital channels that keep golfers in the PGA sales funnel and increase the chance that they will continue their lifelong golf journey with the PGA.
• Providing a competitive advantage: CapTech's analyses provided industry insights, giving PGA a competitive advantage to stay ahead and position themselves as golf industry leaders.
• Informing future design decisions: Insights from future state journeys and customer surveys will continue to inform design decisions, enhancing the user experience and aligning with audience preferences.
• Optimizing content to increase traffic: Strategic content mapping will help PGA increase golfer engagement on PGA.com, directing traffic effectively and supporting improving conversion rates.
• Accelerating long-term planning initiatives: This discovery effort accelerated long-term planning efforts and ensures PGA can adapt to market trends, maintaining a competitive and effective digital presence.