The State of the Marine Industry in 2026: What Dealers Need to Know

Episode Transcript

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Hey, what’s up everybody? Welcome to the Marine Marketing Podcast. I’m your host, Harry Casimir. This podcast is all about marketing your marine business, whether you are a boat dealer, boat builder, boat club, all in between. If you want to get more leads, more sales, and marketing that actually works, you are in the right place.

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And every episode we break down what’s working right now in the marine marketing space. There is no fluff, no generic advice, just real tactics you can take home and grow your business. This podcast is brought to you by Boat Marketing Pros, where we help marine businesses grow through digital marketing. Learn more at boatmarketingcourse.com. All right, let’s get into it.

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The state of the marine industry in 2026— what boat dealers need to know. This is what we’re going to cover in this episode. We’re going to do a deep dive. Let’s get ready. We plan on covering what happened in 2025, and we’re gonna talk about the market reality that we are seeing, what actually happened, and what some of the things that smart dealers are doing that help them get ahead, and giving you some 2026 action plan to take home and focus on build up on so you can execute better for 2026.

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Let’s get started. Let’s tackle the 2025 year. How was it? How did it go? 2025 was one of the most challenging years for the boarding industry in recent memories, actually across the US and maybe across the world.

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What we’ve seen is especially the smaller powerboat retail side of the business. Last year we saw a 10% year-over-year decrease in sales for 2025. But what’s very interesting about this number is that the interest in boating has not gone anywhere. People even show more interest in boating during the same period, which is very interesting and kind of how the two sides of the equation are shifting. So the market reality that we are seeing is from pontoon to jet boats and wake sport boats, all of those numbers are down by about 13 to 14% down from the previous year.

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That’s for new boats. However, for used boats, we have seen a 17 increase on used boats last year. And that’s a very, very strong indication that there are people that still holding on to their boats that they bought back in a few years back. And what we also seeing is the days inventory stay in the market, especially for premium vessels, it’s much longer now. So With all that, it’s not because the buyers are disappearing.

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Actually, if anything, they are right there. They are just taking longer to decide. They involve themselves in multiple sessions, go to different medium channels where they would visit multiple platforms and systems to help them determine. So this new buyer journey becomes the norm. Longer sales cycle, which we’re going to cover in a little bit more detail.

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So what is the reality and what’s actually happening?

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What we’ve seen is buyers are conducting much more extensive research across multiple mediums and media. So that means they are not just looking at your website, or the manufacturer website or the marketplace. They are using all resources available to them, including social media, including friends, influence from friends, to determine how they’re gonna buy and if they will even buy. Also, there is a significant increase on social media, on mobile usage. That also means, especially for dealers that don’t have a responsive website with lack of information, it will really hurt you if you do not have all of that information readily available from a mobile perspective.

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And what that means when your website is mobile ready, there’s a few things that you have to keep in mind. One, make sure the navigation is easy for the user visitors to find that information they’re looking for, just like they would do on desktop. Make sure the website loads fast on mobile. Again, what loads fast to you may not be the same. Believe it or not, there are people that are still on very, very slow connection from a mobile perspective.

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So you still need to keep that in mind. So your website needs to be flexible so that the user can get the information they need when they visit wherever they are. And we have seen buyers now really map out the journey in terms of how they will buy, when they will buy based on information they are saving. So they take your listing, save that information, and then monitor price changes over time. So they looked at when did you change that price?

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When price for X model change? All of that information or more that the potential customer is harboring so that they can make a better decision for them and obviously a slower decision on what they need to buy. But also with all that, the economy uncertainty does not help. It makes consumers more price sensitive, price conscious, and really think about where they’re spending their money. Many potential buyers don’t buy boats, not because they do not have the money, but they’re just not certain what the economy gonna look like 6 months, a year from now.

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So they are very careful on how they approach this. With all that, we looked at the reality and what’s actually happening. So what are some of the things that smart dealers are doing to help expand their market. Well, what we’re seeing is over and over, some of the dealers that function extremely well, that’s moving inventory very, very well in good or bad times, are dealers that usually think ahead, that think long-term, don’t have the short, quick sell cycle in their mind that they can sell anything overnight. The reality is not the case.

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Those are the dealers that expand their marketing team and digital presence. So they really, really put their foot in the ground from a marketing perspective, really push what we call a true omnipresence. So that if you enter those dealers’ market, there’s a good chance you will see them across multiple, multiple mediums and hear them across multiple mediums. So you will see them on your Facebook feed. You will see them on your Instagram.

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Their website is super polished and well optimized. You will find them on Google local search. You will find them on Google Ads. You would find them on your local radios and, and you will find them in even some national network. You will find them some on TV.

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You would find them on YouTube. You will find them everywhere. Those are the type of dealers that really know how to execute and how to keep the momentum going. What we have seen over and over, those dealers usually don’t complain much about inventories not moving. The market is strange.

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They don’t selling as much like early 2021, but they are moving inventories. What we also seen is smart dealers are hosting a lot of in-person events. They create a very special intimate event that help them stay connected with potential customers, but also their existing customer base. We have seen over and over that what happened with customers that you already have, it’s very easy to maintain and retain them so that they can think of you with the next purchase. And of course, make sure cleaning up aging inventory before the new model year started, because what we seen is everybody’s looking for a deal.

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It doesn’t matter how much money they have. Where the status is at. Everyone is looking for a deal. Smart dealers understand that. And at the end of the day, the deal that you give to someone can make or break the deal, can determine whether they will go with you or go to the next dealer down the street.

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So it’s very, very crucial that you look at, analyze your inventory, analyze the market, see the interest, and look at your database of potential buyers, people that have reached out to you or bought before from you, which we’re gonna cover in a second. How can you tap into this and offering incentives to bring them in so that you can get rid of the previous year model? But also, the very smart dealers are focusing on both segments where the demand is very strong. So for example, right now demand is very, very strong for used boat. That’s the one segment that you can capitalize on.

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I’m not saying you just need to bring all your inventory into used boat, but that’s a very strong segment where the demand is very high. Again, I just mentioned to you from last year, used boat sales were up almost 17%. So with that number, we seen the trend is continue to grow even from the previous year. The previous year was 13%, now it’s 17%, and there’s a good prediction out there that it will hit about 21%, which is crazy. So if you think about from a dealer perspective, it makes sense to be where the demand is at, which is used boat.

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And we’ve seen this where some smart dealers put themselves in a place where they have, or they are ready for where the demand is very strong. Another piece we’ve seen over and over, I just mentioned this a moment ago, but let’s dive deep a little bit on investing in customer retention over pure acquisition. Yes, it makes sense from a dealer perspective, from a business perspective, to invest in lots of marketing outreach and get your name out there, build the brand and make people see you and make people want to buy from you when they’re ready for whatever model they are looking at. However, the database of past customers, people that bought from you before, it’s a goldmine that I have seen over and over that businesses just ignore. You cannot ignore this goldmine.

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Your existing customer base, I hope you have all that data in place and a database or CRM to tap into, because if you’ve been in business for a moment, so let’s give an example here. Let’s say a boat dealer has been in business for 20 years because of that longevity. And let’s say they carry, give or take, 3 different brands. During that time, over that last 20 years, Say for example, on average, these are 100 boats a year. Again, I’m just making that number up.

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So if you think about it, 100 boats a year times 20, you understand where we’re going with this, right? That’s 2,000-some boats. Now that’s not a lot over 20 years, but again, that’s just the number I’m making up. Every one of these people are people that socially bought from you, and there’s a good chance, especially in the last 5 years, those people still have their board. With that information on hand, this is where you can do a lot of outreach, build customer loyalty, and bring those people again and again.

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So for services, offer them free services, offer them peer connection, and even create a specific event or some kind of mastery board information just for your customer base so they can stay with you. And that’s, my friend, is true customer retention over acquisition. Because at the end of the day, acquisition doesn’t come cheap. Now I’m not saying your existing customers are gonna come cheap, but at least you already have information from them. You do not have to reintroduce yourself.

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You just reinforce your brand. You just reinforce your— build loyalty and bring those people back in. And this is kind of a subsection within investing in your existing customer is making sure that your outreach is on de, meaning that those people, you keep them in contact, making sure they hear from you on a consistent basis. So whether it’s through newsletter or flyers that you send over to them, make sure you are front and center all the time. So with all that, What are some of the action plans or things that you should be doing as a dealer for 2026 to help you propel yourselves, your team to the next level?

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Let’s clear the air here now. Accept the longer sales cycle and adjust follow-up accordingly. I have seen over and over people still don’t get the sales cycle of their business, and that is very, very critical. To understand, especially as boat dealers. You all use and know we have seasonality, so you do not have perfect weather all the time, and people are not in the mood to buy new boats, used boats all the time anyways.

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There’s always friction, seasonality, a lot of aspects you cannot control. So you have to adjust your follow-up accordingly, making sure you are targeting and approaching the right buyers at the right time. The other point is doubling down on your digital touchpoints throughout the buyer journey. As I mentioned to you earlier, the buyer journey changed and is becoming longer, and that’s the norm now. Because it’s become the norm, then staying in front of those potential buyers becomes more crucial, more important, and it has to be consistent.

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It’s not something you can do today and hope for tomorrow they will come or remember you a month, two months from now. You have to stay in front of them. Your digital footprint should consist of a very, very well optimized website. In different episodes, we talk about what a true optimized website is, but a truly well optimized website, your social media footprint, your ads that running from different platforms, depending on where you run ads, and making sure the consistency of your inventory from the marketplace to different directories to your website and your DMS, all of that sync very, very well so that the information that the buyer seeing about you, the branding, all of that match up. Consider what you can do with your used inventory.

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Strategically thinking, there are tons of different ways you can approach your used inventory. And depending on the market that you are in, meaning where you located regionally, that can make a difference. But think about how can you use your current used boat inventory to drum up sales, more people and potential buyers that may not be able to buy brand new boats, but if you can get them in a pre-owned use both, how can we get them there? And strategically, what different methods we can use to bring not just one or two buyers, but many of those potential buyers that we have on our lead management system. And this is where a true CRM comes into place.

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Make sure your 2026 plan has a complete CRM really mapped out for your team. So your CRM should be very, very basic information in terms of your team have access to manage every single leads that’s coming in with clear responsibility ownership for each members of your team. Probably most of the salespeople ensure that they have their own account. They are logging in, they are able to see leads that’s coming in, deal they are working on and where those deals are. But also making sure deals that fall through or people that are not ready to buy, make sure you have a nurturing campaign going out so that those people will continue to be aware of you, see your brand all the time so that when they are ready to afford what they want to buy from you, you will be the first one because you are the one that consistently checking in, consistently sending those reminders, giving them inventory updates and so forth.

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So that’s things that you need to do in 2026. Last but not least is focusing on customer experience at every interaction. And that’s part of the CRM integration, but let’s do a deep dive a little bit on customer experience at every interaction. What does that mean? Long ago, a customer before they buy from you, seeing your brand or mention 2, 3 times, they’re good to go.

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Not too long ago, it used to be 7 to 9 and changed to 14, but now customers want to see you all the time. Depending on what stats you’re looking at, they have to see you about 21 times now to actually make that decision. And that may not even be enough. Just seeing your brand alone may not be enough. The brand has to have reputation behind it.

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That means every interaction or possible interaction you may have with your potential customer, make sure that you are on point from a branding perspective, making their experience super easy when they get to your website, when they see you on social media, you trigger things emotionally that helps them get over the hump. When they get a newsletter from you, that there are clear calls to action, information that entice them, but also get them to take action if possible. Offer something to help them make the experience easier and make it easier for you and for your team. There’s a lot to unpack in 2026, but those are the 5 key things that I think in 2026 you can implement. So one last thing before we go.

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Don’t forget to download your 2026 Marine Marketing Checklist. You can find it at boatmarketingpros.com/marinemarketingchecklist. Download this and get to work. See ya. That’s it for this episode.

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Please don’t forget to subscribe and share it with anyone in the marine space that needs to hear it. And we would love to hear from you. So drop us your questions or topics you would like us to cover in future episodes. And of course, if you need help implementing any of the tactics we talk about, head on to boatmarketingpros.com. We would love to help you grow.

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I’m Harry Casimir. Thanks for listening. Now let’s get out there and make some waves.