The Online World of Marine Marketing
Marketing has always been a necessary part of being in business. There’s no marine company out there quite like yours, and no one else offers exactly what you offer. That means something to you and your customers.
However, for many businesses, online marine marketing is extremely intimidating. How do you fully capture exactly what your business or product is and does? How should you market your marine business in a way that will really resonate with your audience and show just how different your business is from everything else out there?
Using the web, you can successfully market your business so that potential customers locally or globally can discover your business, even if you have a small budget.
Start with a Website
It’s shocking how many boat dealership owners want to successfully market their business on the web but don’t even have a website (or don’t have a well-optimized or mobile-friendly website). That’s a big mistake.
You need a central hub where your customers can find you and learn more about you and what you have to offer. That hub will be your website, and from the beginning, it should be branded.
Your website is where you’ll inform visitors about your company and products or services. Posting helpful articles, videos, and/or audio is a great way to boost your website’s ranking.
Have a newsletter signup form on your website so people can join your email list. This is the heart of online marketing—owning a list you can write to, promote, and build relationships through.
Building Digital Relationships
Relationship building is a very important part of marketing efforts. The relationships you have among your audience and others in your niche partially determine how successful your marine marketing efforts are.
Those who have solid relationships and good reputations have an easier time making sales, gaining joint venture partners and affiliates, and so on.
How Do you Build Relationships?
A big part of your marine marketing and relationship building will come from your activities and online presence. That means being present online. Posting on social media, interacting with others’ content, responding to reviews, and sending out email newsletters to your audience helps build those relationships.
People buy from people they know, like, and trust. If you want your marketing to be effective, it makes sense to make relationship-building a big part of your marine marketing strategy and customer service efforts.
Interacting with other marine businesses helps build trust & name recognition among the industry.
Getting the Word Out About Your Brand
- What is your company and what does it stand for?
- How is your business different from other marine businesses?
- When you want people to think of your brand, what do you want them to think of?
These are all important questions to ask yourself. Have a solid idea of what your brand is and how you’re going to present it to others.
Come up with a tagline for your company that tells what you do. Create a consistent logo & brand that represents your business. Determine a color scheme that you use on products and web properties. Be consistent and thoughtful with font choices.
By taking all of these steps, you’ll ensure that people will be able to identify your brand.
Think of your purpose. How do you want to be remembered and thought about?
List Building and Email Marketing
List building is one of the most important things you can do for your business.
A list is something you have control and ownership over. It’s where you can get to know your customers and they can get to know you.
Email your promotions and offers and offer free information of value and recommendations, whether there’s any financial gain in it for you or not. It gets people excited about the new things you’re working on.
Everything you do in your marketing campaigns, from paid ads to social media and SEO efforts, should all lead to building your list and improving your relationship with the people on your list. It’s the most important part of online business success and it always will be.
Social Media and Online Marketing
Social media is a very important part of marketing on the web. Be where your customers are.
Take a look at how other successful people in your niche are handling social media and consider emulating and brainstorming strategies based on what they’re doing successfully.
Boat dealers can use social media for so many things. It’s a great way to drive traffic to your list and website, build relationships, and showcase that you’re an authority in your niche—someone to watch and follow.
Sales Copy and the Power of Persuasion
Part of digital marketing is understanding how to write web copy and the power of persuasion. The web runs on content. Understanding the language of marketing is key.
Study copywriting and persuasion.
Your power to write effective copy will shine through in everything you do online. Grab hold of that power to market on the web. Understand your audience and write directly to the needs, passions, and desires of your audience and you’ll do well.
Paid Ads and Online Marketing
Paid ads can be extremely effective. You can use them to see how effective a squeeze page or sales page is, for example. It’s quick and easy data you can gather in hours instead of weeks or months.
Facebook ads are particularly effective because they allow you to target your audience very narrowly. Know who your audience is. Set your budget, figure out a way to get those who click your ad to stick around, and then have a plan about what to do with that traffic.
That’s not the only option, of course. Google Adwords ads can also be very effective. Running paid ads can pay off many times over. Paid ads can help you save time and help you earn more money with less effort
Bring It All Together to Successfully Market Your Business
If you are starting to take your business online, keep in mind that your marketing message is important. You need to be branding yourself from the very beginning, with consistency.
We can help your business to become an online success. Contact Boat Marketing Pros for more information!
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