Marine marketing essentials you need to be doing
By Julie Holemans
Let’s face it, marketing trends evolve so fast it’s hard to keep up. Except you have to if you want to beat your competition.
We looked at the landscape of marine marketing trends and picked the ones that are driving the most profit while being easy to put in place.
Marine Marketing Trend #1: Content Marketing
Content is at the center of the connection between your brand and your customer. Content marketing is defined as “a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.”
In short, content marketing provides value to customers by helping or entertaining them. If you can connect with your audience in an authentic, human way, leveraging content to deepen relationships, versus only selling, your results will exponentially increase.
Why you should care: 47% of buyers read 1-3 pieces of content before engaging with a sales representative. Also, 70% of consumers say they prefer learning about a new product via content rather than ads.
Boating businesses have a lot to gain from content marketing for two main reasons:
• Understanding the boating world and its products requires a lot of knowledge and constant learning.
• The boating community is very passionate. They enjoy watching and reading content related to their interests.
How to nail marine content marketing: Think of the areas of your product or service that confuse your customers. Then, make a video or article series about them. Bonus resource: learn which types of content are best at attracting boat buyers.
Marine Marketing Trend #2: Promoting Your Events
Special events are a crucial part of the marine industry. Boat shows and hosted events are huge drivers for both the B2B and B2C marine space. Preparing for these events properly is necessary to make them profitable.
Why you should care: 87% of consumers say they purchased the brand’s product or service after an event at a later date. Some 84% of those who had already purchased before the event, re-purchased from the brand after it.
How to nail event marketing: Start sending email blasts and personalized ads to your audience a few weeks before the event. Follow up more frequently as the day approaches, and then make sure to have a follow-up process in place after the event as well.
Marine Marketing Trend #3: Video
Videos are the easiest and most entertaining way for a prospect or customer to digest information. That’s why social media platforms are now focusing on video content.
Why you should care: 90% of customers say product videos are useful in their decision process. 1200% more shares are generated by videos than texts and ads combined.
The boating industry lends itself to visual storytelling. What better describes a boating product than a video showing how it’s used, or made, or how it’s different and/or better?
How to nail video marketing: Make videos of your products, your process, or anything that would help your customers make a decision. Create long versions for YouTube (10-20min) and short ones for social media (2-5min).
How to keep up with future marine marketing trends
The top marine marketing trends of today will become the basics of marine marketing tomorrow. No need to panic or change your whole strategy every time you see a new trend, though. Implement them slowly into your business and always keep an eye on what’s new. That way, you will never fall behind.
Julie Holemans is a marine marketing specialist and boating enthusiast. She is the founder of ProMarine Marketing, a marine marketing agency helping businesses grow by implementing digital strategies.
