Guest Blog

By Wanda Kenton Smith With new and used boat sales soaring to record highs in 2020 to first-time boat buyers, boating safety stakeholders are taking extra measures to communicate and promote safe boating practices in advance of the busy summer boating season. “The pandemic literally saw hundreds of thousands of newcomers join the ranks of first-time boat owners, so we’re ...

By Ezequiel Arredondo Are you struggling to connect with your online audience? Does it seem as though even the most carefully crafted ads fall short of achieving your marketing goals? If your ad campaign ROI isn’t where you need it to be, take a long, hard look at who is seeing your ads and whether your ad content fulfills the ...

By Frank Peterson I started my career in sales, spending over 13 years at Mobil Oil Corporation, before opening my own business. I know, personally, the importance of hitting quarterly and annual sales goals and turning a profit. But I also learned how important it is to plan for the long haul. In fact, it was that long term planning ...

By Ezequiel Arredondo Have you noticed in the last year how we seem to use our phones and other digital devices much more frequently? Last year’s surge in digital usage has resulted in our digital interactions becoming more fragmented and sporadic. But did you know that many of these seemingly meaningless interactions are opportunities to connect with motivated buyers? These ...

By Myril Shaw As a provider of F&I and Compliance excellence, we are always looking to make the best better. As part of that quest for continual improvement, we get excited when we find dealers who are hungry for growth. We find them most often in 20 Groups. Full disclosure here before we go any further. We do not facilitate 20 Groups.  ...

By Ezequiel Arredondo We’ve said it before, and we’ll gladly say it again: Shoppers contact your dealership to shop for boat models, but they stay for the customer service. As the buying process becomes increasingly digital, how does this impact dealers’ approach to serving their customers? It turns out consumers have an increased expectation for boat dealers to provide digital ...

By Ezequiel Arredondo The term “emotional marketing” does not do justice to the persuasive power that this marketing tactic grants your dealership. While it may sound very heartfelt—and it certainly can be, if that’s your goal—emotional marketing pertains to any type of persuasive messaging that’s used to tap into people’s emotions and form a connection. Over the years, studies have ...

By Mark Overbye You’ve no doubt heard the saying, “Be authentic.” If you’re like most people, you contemplate it for a moment, shrug your shoulders and move on. But what is authenticity and how do you achieve it and why should we care about it? My wife likes help with certain cleaning rituals on weekends. The work goes faster while I listen to ...

By Myril Shaw Well, here we are, the heart of the so-called "slow season."  Thanksgiving, and Black Friday, have now come and gone. Now that the craziness of this year has calmed a bit, it is time to evaluate and make decisions about how to be better. This is the season for change – change to make you better. Change to ...

By Ezequiel Arredondo In the past, digital marketing has been viewed as an optional investment for dealers—a means to pull in extra sales leads to supplement the number of customers who are browsing on the dealership’s lot—but now that the internet has become the central source for researching boats, parts and marine services, digital marketing is a must. Dealer Spike ...