2016 Best in Class: Best Digital Strategy

Best Digital Strategy

Austin Boats & Motors
Austin, Texas

The website is the new front door to a business. It is the first impression most customers will have of you, and it can make or break your success with prospects.

What makes Austin Boats & Motors’s website special is that it clearly understands this concept, while dually understanding the importance of reaching out to the Hispanic market.

The dealership added a designated page on its website that is targeted at the local Hispanic market. The page is written entirely in Spanish using keywords aimed at driving traffic and explaining to shoppers the company history, the brands it carries and where to find the dealership.

The landing page also has an embedded Discover Boating video that introduces how one Hispanic family bonded together through boating. A contact form on the page leads directly to the Spanish-speaking general manager.

“The bottom line is how we apply our personal touch to each and every Austin Boats and Motors customer,” says Martin Boyer, president of Austin Boats & Motors. “Austin Boats and Motors strives to be approachable, humble and always customer oriented. We work hard to make each customer a member of our boating family and, as such, treat them like family.”

Austin Boats & Motors has been able to dedicate so much time and money to its website and using the site to attract new prospects by readjusting its overall marketing budget. In 2015, radio advertising was removed to allocate dollars to digital marketing.

“After analyzing return on print and radio media for 2014 we determined that [we] were both too broad and not cost effectively able to reach our targeted audience,” says Boyer. “We shifted the overall plan and budget in the direction of electronic marketing, digital advertising and creative content generation through social media and blogging.”

The www.austinboats.com domain itself offers great visibility on the internet and helps the dealership generate more prospects. Leads are tracked from inception to sale or to lost sale and each salesperson gets a report of his or her web-based sales.

“We are driving organic searches to our site at unprecedented levels when compared to our competitors’ sites,” Boyer says. “Our website also provides information regarding services we offer, inventory, ways to connect with us socially, history of our company. Various customer resources including online credit application, boat valuations, extensive video library, testimonials and the manager’s blog are quickly accessed from our home page.”

In addition to its website, Austin Boats & Motors consistently builds its web presence through regular boat inventory and how-to videos on its YouTube page.

“As the No. 1 search engine in the world, YouTube continues to pay huge dividends in leads delivered and prospects generated,” says Boyer. “YouTube instantly earned us visibility and validity among those searching online. It increases trust and familiarity amongst our customers when meeting our staff for the first time. They often ask for a specific salesman by name because of his demonstrated knowledge and expertise exhibited in the video presentation.”

The dealership regularly monitors views and comments on YouTube videos to determine interest and the needs of consumers relative to its brand offerings or lack thereof, a much more useful strategy than dealers who post a video and walk away.

“Austin Boats and Motors uses a variety of online resources to build sales, increase web traffic and create awareness of our dealership. These resources allow us to attract the maximum amount of interest for the least amount of money,” says Boyer. “The continued expansion of consumers who browse the internet requires ongoing attention to internet marketing.”

Austin Boats & Motors runs ads on Facebook year round and makes weekly page updates, which Boyer says helps the dealership determine the justification of dollars spent on social media marketing.

“The constant customer interaction builds relationships and grows our relevancy among boating interested consumers while increasing customer loyalty,” he said.