5 Tips to Content Marketing in the Yachting Industry

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is quite simply, using content to market your business. Content can be in the form of blogs, articles, news feeds, posts, video, imagery, infographics, graphs, statistics and I am sure there is more.

Why use content to market your business?

Content is information that people want to see. People want the latest industry news, they want 'how to guides', they like video demonstrations, they enjoy being entertained.

Why the yachting business?

Most industry sectors lend themselves to content marketing but I feel that the marine industry lends itself more than most because.....

• Most people who wish to buy yacht related products really love boats, being on the water, racing or yachting holidays, therefore, they will more than likely enjoy watching videos and seeing beautiful images of yachts. It can be a hobby, a way of life or a dream.

• There is a lot of knowledge and skill involved in yachting and you never seem to stop learning. Therefore, it is easy to provide potential customers with material of interest as they are always hungry for more knowledge and information.

• Most people working in the the yachting world have a high level of expertise in their chosen area of business, which is why they have succeeded in setting up yachting related companies. Sharing this knowledge and expertise is relatively easy.

The ultimate aim of content marketing is to get people to your website, give them the impression that they are buying from an expert, give them free information and to persuade them to buy your products or services by giving the benefits to them, solving a problem or demonstrating how it will improve their life.

Imagine you want to visit your local chandlers to buy a new piece of kit for your boat. Firstly you arrive at the shop and expect it to be welcoming, you ask for help and advice and want to speak to an expert who knows all about that piece of kit, you also want him or her to demonstrate how it works. The customer is much more likely to buy if all of these events take place. Why then, would you have a website that has no content on it and expect the customer to visit your website which offers no advice, no indication that the people behind the website have any expertise on the piece of kit you wish to buy and no demo or instructions re that piece of kit. Most of you would say you wouldn't, but most marine websites lack content?

5 easy tips to using content to market your yachting business.

1. If you know your market, it should be relatively easy to write short blogs. Give people solutions, advice, new skills etc. All in a few paragraphs. I suggest around 450 - 550 words works well. You are better to write a few short blogs around one subject rather than one really long one that most people will not reach the end of. Demonstrate your expertise and knowledge.

2. Short videos – video will amount to more than 70% of the content we see online by 2017. Do not spend huge sums of money making a lengthy promotional video. Use your phone or camera to video your team using your products, explaining how something works, a tip to doing something better or just a beautiful boat. There are lots of options for free or inexpensive editing software which can jazz up a 1 minute video.

3. Infographics – very popular right now. Great for showing the steps to take to achieve something, fix something, use something or for statistics and news. Very visual but getting the facts across fast and easily. Again there are software options to help with this.

4. Posting quick tips, news or any other form of content on your social media sites regularly. The same article does not need to be posted just once, post again in a month or so. The chances of the same people seeing the same article are very slim.

5. Share the love – even if you do not have too much time to create your own content too often, you can share other companies content on your site. Do not copy and paste another sites blog. Read it, then write a short summary or review on your site with a link to it on the authors site. Put useful video content on your site, from youtube, that would be of interest to your yachting customers. It goes without saying that I am not recommending you add content from your competitors site, but a business that complements yours.

Once you have added the content to your webpages, share it regularly on your social media sites, this will take more people to your website, establish you as an expert and start to build a valuable relationship with the customer.  If you wish for further information on this subject, please feel free to contact me on info@spcmarinemarketing.com for a free telephone consultation.