The buying and selling of boats are primarily known to be an offline process. It has mostly been done through traditional advertising, customer referrals, brick-and-mortar stores, and other local channels.
However, I want to make the critical point that boat dealers need to leverage the internet if they are going to remain competitive and boost their sales.
While internet marketing might be unfamiliar waters for most boat dealers, they need to begin using this channel to their advantage. One of the best ways you can sail your boat business towards the path of new customers is by leveraging social media platforms.
In particular, I have found that Instagram can be a boat marketer’s best friend. Not only can you share attractive photos and information about your products, but you can also use SEO tools (such as Yoast SEO) to drive more traffic to your social media pages and your website.
Let me share with you five ways in which you can use Instagram to sell more boats. I will also integrate a positive review of Yoast SEO while I’m at it.
1. Identify Your Target Audience
The world of the internet can be likened to treacherous waters, where navigating without a compass can cause you to get lost at sea. I always advise boat dealers to identify their target audience before they begin implementing a marketing strategy.
Your target audience consists of the potential customers who you would like to reach out to and convinces to buy your boats.
One way of identifying your target audience is by finding out what boat lovers like and need. You can then design your content and message around the pain points of your customers to satisfy those needs.
2. Optimize Your Photo Descriptions for SEO
The next strategy I recommend is to design and share high-quality content. High-quality content is information that attracts your customers and is easy to find on the internet.
Tools such as the WordPress Yoast SEO plugin are excellent for optimizing your content for search engines. As a positive review of Yoast SEO, the plugin guides you along as you create your content for websites and social media platforms.
It ensures that your content ranks as highly as possible on search engines so that customers can find you when they come looking.
How does this help with boat selling on Instagram? You can optimize your picture descriptions on Instagram for SEO so that customers searching for information relevant to boats on the platform are more likely to find you.
3. Share High-Quality Photos
Make sure your photos are taken professionally and that they highlight all the unique selling points of your products. The pictures are what makes Instagram unique. So make sure your photos portray your business in a positive light.
4. Get Personal with Your Followers
One of the most significant benefits of social media is that it allows you to connect with customers on a more personal basis. This increases brand loyalty and outreach to customers.
I advise you to take advantage of this benefit by recognizing your followers personally. Make sure you follow active and engaged subscribers, like their photos, and share their content on your own pages (with their permission, of course).
5. Integrate Instagram into Your Other Marketing Channels
Many boat marketers don’t realize the potential that lies behind integrating social media into their other marketing campaigns. Instagram can significantly boost the outreach and results of marketing channels such as email and SEO.
Taking email as an example, you can integrate Instagram links into the email messages that you send to your customers. The links should direct customers to your Instagram page, where they will enjoy the quality content that is there.
You can also implement email marketing campaigns with the specific purpose of directing your customers to your Instagram page. I’m confident that this will result in more sales for your business.
