5 Steps for Marketing your Yacht Rental Business Online

Do you operate a yacht rental business online? Maybe you need help with digital marketing so that you can generate more leads and sales for your yacht business?

It doesn’t matter if you provide the most luxurious yachts and best possible service for guests if nobody knows about your business. It’s true, letting everyone know about your business is essential for success and that’s why digital marketing is so important!

In this article, we take a look at digital marketing for a yacht rental business and what you should keep in mind in order to attract this online traffic toward your business.

Want to learn more about the Digital Authority Partners approach to Digital Marketing? Watch this video!

Why Digital Marketing for Yacht Rental Business is so Important

It’s really simple - digital marketing is essential because almost everyone around you is using a smart-phone. If you happen to be reading this on a laptop, that’s still digital marketing and everything is done online nowadays, especially the likes of bookings.

But let’s be more specific...

• Affordability - Digital marketing is much more affordable than traditional marketing or traditional advertising. In many ways, the online world has enabled all people and businesses to access the same tools and audiences around the world. This means that regardless of your budget, digital marketing is likely something you can afford.
• Audience - Not only can you target a very specific target market through online platforms, but you can also reach out to an incredibly big audience. This kind of access is unprecedented in the history of marketing and means you can reach out to guests that you might not have been able to reach in the past while getting “more bang for your buck”!
• Speed - Digital marketing is also instant which means you can access everything in this article within a matter of minutes. If you compare this to traditional marketing and print advertising etc, there is no comparison in terms of the time it takes to deploy.
• Engagement - Digital marketing is fast-paced and delivers big results in a very short amount of time. These results are visible in the extent of engagement they nurture and this opens an instant line of communication between a yacht rental business and the target market.
• News and - You can also do more than sell trips on social media and it’s possible to use these mediums to build community and collaborate on projects. Digital marketing is also a quick way to distribute news or updates and create an identity around your brand.

Moral of the story: Digital marketing is more than just important for a yacht rental business - it’s essential. But digital marketing is also a very broad undertaking and one that most serious business owners hand over to a marketing agency. That being said, let’s take a look at five steps that you should know about when it comes to marketing your yacht rental business.

1. The Importance of Branding for Marketing a Yacht Rental Business

Branding is often the key to giving a yacht rental business the edge over competitors and sending a message to a particular target market that says “We know what you want”. Digital marketing also begins with branding and while the word itself is somewhat overused, this branding ties everything together, from the style and purpose of your business to the people, places, and experiences that you offer. Whether your yacht rental business consists of luxury yachts or budget rentals, this is exactly what you want people to discover about your brand. This also means you need to define your market and customer to build the brand and before setting on the colors, icons, and images with which you wish the brand to be associated. As part of their digital marketing service, a San Diego Digital Agency will often begin their branding efforts by focusing on the following tasks:

• Logo design (Check out this BBC article on the importance of a company logo)
• Company tagline.
• Core values and mission statement.
• Identify and establish company “voice”.

There’s a lot more to branding than the above but an agency will often focus on these aspects in order to get the business up and running online. After that, branding efforts can be expanded upon and even changed or amended whenever necessary.

2. Market Research and Choosing the Right Keywords

Research is a core fundamental of digital marketing and powerful software is necessary for this part of the process. For instance, a San Diego Local SEO Agency will often use software such as Semrush and Ahrefs to identify keywords and what type of website content is likely to work best for a yacht rental business. This research will often look to competitors to see what successful businesses are doing right in your chosen industry. 

However, research is not about copying the competition and more about gaining as much information as possible before deciding on the best path forward. Choosing the right keywords is an especially intricate process but an agency like the one mentioned above can do all the legwork and help save you time and money in the long run. As soon as you know the keywords, you can then begin optimizing existing content and creating a website that compliments the business both practically and visually.

3. Building a Website that Looks and Feels as It Should

First impressions are everything and your website is the first place where your prospective guests will meet you. It should look and feel amazing and answer every question that guests might wish to ask - without having to ask. This is also your opportunity to stand out and use digital marketing for a yacht rental business to demonstrate your quality, expertise, and personality. 

While it’s true that anyone can build a website, it’s always best to go with the experts as a trusted San Diego Digital Agency can build a website for yacht rentals that will look and feel exactly as it should. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of techniques that a digital agency will use to generate organic traffic from these keywords and content in general.

4. Advertising as Part of Digital Marketing Strategy

It’s a huge bonus to find free online advertising like this yacht charter article on Forbes. However, some kind of budget is needed and a comprehensive digital marketing strategy should always include a strategy for online advertising. Many platforms exist and social media is an obvious avenue but a proper strategy should consist of different types of advertising in the following areas:

• Paid Advertising - A yacht rental business can pay-per-click for every website visitor that clicks on a particular advert and this most often takes place via Google Ads.
• Display Advertising - It’s possible to place banners or images as a means of attracting traffic from other websites.
• Social Media Advertising - Social media is definitely the most common form of online advertising with Facebook and Instagram being the most popular avenues for digital marketing. The metrics available on social media are especially easy-to-use and the targeting features ensure this is the best way to reach a defined or niche audience.
• Email Marketing - Ask any marketing expert and they will tell you that email marketing is far from dead. In fact, if done right, this is one of the most effective options for marketing a yacht rental business.

5. Using Online Reviews to Gain More Traction

What better way to let everyone know about your services than to build a portfolio of five-star reviews from previous guests? Online reviews are incredibly powerful and this can work both ways for a business in a sense that bad reviews can damage their image, while good reviews will bring more and more customers. (PS. Here’s a good New York Times article about managing your reviews online). 

For the same reason that word-of-mouth travels fast, online reviews can create a profitable and automatic loop that brings a regular flow of new customers to your doorstep. But you actually need to ask for these reviews and have a strategy that prioritizes reviews and seeks to amass a consistent lineup of feedback from guests over time. You can include these testimonials on the company website but the truth is, independent review sites are much better because online users are much more likely to trust this unbiased source.

Conclusion

Digital marketing for your yacht rental business is much the same as any other enterprise. With this in mind, employing a professional agency to take care of this side of your business is usually the right choice. Now, that’s not to say you cannot market a yacht business by yourself (you definitely can) but rather point out how a digital agency can look after all your marketing needs which should leave you with more time and energy to focus on other areas of your business. By the way, are you located in Chicago? Visit our Chicago SEO Agency for more location-specific information!