5 Marketing Strategies Your Yachting Company Can Use To Build Brand Awareness On LinkedIn

LinkedIn has over 630 million active members and is the largest global community of professionals - including decision-makers - that are looking to use your yachting company.

Building brand awareness on LinkedIn provides your business with a huge competitive advantage, because it’s far easier to grow demand for your company if people know who you are, know what problem your company solves and what benefit they will get from using your solution.

For customers to buy your products or services, they need to know you exist.

Which means, even if you have an awesome website and pay for advertising you still have some work to do.

(photo: Bruno Buisson)

According to Content Marketing Institute, the top three organic content distribution channels B2C marketers use are:

1. Social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc
2. Their company website/blog
3. Email

Did you know? 

Across B2C organisations of different sizes, the most common reported structure is a small (or one-person) marketing/content marketing team serving the entire organisation. 

Almost one-third have no full-time/dedicated people.

(source: Content Marketing Institute)

As per the quote above, this rings true for many maritime companies who have limited budget or resources for marketing.

Building brand awareness involves expanding your marketing efforts to reach prospects that don’t have an existing relationship with you and may well not have heard of you before.

One of the most powerful ways that you can build brand awareness is creating and sharing helpful content on LinkedIn.   When you put great content in front of potential customers at scale, you boost your chances of being the company that customers will choose because the emotional value is pulling them into the decision-making process.

?? 5 MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR YACHTING COMPANY CAN USE TO BUILD BRAND AWARENESS ON LINKEDIN:

In the age of social media and algorithms, your potential customers will feel a stronger sense of identity with your business when you have a brand presence online and share what is relevant to them.

1. Create and actively use a LinkedIn Page

Personal profiles get better engagement on LinkedIn, however it's still valuable to create a LinkedIn Page to provide more information about your company. Commonly referred to as a Company Page, a LinkedIn Page is your brand’s anchor on LinkedIn.

It’s free to set up and provides an opportunity for your business to demonstrate thought leadership, tell your brand story, post useful content and grow your page followers.

What's more, if you don't have a LinkedIn Page for your business you may be left out of search results because people can search by Location, Industry or Company Name.

Make sure your LinkedIn Page says what your company values are and gives proof of your products or services. Why should customers choose you over your competitors? No amount of advertising or storytelling will keep repeat customers if you can not explain WHY they should buy from YOU.

Showcase Pages are supporting pages that sit below your main brand page and can do a similar job by focusing on specific departments, products or brands of your company. An example would be a yacht interiors company that has a main page, then has Showcase Pages for different brands it represents.

?? Your LinkedIn Page profile should answer client questions such as:

• Who are you
• What do you do and is it a good fit for me. Be specific (E.g. We supply marine satellite communications to yachts 50m+ in the superyacht industry).
• What problems do you solve for me
• Why does your solution work, how does it work and where is the proof (E.g. testimonials, case studies, data)
• How do we buy it

?? Three tips for a compelling LinkedIn Page profile:

1. Stick to facts and avoid hype phrases such as 'we are the greatest'.
2. Include a call-to-action and your contact details. I am amazed how many yachting companies omit to give their contact details on their LinkedIn Page! Make it easy for a prospective customer to get in touch.
3. LinkedIn is a site for professionals, so proofread everything on your page. Make sure you get someone to review your page to check for spelling or grammar errors. Yes, I regularly see top brokerage companies and luxury experts with spelling errors on their websites and LinkedIn Pages.

Once your page is set up, you need to actively use it. If your prospective clients visit your page and it hasn't been updated for a long time, what message is this sending them? That you don't care about maintaining your business? That you are overwhelmed or don't have time to deal with day-to-day operations?

?? Three tips for creating & posting company updates:

Publishing company updates is a great way to share content that is relevant to your followers. This is one of the marketing methods where it doesn’t matter the size of your company or budget – anyone can do this effectively with the right strategy.

A Content Plan is a documented summary of your objectives and actions on social media that aligns to your business goals. If you're a beginner on LinkedIn, DO NOT spend hours fretting over the perfect content plan.  

1. Start by marking down all your key company events such as yacht shows, speaking engagements, conferences or product release dates and go from there. 
2. Create guidelines for the types of content you will post. Include specific actions relating to how you will communicate, give realistic timeframes and decide what budget or resources you need to make it all happen. 

Example: Peter from the R&D department will create a one-minute LinkedIn video highlighting our new ballast water treatment system based on filtration and UV technology. It will be posted live on Monday at 11am. 

1. Be consistent. Whether you post daily or weekly, focus on your effort to grow your customer base long-term.

Once your followers start liking, commenting on or sharing your updates, you can engage with them to pull them into the narrative and further boost the reach of your post.

A company's efforts are the sum of all parts, so encourage your employees to like and share your content and give your posts a better chance of being seen. 

?? How to engage with LinkedIn posts as your LinkedIn (Company) Page:

If you have admin authority for your LinkedIn Page, go to the 'About' section and under 'Hashtags' you can specify up to 3 hashtags that your LinkedIn Page can follow on LinkedIn. 

In this example, I've chosen #Yachting #Maritime and #Superyacht .

When I save my selection, now I can see my 3 hashtags on the right-hand side of my LinkedIn Page. If I click on any of these hashtags, I can 'like', 'comment' or 'share' a post as my LinkedIn Page, instead of my personal LinkedIn profile.  

The intention is to generate visitors (and followers) to your LinkedIn Page, because your company logo and any comments you make will now appear in the post's feed.

Did you know?

43% of content is created for audiences in the top-of–the-funnel stage of the customer journey to generate awareness/interest (source: Content Marketing Institute)

2. Leverage your existing content to cross-promote

Your LinkedIn strategy should always be clear about what your products or service are (and what benefits they give clients) and you shouldn't be afraid to inject personality into your posts. Some of my favourite brands on LinkedIn use humour to great effect, but this doesn't always work for every company.

Building brand awareness on LinkedIn doesn’t necessarily mean you need to create new content just for LinkedIn. Use LinkedIn to republish your existing videos, relevant company blog posts, or campaigns that you are running on other social media platforms.

(graphic: Pixel Productions)

Content Marketing Institute/Marketing Profs asked respondents which content types were the highest performing for their B2C organisation for building brand awareness, securing leads, nurturing leads, and converting leads. Their top responses in each category are shown below:

??To build brand awareness:

Blog Posts/Short Articles (31%): Content from your company blog can be a great asset for LinkedIn brand awareness. You can either share it directly through updates in the feed, or edit blog posts into self-published LinkedIn articles or posts. Note: You can publish articles from a personal profile, not a LinkedIn Page.

Text-only posts seem to perform best; you can use up to 1300 characters for each post, though only the first 2-3 lines are visible before a reader must click on 'see more....' to read the entire post.

Social Media Content (e.g., stories, tweets) (31%): Around one-third of respondents said stories, tweets and other social media content was excellent for brand building.

??To secure leads:

Email Newsletters (16%)

Social Media Content (e.g., stories, tweets) (13%)

In-Person Events (e.g., live events, conferences) (13%)

??To nurture leads:

Email Newsletters (24%)

Social Media Content (e.g., tweets, stories) (17%)

??To convert leads:

In-Person Events (e.g., live events, conferences) (22%)

Email Newsletters (21%)

3. Use hashtags

Hashtags are a digital filtering feature that cement your brand reputation, help your target audience find you and attract the right followers to your business. They are most popular on Instagram, but are now gaining traction on LinkedIn.

A huge benefit of creating and/or using hashtags is they are seen by anyone who searches for that hashtag, even if they are not connected to your account yet. If you follow a LinkedIn hashtag, your content is categorised making it more relevant to your feed.

One of my favourite things about hashtags is using them for events. If you’re exhibiting or attending a yacht show or forum, then using the associated hashtag for the event will enable you to get more visibility with people following that hashtag before, during or after the event. #BOOT #MYBA #MYS2020

?? DID YOU KNOW? As well as adding hashtags to your posts, you can also add hashtags to your own LinkedIn personal profile summary and the ‘About Us’ section on your LinkedIn (Company) Page. Note: These hashtags aren't clickable.

Two common issues I see with yachting companies using hashtags is (1) they use hashtags that no one else is using (2) they create hashtag phrases that are too long; I have seen some yachting companies use 7-word hashtags......will your customers remember that and have time to input it?

Don't forget to follow your own hashtag (if you have one) so you can track who is talking about your company and engage with them. 

? In 2019, I researched and created the first yachting-related list of 100 LinkedIn hashtags. Want a updated copy? In my list, you can quickly search alphabetically to find current popular/followed hashtags. Click on the link for the free list of '100 Yachting Hashtags for LinkedIn'. And please leave me a comment at the bottom of this article if you find this list useful!

? Throughout 2020, I invite you to follow my new LinkedIn hashtag #AntibesYachting for marketing tips and yachting-related posts.

4. Use LinkedIn Native Video

Video marketing helps build awareness of your company, gives details about what you offer, entertains your customers and is great for recall because videos are visual.

External video links on LinkedIn don't perform well, so this is why uploading Native Videos does better than sharing a video from YouTube.

                                                        (graphic: Buffer)

?? How to start with LinkedIn Native Video:

• Set a time and date that you will post videos on LinkedIn - for example, you will upload a 30-second video at 9am every Tuesday morning. The commitment to your audience will deliver the best long-term results.
• Brainstorm topics so you have plenty of video content and ideas to talk about in the future. Will you discuss key superyacht industry trends? Will you demonstrate how to use your company products? What questions will your video answer for a client? Will you interview current clients at your next boat show? Will you share a case study where a customer has used your products or services?
• For beginners to video marketing, stick to a consistent format to make it easier to plan your script for each video. For example:

AN INTRO

??

DISCUSS A CLIENT PROBLEM

??

HIGHLIGHT YOUR COMPANY'S SOLUTION

??

FINISH WITH A CALL-TO-ACTION & A TEASER FOR YOUR NEXT VIDEO

• Get filming! Use your smartphone and make a start. Or, you can invest in a basic microphone, tripod and lights to improve quality.

Ensure that your videos give valuable information for your audience such as testimonials or product demos.

5. Explore paid options : LinkedIn's Campaign Manager

Gone are the days of small and medium yachting companies getting lots of organic traffic on social platforms.

?? Sponsored Content:

Sponsored Content will appear as an update in the feed of your target audience, on smartphone, tablet and desktop.

You can publish directly in the LinkedIn newsfeed and tailor content to different audiences. A proven Sponsored Content strategy is to use your budget to boost LinkedIn Page updates that are already getting good engagement amongst your followers.

?? LinkedIn Ads:

LinkedIn Advertising has a number of ad options. Display Ads have now gone, but you can still buy Text Ads, Video Ads, Carousel Ads and Dynamic Ads that personalise your advertising to your follower profiles.

Sponsored InMail is now known as Message Ads. Personally, I have always found InMail messages a bit intrusive and too sales-heavy, but it works well for some companies. It combines email and instant messaging with an average open rate of 52%. Personalise your messages; there is nothing worse than receiving a bulk InMail message that is irrelevant to your profile or needs. It screams spam and is off-putting.

? If you buy LinkedIn advertising, there is a reporting tool called the LinkedIn Insight Tag that you can add to your website to track conversions as a result of your advertising campaign. If you’re reaching large numbers of relevant people cost-effectively – and those people are paying an interest in your business – then that’s evidence of the value brand awareness is adding.

Marketing vs Reality

Top metrics that B2C marketers track include conversions, website traffic / engagement and social media analytics. Make sure any metrics you use depend on your objectives, the type of company you run and what purpose you want them to serve.

Regardless the size of your yachting company, there are probably a hundred tasks on your 'to-do' list at one time. Marketing is often lower down the list for various reasons.

?? I'm not going to advise you that you must be creating and posting mind-blowing content daily on 7 different social media platforms.

?? I'm not going to say that the best content comes from the biggest companies with the largest budgets.

? For the purpose of this article, my advice is simple :

• Write down 5 marketing objectives for 2020 for your yachting company.
• Write down 5 benefits you want your customers to remember about your products or services.
• Start implementing one or more of the 5 strategies I've mentioned above in line with your list of marketing objectives and customer benefits.
• Do this in your own time and when resources allow you to focus on completing them, but be committed and consistent with your message.
• START TODAY, because small actions are better than no action!

? Do you use any of these marketing strategies already?

? What has worked for you on LinkedIn?

? What other marketing tips for the yachting industry would you like me to cover in the future?

?? Please leave me a comment below or share this article to your network if you found it informative. Feedback is welcome!

ABOUT ME: I'm a freelance writer for yachting, events and travel with published work in print and digital media in 10 countries. Having a background in business development and international marketing, I love writing original articles and sharing marketing advice that drives revenue to my clients.

?If you want to read more articles like this, you can FOLLOW my LinkedIn profile and my new hashtag #AntibesYachting An edited version of this article is also published on Medium.

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