A Comprehensive Messaging Guide for Marine Businesses: Meeting Our New Boaters Where They Are at So They Can Become Our Life-Long Loyal Customers
Deborah Wright
Copywriter for the Boating & Marine Industries—I connect the "why" of what you do to the "what's in it for me" of your customer so you can win more business.
The boating market has been whomped by a wave of new boat buyers eager to explore beyond the shore.
Marine businesses in every cove, creek, and canal are feeling the surge.??
Whether you’re in the business of fiberglass repairs, wakeboard sales, marina management, outboard services, marine electronics, tuna towers, or underwater lighting, your market audience has probably shifted.??
Big time–like a hurricane came through and moved the entire sandbar–kind of big.
Welcome news, of course, but it leaves us with urgent questions:
These are important questions. Because if we fail to consider what our new boaters want, how much they know, and what hesitations they have, we can’t effectively join in the conversations they seek to have with us.
Now, before we answer these questions, I want to acknowledge that the industry-identified trends we will be referring to do not replace the need for us to research our own customers.? Knowing YOUR specific audience is always ESSENTIAL.?
However…
By using current industry-trend data, we can better orient ourselves.? We can use the data as a tool to help us design more relevant messages that will lead to more loyal customers and healthier revenues.
How?
The data gives us a birds-eye view.? And from that vantage, we can better see how time-proven copywriting fundamentals and science-backed buyer psychology rules can help us write better-performing websites, ads, landing pages, emails, and more.?
With these high-level insights, we can lay out a rock-solid framework upon which we can confidently build our messaging strategies.? They help us remove the guesswork about what to write so that we achieve measurable results faster.
Let’s look at some of the latest data in the recreational marine market…
The “Tesla Generation” is pulling up to the dock with a new set of expectations
Let’s start with an easily identifiable industry trend that has changed: age.
Our new boaters have significantly fewer artificial joints.??
“For the first time in a decade, the number of new boat buyers UNDER 40 surpassed the number of buyers OVER 60,” said Info-Link managing director, Jack Ellis. ?
In a sudden shift, Millennials now make up 31% of boaters .
How does this affect us as business owners???
Pontus Fernstrom (Garmin) spoke on this topic in a talk with Ed Slack (IBI Magazine) and Johan Inden (Volvo Penta) in a METSTRADE TV Session , 'TechTalk: Internet of Things.
The three industry leaders discussed the “Tesla Generation” and how this generational shift effectively impacts everybody in the industry.
Fernstrom said, “We have a new generation of boaters who may have different needs, different desires, what they would like to do, and how they would like to use the products.”?
He went on to say, “We need to cater to the Tesla generation.”? “Knowing everything from their phone is normal–which may not be the normal state of the industry.”
Our younger boaters grew up online, buy online, and expect to use apps and devices to assist with their decision-making and make transactions easier.
In contrast, our seasoned boaters frequently preferred one-on-one sales processes–at least at some point along the way.?
So, how do we use this information in our businesses?? Here are a few starters:
Not everybody loads up the dock cart with the same set of toys
Demographics alone can’t show us what activities, interests, and opinions our prospects feel are most important to them.??
And it’s crucial we learn this information so that we can meet them where they are at.? These emotional “you-get-me” moments build trust and open the door for better conversations.
Instead of demographics, we can use psychographic information to help us sort out our prospects' desires and motivations.?
“Demographics explain who your buyer is, while psychographics explain why they buy.? Demographics include objective data like gender, age, income, and marital status.? Psychographic information includes subjective data like belief systems, values, goals, and attitudes.”
When prospects can see their thoughts and feelings reflected in our words, it catches their attention. It encourages trust. And smooths the frictions we feel when making a purchase.
We need to consider how boating fits into our prospects' schedules, budgets, and social calendars when we are looking to start up a conversation.?
Are they looking to hang with friends on a sandbar? Do they want to escape?? Do they load up the boat with wakeboards and waterproof speakers? Do they just want to catch an Instagramable fish?
Understanding motivations allows us to approach our prospects and customers with empathy and align our messages with the values they care most deeply about.
Without knowing the answers to what motivates our prospects, it’s nearly impossible to write words that have enough persuasive value to make a sale.
Discover Boating has created an excellent resource to differentiate boaters' core motivations. They’ve identified six different groups of boaters and shared them in this PDF .? Plus, their resource includes tips on best identifying and serving boaters in each group.
They are, quite whimsically, named:
While this info may be geared to boat dealers, many marine businesses can find useful information to extrapolate for their own use.?
Because, again, we use industry data as frameworks to help us organize and visualize. We still have to research our own customers.?
So, what do we need to learn about our new boaters’ motivations??
These questions will vary depending on your business, but here’s a starter set to get you thinking:
Next, let's get into the nitty-gritty of what has REALLY got our industries’ compasses spinning…
When we say “new boat owner,” we mean new-new
In pre-pandemic years our core boat-owner had owned an average of 7 boats.??
On top of that, they mainly had come into boating because they had been introduced to it in their childhood.??
Those stats paint a picture of some salty sailors with a long lifetime of experiences walking through our doors and visiting our websites.
Brunswick, recently reported that 31% of their new boat buyers were completely new to boating.? Even if this number wobbles once extrapolated across all new boat buyers–it is a significant shift.
As far as marketing and messaging, IT IS ENORMOUS.
Why???
Because customers follow a path of awareness when making purchasing decisions.? And to gain their attention and trust, you need to understand your prospect’s starting point.
I can’t say this with enough emphasis: ?The starting point has changed.
This is why, as an industry, we are challenged with adjusting our messaging or risk alienating our new boaters.
Many of our new boat owners–our new prospects–have owned their boats for less than a season.? Oh, the things they don’t even know they don’t know yet!
They are asking basic questions.? They are seeking uncomplicated answers.??
They want to have a conversation with us. (Even if it’s mostly online.) They want to learn more.
Are we, as individual businesses, providing the content they need to make choices confidently? Choices that could lead them to become loyal fans of our products and services?
Is your business?
To help us do this better, let’s go back to the fundamentals. Specifically, the five stages of awareness that all prospects go through during a purchasing decision.? These time-tested stages were first introduced by the legendary copywriter, Eugene Schwartz, in his book, “Breakthrough Advertising.”
It’s based on psychology, and our brains still work the same. So this information is as relevant today as when first printed.? Only the mechanism of how we navigate through the stages has changed (the internet).
This means it’s our job to create a path for our prospects to follow through our messaging.? And the better we do that, the more likely our new boaters will come to know, like, and trust us .??
By understanding our audience’s unique needs at each stage, we know exactly what they need to hear from us.?
The goal is to match the conversation your prospect is currently having in their heads and provide a seamless path to the next stage through your messaging and content.?
Throughout this process, you are building a relationship. You are establishing trust.? You are demonstrating your authority. And, you are pre-positioning your solution as the logical choice for your prospect.? The endpoint is a sale, sign-up, or booking.??
So, here we go. Waypoint to waypoint.? Exactly how to create that path:
The course your buyers follow when making a purchasing decision
Unaware Stage:
Who: People who are blissfully unaware of their need for your solution.
Goal of Messaging: Targeting this audience is challenging, and less effort is usually made in marketing campaigns.? Content that works best catches the curiosity of a large population, even if they are not experiencing a specific desire or need is an option.???
The ultimate goal at this stage is to bring to attention something desirable, regardless of them having identified that need or want yet.??
When targeting this market, it is not the time to focus on your solutions, features, or on making a sale. If they are experiencing the problem you solve, help them identify that it even is a problem.?
Best Type of Content:?
Go for something easy and ultra-approachable. Zero jargon. Zero sales push.? Don’t require their email.? Instead, start your interaction with giving before asking.
Example:
Blog Post Title: Are Charter Boat Vacations Only for People Who Have Been on a Boat Before?
Why this works: The reader may find this blog topic curious enough to read, even if they were not planning a vacation.? Or had never considered going on a boat charter.?
As you can see, targeting this segment does not bring in the most qualified leads.? And a lot more work needs to be done before they’d be ready to book.? (In other words, this isn’t where to spurge.)
Problem Aware Stage:
Who: Problem-aware people, well, are bothered by something. Something’s broke, something is unsafe, something is cumbersome, something is taking up too much time, something is leaving them unsatisfied, something isn’t as fast as their neighbors, something doesn’t adequately portray themselves the way they want to be seen…
They aren’t to the point of connecting their need to a solution.? They might not even be sure that their problem is worth fixing at this point.? It’s possible that your biggest competitor at this stage may be “do nothing.”
What do we need to know to write for this stage:?
Goal of Messaging: Focus on the problem.? Meet this reader where they are at.? Bring out all the feels and show empathy.? Demonstrate that you understand how this “something” feels.? Help them articulate their situation or mood.
Now, I know it’s scary to focus on a problem, especially if we have a fun-in-the-sun brand.? But focusing on the problem works because people pay WAY more attention to what is bothering them than what is not .?
This is how you also start to build a little trust.? As in, “Hey, this person knows what I am going through. I am not alone.” Even if the “problem” is as simple as “I wish I had fancy-fuzzy personalized reel covers like the guy down the dock.”
As soon as you've made the connection, switch over to building the desire to resolve the “something” and subtly introduce your solution as a logical choice.
Best type of content:
Easy to access content that connects on an emotional level and then provides value, answers questions, and builds confidence that there is a solution.? Your blog post, social post, or video could direct readers to a lead magnet to get even deeper insights from you.? Begin to introduce solutions.? Be cautious about diving into all your features and benefits yet or pushing for a sale.
Example: Buyer Guide: Selecting the Best Bait Tank for Your Boat-Everything You Need to Know.
Solution Aware Stage:?
Who: This person is aware that there are viable solutions to the “something” that is bothering them.? That doesn’t mean they know about YOUR solution.? They are gathering information and evaluating the best-fit options.? At this point, they might still be looking at several classes of solutions.
Example:? A new-to-boating buyer needs a small outboard for his new dinghy.? They are exploring traditional gas, electric, and propane outboard solutions. But they might not be familiar with all the different brands within each category.
What we need to know to write for this stage:
Goal of messaging: Build trust as an authority in your area of expertise.
One way is to make sure you have content on your site/channels/feeds that honestly answers their questions.? At this stage, prospects are actively searching for solutions. Provide the opportunity for them to get the answer from you, not your closest competitor. Even when your information helps them learn that they aren’t meant for you.??
Start showcasing how your product or service stands out within your solution category but still stay away from pushing a sale. At the moment your prospect is in research mode, not purchase mode.
Best type of content:
Example: A charter boat guide that explains the primary factors that affect how much most charters cost–crew, location, length, season, type of boat, activities…
Why this works: You give valuable information that helps your prospecst make educated choices. As a result, they are more likely to continue to come back to you as they progress toward their final decision.
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Product Aware Stage:
Who: Your prospect is aware that YOU can help them solve their problem (thanks to your work leading them here and laying the foundation).? Now they are ready to get into the dirty details.? What are your features, benefits, and processes? What makes you the best option for them? Why?? And who else thinks so?
They will be comparing your answers to your competitors at this stage. So specificity shines here. We are talking about the product and how it makes your prospects' lives soooooo much better.? We are also talking about the price, its features, and your guarantee…
What we need to know before we write:
Goal of messaging: Continue to provide valuable content AND showcase how your solution is the best option in your category by highlighting the benefits.? Show how you solve their problem and improve their life.?
We call this the benefit of the benefit .?
Back up your claims with proof.? Use testimonials, case studies, endorsements, awards, before-and-after pictures, stats, studies… Give them the vital information required to believe you can deliver the best outcome for them.
Yes, we’re closing in on the sale here. This content needs to be optimized and needs to match exactly what your prospect is thinking AND walk through all the checkpoints they need to say “Yes” to you.?
The effectiveness of our messaging at this stage has a direct impact on our bottom line. Take the time to get it right. Leverage proven copywriting and persuasion techniques on your web pages, landing pages, and emails. Small differences in your conversion rates here can mean big differences in your bottom line.
Best Type of Content:
Example: Let’s use our charter vacation example again.? The prospect may start looking closely at itinerary options your charter company offers, galleries of the actual boats in your fleet, reviews and pictures from previous charterers, sample menus, and download PDFs of your charter packages.
Why these work:? They give enough detail for the prospect to make confident, educated decisions while sitting propped up against the headboard in the comfort of their bed at 11:45 at night.
Most Aware Stage:
Who: Someone who has shortlisted you as a top option and is just verifying a few details.? Or, they have decided you are the best option but just haven't bought it yet.??
They’ve been through the research, know all the features, and believe their life will be better with your product or service.?
Now they just need a nudge.?
Or–let’s be very honest–if they are still deciding between two choices, they might be looking for reasons to count you out.
What we need to know before we write:
Best Type of Content: The key here is to point out the next steps and then stay out of the way.? Don’t clutter the pathway to the “add to cart” button. Keep to the basics: remind them of your product, clearly show the price, and highlight the benefits.
Consider using “click triggers” around your Call to Action (CTA) button.? They can help relieve those last-minute hesitations and help nudge would-be-procrastinators to action.
“Click triggers” are the small print around the button that adds reassurance to the buyer.? They include statements like:
Well-chosen and well-positioned testimonials can also be persuasive enough to increase conversions.? They reassure the buyer that someone else has gone before them and is happy with the outcome.
Bonus Stage- Most Aware with High Intent:
This stage comes not from Eugene Schwartz but the trusted conversion copywriter, Joanna Wiebe, from CopyHackers.
Who: In this stage, the buyer has all but decided on you as their choice PLUS they have an urgent need to buy NOW.? Maybe they have scheduled a haul-out and need a part. Or they are about to depart on a trip and need last-minute gear.? Maybe they have a buyer coming to look at their boat, and something broke.
Whoever can deliver the fastest, arrive the quickest, or has it in stock the nearest now becomes the first priority in the decision-making process.
Best type of Content: Make it super easy for hurried buyers to find these important details.? If you ship overnight, say so.? If you do emergency mobile repairs, shout it out.? If you frequently have last-minute charter bookings available, encourage customers to inquire.
Hold your prospect's hand through the entire purchasing process
That was quite a journey through all the stages of awareness, so let’s do a short recap before moving on.? We learned:
So, why make such a big deal about stages of awareness right now?
Because what HAS changed is where a very large percentage of our new prospective buyers fall within this framework.
Remember, our long-time boaters were pretty aware of the problems they encountered (the average had decades of experience). They were also pretty aware of their options and how they related to their needs.? Therefore, as a whole, the marine industry has focused on marketing the lower end of this awareness process. Absolutely logical.
But now we have a flood of new boaters.??
Guess where most of them land in this process???
Yep, somewhere at the tippy-top. Remember, many are never-put-the-anchor-in-the-water new to boating.??
And this is why we have such an exciting opportunity to choose how we introduce ourselves to them.
I believe wholeheartedly that the marine-based businesses that take the time to meet these new buyers where they are at right now and use the framework above to engage them will be greatly rewarded in the months and years to come with deeply loyal customers.
I’m not sailing solo on this.?
Marcus Sheridan, the brilliant business strategist (and fellow boating business owner), has written THE book on this topic: They Ask You Answer .?
His book provides a treasure-trove of actionable insights, checklists, and real-life success stories if you've been nodding your head about what you just read.??
The self-educating buyer and its effect on your sales processes
To further emphasize the need to create messaging that meets our new boaters where they are at, let’s quickly consider the self-educating buyer.??
Buyers of all ages, but particularly the younger boaters, are self-educating themselves all the way up to the point of sale when making purchasing decisions.?
Even BIG purchases. Like BIG boats.?
Research from the First-Time Boat Buyer research presented by Grow Boating found that two-thirds of first-time boat buyers will only give out personal information at the point of purchase .?
This means your online content IS part of your sales team.? It’s not the prequel to the sale.??
Website content does more than help us move prospects along the buyer journey. It also helps us establish credibility which is vital when your prospect has pretty much made up their mind before you have an opportunity to meet them.
Education-based selling relies on providing obsessively high-quality content that meets your prospects where they are at so that–on their own–they can discover why your product or service benefits them the most.
AND–because blog posts alone don’t bump up our bottom lines–we need high-converting web, sales, and landing pages after our prospects have become solution and product aware.? Without that final conversion (sale), our businesses don’t float.
So, just how much information do we give our self-educating buyers?
Will they even read what I write??
By now, you might have some new ideas about how you could connect with buyers of all awareness levels.??
If you are eager to get started, one of your first questions might be:
How long do my articles/blogs/landing pages/sales pages need to be???
Head’s up. I’m going to give you the most detested answer of all…it depends.?
BUT…
Two factors will give you a pretty solid idea of how much your prospects want to hear from you.?
One, is the awareness level of your prospect.
The less aware they are, the more information they seek. The content should be allowed to be long enough to provide deep value while remaining clear and approachable.
When someone is searching for ways to make their lives better, they have an insatiable appetite for information.? Be generous.
As your prospects work down the awareness level, the more quick, confirmatory messaging is better.??
Close to the sale, keep your pages shorter.? Here, clarity is critical.? Don’t frustrate them with the information they do not need because they already know it.
Two, is the complexity of your product or service.
If you sell solar panel regulators, it will take some words to explain the differences between MPPT and PWM controllers to a depth that helps a buyer feel confident in choosing the best option for them.
If you sell colorful, floaty straps for sunglasses, not so many words are needed.
Getting the right message to the right customers at the right time
We’ve talked a lot about creating messaging that speaks directly to your prospects at all their levels of awareness.
And we know that when we are bombarded with information (or sales pushes) when we aren't ready for it, we get annoyed. Which means we turn around without making a purchase.
So, how do we get the right message to the right person at the right time so we can speak to people the way they want to be spoken to?
Oh, such an important question!
The answer is segmentation.
Segmentation drastically improves the effectiveness of our message delivery.??
When you know what your prospects desire–in that moment in time–you can be super-specific and create hyper-targeted advertisements that speak directly to their current interests.??
And...when your content, webpages, ads, and emails are tailored to their interest, customers are much more likely to engage in ways that boost your bottom line.
How do you segment your audience?
There are lots of ways. For example, you can segment according to the level of engagement (did they click on the link or not). Or what type of boater they are (power or sail)? What boating activities do they do the most (fishing, wakeboarding, family time)?
With our new wave of boaters, it may make sense to start (or enhance) how we segment based on experience level as well.
People who have been active on the water for years and are familiar with the products or services you sell will engage with your business differently from those people just joining the party.
Segmentation within your messaging can range from simple to sophisticated.
Let’s look at what segmentation can look like in four different contexts:
On your blog:
See how she has a section at the top of her blog that makes it super easy to find what is most relevant?? Brilliant. Henneke makes it simple for her readers to self-segment and immediately find the most relevant content for themselves.
On your website:
Websites, particularly home pages, are difficult to write to when you have multiple audiences.? If this is your situation, your goal is to quickly get your prospects onto a page made just for them.? Do this by making it intuitive for your visitor to self-select what they want to hear from you.
Example: Sailrite’s home page does an excellent job quickly segmenting their varied audiences into channels that speak directly to their needs.
Landing Pages:
When you are using ads specifically targeting your audience at a certain awareness level, you can–and should–be directing them to a landing page specifically designed to meet them where they are at and move them toward the next step.
Sending everyone to the same, everybody’s welcome landing page is much less effective.? You want to speak directly to the desires that brought them to the page in the first place and take them to the next level.
Emails:
Email platforms make it easy to tag and segment our lists.? Using data originally from DMA, Campaign Monitor reports that marketers who used segmented campaigns noted as much as a 760% increase in revenue. WOW!
Relevant content in email is EVERYTHING.
Segmenting your list will be specific to your business. Since we are exploring how the new boaters are affecting our messaging–I’ll say that segmenting based on new boater/experienced boater could make sense.?
Example:? For a marine store with a sale on docking equipment:
Email subject line for “new boater”:?
“All your docking essentials on sale: fenders and dock lines included!”
Email subject line for “experienced boater”:
“Time to refresh those chafed dock lines? New ones 30% off this weekend!”
What’s more, segmentation allows you to quantifiably track how your different audiences respond to different messages.? This data can be used to further segment and continue to improve new messaging efforts.
It’s time to meet your new boaters where they are at and bring them to where you need them to be
I’m going to stop here.??
Not because I’ve run out of passion for this topic, but because ideas are worthless without execution. So we need to put what we’ve learned into action. ?
How will you start connecting with your new set of boaters today?
Will you:
There are many ways to start.? The goal?? Just start.? There is a whole pod of people seeking to know more about what your business does and how it can make their life better.??
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2 年"Email platforms make it easy to tag and segment our lists.?Using data originally from DMA, Campaign Monitor reports that marketers who used segmented campaigns noted as much as a?760% increase?in revenue. WOW!" Yep. It's fairly easy to capture purchase intent, even awareness stage if asked in the right way, immediately after signing up to a newsletter on the confirmation landing page. Responses can be segmented and targeted from the beginning. Congratulations on publishing a fantastic guidebook!
Irreverent writer & coach on a mission to stamp out gobbledygook. 1,185+ paying students. ★★★★★ Rated 4.97 out of 5.
2 年Thanks so much for the shoutout, Deborah. I much appreciate it! ?? And I love your drawings. ?