There is much to consider when developing and improving your sales and marketing processes further into the 21st century. We all know that there is much to be considered in the great effect the Internet has on society and all of our practices including shopping and communication, so there are many ways to both improve your marketing strategies and trim your marketing costs..
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While there have been many options to reaching out with your products and messages in the past, there are a number of inexpensive changes and advancements that can be made today. The overall summary of these six inexpensive options is the move away from print advertisements while increasing the use of online technology in your marketing, advertising and sales alike. Take a look at some of these cost-saving options and how they may help your boat company save money and increase sales moving forward:
- Cut back on print marketing and advertising pieces and present the same content in digital formats. With the list of leads you already have in place there are email brochures, newsletters, promotions and more that can be sent out in a manner that speaks comfortably to them.
- Increase the focus on conversion rate over excessive work or content that will draw in new leads or traffic. Keep in mind that one way to do so is with customer relationship nurturing. Build and advance the relationships you already have in place. The word will be spread!
- Outbound marketing allows the potential lead and client to find your name when they are already online shopping for your product. This is savings in and of itself. More than just the creation of the company website are its landing pages where visitors provide you with their contact information, or advance to purchase pages as they request.
- Plan carefully for the advertisements and other posts you will be placing in both the online and print worlds. Be sure to coordinate with internal and external talent that will be putting an ad together, and make sure that it is a recyclable ad that can be re-used in a couple of different locations over multiple time periods.
- Work with your internal marketing, sales and IT teams together for development of all company websites. In this way the most effective manners of technology, sales and marketing content will be put together to reach out to all potential visitors, leads and clients. A quality site contains SEO (search engine optimization) so that you appear early on in the list of those who are searching for boats like yours.
- Increase the use of social media, reaching out to those active online shoppers and communicators who love boats just as much as you love selling them! There is nothing better than opening a relationship with a potential lead comfortably, helping further broaden that customer relationship as a friend. With your appearance in the social media world you are out there drawing in the interest of all those interested in boats whose friends are also interested in boats, and then all of those who will be and are currently shopping for boats.
While these are some key pointers to trimming your company’s marketing expense, you must know that there are many more options out there. Never be afraid to tackle the challenge of something new, and have different departments work together as a team when producing all of your marketing content.
References – Marketing Ideas for Boat Dealers
http://www.six.marketing/hire-marketing-agency/inbound-marketing-boat-marine-dealers/, https://www.webpagefx.com/internet-marketing/online-marketing-boat-dealers.html, http://marinemarketingtools.com/
References – Ways to Save on Marketing Cost
https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2016/01/20/4-ways-to-save-money-on-marketing/#4fb932fa32fb, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/205412, http://www.businessknowhow.com/marketing/cutmarketingcosts.htm, http://www.modernmarketingpartners.com/lower-marketing-budgets-with-modern-marketing/, http://smartforms.reachforce.com/blog/7-ways-to-reduce-marketing-costs-while-increasing-leads/
Additional Resources for Digital Marketing:
Hubspot Marketing Grader (SEO diagnostic and recommendations), Marketing Planning and Budgeting Best Practices (Modern Marketing Partners), SEOmoz (SEO diagnostic free trial)
PRlog (Free online PR directory), PRweb (News distribution site)