Marketing a marina is one part real estate, one part technical, and one part circus. Here are three dynamic ideas to market your marina.

1) LOCATION - Leverage your physical location by partnering with your local Visitors Bureau, Main Street District or City Events Coordinator to assure your included in their "Areas of Interest" or other tabs and categories that maximize your exposure to locals and visitors. Monitor event calendars for additional opportunities to co-market with these organizations, or at the very least to capitalize on the extra traffic created.

2) SERVICES - What services do you offer that no other marina around you, or in the area offers? A unique on-site restaurant? Quality boat repair? Fuel and Pump Out services? Determine your key difference and capitalize on it in all of your marketing efforts. For example, does your marina have the closest access to the Gulf? Then every time you tweet, post, advertise or market, that needs to be in your materials somehow. Create a hashtag, tagline or other memorable way to remind your potential patrons of what makes you special.

3) FUN - Most boaters are social, and enjoy their time at the dock with other boaters as much as they enjoy being on the hook. You don't have to host parties every day, but having some planned events and activities to engage with your current customers, as well as encouraging them to bring guests to your events, provides a great opportunity for meet and greets, makes your marina feel more lively and interesting, and keeps current customers looking forward to being there. One marina we work with recently had a "Saltiest Tale" contest, where we had a BYOB docktail event and current members were encouraged to bring a guest (especially if they were part of the tale). We did a random order draw to take turns telling the "Saltiest Tale," and then we a had a ballot voting system were we crowned a People's Choice winner, a Judges winner, and the Marina was a winner because they signed two new clients by the end of the night.

For more marketing tips for the boating industry, check out our Free Tip Sheet for the Top Five Ways to Maximize Lead Engagement at Boating Events. Follow us on twitter and facebook @leapcreative.

Buying a boat is not like buying a car. A boat could be several thousands of miles from the potential buyer and the photos and features listing may not tell the whole story. Most boat brokers utilize web-based sales tools where they post some photos, boat features, and dealer information to their brokerage pages. Recently, savvy boat brokers have been adding videos to their online listings with great success. These videos showcase listings to their best advantages, allowing a potential buyer to feel like they could be right there looking at it with you. These six simple video tips to sell more boats can set you apart both in the crowded marketplace and with your clients.
 
Make a plan – This is your chance to make a great first impression – so make it good. Wash, clean, declutter, organize, and otherwise make the boat look its very best. Do a thorough walk through the boat mapping out the areas you know you want to highlight, and making sure hatches, cabinets and doors are ready and easy to access if you are going to open them during filming.
 
Make it quick – When making marketing videos, the shorter the better. That doesn’t mean you want to miss any part of the boat, remember, this may be the only way someone hours away decides it is worth the trip to come see it. If you have a choice between one 15 minute walk around the entire boat, or shooting several three to five minute videos as segments, then choose segments. One interior, one exterior/decks, one flybridge, one engine room, etc. can add interest and views to your videos.
 
Make it bright – Pick a sunny day and shoot during the golden hours – one to two hours after sunrise and before sunset. Shooting at mid-day can make for sharp shadows. Make sure all the curtains are open to let light into the boat interior. Open, roll and secure all doors, awnings and isinglass for maximum exposure to the sun and minimum blockage to eye lines. Remove covers for all electronics, and when possible have them up and running. This provides color, interest and allows the viewer to envision sitting in the helm chair operating the boat.
 
Make it large – Scope and scale are hard to judge in many still photos. Videos allow you to move from one area to another while showcasing the general size of things. While you don’t want clutter to detract from making spaces appear as large as possible, some chairs, tables, grills or other items can show scale, usability and size of areas to an advantage.
 
Make it small – Target your audience by taking the time to focus the potential buyer onto specialized or key selling features like a unique storage system, strategic engine access, or an easy reach antennae set up. Show exactly how these specialized features work so a potential buyer doesn’t have to guess. For example, if you know the boat you are selling has specialty wine storage, take the time to properly show this by staging it with the maximum number of wine bottles in the storage hold.
 
Make it sell – As a professional boat broker, you have probably identified a few key features that make this boat stand out from other boats on the market. Make sure your top three key selling points for your listing are prominent in your video and adjust the copy in your listing to call these out, so when a potential buyer reads the description, those key features will be reinforced in the video.
 
For more marketing tips for boat sellers, check out our Free Tip Sheet for the Top Five Ways to Maximize Lead Engagement at Boating Events. Follow us on twitter and facebook @leapcreative.