As published on Boating Industry
BY MATT SELLHORST
How’s you season going so far this year?
I hope you’ve been delivering a ton of boats and have a dozens and dozens of happy clients hitting the water as the summer is in full swing. During this time of year, it can be challenging at times to keep on top of your marketing. And if you don’t have a dedicated social media person (internal or external), your online presence can suffer.
This month, I wanted to give you a super simple system to help build easy social media content anyone can use that will lead to additional referrals and likely a few extra sales this year.
Now, I don’t think social media is the silver bullet that many others proclaim however when used wisely and matched with the overall strategy of the dealership, it can be powerful. And, this particular one easily fits into your overall plan.
The 6 Simple Steps Any Dealer Can Use:
Step 1 – Give your client a bottle of champagne, beach towels with your logo or some other gift as the deliver is almost done.
Step 2 – Take a picture of them holding the gift on or near their shiny new boat. By the way, they love this and many will ask you to send them the photo or give you their phone so they can share with friends.
Step 3 – Flip over to video on your phone and ask them to do a quick video. Just ask them to introduce themselves and tell everyone about what has them most excited about their new boat. Then, thank them.
Step 4 – Tell them you’ll post both to your dealership’s FaceBook/Instagram/Twitter, whatever platform your clients tend to utilize. And, let them know you will tag them in the post if they are on that platform. Virtually all of them will think it’s fantastic.
Step 5 – Post both to your social media pages with a note like this. “Matt and Sarah Sellhorst welcome to the Matt’s Marine boating family. Congratulations on your new Cobalt A25 and thanks for trusting us be your boat specialist. Can’t wait to see more pictures and video of you out on the water this summer!”
Step 6 – Rinse and repeat with every single delivery you make.
OK, it doesn’t get much easier than that. Maybe 10 minutes of work.
And, if you want to get even better results, invest $100 or so to boost the post on FaceBook to the right audience. A little more advanced but still pretty simple to implement.
Do you see the power in this simple and inexpensive system?
- It’s social proof that people are buying boats from you.
- When you tag your clients, their friends will likely see the post and like or comment. And many of those friends likely fit the profile of your perfect client because ‘birds of a feather flock together’.
- And next year or 3 or 5 years from now, that post will pop up in their ‘memories’ to remind them of how happy you made them and just maybe it’s time to upgrade.
- You’ve just created 2 posts x the number of deliveries you make this year of real valuable content.
- And, most important, you now have a testimonial photo and video you can add to your website and leverage 17 different ways in the future. (yes, 17 ways, email me at matt@boatdealerprofits.com and I’ll share them with you) that will help you sell more boats at higher margins.
So, I hope you’ll see the value of taking the picture and video at every single delivery and putting them to use for you and your sales team.
This month’s challenge: Take a picture and video at every single delivery you make this year. These can be used in a variety of ways that will make you more money for years to come.