How can I grow my marine business further?

[hobiecat]

Since starting 4 years ago from scratch I tried to focus on marketing innovative marine products and innovative boats.

We are now Uk distributor for an innovative synthetic teak product which currently employs 7 people and is growing.

The innovative catamaran boats have proved more challenging to grow and have produced modest sales each year. However, survey in other thread says 50% think catamarans are the future. A further 20% say that catamarans are more practical. What changes of marketing strategy can we make with modest capital to improve our volume of sales?

You can probably guess that I am only interested in sensible advice and comments.

 

[Sixpence]

Well if nobody else is going to jump in. For a start, I shouldn't have to go to your profile to find out that your business is Here and with a Google rating (on mine) of two, you need to raise your profile a bit.
First off, stick a link in your signature so people know who you are (a reciprocal link to here is advised, and a ruling was made some time ago allowing multiple signatures) then you need to work on raising your profile on the internet.
That's a starting point, hope others now join in with more.

 

[jparham]

Has it been reviewed favourably in any of the monthly rags?
Looks like it's towable, so you need to emphasise that.
You are looking at a niche market. Takes a while to figure out the best hooks to that.......

 

[hobiecat]

I will get someone to look at raising the unternet profile and will sort out the signatures. Many thanks.

We have had quite a lot of favourable reviews. On major boating magazine voted one boat in our range as the best family boat of the year yet we dont seem to attract families. We were also nominated for an IPC award. Journalists always seem to report favourably and enthusiatically but it is difficult to get niche products heard amongst the normal marketing and magazine hype.

 

[photodog]

I think the Motorcat website has a few problems..

1) it looks a bit amatuerish... the resolution is low, the pics are small, and not that attractive. You need a much brighter more modern front end with attractive pictures... people will form a opinion of your product in the very first few seconds of looking at that page, And I dont think that the page realy does it for me. as well the navigation, though worthy, is not good... their should be very clear links through to the boat models, the second or third link is "Safety" /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Really you should only have maybe 4 links off the front 1 to each boat, 1 about us, one contact.

2) GOOGLE; you MUST come up under key google search terms for your product... so if I put in Motorcat, your number one, but if I put in "power Catamarans" then you are not even on the first page..... You need to optimise the page for search engines, and be aiming for a return in the top 4 for search terms like "Power Catamaran" and "Catamaran Motorboat" "Power Multihull" .
In the short term you could do a google ad with those as your key terms.

I would suspect that the webpage is crucial in your business right now, I bet 99% or peeps who are interested in your product will first look on the web, and they want a site that instills confidence and look top of the range.

A fairly good site... bright, minimal links, exciting pics........

Sorry to say I dont think that yours does the trick......

You can take a one day course in web optimisation, or in google adwords, usually from your local governement small business link type of people.......

Sorry!

 

[BOATKID]

I am afraid I disagree with your comments on the comparison between the two websites. I found it easy to get a selection of photos to enlarge !!

Is J B a mate of yours by any chance /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[wakeup]

Hi, I had a good look at the motor cats on your web site you are marketing, they look very interesesting and clearly tick many of the boxes that educated buyers will be looking for in future when the disappearance of Red really starts to bite. Your problem is that people with common sense are the ones that will buy your products and common sense these days ain't that common. Form over function is clearly the way many of the big brands sell.

It sounds like that at the moment you have estblished a good niche business with a turnover of motor cats and you have added the tek dek products to appeal to the broader market. Growth is going to be restrained by the qulaity of the product (perceived or real) and by your ability to advertise and convert the masses to cat technology and something quite different.

If I were in your shoes I would look at what is selling well in the wider markets in terms of volume and see if I could add that boat range or type to your offering. That could give you the growth (accepting the current market conditions) in % terms and numbers of customers through the door. Once you get more customers through the door there is a much greater opportunity to cross sell the motor cats and it should be possible to sell many more incidentally to customers that had:-

A)never considered a motor cat before
B) didn't know about the considerable advantages of a MC.
C) had never been near one
D) had never been out on one . I guess once you've had someone on for a ride that really changes their views positively towards an MC so a big plus to be able to get more throuh the doors as it were and onto these boats.

Many customers like the idea of being able to trade in their boats hassle free and companies such as Sealine manage to keep people within the brand by offering guaranteed trade ins etc to keep them. If you can offer a broader range of boats (by this I mean a mono hull) and you are willing to take trade of MCs to monos and vice versa, this could also significantly de-risk the MC buying decision. This would be my main concern with buying an MC that a dealer would not take it in PX (at least a sensible PX) and I would loose my shirt if I deceided to go back to a mono or something bigger.

You might want to have a ood look at some of the companies that are going (and have ) gone bust to see if there are product lines that now effectively have no representation in the UK (even though some may have representation some have lost their main dealers and I am sure would like to strengthen their networks) and see if you can pick up a good mono or other range.

Or perhaps if you want to become Mr Cat UK (you are certainly Mr Cat of the Forum althgouh Gludy is pushing for that title now /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif ) you could also offer a range of sail cats and look to cross sell between the two camps of motor and sail.

Cats are often used as work boats for lots of good reasons, can you get a commercialised version of the MC that could compete with the established work boats out there?


It is very difficult to profer the right advice without nowing the constraints for expansion, e.g. financing available, location, premises, people etc etc which I wouldn't expect you to post here so I guess you have to pick your way through the ideas offere by posters here.

Just my two cents.

Wakeup.

 

[hobiecat]

The web site is currently in early stages of a revamp so these comments appreciated. I welcome all constructive criticism and will immediately work to put any worthwhile points right.

 

[hobiecat]

Decking is useful in assessing what is selling in the wider market. The problem is finding good cat product to offer. I love many monos but feel it would water down the brand if I took a mono brand on. Maybe this is the way forward though.

 

[wakeup]

Well perhaps think of monos as a stepping stone towards a greater up take of cats, or if you don't want to dilute get a sailing cat range, they are afterall really good motor sailors anyway see Gludy's post re the lagoon. He seems to desrcibe it as a motor sailor.

 

[SnaxMuppet]

I agree with the others that your profile needs to be raised a few notches...

I am no expert in marketing but here is my comments:

Get to the shows. I know they aren't cheap nor easy and having displayed at many myself I know that can drain resources but you will get known by the trade and the prospective buyers and they can see your products. Shows may also get you into the mags when they report on the show especially if your product is unusual in some way.

Get your web site search engine optimised to raise your organic search position. If you don't have skills in SEO I would recommend getting some help from a specialist. Choose your search keywords wisely and only go for keywords that give you a reasonable chance of getting on page 1. Make sure that the sitemap is properly generated, registered and submitted, particularly to Google and Yahoo. Your SEO expert will help or do this for you.

The web site could do with a professional touch IMO from the coding point of view. For example, the meta tags and ALT tags are not set, there are no H1,H2 tags (important for SEO), the same css is referenced many times on each page, you have important headings in graphics (again, a no no for SEO).

Try to get magazine reviews and articles. Mag ads are horrendously expensive and IMO they are not always the best way to spend your marketing budget.

Put out a press release, through an agency perhaps, when you have company/product announcements. It isn't that expensive and all sorts of publications will pick up on it.

Just a few ideas.

 

[DavidJ]

Guess I'm surprised that you haven't immediately taken T25's suggestion of putting a link onto your signature so it appears at the bottom of your posting. I get about 50 hits a month from mine and it's just a fun family website.

 

[epervier]

ADD SEX,

all the big boys have scantily clad leggy big breasted women draped all over their products whether it be car, boat or bikes they all use the power of the female form, that catches the eye of hot blooded males, the major percentage of buyers.

 

[SnaxMuppet]

I agree with Davidj... the one on mine to my Round Britain site is often my biggest referrer and I am currently getting 30-50 new visitors each day to that site! It helps with Google too as they are links from a site in a related business sector.

Do as many of the free/cheap stuff first before spending money and you may be surprised what a difference it makes.

Regarding web site changes... do you have any stats on the web site at the moment? If not get a statistics package installed (they are generally free BTW... webalizer, awstats etc) and then you will have the information available to judge the effects of any changes you make.

 

[SnaxMuppet]

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Sex always works but it can have unwanted side effects... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

The site could be jazzed up a bit but care must be taken not to lower the tone. Caution should be taken with moving graphics. If they are used indiscriminately the site can look vary tacky. It should keep a quality feel but some livening up would probably help. Look at other sites that you like the look of and see what they have done.

You could take some promo videos and get them onto youtube and include them on your site.

Sorry if I am coming out with too many mediocre ideas. Sometimes just "brainstorming" stuff helps and might spark off an idea in you, or someone else, that you like and want to take forward. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[David_Jersey]

Saw this late last night and nearly responded with "sell something people already want" .....but glad I didn't leave it at that /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

But as already said, I would try and go for either a Mono or a Sailing Cat to sell alongside - apart from the cash, getting punters through the door (virtually or for real)....as well as lending additional credibility to your firm.

At the moment your Website looks amateurish - and the photos are very poor as they do not "sell the dream". With the prices involved you are competing against proffessionals - yer gotta look the part.

Spent a couple of minutes looking at the site (twice as long as I felt like doing) I can't see who makes them, and in what country.....shots of the factory and the build process / some blurb on the quality / construction methods would be another lender of credibility.

Contact address = Fax / Tel No & E-mail ONLY!! That shreiks to me no showroom or physical dealership which as a new boat buyer, especially a Newbie (who do make good punters /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif) would concern me in regard to back up / warranty issues.......no physical address suggests a potential fly by night operation, lack of confidence in the dealer to invest in the range or a not very successful range of boats - and why would I want to buy a boat no one else wants?

Ok, a lot of the above is perception so is addressable - even if you do not have an Indoor showroom stocked with the full range of the boats for sale, I would list your "Sales Office" or "Head Office" - but please not Flat 27 etc etc!!!

Marketing on the Cheap?

Not sure if the Bareboat or Skippered Charter operation is your own or whether you also have a Demonstrater (or more?) available..........but I would arrange "Demo Days" both on the Pontoon and out on the Water........obviously you will get a lot of Joyriders.......but it is about getting your name and boat's capabilities "Out there" so a price you will have to pay.....I would guess local press would be a cheap way to start and of course here!.......in addition I would make clear on the Website that a Demo boat is very available (ie it is not extracting blood from a stone!) - over time yer will get better at screening folk out who want a nice day out.

The above sounds a bit negative, but IMO nothing fundamental - of course it is always easier to sit this side of the Internet suggesting stuff than actually doing!

The guaranteed buy back would be something worth looking at closely - but yer would need real confidence in the range - and decent working capital....... I won't suggest doing this via a Ltd company "just in case", but............ /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Nick_H]

All the above posts are useful but ignore the real problem, there isn't currently a market for displacement leisure Cats in the UK. There's no point your web site coming up first with a Google search for "Power Catamaran", if there's only Gludy looking for one.

Have you thought about who or what the competition are. Its almost certainly not other displacement Cat manufacturers or dealers, as your problem is not market share, its that there's no market to have a share of.

So you have to concentrate on targetting potential buyers of other types of boats who could be convinced that a Cat suits their needs better. So who are the potential boat buyers that are concerned about fuel economy, stability underway and at rest, and deck space, but are not concerned about berthing in visitor marinas and having small cabins, cos you have no chance with those that are. Maybe boating areas that have few marinas is the place to target, and "sell" the benefit of being able to dry out, the extra stability at anchor, and the long range between fuel stops?

 

[graham]

I dont know much about marketing but would think the fuel economy of a cat could be a big selling point these days.

 

[Nick_H]

One more thing, you need to realise you are operating in an imperfect market (ie. normal market rules can't apply). The constraint is the difficulty in building new marinas in the main boating areas. The result is all the marinas are full, so they don't need to adapt to succeed. So don't rely on them recognising a need to offer Catamaran berths to visitors, and investing in moving pontoons around to accomodate them. Visitor berthing is not a big income stream for marinas anyway, cos its only high days and holidays. This, IMO, severely limits the potential growth of Cats in the major boating areas, cos most leisure users want to know they can get into the local marinas. You'll find plenty on here say that wouldn't put them off, but the forum is not a representative sample of the boating community, its heavily skewed towards the more serious and confident boater.

 

[hlb]

Many years ago I was on a business course, they showed a graph. It began with.

Inventors, then early starters, some other name for the folk who entered the market when it was at the top, then the slothes.

They told us, never be the inventor, or in at the start. 99% of the time, the product is not even wanted.

Early starters was the place to be. Thats just when folk have started to buy.

The slothe of course, is all those folk you meet in the pub, that says, I'm going to open a vidio rentall shop because I know this bloke who made millions and has retired now.

Personally, I would not be investing anything in the marine market at the moment. I'd be saving the ammo for when things improve.