Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/173871
LAUNCH "You need to spend a lot of time and effort developing relevant content or sourcing it. Then you step back and you have to listen, see what your consumers are saying." Visitors arrive at Boat Trader's website from all over the United States to search for boats for sale. Here is a ranking of the states that generate the most traffic, measured in unique monthly visitors. – Carl Blackwell TOP TRAFFIC STATES 63 percent to more than 11,000. Discover Boating has been recognized for its social media success outside the industry as well for its efficiency. Last year, Facebook wrote a case study on the campaign and, this year, Discover Boating ended up being 25 percent more efficient. It takes a lot of work and research to be that effective, Blackwell said. "Social media is labor intensive," he said. "You need to spend a lot of time and effort developing relevant content or sourcing it. Then you step back and you have to listen, see what your consumers are saying." For example, one thing the Discover Boating team learned is that "celebrities on boats" is not a driver of traffic or an area of interest to the boating community. "We watch our analytics," Blackwell said. "Whenever we make a post, we look at the number of shares, the number of people we reach, we look at the likes, we look at the dislikes. You just have to pay attention to your analytics." Benchmark your performance against these five marine dealer key performance indicators, offered through Boating Industry's partnership with Spader Business Management, to stay focused on what's important to your success. Net Profit -4.1% $379,669 through June 2012 $364,114 through June 2013 % of Gross Margin 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% Total personnel Total advertising Total floorplan interest 80.3% Total semi-fixed Total fixed Total net operating profit 41.3% 30% 20% 13.3% 10% STATE UNIQUE VISITORS PCT. OF U.S. 1.Florida 1,886,60810.9% 2.Texas1,256,086 7.2% 3.California1,223,661 7.0% 4. New York756,707 4.4% 5.Georgia699,039 4.0% 6.Illinois583,105 3.4% 7.Michigan582,210 3.4% 8.Ohio562,860 3.2% 9. North Carolina561,254 3.2% 10.Pennsylvania461,452 2.7% Based on BoatTrader.com traffic, Aug. 2012-July 2013. For the Top 25 brands searched on Boats.com & Boat Trader see www.dominionmarinemedia.com/company/publications SAME-STORE SALES REPORT KPIs 90% SEARCH SCORECARD 4.4% New Boat Inventory 6.0% With a total store sales increase of only 3.3 percent for 111 marine dealers, we see the continued decline that has been apparent for over three years: A six-month cycle of rise and fall that varies by about 30 percentage points. Unit sales are up 12.7 percent. This significant percentage rise in unit sales may be skewed by an exceptionally low amount of unit sales in 2012 rising by a small dollar amount but a high percentage amount. Parts Service DepartmentDepartment 1.1% $2,215,227 through June 2012 $2,348,809 through June 2013 18.5% 2.9% 0% Major Units Total personnel Total advertising Total floor plan interest Total semifixed Total fixed Sales Volume Total net operating profit 8.6% Total personnel Total advertising Total floorplan interest Total semi-fixed Total fixed Total net operating profit $6,012,356 through June 2012 $6,526,566 through June 2013 10 | Boating Industry | October 2013 P08x10-BI13OCT-Launch.indd 10 5.0% Used Boat Inventory 20.1% $283,803 through June 2012 $340,943 through June 2013 12.7% Overall 3.3% For more information on this report and other industry data, go to adplightspeed.com/dataservices www.BoatingIndustry.com 9/5/13 11:23 AM