Boating Industry

March 2014

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22 | Boating Industry | March 2014 [ Crafting a marketing plan ] www.BoatingIndustry.com www.BoatingIndustry.com "I always start by asking the key manage- ment team what they wish they could achieve in the coming year from a marketing perspec- tive. I also ask what their biggest challenges are in marketing that they wish they could over- come," she said. Those ideas are then prioritized and de- veloped into marketing goals for the coming year. Each department should be involved, so that each has its own goals and tactics. Once the plan is fi nalized, Kenton Smith encour- ages the management team to meet with the dealership's salespeople to assure everyone is on the same page. Sellhorst advises dealerships to include their sales staff when developing marketing messages because the salespeople have already created successful pitches. "The people that know how to sell boats are the ones that should be helping generate the messages. They know what is going to work in their market for their brands, for their dealer identity," he said. Sellhorst breaks marketing into two catego- ries — lead generation and conversion. Dealers who aren't seeing enough traffi c in their show- rooms need to focus more on lead generation, while those who have enough traffi c but could use more sales should focus on converting that traffi c into sales. Lead generation marketing should be fo- cused on a variety of sources, including a dealer- ship's website, complete with photos and videos of all boats; Google Adwords; and any and all classifi ed sites, including but not limited to BoatTrader and boats.com. "That way if you're searching for boats in my area, you can't help but fi nd me; you can't help but see my message," Sellhorst said. Conversion marketing can be targeted more at direct mail, phone call and email efforts, allow- ing salespeople to make a larger, more personal- ized impact with customers who have already shown interest in buying. "It's much less expensive because you're fo- cused on a small number of people that are quali- fi ed rather than going out to the mass market," Sellhorst said. He recommends a marketing calendar be cre- ated at the beginning of the year, pointing out when each campaign should be deployed. "You have that calendar in front of you that's a constant reminder of 'Hey, let's not forget about marketing,'" he said. Though a marketing plan directs a deal- ership's annual efforts and spend, room can be built in for fl exibility. Marine Connection leaves space in its budget for minor adjustments throughout the year, and BMC Boats will add promotions as appropriate. Kenton Smith says Events, sales and direct mail pieces are all part of BMC Boats' annual marketing plan. P20x25-BI14MAR-MarketingPlan.indd 22 2/7/14 10:52 AM

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