Social media platforms can be a minefield to navigate for yachting brands. With ever-changing algorithms and new features, it can be hard to keep up to speed on what you should and shouldn’t be doing.
So, what can you do to ensure you stay on top of newsfeeds and run social campaigns that deliver results and resonate with your target audience?
Relevance Yacht works with some of the world’s leading yachting brands, helping them to boost their online presence through carefully crafted digital marketing and social media campaigns.
Here our social media experts share their top tips to improve social media marketing to maximise your exposure.
What are the keys to a successful social media strategy?
The key to a successful social media strategy is developing quality content guided by analytics, engaging with your audience to ensure they feel seen and heard, careful cross-promotion across handpicked social media channels, ensuring brand consistency, curating a powerful brand story, and partnering with relevant influencers.
Let’s explore each of these points in more detail.
1. Quality content guided by analytics
Central to any social media strategy is quality content carefully curated to resonate and engage with your target audience.
Content must be purposeful and relevant and should keep up to date with the latest industry trends that interest your audience. However, this should be balanced with unique and engaging content – never post for the sake of it or solely for sales messaging. To be successful on social media, you must also educate and inspire people to interact with your brand’s messaging. This will increase your brand awareness and expand your audience reach.
Within your strategy, you must also look into the analytics. Aimlessly posting on social media is not an effective strategy. Brands should know why they are posting each piece of content. This is where the analytics come into play, helping you to understand what is working and what is not. By doing this, you will be able to see which posts receive the most attention and refine your content strategy accordingly.
Additionally, through social listening and engaging, you can better understand the questions your audience are asking about your product or service, enabling you to create bespoke and tailored content which appeals to them and increases your social media presence.
2. Social media campaigns that engage your audience
Engagement is vital, enabling your audience to feel seen and heard. Ensure you reply to your audience via all social channels, whether responding to an Instagram comment, a Facebook message, liking, or re-tweeting.
Community building helps grow your brand awareness and trust and also puts you in a position that highlights your high customer service level. All social media channels have been launching new ways for brands to connect and engage with followers, such as ‘Q&As’ and reaction e-tickets. These new tools show how community engagement and management are vital on these platforms.
Following and engaging with relevant profiles is essential to maximise social media potential. The ‘Suggested for You’ feature on Instagram, for example, will help you filter and find relevant accounts to follow. Following and engaging with these accounts will increase your brand visibility and awareness to others and expand your reach.
3. Careful cross-promotion
There are multiple social channels, and each platform requires a slightly different approach within your social media marketing strategy.
While all content should be relevant, purposeful, and engaging, it should also be tailored to the specific medium you are sharing. Always carefully consider your demographics when posting on various platforms to determine your priority platforms.
Instagram is for driving engagement, and it is best to focus on visuals and Reels with trending sounds on Instagram to connect with your audience. Ocean Independence, for example, utilises its Instagram profile by posting engaging Reels of charter yachts.
When using Twitter, brands should act fast and ensure the content is relevant and up to date. Images perform better on this platform, and brands should be aware of trending hashtags within their specific industry. Keeping an eye on trending hashtags will also enable you to stay up to date on anything current. Quantum is one yachting brand that makes excellent use of Twitter to keep its followers up-to-date on industry news.
LinkedIn is used to share content that highlights industry knowledge. By using this platform, brands can stand out as an expert in their field by sharing thought leadership articles that highlight their expertise. Yacht bokerage Silver Star Yachting, for example, not only posts yacht charter content but also provides expertise and knowledge on the industry with tips and guides.
TikTok
TikTok has gained momentum recently and is for sharing short-form video content. Global yacht brokerage Fraser posts a range of content on the platform, showcasing the yachting lifestyle, popular destinations as well yachts for charter and those that have recently sold. With the increasing importance of younger generations in the yachting industry, this platform is important to utilise as this is where the potential client pool is most active.
Regarding community-based initiatives and events, Facebook is a good platform for this shareable content. Quantum Sails recently shared their Boot Dusseldorf event success and regularly updates their audience on up-and-coming regattas.
YouTube
YouTube not only helps increase brand awareness but also improves SEO. Posting video content that adds value and attracts your audience is important. The channel, Yachts For Sale and Charter, created by broker David Seal – and for which Northrop & Johnson holds an exclusive Licensing Agreement for – is a successful example of how YouTube can be an effective marketing platform. The channel is one of the most-watched yacht channels on the internet, showcasing the powerful reach of a well-crafted YouTube strategy.
4. Always be consistent
The success of a brand is rooted in its distinct brand identity, making consistency a vital part of a successful social media strategy.
This consistency should be reflected in everything you do on social platforms, ensuring your brand identity is communicated, from your tone of voice to your aesthetics. A brand’s social content should reflect its values and mission, and the audience should feel they are hearing the same ‘person’ communicating each time they see a post. When it comes to visuals having your own templates can help create the perfect grid.
It is not just about what you are posting but also when. Sharing content at similar times and on a regular basis will allow your audience to know when and what to expect, helping to foster brand recognition and trust.
5. Tell your story
Brand storytelling is crucial in social media campaigns, and having a strong voice and personality can help ensure success. Telling your brand story helps evoke emotions within your target audience, allows people to foster a sense of connection and loyalty with your brand, and ensures your brand is memorable, helping to convert your audience into customers.
Yachting brands must have a compelling story to capture their interest. While brands need to show the latest product reveals and launches, this should be part of the bigger picture. Brands should tell stories about their legacy, history, mission, founders and employees, clients, and events. Recent years have seen storytelling on sustainability and social responsibility gain traction; this has become especially important on the yacht market’s agenda due to the younger generation resonating with these topics.
Storytelling should always reflect the brand’s values and authenticity and can be showcased via social media platforms through unique branded experiences, collaborations, and influencers.
6. Partner with genuinfluencers
Influencer marketing is a powerful tool within a social media strategy, It can drive brand growth, and many brands already utilise these relationships.
This year will see more genuinfluencers come to the fore. Genuinfluencers – influencers that are focused on sharing truthful and helpful content rather than selling and promoting brands – have better engagement rates, more targeted audiences, and are more authentic. These types of influencers appeal to hyper-engaged audiences who are actively seeking out content around specific topics they are passionate about.
Within the yacht industry, these topics can range from sustainability to technology, new concepts, designs, and charter destinations. Tapping into hyper-engaged yachting audiences will enable brands to target more effectively.
As an award-winning, full-service luxury digital marketing agency, Relevance Yacht works with the world’s leading luxury yacht brands helping to manage and grow their social media presence through carefully crafted social media campaigns designed to resonate with the world’s richest audiences.
To learn more about our social media services, contact Relevance Yacht.