Superyacht Social Media Marketing Guide

LUXURY
BRANDED
www.luxurybranded.com

yacht charter

Social Media Marketing Guide

WHY are we
GIVING AWAYour
SECRETS for FREE?
With the continuing success of the world wide yacht charter industry there has also been a lot of
new competitors on the block. During 2012 we have worked with a lot of yacht charter companies
who weren’t quite headed in the right direction.
We’re giving away some of our secrets mainly because we love to give back to the communities that
have treated us well over the years. We also know that doing all the strategies below and beyond
requires a lot of time and effort. Not all companies have that luxury and that is why we’re here.
The Luxury Branded team has the experience to execute and deliver advanced social media campaigns for charter companies who don’t have the time. We help yacht charter companies build an
audience of loyal brand fans, and that’s the difference we provide.
If you’re interest to hear what we can do for your charter company, please email Ryan(ryan@luxurybranded.com) to setup a free call.

TABLE of CONTENTS

1

»

Having a sound foundation

Make your website more followable
Make noise that matters
Know which content is the right content
Be a brand ambassador

2

»

Social Networks Worth Your Time

Facebook
Google+
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Youtube
The Fancy

3

»

Advanced Strategies

Social contests
Social rewards & coupons
Crowd sourced interviews
Tapping into the “blogoshpere”
Get social & local with events

4

»

How can we help?

Do SOMETHING
DIFFERENT In 2013
While everyone and their mother seems to be into social media marketing these days, not many do
it correctly. This guide’s goal is to showcase how we think and act upon our clients’ social media
campaigns, as well as our own.
Social media to us is about building a loyal fan base that wants to hear about your brand and know
what’s going on. This engagement is crucial to providing your business with a source of traffic that
isn’t reliant on free traffic from the likes of Google and Bing. This, to us, is a major problem that
has arisen for a lot of brands who rely on that free traffic.
Below you’ll find ideas and concepts we use to engage users and provide clients with users that turn
into customers for as long as you’re in business. Behind every tactic is sound, creative and ingenious
content marketing strategies you won’t find anywhere else.
Best of all, your fan base can feel like they know the real people behind the scenes. This intimate
new way of doing business isn’t really that new, it’s just now easier to relate to - and connect with brand fans all over the world.

Ready to start building an audience?

Luxury Branded ➳ Yachi Charter SMM Guide | Page 4

1

Having A Sound Foundation

Make Your Website More Followable
Is your website and current social media profiles up to snuff ? Do they cross promote automatically and provide an easy-follow path for brand fans? Hopefully I can get you out of the webmaster
mindset and have you look at your setup as a visitor. This is where you should see opportunities to
improve your current “path to follow”.
You’d be surprised to know...
A lot of brands we come across in our everyday work and general web browsing for amusement
don’t have their follow buttons and widgets on display. Even LuxuryBranded.com doesn’t quite
have the setup I want, and we’re still working on testing and changing.
Putting yourself in the shoes of a visitor is a must-do exercise in my books, so put on those shoes
and tie them on tight. I want you to be critical and try and view your website in a different way.
Let’s take a look at a real life example. As of this very second while I write this guide, I’m going to
go do a search for “ superyacht charter Dubai”. Everything I list below is not from a client or anyone we know, so this should be good.


First result:

http://www.dubaiultimatecharter.com/

Perfect! I couldn’t be happier with the first result and you’ll see why in a second. First of all, it’s
quite important to know what the user sees above the fold. While the site looks great and puts forth
all their best offers, I don’t see any mention of their social profiles.
Dubai Ultimate Charter ranks very well for a broad range of related keywords to “Dubai yacht charters”, so for now I imagine business is good. A business like this also relies on foreign travelers and
retaining a fan base should be high on their priority list.
But hold on now!
Things are not all bad for Dubai Ultimate Charter. They do link to their Facebook and Twitter profiles, just down near the footer with two small icons.


While they do have something there, it’s not too visible and so far they have less than 50 Twitter
followers. Their Facebook efforts seem to be going a little better as they have 759 brand fans. So all
in all not too bad!
So what would Team Luxury Branded do differently?
In this case, I’d have them make use of Twitter and Facebook’s larger widgets that do a great job at
catching more eyes. There are dozens of free options available that we’ll cover at the end, but I’m
sure most of you know what I’m talking about.
Not only would we recommend these, I would opt to have them put in a place where more people
tend to be focused. Say your current visitor isn’t going to be a customer that day, but you never
know a month or four down the road. You’re going to want to capture that visitor into your social
media net and keep them there entertained.
Once you have them following, you can remarket to them with amazing content that will always
keep your brand on their brain.


Make Noise That Matters
The other major problem with brands and social media marketing is not engaging your social follower base properly. If you’re not putting out creative content that people want to see, what’s the
point?
Currently there’s nothing exciting happening with their user base, nor do we get a glimpse into the
lives of the people behind Dubai Ultimate Charters. People tend to buy based on emotion, so make
sure you’re doing something that causes a stir.
Only one update in a month:

What are some ways to engage your users better?

➵➵Take daily Instagram pictures
➵➵Make one video per week
➵➵Let your users take part in polls
➵➵Share content from your users
➵➵Utilize social media for customer service

➵➵Ask your brand fans what they want to see
➵➵Run contests and giveaways
These are just some of the ways we help brands utilize social media better and build large audiences
that love their content.

Know Which Content Is The Right Content
Ok, so I know I keep talking about creative content that people love. So what exactly do I mean?
Actually, it means exactly what it sounds like. If you’ve currently been blogging and making content
(video/pictures/audio) that no one is sharing or liking, then it’s time to look at what you’re doing
wrong.
The two most important areas of content marketing....
1) In my opinion of course is to show off what makes your company unique, amazing and worth
buying into. This obviously can mean a lot of things but as a brand fan, I want to know the faces of
the company, what you’re doing today and hell, even what you’re having for lunch sometimes.
2) Secondly, let your users generate content for you. Give them the tools and the means to show off
their work under your brand umbrella. Users will create content for you, so make sure you take note
and promote the good stuff. When you showcase your customers’ content, you’re making their day
in a big way and it will encourage others to do the same.
Content marketing is the most time-consuming aspect of the job and this is why we’re here to help.
In the fast-paced world of social media, where new networks are always rising and falling, having
some professional guidance and help isn’t such a bad thing.


Be A Brand Ambassador
Say what?! This term is potentially made up, but it’s something we slang around the office here. It
just means “put a friendly and real face to your brand”. We’ve found over the years that clients will
interact more - and feel more at ease - when they can visualize the brand representative with whom
they’re dealing.
For example, we switched up our Twitter profile picture from our logo to my face. While we may
joke whether or not I’m scaring more people off than attracting them, it has been good to our
brand.

People who contact me whether for work or pleasure already have an idea of my face and should
generally feel more at ease. I make it known to everyone who reads my work or wants to have me
work with them that I’m very friendly and open to chat. It’s that openness that builds trust, and I
want everyone who follows my work to feel like they know me a little.
Beauty still sells!
Ok, so I don’t mean get sexy on your social media streams, but having a pretty face out there certainly helps. We’ve helped create, grow and manage dozens of yacht charter company accounts and
noticed a much better response with a female brand ambassador.
I by no means am suggesting that you be sexual, but make sure that your brand ambassador is
cleaned up and looking proper. I shouldn’t really have to clarify this issue, but I do so just in case, as
I’ve seen a couple of yacht companies where their ambassador was in a bikini top... Just a little bit
too much, in my humble opinion (and not particularly professional).

2

Social Networks worth your Time

The information and social networks we have picked are here for a reason. Over the past 10 years
of marketing in this vertical, we’ve seen what actually turns into sales for clients. I will also explain
the reasoning behind each social network we work on and content marketing strategies you can put
into use tomorrow.
My selections are also based on data we get to monitor for our yacht charter clients, as well from
building our own luxury brand. I really don’t care about the raw number of followers, but more so:
are they going to be interactive, involved and a customer down the road? In other words, it’s generally better to have 100 followers who might actually buy your services than 500 who probably won’t.
Yacht companies also get the “most win” by showcasing their visual assets. People want to see
where you’re sailing to, the latest beach visited, a new feature or a new vessel in the fleet. They’re
going to want to see pictures, videos, PDF manuals and anything that shows off something interesting. Later on, I’ll also show you how to take one or two pieces of content and have them get automatically distributed across your network with ease. This will cut down on marketing time and also
broaden the scope of eyes on your brand.
I will also be sharing some of our secret social media marketing strategies custom tailored for each
specific site. I will cut out the fat and make sure you’re concentrating your efforts into something
that will net results.
First and foremost...
Login to your website analytics program and bring up the entire last year with today’s date as the
starting point. Scroll on down to where it shows the reports for referrers and bring up all the usual
social networks.
From here, you will be able to see which of them are sending traffic that sticks. I can tell you right
now, no matter what the niche, StumbleUpon.com traffic is always very low quality.


Facebook

Facebook is - and always will be - on the top of my list of which network to spend most of your
efforts on. You can install apps that will circulate Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Vimeo, and Pinterest
content right into your company’s Facebook page. This is so powerful that you could do a good job
of growing everything else right from here.
The best part about Facebook Pages?
The ability to remarket and engage on a second/minute/hourly/daily/weekly basis to your fans.
Your content will show up in their feed, and if it doesn’t do so enough, you can now pay to make
sure it will. I view a company’s Facebook Page as more of a “Newsletter 2.0”, except now we don’t
have to wait for anyone to open your email. Once they are subscribed to your Page you can keep
your brand on their mind.
The downside compared to the more conventional newsletter is that it isn’t 100% in your control.
Facebook is off-site and if they choose to take your page down, there’s not much you can do about
it. Lucky for you that should rarely ever happen, especially if you’re not doing anything shady!

TOOLS OF THE TRADE
I wouldn’t be much of a friend if I didn’t list some of the amazing free - and most importantly, time
saving - apps and tools out there. As a business owner, your time is limited to handling so many
tasks during any given day. Throwing in marketing across a plethora of social network sites certainly
isn’t helping either.


The following tools and apps are used on both LuxuryBranded.com, as well as on many of our clients’ websites, to save time. This list will grow over time, so feel free to write me and enlighten me
to other tools you’ve found useful. This PDF gets updated yearly, so any help is appreciated.

CONNECTING YOUR OTHER PROFILES
First and foremost, make sure all your important profiles are feeding in content to your business’s
Facebook Page. This will save you tons of time and allow for your followers to easily get your other
content in one place. It also allows you to nab more followers from Facebook directly into your
other channels.

➵➵Connect Twitter - https://www.facebook.com/twitter/
➵➵Connect Pinterest - https://woobox.com/pinterest
➵➵Connect Youtube - https://apps.facebook.com/involver_appjgeph/
➵➵Connect Instagram - https://apps.facebook.com/instatab/
➵➵Connect Vimeo - https://vimeo.com/forums/feature_requests/topic:6525


Facebook Mobile Apps
Facebook Pages Manager - a free app for your iPhone, iPad & Android to manage just about every
area of your Facebook Page. There are other free ones out there by third party providers, so just do
some searching and you’ll come across many others that you may like even more.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-pages-manager/id514643583?mt=8

PAGEMODO
For a very small monthly fee, you can boost your Facebook page’s engagement quite a bit and
provide users with a more bespoke user experience. It can drive people into your newsletter, embed custom videos, create coupons and contests, sell products, and entice users to like your page in
order to reveal hidden/special content.
While utilizing something like this, in the beginning stages you won’t see too much engagement.
Nevertheless, I’d still recommend it for the other features. You’re only going to come out on top by
having people follow you on Facebook and sign up for your newsletter from there. Pagemodo has
all the tools built in and its seamless integration makes it a no-brainer.

http://www.pagemodo.com/features

WOOBOX
This is another bundle of Facebook Page app wonders that will help you engage your followers better than anything else. This tool suite features a coupon app, sweepstakes, Twitter, Pinterest, polls,
group deals, rewards and photo contests. You can get an account for free and the actual pricing
plans are well worth it, especially if you have a lot of followers.

https://woobox.com/

SURVEY MONKEY
Surveys are a great way to conduct research on your customer base, and all the while they’re enjoying it. Surveys don’t always have to be about business either, and can just be there to keep them
entertained and put your brand on their mind. Survey Monkey has widgets, wordpress plugins, and
- of course - Facebook Page integration that makes life a whole lot easier.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/

FAN OF THE WEEK APP
We’ve found that this app works particularly well with a female follower base and allows you to put
the spotlight on one lucky member. It picks the winner based on user activity, so it does encourage
your brand fans to speak up a little more.


Google+

With so many people hooked into Google+ I would no longer ignore this social platform. While
not a lot of brands have taken a big investment into it yet, I think that in the coming decade it will
play a major role in everyday life... That is, if Google continues to thrive.
As of right now, your ability to have your content ranking for the most coveted keywords in your
vertical is the primary appeal of Google+. This is really powerful stuff and also seems to be hardest
to drum up followers for. But don’t let that stop you from trying; get a page up and at least allow
fans to +1 you if they feel like it.


Google+ certainly has one aspect of it that I think is going to be more and more of a major player
in business. While I find myself using Skype for the majority of my audio and video calls these days,
I see a trend shifting towards Google+ Hangouts.
I’ve started chatting with clients via Hangouts as well as doing group meetings where I have to
present or do some training. The video quality is decent, but as bandwidth and technology improves
over the next few years, it should become a lot better. For now, it’s still a viable way to video chat
with one or more people.
Another feature of Hangouts that I really see being under utilized by business is the Hangouts On
Air. This allows you to go live from your laptop, tablet or mobile device and broadcast to all your
fans. To add the icing on the cake, you can also instantly save it to your Youtube channel for people
to view later.
Taking advantage of those features is a marketing empire in its own right, so try it out a bit first to
see if it’s the right fit for your business.
Experimental Tactics We’ve Played With
In 2012 we were a little more creative and risky with our clients and added some value features with
Google Hangouts. While I don’t want to give too much away, you can try the following tactics to
provide value to your yacht charter service:

➵➵Allow sales reps to tackle client questions face to face
➵➵Allow live tours of superyachts to serious and repeat customers
➵➵On board connection to staff and crew for instant help and communication
➵➵Allow on-board clients to share their charter experience live and recorded
➵➵Organize crew video of their superyacht experience
It will certainly be interesting to see what we experiment with during 2013, so stay tuned for next
year’s updates.


Twitter

It seems Twitter is here to stay in 2013 and beyond, although I didn’t need to see a graph to tell you
that. Twitter provides a very unique and short way to interact with brand fans, and it can be a valuable tool in your marketing arsenal. There are still a high percentage of new charter clients we take
on that haven’t started or even seen the value. To me, Twitter allows you to grow your brand in the
following ways:

➵➵Network with influential people in your industry and beyond
➵➵Provide customer support and user engagement on a personal level
➵➵Spread viral content to a direct network of interested followers
➵➵Take advantage of location-based events and people
➵➵Run social contests and sweepstakes
➵➵Create a brand #hashtag for more product awareness
➵➵Stream in other content from your blog, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and more

While a lot of people tend to be more focused on building up big follower numbers, I’d be more
inclined to do it differently. There is a lot of noise on Twitter and even more spam than you can
shake a stick at. Take your time and build a follower base that is actually interested and you will find
that quality traffic will follow. This will do nothing but build more followers and turn a visitor into a
future customer.
Be personal and open on Twitter.

There are a lot of social influencers out there with a lot of followers, so making the right friends
can mean a lot of success fast and quick. There are a lot of ways to do this and we always recommend doing the following:

➵➵ReTweet other people’s great content
➵➵Say hello to new influential followers
➵➵Take part in #hashtag events and movements
➵➵Monitor keywords that might lead to a customer
While that all sounds like a lot of work, you can get it down to just 20 minutes spread out during
the workday with the help of tools. Even better yet, most of them are free!

Tweet Tools for Time Saving
There are two great tools for monitoring your brand mentions, direct messages, keywords, hashtags
and everything in between. They both have web, tablet and mobile versions that you can use anywhere, and best of all they’re both free!
Hootsuite

http://hootsuite.com/

Tweet Deck

http://tweetdeck.com

There’s not much else I’m going to recommend in the way of Twitter marketing tools, as the above
stuff will keep you busy. One more tip before I move onto the next item is that you can use Topsy.
com to set up alerts. In other words, Topsy can have your email go off whenever someone mentions a very important keyword.


Pinterest
What was perhaps the most beloved social network of 2012 is definitely something that yacht
charter companies are going to want to utilize. Pinterest encourages sharing stunning pictures of
amazing things. Lucky for you, superyachts provide plenty of opportunity for jaw-dropping photography!

Pinterest can spark that emotion deep down that makes people want to buy instantly. It also allows
people to pin your product as something they want/like/love/lust to a pinboard forever. From a
functional perspective, Pinterest is also extremely easy to integrate into your existing social network;
it can already be integrated into your Facebook Page, as well as auto post to your Twitter feed whenever you pin something.
We’ve had a lot of success here with our charter clients over the past year, some with explosive
growth over all other social networks.


Mostly Unknown SEO Benefits
Those in tune with knowing what social networks are currently the hottest will know that content
marketing comes easier. There is a current rush of authority to Pinterest and this means that you
can rank your content highly in Google’s search engine if you do things right.
You can rank content in two different ways:
Pins - these are pictures you post to your Pinterest profile. If your content gets shared a lot and
you’ve named it correctly, it can rank for competitive search terms.
Pinboards - these are the “albums” on your profile and since they contain a lot of content on the
same subject, they can also rank extremely well. I’ve seen pinboards popping up for a lot of charter-related search terms lately, and you bet we’ve been taking advantage.
You can see here that BoatInternational.com took advantage early and scooped up Pinterest.com/
Superyacht for their marketing efforts.


The key to success is in your ability to organize your pinboards and make sure all the titles and descriptions are SEO optimized. The more popular and active your pinboards are, the higher up in the
rankings you go.
Don’t forget to link your profile and your pinboards from your blog and all other social media profiles on the web. This will just help push a little more authority to your account and make sure you
siphon followers from other social networks.
Sign up to Pinterest For Businesses http://business.pinterest.com/

Instagram

The other big social media hit of 2012 was of course Instagram. With its massive popularity both
before and after its Facebook buyout, this is a social network you cannot and should not ignore in
2013.
This social photo sharing platform turns everyone and their mother into a photographer. Whether
or not this is a good or bad thing, it is a great tool for the yacht charter industry. We will be heavily
marketing on instagram with our current clients and foresee a lot more requests coming our way
this year.


Instagram Marketing Tactics We Employ

➵➵Photo contests
➵➵Relationship building
➵➵Getting client photos on popular Instagram accounts for brand exposure
➵➵Allowing yacht charter customers to share their experience with your brand
➵➵Utilizing user-generated content for client marketing benefits
➵➵Streaming content into your other social networks
INSTAGRAM IS PERHAPS YOUR NEXT BIGGEST WEAPON...
Users respond very well to amazing pictures, and we have seen a lot of positive and productive
results for our clients by effectively deploying gorgeous photos of luxury yachts and exotic destinations. Marketing properly on Instagram is entirely dependant on your ability to produce amazing
content, and the direct result from this is that there will be more followers that want your product.
Besides producing quality pictures, there are a couple more things you should employ in your efforts.
1) #Hashtags
These are basically keywords you can tag your photo with, plus they will drop your photos into that
hashtag’s photostream. This is where the magic happens and where all the like-minded customers
are just waiting to eat up your content.


Yacht Related Hashtags

➵➵#superyacht
➵➵#superyachts
➵➵#megayacht
➵➵#megayachts
➵➵#yacht
➵➵#yachts
➵➵#yachtclub
➵➵#yachtlife
➵➵#yachtparty
➵➵#yachtcharter
➵➵#luxuryyacht
2) Behind the scenes media buys
We have been experimenting with paying key influencers on Instagram within our clients’ vertical to
share their picture. Those pictures linked back to client accounts and have been a great way to build
a targeted audience.
For example - and I have no idea if he sells advertising or not - is Instagram user @theyachtguy.
This account is a perfect example of someone you should talk to about providing content to his
follower base.


Going from here, just make sure your website, blog and other social media profiles are all linked
up properly with Instagram. This is yet another way to distribute content within your social profile
properties instantly to all your fans.

Youtube
The Google-owned video behemoth is something we’re putting a huge focus on both for our brand
and for our clients. The marketing and branding benefits of high quality and captivating videos are
nearly endless. Video is one of the best ways to:

➵➵Show your product in its full HD glory
➵➵Update customers with news, tips or any information
➵➵Run user generated video contests
➵➵Have customers create amazing yacht charter videos for you
➵➵Provide real time video support
If you have the ability or the marketing budget to produce high quality HD video, you’ll not be sorry you did. I also fear those that ignore this avenue will sadly be left behind in the dust if any of the
competition takes advantage.


Video is perhaps going to be the most powerful marketing tool in the box some day. There are so
many benefits, but two really stick out in my mind.
1) HD Video
Showcase your yachts and the destinations in a variety of ways in full blown HD goodness. With the
right kinds of high quality video, you’ll have embedded a lust deep down in every viewer’s mind.
Make videos of everything from the outside decks to the amazing bathrooms if you have them on
board. Whenever we go on-site working with a yacht charter company we look to make videos of:

➵➵Yacht tours of the vessels for charters
➵➵The surrounding habitat and destinations along your charters
➵➵Crew and company interviews
➵➵Promos and commercials for each charter
➵➵Mini travel videos for your on-board clients to view
2) SEO Benefits
Just like with Pinterest, you can rank your content on the Youtube platform fast and much easier
than your website in a lot of cases. This is very important for new companies looking to break into
a competitive target market. If no one else is creating amazing video content, your brand will have a
major advantage over everyone else.
Make your videos rank fast and quick.
The key to this is, first and foremost, to produce a high quality video in regards to HD quality and
the content itself. The more interesting and well-edited it is, the more views, likes and shares you’ll
get from it, which is effectively what will make your video rank better over everything else.
You can make a Youtube video rank extremely fast for mid-level competitive keywords. What are
mid-level competitive keywords, you ask? Well, say you are a yacht charter company based out ofDubai. I would be looking at ranking videos for the following organic search term

➵➵superyacht charters in Dubai
➵➵Dubai luxury yacht charters
➵➵Dubai yacht charter reviews
➵➵best dubai yacht charter company
➵➵Get the idea?

USING ANNOTATIONS ON YOUTUBE VIDEOS
Annotations are the additional pop-ups that I’m sure you’ve seen while browsing videos on Youtube. They’re a powerful tool for directing eyes and minds towards your website, a promo or getting
video viewers to follow your other social media accounts. I thought we’d cover these so you can
start using them today!


Step 1) Access the editor


Step 2) Get familiar with your surroundings


Step 3) Create your annotation

Step 4) Editing your annotations


Step 5) Saving & Tips

MARKETING ON YOUTUBE WITH OTHER USERS
There are already thousands of active users within the travel niche, and these people can be reached
out to. This is another secret that isn’t really a secret, which we employ within our clients’ marketing
campaigns.
Make a list of all the most influential travel bloggers that are in your area or which will be traveling
to your area. Invite them to come and shoot content for their travel show or website and you’ll have
access to their entire follower base. The benefits of this are:

➵➵Getting access to a new set of potential customers on a large scale
➵➵Get access to that travel blogger’s Twitter/Facebook/Blog followers
➵➵Relatively cheap cost as most people will do it for free if you invite them
➵➵You now have a new social media friend and networking relationship
DON’T FORGET ADWORDS
You can also buy Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising via AdWords right onto related Yacht videos and
travel videos for your area. It’s still quite affordable and is a great way to build up views fast and
start building your follower base.

http://www.youtube.com/yt/advertise/adwords.html

The Fancy

This is one of the other largest sites like Pinterest, but is catered to a more high-end crowd. TheFancy.com is also a market place and you can have them sell you leads to your yacht charter business.
This visually appealing social network has the potential to send a lot of traffic your way and is a
great networking platform for the luxury industry. You’ll find everyone from brands to potential
customers on here constantly.

MARKETING ON THEFANCY.COM
Sadly I have no secrets for you other than to bring your A-game content wise when using TheFancy. The entire site’s focus is beautiful photography and if it hits the front page, expect a lot of good
things to happen.
You can see how I’m using the site and follow us as I’d be happy to share your amazing work any
time and all the time.
Follow Us: http://www.thefancy.com/luxurybranded

3

Advanced SMM Strategies

For those companies already set up and going with the main social networks, you can skip right to
this section. Here we’ll cover the tactics we use to build large numbers of targeted followers quickly
and securely.
We won’t be doing anything sneaky or slimey, just more aggressive strategies that will require a larger budget and a good amount of time on your part. So here again we’re giving away what we know
works extremely well at no charge. However, if you don’t have the time or know how, get in touch
with us to see if we can help manage your advanced social media marketing campaigns.

Social Media Contests & Sweepstakes
This is the best way to accumulate a large follower base that you know is geared towards your
product. However, with all contests you will find a portion of the subscriber base will be more of
a “dreamer client”. Chartering a superyacht isn’t a cheap vacation so we’ll have to throw in a few
variables to weed out the time wasters.
So many benefits to reap!

➵➵Massive brand exposure
➵➵Build large numbers of social followers to multiple accounts
➵➵Garner links from media attention and bloggers
➵➵Rapidly build up a fan base that builds more followers for you
➵➵Run contests that require users to generate content for you to enter
Setting up and running a social media based contest or sweepstakes these days is incredibly easy. If
you already have a large social follower base, you can really see quick results by running one. If you
don’t, well then getting the word out and advertising is the only downside the first few times. One
thing’s for sure, it is the best way to grow a large follower base of like-minded consumers.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE
We make use of a few apps that take care of just about every aspect of your contest or sweepstakes.
Most importantly, they all follow Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest’s strict advertising guidelines for
businesses.

Set up takes minutes and it instantly hooks into your social media accounts, allowing users to spread
the word and be entered into your giveaway.
Splurgy - http://www.splurgy.com/features/
This is a free app suite that we’ve been playing around with for our clients in the past year and can
safely recommend it. It has a lot to offer for something that costs absolutely nothing, so you don’t
have anything to lose by trying it out. Some of their best features include:

➵➵PageLock

➵➵Pinterest


➵➵VIP Coupons

➵➵Multi-Platform

WildFire App - http://www.wildfireapp.com/products/promotions
This is another app to handle your social media contests and promotions, and it’s most likely the
biggest player in the game. It lets you have complete control over styling and branding while giving
your users a unique contest experience.


MULTIPLE PROMOTION TYPES
Create and launch any type of promotion that fits your business objective. Promotion formats inlcude:

➵➵Sweepstakes
➵➵Coupons
➵➵User-generated photo, essay and video contests
➵➵Pick your favourites
➵➵Quizzes
➵➵Trivia


Votigo - http://www.votigo.com/products
This is my personal favorite app suite for engaging your social media followers in all sorts of ways
If any app is worth paying for in the world of social media marketing, Votigo is it.

With Votigo you can:

➵➵Run photo and video contests
➵➵Do sweepstakes and contests with ease
➵➵Give users access to VIP contests with content locks
➵➵Enable mobile optimization
➵➵Offer multi language support
➵➵Create custom landing pages
➵➵Run a voting platform
➵➵Offer viral incentives for promotions for increased sharing

Votigo also offers custom solutions to:

➵➵Essay and audio contests
➵➵Youtube contests
➵➵Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter contests & sweepstakes
➵➵Contest widgets for Facebook and blogs
➵➵Multi-format contests
➵➵Developer API
➵➵Whitelabel options

SOCIAL CONTEST MARKETING TACTICS
Running a contest means you can extend your marketing efforts beyond the norm and into branding, SEO, media buys and PR buzz. This aspect of running a social contest is where it gets time
consuming and organizational skills are needed. That, and a few luxury industry blogger connections wouldn’t hurt either!


SEO BENEFITS
By now most business owners or, at the very least, their marketing departments should know that
quality links are very important to have. The best links come from trusted, related industry resources, blogs, news sites and more. They also come from being earned through content marketing and
viral stunts such as an amazing contest. There are several ways to garner quality links, such as:

➵➵Issue a press release
➵➵Reach out to luxury bloggers
➵➵Get your contest covered in the news
➵➵Links from contest, deal and promotion sites and forums
The bigger and better your budget, the further your reach will go... But that should go without saying.

MEDIA BUYS/PPC
Since your goal is to target and build a follower base of users that can potentially be turned into
customers, you’re going to want to look into some extra help. For those with a larger marketing
budget, you’ll want to pay attention here and see just how you can explode your follower numbers
during a social contest.
Media buys
For those not too familiar with this term, let me break it down. Media buys are advertising you buy
on other websites, usually in the form of a banner ad. To get the word out about your contest to the
most highly targeted group of people, you’ll need to explore this option.
For our yacht charter companies we’ve bought highly targeted ads on:

➵➵Yacht/Boating forums
➵➵Yacht/Boating/Luxury blogs
➵➵Buying tweets on influential yacht industry Twitter accounts
➵➵Video ads on superyacht videos on Youtube
Since you either pay per ad click or per 1000 banner impression views, these costs can add up quickly. However, they can also give your social contest that extra reach that makes it a viral success. We
rarely have to run the ads for the entire duration of the contest, just usually within the first week to
help kick things off.

PPC Ads
These are the little text ads you see on Google search, your Facebook sidebar and all over sites
related to the yachting and luxury travel industry. We use the following ad networks to market our
clients’ contests to highly targeted demographics to ensure a “better follower”:

➵➵Google Adwords (target specific sites, keywords and banner/video ads)
➵➵Youtube video ads
➵➵Facebook Adcenter
➵➵LinkedIn’s PPC ads to target high net worth individuals
➵➵Adfluence.com (luxury travel network advertising)
➵➵Yubab.com (luxury advertising network)
This is more than enough to keep you busy and run any budget down, although it still takes money
to make money.

Social Rewards & Coupons
Throughout 2012 one of the most important new tactics we’ve been implementing in unique ways
with clients are social rewards for user interactivity. “Gamifying” your website in various ways can
result in explosive social follower base growth and spread brand awareness.
Why do I think social rewards will work wonders for a yacht charter company?
Well, let’s take a look at an example we’ve used in the past year. For one yacht charter company we
set up three different share points that hit both a potential customer and a booking customer.
Sharepoint 1)
Users who liked a package, pinned it, tweeted it or all three would get various levels of discounts
on a yacht charter purchase. We also set this formula up and gave away high resolution superyacht desktop pictures for enthusiasts.
Sharepoint 2)
This share point was set up once a customer actually was on board and enjoying their trip. We
would provide bonus gifts for Tweeting, Instagramming, Facebook sharing or Pinning items
from their trip. It had to be tagged with our clients’ branded hashtag to be counted. Our client
would reward the guests with champagne packages, bonus excursions and other goodies.


Sharepoint 3)
The last sharepoint we set up was a reward system for users who wrote reviews of the company
on their website, or on the clients’ review platform. For now the client is giving reviewers major
discounts towards their next booking, which has increased their reviews over last year by 64%.
Since then, we’ve introduced the idea of giving higher discount rewards depending on how much
media they produced for their review. For example, if they included videos and pictures, their review the discount would be significantly higher. We’re also toying with the idea of rewarding for a
higher word count.

Crowd Sourced Interviews
While we use this in marketing, I think it’s a great way to network within your industry and make really fun content. The goal here is to interview a handful of influential users in your vertical and have
their help with promotion. Everybody wins in this situation, and by everybody I mean your brand,
the people involved and the folks reading the content.
Here’s the latest crowd sourced interview I did for JustLuxe.com, although I’m sorry it isn’t yacht
related.
“Luxury Professionals Reveal Their Favorite Watches” via JustLuxe
There’s nothing much to it other than the time it takes to track down everyone, get the questions in,
format the content for the web and then get the marketing done. I can tell you from experience that
it’s worth every minute spent. In fact, I think my next crowdsourced interview will be from within
the yacht industry.


Tap Into The Blogosphere
Building your brand’s name up has never been easier than in the age of blogging, as opportunities
are at every turn. There are so many blogs within the yacht industry that you can reach out to, from
general luxury, to yacht specific, as well as luxury travel blogs. Exposure on just a few of the right
blogs can be enough to propel your marketing efforts to the next level.
We here at Luxury Branded have utilized Twitter for building relationships with bloggers and social
influencers and cannot let you go on without knowing that. It’s so easy to reach out and make a new
friend these days, and Twitter is the place to do it.

FINDING THE RIGHT FRIENDS
It’s easy to find the right influencers in the yacht industry, but it’s up to you to make the initial connection. Go out there and see who’s writing the best content, taking the best pics and videos and
share them from your end. This will help you get on the radar of your influencer and when you go
to make the initial contact, they should recognize you right away.

Start hunting for friends by:

➵➵Scouting the right #hashtags like #superyachts, #yachtcharter and #yachting
➵➵Find influencers by follower numbers via http://wefollow.com/interest/yachting, http://wefollow.com/interest/superyacht, http://wefollow.com/interest/luxury and other key terms

➵➵Check your LinkedIn, Luxury Society, Asmallworld and BestOfAllWorlds connections for
bloggers

➵➵Ask your current social followers
Google search for guest blogging opportunites in the yachting world like http://www.boatbloggings.com/guest-blogger-program/

We here at Luxury Branded also have partnerships with some of the biggest blogs in the luxury
industry. We do have a service to write and market your guest content socially, so if you’re interested
in that, please get in touch with ryan@luxurybranded.com.


Get Social With Events
How often does your yacht company put on an event aboard one of your fleet? For those that do,
congrats. For those that don’t, shame on you! This is another marketing strategy that involves the
real world mixed in with the social media layer.
Think about, imagine having an event where you invited all the local bloggers and media enthusiasts
to party on your boat. Or perhaps a corporate event is taking place aboard a yacht. These are just
some of the ways your brand can benefit from hosting an event on a yacht:

➵➵Foursquare/Facebook check-ins
➵➵Twitter activity from attendees (create an event #hashtag)
➵➵Instagram & Flickr content
➵➵User generated HD video content for Youtube & Vimeo
➵➵Pinterest pins from event attendees
➵➵Have a reason to blog about the event
➵➵Provide geocaching opportunities
WHAT ABOUT SEO BENEFITS?
Okay, so I know this is a social media marketing guide and I’ve already snuck in a few SEO sections,
so will one more hurt that much? You can score brand awareness and natural links by doing the
following:

➵➵Put out a press release about the event
➵➵Contact related bloggers to cover the news and event
➵➵Submit your event to event websites both local and global such as Yahoo Events, Eventbrite.
com, Meetup.com, Eventful.com, and read http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-completeguide-to-link-building-with-local-events

➵➵Provide BB forum code for easy embedding of content from the event to get extra links
after it goes off

Feeling overwhelmed yet?

4

How can we help ?

Team #LuxuryBranded has a whole lot of tools and connections that can help your yacht charter
company grow in all areas of digital marketing. We pride ourselves on offering the most unique,
innovative and creative digital marketing campaigns you’ll ever see. The best part? We offer so many
free marketing options for you.
For absolutely $0 dollars you can create brand awareness, get a link and tap into our social media
network by:

➵➵Guest blogging on Luxurybranded.com http://www.luxurybranded.com/write-for-us/
➵➵Submitting a press release with us
➵➵Submit video content to be included in an episode of LBTV
➵➵Have us share your content across all our social profiles
All you have to do is contact us http://www.luxurybranded.com/contact

OUR BESPOKE MARKETING SERVICES
The most important thing you have to know and keep in mind when considering the Luxury Branded team is that we strive to do something different. No two clients get the same marketing plan
from us; our bespoke solutions are planned from the ground up. We take an in-depth look at both
what you and your competitors have been doing and help steer your brand in the right direction
with SEO, social media and audience building.

Our team is comprised of entrepreneurs that have been involved in marketing for over a decade.
We’re a boutique firm so when you work with our team, it feels like we’re just down the hall. It
doesn’t matter if you’re a new brand or an established influencer in your vertical, we have the ideas
and the talent to do something amazing.
There is more than one reason why we put our main marketing mantra as doing something different
to stand out from the rest. Our overall marketing services focus on making sure you have a strong
foundation, and then we look to build you a target audience that loves your brand.
Schedule a free 1 hour call with Ryan Today ➳ http://www.luxurybranded.com/contact/
Founder: Ryan Clark
Email: Ryan@LuxuryBranded.com
Phone: 1+ (604) 710-2651 (text after 6pm PST)
Skype: LuxuryBranded
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LuxuryBranded
Twitter: @LuxuryBranded
Asmallworld: rrclark
Bestofallwords: rclark

LUXURY
BRANDED
www.luxurybranded.com

Superyacht Social Media Marketing Guide

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