Where do you get your customers from?

[grouchyturtle]

More specifically what percentage of your charters are booked from people who found your website through a search?

VS.

Word of mouth?
Referrals?
Real life sales?
Others selling it for you?
(whether for a commission or not) hotels, tour ops, cruise ships, etc.

Just wondering, since it seems EVERYONE is so obsessed with SEO these days. Even though many so called marketing experts still say that real life sales and networking is where it's at. I was even at a conference, where one of the presenters said that social media and web presence aren't even necessary.

 

[Akyla]

Do not do any direct n-line booking but I get a great deal of inquires and many new divers from the web site or by them finding my info on some other web site about diving. The majority of my customers are repeats that were traditionally marketed years ago. Others come as referals from current customers or the dive shops that I know and have left my information with, again shoe leather marketing. I also hunt down area dive clubs and volunteer to do a presentation about our diving and this has almost always resulted in gaining a charter. I have not done any of the dive shows as not really sure there is ROI that I thought there should be for the time and costs involved for my type of operation.

There is no question that you need some sort of web presence as that is where most people will go for the initial inquiries into diving someplace. The "SEO" people that will come out of the woodwork once you have a site up and running are amazing, making promises of gold and glory if only you give them money to rocket your site to the top of any google query, even if the person is googling "lipstick". Don't waste too much time and any money worring about this issue, just do a web site - plain or fancy - with some decent text based information and you will be picked up by the robots then your site will pop right up there when people look for it. I am no expert at this, but do my own web site (sorta looks homemade and does not use any fancy html, etc) but it get hits like crazy, emails from divers around the world asking about the diving and has generated many charter trips. All for like 20 bucks a month - just cant be beat in today's world.

I am not totally sold on the facebook thing just yet as it seems to take a lot of upkeep and constant posting to keep it fresh and I am not that much into it. Maybe I need to get a teenage kid to do that for me...

 

[grouchyturtle]

HAHA! That's so true. It's not just those guys, though, all business owner/entrepreneur friends seem to be obsessed with SEO. I'm doing all my sites in WordPress these days using the Headway theme, which has some SEO built right in. Also have a facebook page, which I'm going to be doing some major updates too.

I'm not doing diving (maybe some snorkeling), and don't think I'll have too many repeats, since I'm in a big tourist area. I'm planning on doing a photo shoot for my main promo shot. Shiny and obnoxious seems to be what sells to the tourists in Miami. May also give Groupon a shot. They take a big chunk, but it could really keep me booked, since EVERYONE seems to jump on all the Groupon stuff around here. Just saw another boat about my size doing a similar thing, and they sold a TON on there. I have a WAY cooler name, and can right better copy.

 

[Tortuga James]

I feel like I had an advantage coming into the business, as I had 25 years of sales and marketing background. I find that the scuba industry, charter operators especially are weak at marketing, much better at sales. I distinguish the two as 1.) Marketing is bringing people to your door 2.) Sales is getting them to come in.

Online marketing, social media (such as Scubaboard) and my website has brought just about every customer to my doorstep. What makes them buy a charter or come back is 100% old fashion sales and customer service.

After 4 years, I have a lot of repeat customers that I market directly to and they stay engaged. Word of mouth and reputation are taking over as the dominate factor to bring new customers to the boat. But that takes place on line in a lot of instances. I try to blog regularly and post pictures and videos on my website to keep my customers thinking about Tortuga Charters. I hate to say it but Facebook is golden. But only to drive people to links to my website.

90% of the operators in my market have been around since the invention of of the aqualung. They have long standing reputations and huge followings. A couple have expanded operations to the point that overhead demands new customers, and are slowly catching on to 21st century marketing. Others have decided to stay small and service their existing customer base.

When I hung my shingle, I had no reputation in the industry (of course I had a reputation, but only in my circle of divers) and no customers. I quickly discovered that my friends would not turn into paying customers. It is possible however to convert paying customers to friends and continue to be paid, but not the other way around. I had to do something different and I am thankful for the internet. It is a great tool, but only a start. The rest is good old fashion work.

 

[Capt Gary]

This is a very good subject and one I look at on daily basis. I have found though, as TJ said, good old fashion customer service once they get in your door is what keeps customers coming back. But how do you get the new ones in the door. Well one way is word of mouth. Get others talking about your great service and others will follow. Questions though, will that be enough income to sustain your business?

With all this social media hype, is it worth getting involved....YES!!! Just think about the last time you went on vacation or searched for something. Did you go online and look around? We all do this from vacation research to buying a bilge pump. Or when is the last time you sat at the computer and googled something? A lot of folks are sitting at their office desk googiing their next vacation or dive trip. Statistics indicate that 90% of the persons going on vacation do research about the area before they go. Out of that 90% 75% have booked something online...ie car, hotel, or flight. So with all this online searching you have an opportunity to bring that business your way if they happen to stumble on your site and like what they see. I'm sorry to say that although Scubaboard is a great resource to put your name out there, it's been my experience that the majority of SBer's are cheap and are only loyal to you if you can give them a deal. And yes I still have a SB rate for those that do happen my way.

I come from 20 years in the Electrical Engineering / Computer Software development. When we bought our shop 9 years ago the one thing I wanted was a way to track my customers on boats and classes. Looking in the market place there wasn't anything out there to suit my needs, so I developed one myself, that was 7 years ago and the product I developed is called Scubaocity. Please I'm not trying to sell you anything so don't get the wrong idea here. The question was how to get more customers and I've found that this tool has helped me and the other 7 dive shops currently using it, so I just wanted to share.

But just creating a tracking systems wasn't all I was after, I also wanted to help market my business. Question was what information would a potential customer want if they were coming to dive in my area. A few things came to mind. A real-time schedule that was created automatically when using a back office manager/scheduler for our day to day business and presented online so potential customers could view, search, and book those trips. Also a way customers could view what they've done with us in the past....sort of an online dive log, as well as, a way for them to post comments and pictures from those trips they took with us. And a way to interface with Facebook to post information from Scubaocity without having to log into FaceBook or Twitter.

What has happened though is fairly amazing. I now have customers who say the way they found us was online and viewing the online calendar which helped them make a decision about coming to dive with us. The system allows us to post daily dive conditions, so we now have an archival record of dive conditions that occurred for the last few years. When asked whats the weather like in December, I can point people to my calendar from that month 2 years ago where they can read exactly what the winds, visibility, current, sea conditions, temperature, dive sites, and a description of the dive. This has helped immensely in starting the conversation with a potential customer.

Just for a point of reference, we now get about 10% to 15% of our customers booking online (we offer a discount if they do), but another 70% say they've looked at our schedule before they called us and 75% of all our customers say they've looked at our website prior to booking or calling with us. The other 25% are walk-ins, random calling, or suggested by local hotel or friend. So this internet thing is not going away.

Bottom line....there are customers out there looking for their next dive trip and the internet is a good fishing ground for them. Your challenge though, figure out what's the best method of attracting them. Online marketing, direct marketing, flyers, hard media marketing, or direct marketing such as trade shows. A lot of tools are there to help, but having the patience and skill to use them can sometimes become a big challenge. Good luck in your search of your marketing strategy, it's not an easy road and one that has a lot of bends, potholes, and speed traps.

But hang in there, it's all worth it in the end.

Good Diving,

 

[grouchyturtle]

When I hung my shingle, I had no reputation in the industry (of course I had a reputation, but only in my circle of divers) and no customers. I quickly discovered that my friends would not turn into paying customers. It is possible however to convert paying customers to friends and continue to be paid, but not the other way around. I had to do something different and I am thankful for the internet. It is a great tool, but only a start. The rest is good old fashion work.

This seems to be very true in other businesses as well.

 

[grouchyturtle]

My current plan is facebook (need to get WAY more likes) + my site w/blog. Hooking up with tour ops, hostels, etc.
Also getting some of the cute little flirty hostesses I know on the beach to help sell it...hell maybe even hire one as a first mate.
And of course flyers on the beach, and at this big touristy place at the next marina over.

 

[Wookie]

Almost 100% direct marketing on social media, Facebook and ScubaBoard mostly. Used to be 100% through dive shops, but folks just don't travel in groups any more. I keep getting hassled by print media folks, and maybe that works for Aggressor fleet, but all I'd really like them to do is leave me alone. Print media is dead.[video=youtube;3SuNx0UrnEo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3SuNx0UrnEo[/video]

 

[grouchyturtle]

Print is definitely dead, but...

There's still some value, especially in an area with thousands of tourists, in handing something bright and shiny, with an obnoxious photo and marketing copy right in their hand.

 

[Wookie]

Oh, for sure. I have postcards, flyers, stuff I hand out at trade shows, etc. We don't accept walk on customers (keeps us away from sales taxes) like you do or should, so we don't pepper the streets of Key West with paper, but we do press shiney things in our customers hands. You should see our challenge coins...