Involved in the US Workboat Industry for the past 20 years, I have watched the industry evolved digitally since the year 2000. 

Fewer of my peers choses to glance at bookshelves looking for a reference book or cracked an encyclopedia searching for answers.

The answer to all conceivable questions can be found by typing few words into a search bar. 

It’s faster, it’s easier, and it has changed everything. 

This includes the way we market our products and services.

It’s much easier to search for their inquiry on Google. And by extension, this has changed the way people look for information for marine products and services.

Once you know what your target audience is looking for, it’s all about giving them answers to the questions they haven’t asked yet. 

Has there been a change in environmental regulations that affects workboats? 

Write an article featuring the change that explains it to your customers.

By providing informative and interesting content to answer questions people are asking, business owners are able to present themselves as a solution before a potential customer has even decided what they need.

Adding keywords strategically to your content, Google will be able to identify the article as an answer to the searcher’s question and by extension, show your article as a result on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP).

The end goal with content creation is to present yourself to a potential customer as a solution before they even have a problem. 

This way when they actually need a product or service, they will have a positive association with your company and therefore, be more likely to click on you over an unknown competitor.

All the way back in 2015, mobile searches passed those done on a desktop computer. This means that of the 5.6 billion Google searches per day, over half take place on a cell phone. 

While Millennials might have the worst reputation for being addicted to their phones, the fact is, all generations are putting in a lot of screen time. This means that your website needs to be optimized for mobile searches, responsive to all screen sizes, and load quickly enough that people don’t get frustrated.

If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, Google will look at it as less reliable than another site that is. This means that even if your content is fantastic, the users are unlikely to see it because Google will not rank it high on the Search Engine Result Page. 

This puts your content in a difficult spot right off the bat and can make it nearly impossible to be competitive.

Rather than sit and read magazine’s publications with mixed information from companies you are not interested in, people are much more likely to follow an account on social media that they do wants to know more information. 

Social media should become the new magazine subscription. 

This way they get to choose what type of content they see and their newsfeed is a daily, constantly updated magazine of all of the news and topics they are interested in.

In 2018, Instagram surpassed 1 billion users and 35% of adult internet users were using Instagram, up from 26% in September 2014. 

Instagram is a rising platform with a new style of content that is crucial to capitalizing on in the business world. 

People are becoming more engaged with Instagram by the day, and it’s an untapped resource in the U.S. maritime world.

While it might seem like it should be enough to write exclusive content about a niche topic, the fact is that the internet has changed everything. 

It’s important that the marine business move into the digital age and embrace the internet as a resource to spread our information more effectively. 

Digital marketing opens the door for more effective marketing where the current strategy of a magazine that users can view online falls short. 

It opens the door for further retargeting beyond social media platforms and ultimately much more effective industrial growth.