After spending some time obtaining the marketing certificate licenses, it’s time to implement your training skills using the top marketing tools for watersport and boat tour operators. All of the softwares discussed in this blog are actively utilized by us at WaveRez, which is why we recommend checking them out. Some of the information discussed in the blog might get a little techy, so don’t hesitate to reach out to us if anything needs to be further clarified so that you can better understand how it will benefit your watersport business.
#1: Ahrefs
Tour operators make money by checking on their website SEO, which is why you don’t want to skip out on SEO. Some of the areas that Ahrefs can help you check out include:
- Backlink Checker – Ahrefs claims to be the 2nd most active web crawler after Google, which means that this tool can easily find the following for you:
- Number of referring domains
- Number of backlinks
- Domain Rating (DR) & URL Rating (UR)
- Ahrefs Rank (AR)
This information can help make sure that other websites refer to your website using correct links. The more other websites link to your website, the more potential outreach you could get. For example, suppose Alex in Wanderland used your scuba diving services and shared a review of your rental and tour business on her blog page with a link to your website section specifying the equipment you have. While she was posting this info on her website, the link might have still worked, but after some website maintenance you have done, it might get broken. Ahrefs can help you detect broken links, so you can reach out to a person to ask them to be corrected.
- Keyword Explorer – Discover thousands of great keyword ideas, analyze their ranking difficulty and calculate their traffic potential.
This feature can help you make sure your website uses the correct keywords for the best search results. For example, you may not necessarily rent Kawasaki Jet Skis, but another personal watercraft brand. It turns out that people search more for jet ski rentals than PWC rentals, which is why you want to make sure to use the SEO vocabulary for your business website to show up more in search results.
- Keyword Generator – Find relevant keywords from Ahrefs database of over 8 billion queries.
Do you want to rank your watersport business as a leader in renting boats in your location? It’s possible to do so in a digital arena with this feature! Combine filters to find untapped keywords with high organic traffic potential and low Keyword Difficulty scores, so vacationers and travelers can find your watersport business much easier.
#2: Buzzsprout
Still debating whether you should start podcasting? Buzzsprout is a perfect platform to have your doubts resolved! This marketing software can help you make sure your podcast reaches your listeners on time on popular apps like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Instead of uploading episodes manually to each podcast app separately, you can just upload them to Buzzsprout so that it can distribute them for you automatically. That’s the way we make sure each new episode of our Weekly Wave Podcast reaches your favorite podcast app on time. Additionally, Buzzsprout lets you embed a podcast player right on your website, so your users can know that you run a podcast show which can potentially interest them.
According to Buzzsprout, there’s never been a better time to make a podcast: podcasts are soaring in popularity, the tech is easier than ever, and there’s still a lot of opportunity for new podcasters. All podcasters have their own niche, and there’s a space for traveling and the watersport industry. However, if you are still not convinced whether you should start a podcast show, consider checking out various resources Buzzsprout offers:
- Buzzsprout Blog – Lets you learn the ins and outs of podcasting with simple how-tos, articles, and FAQs.
- Buzzsprout Help Center – Answers questions related to technical aspects of the software, such as features, stats, etc.
- How to Start Your Own Podcast – Lists all the necessary resources for organizing your podcasting experience, including recording equipment, tips & tricks, and many more.
If we convinced you to start podcasting this season, then here are few more resources that we use to make sure Weekly Wave Podcast sounds and looks just right.
#2.1: Audacity
To make sure we have smooth transitions, as well as intro and outro messages included in each Weekly Wave Podcast episode, we use Audacity which is a very handy tool for us at WaveRez. If you are concerned that things might get too techy with editing podcasts, then you should find the Audacity Manual useful. For reference, it takes about 30 minutes for us to edit the raw material of each Weekly Wave Podcast episode using this tool, so it’s a pretty straightforward process once you get the hang of it.
#2.2: Wavve
Although Buzzsprout also has its own soundbites for social media, we believe it’s quite limited in terms of available customization options, which is why we choose to go with Wavve. Wavve lets you customize your soundbites the way you want with tons of options for colors, shapes, forms for waveforms, progress lines, images, and many more. Their company’s name is also similar to ours, which is another thing we like about them. 🙂
Wavve helps keep our own Branding identity in place. We also find out that our average podcast listener prefers soundbites to full episodes, so definitely don’t underestimate the power of this tool.
#3: Google Suite
If you are still not using Google services to grow your watersport business, you miss out on a huge opportunity. Google services are not only free, they are also pretty intuitive. Here are some Google tools that we actively use at WaveRez.
#3.1: Google Analytics
If you already worked on obtaining your Google Analytics Academy certification, you should feel confident using Google Analytics. As mentioned previously, Google Analytics can provide you many deep insights into who is visiting your website, where these people are located, and much more. This information can help you decide whether you should promote your watersport business to senior citizens or develop new watersport offerings satisfying families with kids. Additionally, if you find out that your user sessions are abrupt on your location page, one of the reasons can be that you didn’t choose the best location for your jet ski rental business.
#3.2: Google Drive
In the new digital age, you don’t have to worry anymore about where to store your files, such as photos & videos of your customers enjoying your boat tour. Of course, you can just message them their footage material, but the problem is that the quality of videos & photos will get damaged if you send it this way. To prevent this from happening, we recommend using Google Drive, as it saves the quality of the files you upload. It’s free, easy to use, and not expensive if you want to have more than 30 GB of storage.
Additionally, you can also create and use Google Docs and Google Sheets to be worked on by you and your company crew. Share budget expenses, business proposals on growing your watersport business with your team members without having a second thought on how they can access this info.
#3.3: Google Optimize
Lastly, the final Google tool that we recommend checking out for your marketing-related work with your watersport business is Google Optimize. It’s a great tool to use for experimenting with Psychological Pricing Strategies and Dynamic Pricing concepts. Set the A/B test on pricing your water-based activities to see when you can potentially make money often left on the table by watersport operators. Many business owners don’t factor in the pricing increases in a new era and the importance of a dynamic pricing strategy, at least on manual level. If you are interested in learning more about how dynamic pricing can be set automatically, don’t hesitate to schedule your free 30-minute demo with our sales team.
#4: Hootsuite
Growing watersport businesses via social media is one of the ways tour operators make money, which’s why you want to make this process as easy as possible. Do you think we upload our social media posts manually each time? Except for WaveRez Software Tutorials, most of our content gets scheduled through Hootsuite! If you’re looking to grow your watersport business via Instagram, it’s especially important that you account for this awesome software.
Among many features, Hootsuite lets you:
- Check analytics of your post performance
- Get suggestions for posts
- Manage multiple social media accounts
Remember how we talked about the importance of preparing social media content in advance? Hootsuite just makes this process seamless! As opposed to posting multiple posts at once, you can just monitor your social media calendar closely to figure out how to scatter your content release.
#5: Linktree
Finally, to avoid updating links in the bio each time across all of our social media accounts, we use Linktree. Whether it’s our new WaveRez Blog or the release of our Weekly Wave Podcast episode, we always make sure that we send you to the right spot by hooking up the correct link in our bio section or post caption. Linktree is especially helpful when focusing your marketing efforts on Instagram. Because Instagram does not make links clickable in the caption area, this tool becomes handy. When you want to share some exciting news with your audience, you can just type in “link in bio” in the post caption, and your audience will find the corresponding link; it’s that easy.
Conclusion
Even if you delegate your marketing, we hope you still find the information in this blog useful. You can still forward this info to your marketing specialist, as we are sure they will find this guide helpful. We’ve been using most of these marketing tools for an extended period of time, so we can speak to their credibility.
Before we let you go, here’s a final tip on how we make sure that our watersport partners rock, which is through our robust reservation software solution. WaveRez offers a solid way to manage your booking flows, just like the tools discussed here can help you with your marketing. Schedule your free demo today with our sales specialist to learn how to supercharge your watersport business.
About the Author
Greg Fisher
