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Avoiding a “Tombstone” Christmas: Downseason marketing activities for marinas

Dec 15, 2024 | Marina Advertising

Your marina in the winter does not need to resemble an 1800s shootout town.
Tombstone, 1993

Past Labor Day, maybe this is what your marina looks like: an empty property with nothing but sheriffs and outlaws to fill the street. Hopefully, you don’t look out to see Val Kilmer and Sam Elliott facing off against the McLaury brothers on your docks. Okay, that might be a little bit cool.

The fact remains that many small to mid-sized marinas do not have a surge of income in the winter months. This is a period of assessments and renovations, seeing what worked and what didn’t, and preparing for the next year. It may be a period of rest and family, and that’s great, too.

We wrote a couple of weeks ago about the importance of creating a marketing plan for 2025. If you only complete that step during the offseason, you’ve already done something to help the marina. But the “downseason” can be months of lower boater traffic and decreased income. The lake or river slows and tumbleweeds blow in.

So, what can you do to be visible in the winter months?

Capitalize on your community’s holiday events.

Many of the holiday events in boating communities – the craft fairs, Santa workshops, entire town blocks quaintly illuminated by a noir glow of light – you may already do for a simple reason: they’re fun. They’re memories. They are warm events to attend with family.

From a marketing perspective, being prominently visible during these events can help your business capitalize on a slow season. Visitors from out-of-town increase foot traffic, people are out exploring the area, and if your business is infused with a warm holiday activity, your location has become a part of that family’s memory forever.

A few holiday-themed ideas for marinas:

Be a part of your community’s lighted boat parade. If your community doesn’t have one, there’s a clear opportunity to organize one.
Check in with your chamber of commerce for holiday events, then participate. Local chamber of commerce groups often try to amplify local business in the winter, like in the town of Granbury, Texas:

Photo: Granbury Chamber of Commerce

Sponsor a local tradition. Thanksgiving morning often starts with a parade float or a rival football game at the local high school. Throw some dollars at a sponsorship, and be ingrained in your community’s lore. Want to know if it works? Macy’s has been doing it on Thanksgiving Day for 99 years.

Attend your marine industry conferences.

Photo: Association of Marina Industries (AMI)

As an underrated marketing activity, keeping your finger on the pulse of your industry gives you an immediate advantage over competitors and grows your mastery of your trade.

The current “Big Three” lineup of fall and winter conferences:

The International Boatbuilder’s Exhibition & Conference (IBEX). Geared more toward the manufacturing element of the marine industry, marina managers head to Tampa in the first week of October to browse more than 700 exhibitors.
The Association of Marina Industries Conference (AMI). This is the biggest marina manager conference in the industry. AMI is the only certifying body for Certified Marina Managers, and managers get their continuing education units, partake in roundtable sessions, and network with other managers. It’s a must-go on the last weekend of January.
The Docks Expo & Marina Conference. In its 10th year in downtown Nashville, The Docks Expo is hosted by Marina Dock Age and brings together marine professionals from around the country. Hammer and Nail’s own Sam Claitor will be speaking at the 2024 conference on December 11th, partaking in a roundtable called “Revenue Generating Ideas Marinas Might Not Think Of.”

Hyper-focus on the profit centers that don’t get the love.

In our experience with marketing areas of focus during the spring and summer, we often target boat rental and boat storage services. This makes perfect sense. However, most businesses do not stop at those service facets.

The ship store goes on. The service center is ready to make money. Both of these elements are begging to be capitalized upon in the fall and winter. You specifically may have services that are an incredible form of revenue but have not been promoted hard in the fall and winter. This may include:

Routine fall and winter service center maintenance for 100, 200, and 300-hour boat milestones
Large off-season projects like engine repowers and bottom jobs
Installations of new parts upgrades (Nothing wrong with encouraging your neighbors to gift each other new inboard motors for Christmas)
Ship store bait, fuel, ice, snacks, and apparel for fall and winter anglers

Any of these service aspects can be promoted with targeted Google Ads campaigns, newsletter promotions, or social media posts.

Enjoy the seasons!

Marina managers and marine industry professionals work long hours with long days of multi-tasking. You know this. The slower season is a great time to slow down, rest, and spend time doing things you care about. Go on that fishing trip to the Finger Lakes, or take your kids to a holiday bazaar that sells chocolate chip cookies the size of a frisbee. Your emotional and mental health will thank you.

The countless hours of hard work during the spring and summer? This is what it’s all for.

Article by Hammer and Nail Marketing

WHAT IS HAMMER & NAIL?

Hammer and Nail Marketing is a boutique marketing firm that helps small to mid-sized marina groups and marinas get noticed by boaters. If you’d like to focus on operating your marina without the additional responsibility of marketing, get in touch with us.

We’re boaters ourselves from a background of operating a family-run marina. From a group of experts who know the water, let Hammer and Nail Marketing help you be the waterfront your local boaters see every time they cast off.