Boat Owners’ Selling Guide
YACHT BROKERS, Dealers and other Marine Leisure Professionals
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Boat Owners
Read the Guide for free, here online, or download your own copy.
Step-by-step explanation of the new method now being used by professional yacht dealers and brokers around the world.
Many Boat owners find that the long wait for someone to buy their boat tempts them to drop the price way below market value, just so they can move on and (probably) buy the next boat of their dreams.
There is no doubt that many have been tempted to spend tens of dollars a month on advertising on the internet in the hope that it will reach enough interested parties to find a buyer.
You already know that to get more chances of a sale, you have to get your Boat advert in front of more prospective buyers, but how to do that without breaking the bank is the big question.
Read on to find the truly economical answer.
Chapter 1
What if I told you that you could get your boat advert seen by huge numbers of interested people, without having to spend huge amounts of money?
What if those interested people included many who never, or rarely, search the internet to find yachts for sale?
There is a group of prospects who find your boat advertisement the boat advert websites you already use.
Your current sales must come from that finite number of prospects.
If you can find another way to sell to someone outside that finite group. Your chances of making the sale will increase.
Let’s imagine for a moment that you meet someone by chance and discover they have an interest in yachts, but they aren’t thinking of buying one at the moment.
Maybe they have been boat-owners in the past, or maybe they have never owned a boat.
They are certainly not searching the web for a boat to buy. But they do day-dream about “how nice it might be to own a boat.”
Now imagine that you show them your boat advert. Your boat advert will feature its good points and how enjoyable it would be to use in a particular way.
A percentage of such day-dreamers in this situation will be tempted by the idea and a percentage of those will think of buying the boat.
Hey presto! A prospect that did not exist before is already studying and thinking about your boat advert.
But, unfortunately, that is not likely to happen very often.
You just don’t have the time to go around chatting to strangers on the off-chance they might eventually want to buy a yacht.
I am sure you already know that to ensure a sale, you must understand the numbers game.
The sort of numbers that go
30,000 people visit the website you paid to advertise on.
1000 find boats they like.
200 can afford the boats they like.
20 think about buying.
2 send you an enquiry.
These are fictional figures to make the point, but I am sure you already know the picture.
Chapter 2
So how can you boost that first number substantially?
Maybe you are already aware of the answer…
If you haven’t done so before, you could try increasing sales by placing them on ebay in your country, but there is a cost per yacht. Again, you will only be seen by would-be boat buyers who are actively searching on that platform in that category.
You can’t use Amazon for yacht or boat advertising.
Amazon does carry huge amounts of Yachting related products and books – even this one! – But there are no yachts for sale on Amazon, a major global sales platform.
Now you are going to need a computer for the real work online, most people in business will already have one in their office
I know these days many people manage all their own daily tasks, both out and about and in the office, just using their smartphone, Android, or Iphone. They may have a backup assistant in the office who manages secretarial work on a desk-top computer or a laptop.
The method I am about to reveal to you is best achieved on a laptop or desktop, so it will help if you have access to one and the ability to use it.
Perhaps you are in the fortunate position that your trusty office assistant can do this work for you., once you fully understand the method and can monitor and direct the work in progress.
However some individuals are so proficient with their smartphone that they can do everything they need on their trusty gadget. If that is you, you will already understand that phone screens show a slightly different picture.
In this book I shall describe the process as seen on an office computer, laptop or chromebook.
The way to reach many times the number of prospects than by websites IS on the internet. But not through your own existing website (if you have one) nor the conventional Yacht and Boat advertising sites (useful as they are). The surefire biggest selling platform on the planet is …
Chapter 3
Social Media !
More specifically Facebook, the biggest selling platform in the world that will accept yachts and boats.
But be careful. You can’t just post a yacht on facebook and expect many people to see it. There is a new method that I shall explain.
Many of you will know a lot of what follows immediately, so take care to skip quickly over what you know, without missing vital steps along the way.
I am going to explain, step by step, how to structure your boat advert and post on facebook in a way that will ensure you get many many times the exposure.
AND as a bonus, reach interested people who may not even be thinking of buying, until they see your boat advert!
Are you on Facebook already?
That will be a personal profile and presence.
Do you also have a Facebook page?
A Facebook business page can be useful as a second website and should contain just about everything your regular website does. You should create a new page just for your boat advertisement.
First, your personal profile. If you don’t have one you will need to create one as a first step
If you already have one, is it geared to your business, or to your private life?.
If I visit your profile on Facebook, will I see family photos, holiday snapshots and selfies?
Don’t worry, I am not going to suggest that you try to delete all those precious memories, you can simply make them private so that only “friends” can see most of your Facebook profile content.
See APPENDIX 1 For instructions.
You are going to need this personal profile to do the posting of your boat advert (or “posts” as Facebook calls them).
If you don’t already have one , you will need to create a “business page” with basic details that Facebook will ask for as you create your “second website”
The Business page can be a great asset in itself if you are in any kind of business and if you have a website they should each have a link to the other.
But above and beyond the benefits of being visible to those who find your website through the normal workings of Facebook, there is another reason why the page is essential to the method.
If your boat advert directs people to your website, Facebook makes it slow and clumsy, actually stopping at a screen that says you’re about to go to a site outside Facebook.
If the link in your boat advert directs them instead to your Facebook business page dedicated to your boat sale, it is an instant journey.
“So what? ” You might ask.
The fact is that buying habits around the world have changed drastically and attention spans are, on average, much shorter.
The global online culture is becoming
“Click-click and if it takes too long I’ll click something else”
So speed of response is very important.
So you have a Facebook profile and a Business page dedicated to your boat sale.
Now to create a boat advert. You can just start a post on your personal page, or you can switch your identity to “Be” your business page on Facebook. Then you will post as that page.
Chapter 4
Facebook evolves constantly, it recently started renaming itself as “Meta” in part. But this is how to post on your personal Facebook page today.
Below your cover photo is a horizontal menu, below that
are two columns.The left -hand column starts “Intro” and gives options to edit some of your details.
The right hand column starts with your profile photo and a question “What’s on your mind ?”
Copy and paste your boat advert there. When you have the text just right, click “Photo/video” below.
Often nothing appears to happen, but if you scroll the text you have entered up, you will have the opportunity to add photos.
Make sure your post is defined as public.
That is basically how to post on facebook, but that is only the beginning.
To put your post in front of interested people, you should join a “Facebook group”
Facebook claims they will change the name Group to Community, but at the time of writing, they are making slow progress with that change.
Go to this group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/488665148199015
You should see it is called “Boats for Sale”
In the Horizontal Menu the first item “Buy and Sell” is highlighted.
BUT your only option is to “Write something…”
Now just below the cover photo on the right is a blue button “Join Group” click that. You should now see a message that you have joined the group .
Now refresh the page. “Buy and Sell” is still highlighted
And you now have the option “Sell Something”
If this does not show, are you in your business pages’ profile? Facebook won’t allow “Pages” to sell in any “For Sale” group. So you need to switch your Facebook identity back to your personal profile.
This is a common error by businesses wishing to advertise on Facebook, so, to make it very clear……. If you look at a “For Sale” group while acting as your Business PAGE, You will not be able to see any of the items properly posted as “FOR SALE” . You will only see those posted as a “Discussion”. Worse, you will not be able to create a “For Sale ” post, you will not even see the option! Posting a “Description” will not help your sales much. It does not matter if you fill the description with all Sales information including Price, Location and Length. They really need to go in the special fields provided in “For Sale” posts.
If you have a wonderful Business Page dedicated to your boat sale, post as an individual and give a link to your facebook Business page dedicated to your boat sale in the Description field. So you really do need to switch your Facebook identity back to your personal profile.
To make this change go to the top right of the page dedicated to your boat sale, where you will see your Page’s profile photo (mine is a logo). Click that. Now there is a drop-down, at the top right is your personal profile photo with a rotating circle image around it. Click that. Facebook will change your identity back and your own profile photo will appear top-right.
Now you have to go back to https://www.facebook.com/groups/488665148199015
Now, just below the horizontal menu you should be able to see your profile photo and the words Sell Something
Click that.
A pop-up block will appear, titled “Create new boat advert”
Select “Item for Sale”
A new block will appear, called Item for Sale
Upload at least three photos for your new boat advertisement.
The next field is “Title” copy and paste the title from the same boat advert.
Now read the title carefully. To sell well it should include Year, Length, Make, Model as a basic minimum.
Make any necessary edits to include those three basics, then enter the Price in the next field. Just enter the figures, facebook will add any commas AND the currency sign. The currency sign can sometimes be inaccurate (There are ways to try to fix this See APPENDIX 2.).
For now, if the currency sign is wrong, better to put the correct numbers and start the description with
“Price is in USD” or whatever the correct currency is.
Most people who are looking at boat advertisements
soon get used to the fact that Facebook is a bit random with currency signs.
Next select the correct Condition from the drop-down list,
New
Used – like new
Used – good
Used – fair
Needless to say, you must be totally honest at this point, not only is your reputation at stake, but an adverse report might result in your being banned from the group.
Next click More details, three more fields will appear below “Description”, “Product tags” and “Location”
Enter your description, include full details of your and a link to your facebook page dedicated to your boat sale.
This field has a large capacity,.
Add product tags, these are a special subject in themselves and if you need to, you can search online for up to date guidance on best practice.Basically they are words that bring to your post people interested in that word(or group of words). So Yacht, Sailing, Boat for sale, are three obvious ones.
For location, choose the nearest city or large town to the boat’s location. Be careful to select the correct country from Facebook’s options, as many place names are repeated on more than one country.
When you have completed and thoroughly checked the fields above, scroll back up to the photos section and add your photos of the listed craft.
Click Next (if you can’t click it , scroll slowly back up to see any red error warnings )
You should next see a block headed
Share to more places
In Share to more places
“Boats for Sale” should already be ticked
Marketplace is next, tick that
After that you will see
“Add your boat advert to other groups
You can list in up to 20 groups.”
If you already belong to other Boat related “For Sale” groups you can tick any that are suitable for your boat advert in the list that is shown,
When you have finished that, click Post in the blue button.
Scroll down and you should see your boat advert headed by this message “This boat advert is in review
We’re reviewing your boat advert to make sure that it follows our rules for selling. Once it’s approved, it will be visible in your group.”
Below that you have the option to delete the boat advert if you don’t like what you have done.
Congratulations! You have completed the first and fundamental stage of the method.
But it is not enough !
Remember that option to post to up to 20 other groups ?
You need to join a number of other relevant groups that are of the special “For Sale” variety.
How will you find them? You could search on facebook and join odd groups here and there, but you would have to look through each one and check first if it is a buy and sell group and then decide whether it is suited to your boat advert, read and understand the “Rules” for that group and then look for another “For Sale” group. All a bit haphazard and not very fast.
Chapter 5
But what if I told you that a network of suitable “For Sale” groups already exists, designed expressly for the needs of professional yacht sellers who have to sell a lot of boats?
Of course that would be great news I hear you say, but won’t I still have to search for them and check what I find?
Great news. There is such an integrated network, designed by Yacht Brokers for Yacht Brokers and other Leisure Marine professionals. The important point from your point of view is that it is ALSO open to yacht owners who want to sell their boat.
It is the main part of the platform which is also supported by three websites and three Facebook pages in synergetic harmony.
The largest yacht selling platform of its kind
It is the largest yacht selling platform of its kind with current group memberships, at time of writing, totalling more than Three Hundred and Forty Thousand. That total is rising rapidly daily ! In fact thousands of prospective boat buyers are joining every week.
So how do you find this integrated network of “For Sale” groups?
Finding it is easy, but getting to use it requires something else.
Anyone can join any or all of the 40 groups, but if you want to post, you must fall into one of three categories.
- A Yacht Broker with a website with your name, address and telephone number and some existing boat advert. Who has integrity and wants to act professionally and is prepared to join the organisation behind the platform – OR
- A Yacht dealer who buys and sells new or pre-owned boats, or both.Or any other Marine Leisure Dealer or Service provider Who also has integrity and wants to act professionally and is prepared to join the organization behind the platform.
- A Yacht owner who wants to sell their own yacht and is prepared to post in the manner described above, like the professionals and is prepared to join the organization behind the platform.
You will also need to be prepared to read the group Rules carefully and ensure that you comply with them carefully.
Luckily, you won’t have to read and understand forty different sets of rules, because each group has identical rules. Another benefit of using this unique yacht sales platform.
You can join any of the groups that seem to fit any of your current boat advert and those that you may list in the future.
The main groups are classified by type and length, so you can select what you need from those.
Your next three questions are likely to be…
- What is the name of this unique yacht selling platform?
- How can you join?
- Most importantly, What is the method to get the most profit from using the platform?
The platform is called Yachts Classifieds.
It’s first facebook page is
https://www.facebook.com/yachtsclassified/
The website is
So you could just join those groups now, but you will probably sell your boat faster if you carry on reading here for now.
The first rule of every group in the platform states that, while all yacht enthusiasts are welcome to join the group,
- ” if you want to post,
You must first join A.Y.B. and become either
- An AYB Broker,
- An AYB Partner, or
- An AYB Supporter “
You will, of course, join as an AYB Supporter.
AYB Supporters only have to pay monthly until their yacht is sold. You can have a look and join now if you wish at https://aybro.com/join
Have a look at https://classifieds.yachts .
You will see that “Yachts for Sale” is the headline group and you are asked to post to that group first, even though it is the only “UN-” classified group.
Another important unique feature of the “Yachts For Sale” group within Yachts Classifieds is that any boat related item or service is welcome, not just yachts for sale, but also yacht charters, marine services, marine transport, boat insurance chandlery, motors, cleats, anchors etc.
This exception underlines the rule that in every other group, the post must fit the title.
You won’t be able to post videos, that is in Rule 2. The reason videos are excluded is that most large sites on Facebook are inundated with videos about extreme animal encounters and pornography.
By arrangement with facebook, posts on Yachts Classifieds groups containing videos will be automatically rejected, as will posts without at least 3 photos. “Wanted ads ” have no place in a Yacht Brokers’ selling platform, so they are prohibited in the rules.
Facebook doesn’t like you to post the same item twice in one group. To update your post, edit it OR delete it and post again. . (You CAN “Post to other groups” But only if the group title fits your Boat for Sale).
Chapter 6
Finally here is an even better way to post. Remember at the beginning of this book you imagined converting a casual stranger not intending to buy a yacht into a hot prospect for your boat advertisement. Here is how you are going to automate that with thousands, all within driving distance of your boat for sale !
Post first to the “Marketplace” and re-post from there.
Items in “Marketplace” are automatically fed to local users in their everyday Facebook feed. That is why it is so important to get “Location” right in your posting.
Facebook users often put their own location as the nearest city to reach more people, doing the same in your post you know that all the thousands of people seeing your ad in their personal feed will be near that same city. The other important fact is that the post will be fed to everyone in that locale who has ever shown an interest in items in your post Title or Tags.
Making the Title informative is essential to give surfers instant details that may attract them to open the post and read more.
So here is how to get that extra bonus.
Make sure you are in your personal profile on Facebook.
Click “Marketplace” in the left hand menu and post in Marketplace on Facebook, very carefully as I have outlined above. Then you will have a chance to share with each of the groups you have already joined. Make sure you post to “Yachts for Sale” and every other group in Yachts Classified where the title fits your boat advert.
Get even more views of your boat advert by using other groups. For example.. A 60 foot Dutch Barge could be posted in
Yachts for Sale
Dutch Barges for Sale uk
Motor Yachts for Sale
Motor Yachts for Sale 50 to 60 feet
Motor Yachts for Sale 60 to 80 feet
Houseboats
UK Liveaboards
And Cruising Houseboats
If you have read so far and would like to implement this method, now would be a very good time to Join AYB and then join the groups that fit your current boat advert.
So here is the fastest way to Join all Facebook groups in Yachts Classified.
This assumes you are using a Desktop or laptop or tablet and a browser such as Chrome, with tabs.
go to https://classifieds.yachts
click “Yachts for Sale” near the top of the list.
go to the new tab that just opened with that Facebook group and click the “Join” button
Go back to the first tab and Click the next link (Motor Yachts for Sale) ……
and so on….
You can join AYB here https://aybro.com/join
And the groups are listed with weblinks at
Wishing you a profitable and enjoyable working life…
APPENDIX 1.
Privacy settings on Facebook.
Here is how to adjust your Facebook privacy settings….(according to Facebook)
Click your profile picture in the top right of Facebook.
Select Settings and privacy, then click Settings.
Click Privacy in the left column.
For other things that you share on Facebook, you can select the audience before you share. Review Facebook Privacy Policies and manage your privacy settings in the Privacy Centre.
You can also review and manage your information on Facebook:
Importantly, you (and potential buyers)can update your Feed preferences to see more content that you’re interested in.
You can also hide an ad that isn’t interesting or useful to you or review why you’re seeing a particular ad.
Walk through Privacy Checkup to make sure that you’re sharing your information with who you want.
Visit “Access your information” to see and manage your Facebook information, or Download your Facebook information for review.
Manage some of the content you share on Facebook, such as posts, photos and videos, from the Manage activity section of your activity log.
Learn how to manage what others can see about you. You can see this on Facebook Help, here, if you need to.
https://www.facebook.com/help/193677450678703?helpref=related_articles
APPENDIX 2.
Facebook Marketplace Wrong Currency – Common Issues and Solutions
There are several reasons why your Facebook Marketplace might be showing the wrong currency. Some common issues and solutions include:
Your Facebook account is registered in a different country: If your Facebook account is registered in a country other than where you currently reside, the Marketplace currency will be set to the default currency of the registered country. To resolve this issue, update your account’s country settings.
You recently moved to a new country: If you have recently moved to a new country, it may take some time for Facebook to update its currency settings. You can manually change your currency settings in the meantime.
You are traveling abroad: If you are traveling and accessing Facebook Marketplace from a different country, the currency might be set to that country’s default currency. In this case, you can manually change your currency settings.