Summer 2011
The Five Biggest Mistakes You Can Make.
Jun 1st
Captains, retail brokers, and central agents must work together to create a successful charter experience. When things go wrong,the finger-pointing begins, and the same old gripes are heard behind the scenes. Charter Index editor Kim Kavin brings the most common complaints out of the shadows.
Nobody wants to be quoted for this article. It’s kind of amazing, really, given how freely charter yacht captains, retail brokers, and central agents typically discuss one another’s flaws. I’d wager that one in every three of the boat show luncheons I attend includes an animated discussion about charters gone wrong—and, more interesting, who is to blame. When it comes to fam trips, the odds of such a discussion emerging (dare I say erupting?) are a solid 100 percent. After more than a decade of hearing these rants, I can almost sing them like a song.
Unfortunately, the conversations typically take place among like-minded retail brokers, or among like-minded captains, or among like-minded central agents. It’s rare for a retail broker to say her piece while sitting next to a central agent who controls access to yachts, or for a captain to cut loose within earshot of a retail broker who has paying clients at the ready, More >
Are Printed Brochures Obsolete?
Jun 1st
Some charter companies continue to produce thick, expensive, printed catalogs while others have moved primarily to digital marketing models. Some yachts, too, have abandoned glossy brochures in favor of websites, Twitterfeeds, and downloadable PDFs. Charter Index Editor Kim Kavin examines the changing demand for printed and digital marketing materials.
It was not so long ago—say, in 2006 or 2007—that retail brokers were still lugging extra suitcases to Genoa, Italy, each May. Not to pack with aged balsamic vinegar or bottlesof Barolo (well, not entirely, anyway), but instead to jam full of printed charter yacht brochures. The brochures had taken on the characteristics of an actual commodity, becoming ever thicker, ever glossier, and ever more valuable. When airlines began instituting extra fees for heavy luggage, many brokers turned to DHL rather than leave their carefully gathered stacks of printed brochures behind. They quite simply could not book most charters without them.Today, the combination of shrinking marketing budgets and expanding electronic options is making printed brochures obsolete at boat shows. Some central agents still pass out flers, and the occasional glossy brochure is available aftera tour, but more oftenthan not, brokers are handed a memory stick or are asked to visit a website More >
How PageRank Affects Your Google Position
Jun 1st
Everyone wants their website to be listed firstin Google search results. A key factor that influenes the order of those results is called PageRank, and it’s an important concept for anyone with a website to understand.
PageRank is named for Larry Page, one of Google’s co-founders. It is a complex algorithm that incorporates multiple layers of variable elements to help Google de-termine which web pages are bette, or more relevant to a search, than others. The web pages that earn the best PageRank end up at the top of Google search re-sults. Thus, you want your PageRank to be as high as possible for every page on your website. Google’s preferred variables are an industry secret, but they are widely believed to include a number of things that you can control. Experts in search engine optimization spend countless hours trying to discern the PageRank variables—which are always chang-ing—and generally recommend the following steps for anyone who wants to improve their website’s Page-Rank.
Build inbound links. Google itself acknowledges inbound links as a PageRank variable. Every web page that links to your web page is essentially casting a vote for your web page. If a web page that already has a high PageRank More >
Are fam trips worth the effort and expense?
Jun 1st
Retail Broker: Jan Henry,
Fraser Yachts Worldwide
As a charter broker in this industry for many years, I can attestto the fact that fam trips are definitelyworth it. That’s true whether the owner pays all of the broker’s expenses or the charter broker pays for some of the ex-penses.
You have the opportunity to experience what only paying guests get to experience—the quality of the yacht, the service of the crew, and the cuisine provided by the chef. Doing regular inspections of yachts, which is standard procedure, educates the charter broker on the surface details and perhaps gives some insight into the captain and his crew, but not to the depth that a fam trip affords.
I have had fam trips that have given me the knowl-edge I needed to book clients onto the yachts. It’s not only because of the up close and personal experience of being pampered in the manner of a paying guest, but also sometimes because I got to experience a cruising area that I had yet to visit.
In some cases, an owner might host a fam trip but say that the charter broker has to pay her own airfare to and from the yacht. If the broker then More >
Henry Stainton > Yacht Marketing: Great article, Search engine optimisation can often be extremely difficult for independent yacht...
Nigel James: That sounds like shooting yourself in the foot with a gun firing blanks - lots of noise & smoke...
Charter Specialists: While I agree printed brochures are becoming obsolete for the most part, there is something to be...
Digital or Printed Brochures: [...] Are printed brochures obsolete? [...]
