Southeastern+Marina

Jeremy Stahl [|LinkedIn]

Southeastern Marine Services, Harrison Township, MI [|Twitter] [|Website] [|Facebook] LinkedIn - In Progress



Week 1 - After a few bumps in the road I was finally able to get permission from the owner of Southeastern Marine Services, Dean Jarocki, to help them establish a presence on the web and begin their online marketing. The first thing we talked about was what he would like me to accomplish with getting things going for him as far as online content goes. His main goal for me was to raise awareness of his business and just try and spread the word and we would go from there. He has been running this business for four years now, but has been part of the boating industry for over twenty years. The things his business focuses on are boating services and storage throughout the entire year. He also is able to place boats into the water and owns docks. His marina is also used for customers to put their boats on the market and find potential buyers. I introduced the opportunity to set up a twitter and hopefully reach out to the boating community in our area as a way to raise awareness of his marina and he really liked the idea. The website he owns now is very out-of-date and difficult to manage, I will be looking into creating a fresh, new website, but need to find a way to integrate the same listing service that comes with the one he owns now. I would also like to find a way so that any time the listing service gets updated, it sends out fresh tweets to twitter, and would update the business facebook page, which I have already set up. The way I have it set up, this project will most definitely extend into the summer and I will be adding more and more content every week as I keep in touch with Dean and receive more updates on things.

Will have pictures up with descriptions very soon.

Week 2 - I was able to go and visit Southeastern Marine Services last weekend. Dean and I chatted about what he would like to see as the school year finished and what he wanted accomplished by the time I came home this summer. I showed him what I had managed to get done and he was glad that I had at least gotten a good start on the project. I got in contact with the website company provider he was using and asked them about their customization options within their website builder. Their website builder is very plain and does not offer a whole lot, so I am going to look into building a fresh website for Dean, but I am not much of a web designer and will have to receive help with that project. In the meantime he wants me to spread much more awareness about his Facebook and Twitter, that way when the website is up and running he can spread the word as fast as possible and get people to check out his listings. Overall it was a very productive weekend and I will see what I can accomplish as this semester is winding down.



The first photo I used because it established his company name and phone number. It is the back of his company truck that he drives around. I was hoping that if people recognized the truck, they would associate it with what they had come across online. I think that the photo makes the business seem much more real. The owner, Dean, liked the idea as well.

The second photo is just a simple one of the entrance to the marina. Right now was sort of a bad time to take pictures because the marina is literally packed with boats with shrink wrap on them. Once it warms up a little bit more, all of these boats will be put into the water and free up a lot more space around the small marina. This photo is used to show people what the marina looks like as they approach it from the road and will hopefully look familiar if they are attempting to go to the place of operations.

The third photo is one of the crane that the marina uses to put boats into the water. Some marinas only have a set of docks and no way of getting boats in/out of the water. Having a crane at the marina is very useful and something that could be the difference in whether a customer keeps their boat there or not.

PLAN TO BE IMPLEMENTED THIS SUMMER!

After talking to the marina owner, Dean Jarocki, we brain stormed some ideas that he could not only fulfill but would attract people not only to his websites and pages, but to his marina. We are going to implement a referral program. The way it will work is if you own a space among his docks and refer somebody who comes in and takes a look you will get 10% off of your docking fee for a month. If they purchase a spot for the summer, you get 15% off of your docking fee for the summer.

We are taking this a step further. If you own a docking space and your refer someone who purchases a boat from the marina, you get 15% off of your docking fee for the summer and off of your housing fee for the winter. If you own a docking space and refer someone who purchases a boat from the marina and decides to dock their boat there, you both get 10% off of your docking fee for the summer. (Raising the referred person's fee up to 25% off!) All discounts are stackable up to 25%.

We are hoping this will encourage people who know of the marina to help spread the word because they will reap the benefits. We are considering making the discounts last longer than one summer, but will need to experiment and little bit and find out what is most effective. This will keep the docks full for summers to come because people like boating with friends and why not refer a friend to your docks if you both can potentially get large discounts?