Partnering with yacht clubs

Salish Sea Pilot, that’s us, has joined hands with yacht clubs and sailing associations, offering discounts on our cruising guides to club members while sharing revenue from those sales with the clubs themselves.

How it works is we provide yacht clubs with a small acrylic sign which they can put up in their clubhouse or any meeting place. As well, we send them digital files they can post in newsletters and on websites.

The materials include a promo code, unique to each yacht club, which boaters can use in our shopping cart. Anytime the code is used to buy a complete set of guides, even by sailors who are not members of the club, the buyer earns a 10-percent discount while the club earns one-third of the sale price.

If you are thinking that’s a big share and what could possibly be in it for us, that’s understandable. It’s a long story and I am happy to bore you with it.

It’s all about awareness. Paper guides, you know those old-fashioned things, make themselves known by just sitting there, whether it’s the old guides that came with your boat or newer ones that sit on the shelves of shops in marinas you visit. You are aware of them because you have seen them.

Guides like ours — electronic files — don’t have the same advantage. They stay hidden until someone demonstrates it to you or you learn about it in a writeup, see it displayed in Apple’s App Store or in an advertisement.

Thing is, advertising is not cheap. We calculate the member discounts and the revenue we share with yacht clubs roughly equals what we would spend in advertising — or to pay Apple’s cut in the App Store — to create a similar sort of awareness among folks who belong to the clubs. We would rather share that with yacht clubs which do a lot to promote safe and enjoyable experiences on the water.

Another perk for us is the goodwill we earn as partners with the clubs. Our seven guides cover a vast area of the Salish Sea and beyond, and we rely on boaters to help us keep the guides up to date and accurate. Anything we can do to make boaters more disposed to help us is a bonus.

We think it’s a win-win for everyone.

We offer the same arrangement to Supporters. Those who have purchased a complete set in the past, whether or not they used a yacht club promo code, can contact us, request a supporter code and name the yacht club they wish to back. We will send them a unique supporter code which will cut 10-percent from the already deep Supporter discount and their yacht club will receive a one-third share of the sale price.

Some yacht clubs are also uncomfortable about appearing to promote and profit from sales of a commercial product. That’s perfectly understandable. If clubs wish, we would be happy to forward their share to a group or cause in the community which they support. Of course, the yacht club will be credited for the donation.

There are more than 100 yacht clubs and sailing associations on the Salish Sea and we are slowly expanding our list of partnerships. If you would like your yacht club to be included, refer us to your executive by sending them a link to this blog or provide us with a contact.

Lynne and I look forward to a long and happy relationship with your club.