Some Good Sites
A big part of doing this is keeping up with what's out there in terms of web design, imagery, and content. To be honest, a lot of it in our industry is pretty dated. Here are few of the very best sites I've come across.
www.seaveeboats.com All-around great design, looks just as good on mobile, amazing photography. This is what you get when you make your web presence a priority and then dedicate the necessary resources to it.
www.xpressboats.com Another very professional (and very expensive) site. Note the similar overall look to the Sea Vee site.
www.albemarleboats.com This one is actually built in Squarespace. In fact, it's the same template as this site. Strong photography and strong writing. This likely cost way less than the Sea Vee and Albemarle sites, which appear to be fully custom builds but achieves nearly the same results.
www.tidelineboats.com Just simple and functional with big, pretty images. Could use a bit more/better copy but makes good use of the power of owner testimonials and online forums like The Hull Truth.
www.bennetttrimtabs.com Great job of making something as visually unexciting as trim tabs look sexy and sophisticated. Again, really capitalizes on the power of testimonials.
Note that all of these share in common the same basic look: full-width, responsive design; high-quality, large images; and clean, minimalist typography. That's what contemporary web design looks like; it just hasn't made it's way to a lot of the sites in our industry.