Unlike many other industries, the pool business is cyclical, which creates several benefits and drawbacks. There are obvious effects on finances and vacation time, but there’s also the unique flow of pool marketing. In my experience, there’s a way to get the most out of every season while keeping your marketing cycle successful and manageable.
How to divide your marketing efforts
Like other pool marketers, I am a one-person department, so I need to ruthlessly prioritize my efforts. First, I want to dispel the notion of doing all marketing all the time. Yes, you can perform multiple marketing tasks at once, but most of the time, there’s an ideal window to perform certain ones.
I have been most successful breaking down my marketing focuses into the four seasons of New England. Regardless of how your location affects the number and length of seasons, this article should still encourage you to prioritize your efforts.
Spring: attract mode
You must shape your marketing efforts around your customer’s behavior. Spring is a time when homeowners start thinking about installing a pool again.
The first 70-degree day always results in an annual or at least quarterly high in lead generation, so my advertising budget is highest in the spring. At the first hint of comfortable weather, all my Google, social media and other platform advertisements are live and ready to attract.
I also reserve a good amount of time daily to manually respond to customers. We have a chat feature on our website and see a much higher and quicker lead conversion from marketing to sales when customers are answered right away.
No matter what your marketing efforts look like, dedicating time and money to them in the spring is worthwhile if you’re looking to attract customers.
Summer: respond mode
Let’s state the obvious — whether you’re a builder, renovation team or maintenance crew, summers are chaos. Unless you’re adequately staffed, it can be difficult to prioritize any marketing efforts when you have more business than you can handle.
For this reason, you should do the minimum amount of lead generation. In most pool companies, it’s harmful to the business reputation to keep piling on leads when your staff is inundated.
Instead, prioritize responding to existing customers and leads. When things are incredibly busy, it’s easy for communication to slip through the cracks. In the summer, it is most beneficial to put on my customer service hat and help other departments.
Fall: reflect and capture
Fall in the pool business is arguably my favorite time. This is when I have the most customer interaction because customers’ projects are either complete, wrapping up or being preserved for the following spring.
During this time, lead generation tends to decrease as well and adding more budget or time likely does not have a big effect. So I find it most beneficial to reflect and capture assets.
Pool marketing is easier and sometimes even self-sustaining when you have a lot of customer assets, which can include positive online reviews, project photography and customer interviews. These are things that convince new leads your company is the best choice for their business.
The fall season is a great time to contact customers who may have needed to complete some surrounding landscape or finish something before they would be comfortable having their backyard photographed. Additionally, once customers have enjoyed their pool for a few months, they’re much more likely to leave a good Google review or customer interview.
Winter: reignite and relax
Winter is historically slow for pool companies, so marketers can focus on things they may not have had time for earlier in the year. You can also wrap up any customer reviews or interviews, but you probably won’t be taking many pictures.
What else can you do other than wait for the busy spring season? The activity that I find most lucrative is reengaging leads from the previous year. This is a great time to call or email back those leads that didn’t convert to a sale, nor did they downright close out the possibility of your services.
Regardless of the season, there’s always a way to improve your marketing.”
Kelly Skelton
This may look something like a customer not quite having the budget to finance a pool project. Additionally, it could be contacting someone your sales team didn’t have time to fully vet or maybe it’s someone who wanted more time to get additional quotes from your competition.
Using the winter to clean out your pipeline is a great way to spend your time. That way, come spring you know exactly where to focus and don’t have stale leads in your system. Following up with cold leads also shows them you still care about winning their business; it might even provide you with the time you need to have a lengthy conversation with a prospect.
Summary
Of course, depending on the business you run and your location, your seasonal cycle may look a little different, but these techniques can be adapted to many schedules.
Regardless of the season, there’s always a way to improve your marketing. Even when everyone is bundled up for winter, there’s no reason to stop asking recently completed customers for reviews or posting on social media. However, there are periods where doubling down on one aspect of pool marketing will pay higher dividends than a balanced approach.
