Regardless of your feelings about Facebook, the social media platform continues to be a player in the marketing world. Many small-business owners feel it’s worthwhile to incorporate Facebook’s advertising features into their marketing strategy, while for others, promotional budgets are best spent elsewhere. James Atlas, principal of Platinum Pool Care in Wheeling, Illinois, is in…
A pool fence would have saved Joshua and Christian DeMello. In January 2010, the 13-month-old twins drowned when they escaped from their grandparents’ house and fell into an unsecured pool. There were no alarms or fences. Their mother found them in the pool. “Today, I believe in multiple layers of prevention,” says their father, Paul…
Our tech-heavy culture has a tendency to turn nouns into verbs, not the least of which is ‘Google.’ As powerful as Google is, when it comes to customers finding your business listing on the search engine — managed through a free Google My Business account — is not something you want to leave unmonitored. “In…
If a backyard renovation is on the agenda, homeowners will look for pictures of completed projects to start brainstorming for their own. And with more than 40 million unique users a month, Houzz has become a highly popular platform for design and renovation photos. “People invest in pools for [a certain] lifestyle, and nothing communicates…
When you’re expanding, moving or opening a new location, the to-do list is long, but make sure to consider the promotion and marketing of your new or added store. Scott Clark of Spa & Sauna Company of Reno has traveled this road three times and is moving his original store to a higher-traffic location. “The…
More than 70 percent of the leads generated for Patriot Pool & Spa of Austin, Texas, come from Yelp, company president Hal Denbar, says. Genna Gold, senior manager of business outreach for Yelp, says 2018’s second-quarter analysis shows 104 million people visit Yelp on their mobile devices each month, and 74 million on desktops. Since…
By Mike Tinz, vice president of franchise sales for Money Mailer It is important to make a splash with consumers by developing creative ads to draw in business, and direct mail campaigns are still an effective avenue. In 2017, direct mail ads generated a response rate of 5.1 percent, compared to .6 percent from email…
In the world of social media marketing, LinkedIn may get nothing more than a passing glance from your company. After all, LinkedIn is about finding a job, and you already have one, right? That was the LinkedIn of years past. These days, the platform is a melting pot of professionals sharing content and establishing credibility…
When Lake Air Pool Supply in Waco, Texas, received its first-ever Endless Pool for the showroom in April 2017, sales manager Ryan Jordan went live on the company’s Facebook page as they unloaded it from the truck. That video alone has more than 750 views. A two-minute live video in June about its tent sale…
You’ve nailed your marketing message and target audience; leads are pouring in and sales are great. But any time an employee gives their two weeks or you find yourself understaffed, you break into a cold sweat as positions go unfilled for weeks, even months. The problem may be twofold: You’re not looking in the right…
Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Instagram — the internet is crawling with social interaction between consumers and businesses. With so many platforms available, it can be hard to determine whether one is a viable option for your showroom over another. Instagram’s 700 million active monthly users make it a force to be reckoned with, and moreso…
By Evan Dawson Marketing to your ideal customer in 2017 We all know the worst thing you can do in marketing is, well, nothing. But wishing for results without a strategic plan in place is almost as bad. Some retailers sit back and hope a customer will walk into their brick-and-mortar location or wind up…