When I took on my first pool builder client about 25 years ago, I treated it like most any other new client. I was starting from scratch, trying to figure out which marketing strategies and tactics would be most effective.
But after my third, fourth and fifth pool builder clients, I could clearly see the marketing challenges unique to this industry. And that made it easy to see which marketing strategies would be most effective.
The first key insight I picked up on was that most pool buyers really don’t know anything about buying a swimming pool. Most have never done it before, so they don’t know anything about it. And in most cases, it’s a heck of a lot more expensive than they thought it would be. It’s also a rather permanent decision. Unlike a new boat or RV, if you decide you don’t like it, you can’t just take it back to the dealer. You’re stuck with it. (Or you have to sell your home.)
So with all this pressure on a homeowner who really doesn’t know what they’re doing, it turns into a very long buying cycle. Easily six months, and sometimes 10 years or more before they’re finally ready to take the next step.
When you have such a long buying cycle, that means the market is overwhelmingly loaded with “FUTURE Buyers.” For every one person who’s going to buy a pool today, there could be a thousand others who are still in that long process of just thinking about it.
Once I recognized this huge imbalance between “NOW Buyers” and “FUTURE Buyers,” I realized every pool builder will need:
- A Killer Website, with lots of great eye candy
- An attractive “Low Risk Offer”, to extract the e-mail addresses of all the future buyers.
- And a “Drip-Nurture” marketing automation system that will “drip, drip, drip” on all the prospects, until they buy, or until they die.
Fortunately, if the “NOW buyer” has made it to your website, and your website is halfway interesting and appealing and compelling, there’s an excellent chance they’ll reach out to you. You just need to make it easy for them to fill out a form, or call you, and/or schedule an appointment.
Meanwhile, the FUTURE buyers have no interest whatsoever in meeting with you, or talking to a salesperson. They’re not ready for that. But they’re still hungry for more information. They want to learn more about this thing they’re dreaming about. What should we do with them?
Well, that was my big epiphany, way back when I started. I realized that if we could somehow reach and start communicating with all those future buyers, we could potentially persuade them in our favor. That way, when they’re finally ready to buy, they’ll already be sold on you.
