“10 Steps to the Perfect Pool”
(a.k.a. “An irresistible offer to seduce your prospects…”)

By Brett Lloyd Abbott, MYM Austin Inc.

As promised, our new “10 Steps to the Perfect Pool” report is now viewable online. And I think this is a HUGE FREAKING DEAL for the following reasons:

• This report is EXACTLY what homeowners have been looking for.
• Putting this report on your website will DRAMATICALLY improve the odds of a website visitor giving you their contact info.
• It can be delivered ELECTRONICALLY (even though it’s a huge honking 28 page full-color report).
• It can be VIEWED ONLINE, which instantly makes your website look a whole lot sexier.
• It’s THE PERFECT TEASER to initiate an automatic follow-on sequence of additional educational e-mail reports and messages.
• The whole thing can all be set up to EXECUTE AUTOMATICALLY (which is what I’ve been encouraging you to do for years anyway).

Now before I get too carried away, let me clarify that this report is NOT free nor available for just any pool builder to put on their website. This was written specifically and exclusively for MYM Austin’s “Automatic Follow-Up System” clients, for the exact reasons described above. But if you want to have a peek, you can see the entire report online here.

When we install this report on YOUR website, we’ll put this eye-catching web form on your homepage, to encourage and entice homeowners to sign up for it:

After the prospect gives you their contact info, they will then have the option to either “download the report,” or “view it online,” just like it is on my website. (Except, of course, that it will be branded with YOUR logo and contact information, not mine!)

If you’re interested in using this new report, and/or getting on board with our Automatic Follow-Up System, just give us a call at 512-266-7777. (Or e-mail us.)

To your success,

Brett

Builders – Trust Your Wives. (They’ll help you be a better marketer.)

By Brett Lloyd Abbott, MYM Austin Inc.

It’s the dawn of the new year, so I SHOULD be talking about “What you should focus on in 2012.”  But I think I covered that back in November, with my “Winter Marketing Checklist” newsletter. (As I’ve said repeatedly, if you’ll just focus on (1) your website, (2) your search engine rankings, (3) automating your follow-up, and (4) getting a return on investment, you’ll be fine.)

Today, I want to help you with a FIFTH item that was in that newsletter- one that I don’t talk about quite as often. I want to show you how “paying attention to your wife,” and trusting her style and intuition will help you sell more pools. (I’m totally serious.)

Some years ago, I was smacked in the head with a shovel (figuratively speaking) when I “jumped on the bandwagon” of updating a client’s website with a new “slideshow” style photo gallery. These were the newest, coolest thing out there, and I wanted to stay on the cutting-edge of “pool builder website development.” It looked something like this:

Pretty sexy, huh? Well, it was a disaster.

It was March of 2008; Dallas Texas. Lead flow and website inquiries that time of year is always good and strong. But the instant we changed from his old-style photo gallery to the “slideshow” method shown above, his web-based inquiries plummeted from 10 a week to barely one a week. After two weeks, he called me in a panic. After some thorough analysis, we figured out what happened.

(If only we’d paid attention to the advice of your wife!)

Now let me interrupt this TRUE story to tell you a FICTITIOUS one. I’ve told this story repeatedly at seminars, and with new clients, to drive home the glaring significance of this issue.

Once upon a time, your wife goes to lunch with a friend. She notices her friend has a beautiful new purse. “Where did you get that?“ she asks. “Oh, at this brand-new store over at the mall,” says her friend. “It’s called ‘Creative Purses.’ You should check it out!”

A few days later, your wife is in the mall, and she notices the sign for Creative Purses. Naturally, she heads over and walks in. She is instantly struck by the unusual nature of this store. There are no purses on the shelves. No purses on the walls. No purses on the racks. Just one purse, sitting on the checkout counter, behind which stands the clerk. “Hello, and welcome to Creative Purses,” says the clerk. “Can I help you?”

Your wife is somewhat taken aback. (“Where are all the purses???” she’s wondering.) “Umm, yes, I’m looking for a purse.”

“Okay, great. How about this one?”

“Um, well, that’s not exactly what I was looking for.”

“Okay, hang on a second.” The clerk promptly goes back to the back and returns in a jiffy with another purse. “How about this one?”

Raise your hand if you think that ANY woman, including your wife, is going to stand at the counter of an empty store, look at a grand total of two new purses, and then happily make a buying decision.

Raise your other hand if you more realistically imagine that after about 45 seconds of this, your wife is going to be OUT of that store, vowing never to return.

Forgive me if any of this sounds sexist. But the facts are that (1) women and men shop differently, and (2) most women like to see LOTS of choices, styles and options before they make a final purchase decision.  If a woman can spend a half an hour to a half a day shopping for a purse, how much MORE time is she going to spend in her search for the perfect pool?

Which brings us back to the point: Your website gallery is just like a purse store. If you hide all of your beautiful swimming pool photographs behind one of those cool-looking but actually annoying “flash galleries” shown above, the women are going to abandon your website even faster than they abandoned the fictitious “Creative Purses” store described above.

BOTTOM LINE: Women don’t want to be limited to looking at
just one option at a time. They want to see HUNDREDS of
different options, choices and selections.

Don’t make it harder for them. They will punish you by purchasing from someone else.

Now let’s get back to my client up in Dallas. As I said, he called me in a panic, stating emphatically that “SOMETHING’S WRONG!” We concluded that the only major change we’d made was the switch to the “slideshow” gallery. So we immediately switched back to the old-style “HTML” gallery.  And within one week, he had another 10 leads coming in through the website. And life has been good ever since. We learned a valuable lesson, and vowed never to make that mistake again.

Which is why it breaks my heart anytime I see a pool builder making the same mistake I did back in 2008. THE LESSON: If you’re currently using a flash gallery like the one shown above, you need to fix it immediately! (And yes, we can provide that service. If your website person can’t fix this for you right away, give us a call. It doesn’t take very long, and it’s not very expensive at all.)

To your success,

Brett

PS – If you’re currently using “Lightbox” for your website photo galleries, you have a similar problem. It’s not as bad as the slideshow galleries, but it still has a negative impact, and drives people away, for the same reasons described above. Take a look at the screenshot below. Basically an empty white square on a dark background. That, my friends, is exactly what your website visitors and potential pool buyers have to sit through every time they try to look at a photo. Not very flattering or helpful in promoting your pool projects, is it?

“10 Steps to the Perfect Pool”
(a.k.a. “An irresistible offer to seduce your prospects…”)

By Brett Lloyd Abbott, MYM Austin Inc.

As promised, our new “10 Steps to the Perfect Pool” report is now viewable online. And I think this is a HUGE FREAKING DEAL for the following reasons:

• This report is EXACTLY what homeowners have been looking for.
• Putting this report on your website will DRAMATICALLY improve the odds of a website visitor giving you their contact info.
• It can be delivered ELECTRONICALLY (even though it’s a huge honking 28 page full-color report).
• It can be VIEWED ONLINE, which instantly makes your website look a whole lot sexier.
• It’s THE PERFECT TEASER to initiate an automatic follow-on sequence of additional educational e-mail reports and messages.
• The whole thing can all be set up to EXECUTE AUTOMATICALLY (which is what I’ve been encouraging you to do for years anyway).

Now before I get too carried away, let me clarify that this report is NOT free nor available for just any pool builder to put on their website. This was written specifically and exclusively for MYM Austin’s “Automatic Follow-Up System” clients, for the exact reasons described above. But if you want to have a peek, you can see the entire report online here.

When we install this report on YOUR website, we’ll put this eye-catching web form on your homepage, to encourage and entice homeowners to sign up for it:

After the prospect gives you their contact info, they will then have the option to either “download the report,” or “view it online,” just like it is on my website. (Except, of course, that it will be branded with YOUR logo and contact information, not mine!)

If you’re interested in using this new report, and/or getting on board with our Automatic Follow-Up System, just give us a call at 512-266-7777. (Or reply to this e-mail.)

To your success,

Brett

Two Quick Announcements

1) Our “Change or Die” webinar repeats this Thursday.

2) Our “10 Steps to the Perfect Pool” report is READY.

ANNOUNCEMENT #1: If you missed the chance to attend our recent “Change or Die” webinar, then you’re in luck. We had more than 100 people “register” but miss the live broadcast for one reason or another. So we’ve decided to run it one more time.

Change or Die: How to Overcome the Sobering Realities of 2012 and Beyond

This Thursday, December 15, 6:00 PM US central time

 Just like last time, it’s totally FREE. We’ll spend about 90 minutes discussing:

• Why “fighting fires” will be the death of you and your business (and what you need to do to break out of this rut forever).
• Why “throw it against the wall and see what sticks” is a marketing recipe for failure, and which three crucial tactics you should embrace IMMEDIATELY in order to stay afloat.
• Why the old selling tactics will spell “doomsday” in the months ahead, and what you need to start doing differently RIGHT NOW.
• Why your service and renovations business is at dire risk of being literally STRANGLED by new, unwanted competition, and why you must immediately start leveraging your “secret weapon” to maintain and grow your share of the business.

Interested? Check it out. (This is definitely your last chance.)
Click here to register for the free seminar

ANNOUNCEMENT #2: I’m pleased to announced that we just completed a killer new 28 page report entitled “10 Steps to the Perfect Pool.” This was written specifically for homeowners (i.e. potential pool buyers), to help them make the best possible pool buying decision. (Which, of course, we HOPE is to choose YOU.)

The document is currently too large to e-mail, so I will be posting it online somewhere in the next few days. But right now, I can share with you now a sample of what I think is the single most powerful page in the entire book.  On page 14, after explaining “The 10 Steps,” I say the words that every high-end pool builder wishes every perspective pool buyer would hear:

That argument alone should help you sell at least one more new pool next year! Once I get this report posted online, I’ll send you a link so you can check it out. I think you’re going to love it.

Till then, I’m wishing you great success!

Brett

It’s “Winter Marketing Checklist” time…

By Brett Lloyd Abbott, MYM Austin Inc.

Last week, I SPECIFICALLY asked you NOT to forward my “No You Don’t Have To Tweet” newsletter to other marketing people. I thought I could trust you. But no, you just had to start a fight.

“Widespread relief” is how I would describe the reaction from most pool builders and service companies who still scratch their heads about all this “social media” hullabaloo. But marketing people, on the other hand, (especially those outside of our industry), still have this burning, insatiable drive to “preach the gospel” about the incredible and ultimate power of social media.

Of course, the truth is, they’re right. Social media is very powerful. It’s just not necessarily the most important thing for you to focus on right now. (Unless, of course, you happen to be a pool industry expert/celebrity who’s also a talented and prolific writer and/or public speaker, which in my experience, is definitely the exception and not the rule.) Do you know WHY I say that social media should not be at the top of your list? YOU’VE GOT TOO MANY OTHER MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO.

In fact, if your business is in the northern hemisphere, then the frenzy of the 2011 pool season (to the extent 2011 might actually be characterized as a “frenzy”) should be over now. We’re on the edge of Thanksgiving (in the US), and the Christmas/winter holidays are just ahead. It’s time for a little “down time.” A little time to regroup and refocus. Time to tackle all the “other stuff” that you can’t possibly touch during your busy building season.

So to help you with this important annual challenge, I thought I would share with you a simple, “pre-focused, pre-prioritized” checklist of marketing “to-do” action items. These are the “critical few,” MOST IMPORTANT things to focus on, if you want to grow your pool business. And knowing that you won’t possibly have time to touch this stuff next June, I suggest you take a hard look at it NOW.

CHECKLIST ITEM #1: WEBSITE – Unquestionably the single most important marketing tool you have. You need to review your website for the following:

1. Good-looking style and flow. Does it instantly say “solid, high-end, professional company”?
2. Is the menu simple and logical?
3. Do you have a “low risk offer” such as a DVD, report, or “pool ideas” book on every page?
4. Most important (because this is the page most everybody goes to) – Do you have a well-laid out photo gallery that is NOT flash-based, or one of those annoying “shop through a keyhole” one-at-a-time slideshows? In fact, your gallery photos are so critically important that I’m going to dedicate a whole ‘nother checklist item just on that.

CHECKLIST ITEM #2: PHOTOS – As mentioned above, your photographs are hands-down the most popular item on your website. So here’s your custom Winter checklist just for your photographs and photo gallery:

1. Photos should be well cropped, and color corrected, if necessary.
2. Photos should be large, and posted in an HTML gallery that expands to at least 900 pixels wide when you click on it.
3. Each photo should have a watermark of your name/logo on it. (Not only does it look professional, but it gives you free advertising when other people try to steal your photos.)
4. Each photo should have a text description on it, offering your website visitor (and Google) more insight and education about exactly what they’re looking at.
5. And here’s my newest secret (congratulations to you, if you’re reading my newsletter this closely), you should add the Facebook “like” button to each one of your photos. That way, whenever someone clicks “like” on a photo, it creates a permanent cyber-trail in the social media world that goes out to literally hundreds of people (people you don’t even know, by the way), indicating that “so-and-so likes this pool photo on ABC pools website…“. Trust me, you want this.

CHECKLIST ITEM #3: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION – Check your “website popularity” ranking with Alexa. If your popularity is beyond 10 million, then you need to take action right away. (Click this link to find out how to get the Alexa Ranking status bar for FREE.) (You can click here to find out how to dramatically improve your overall website rankings.)

CHECKLIST ITEM #4: AUTOMATED FOLLOW-UP – If you still don’t have this in place for your business, then thank goodness you’re reading this newsletter. Because I predict that the only pool builders who are going to survive and thrive in the years ahead are going to be those who do ALL of the above, including the implementation of an automated nurturing/follow-up system. (More info on how to get an automated nurturing/follow-up system here.)

CHECKLIST ITEM #5: RETURN ON INVESTMENT – Here’s my last critically-important step on your “marketing checklist” for this off-season. It’s time to take a look at all the money you spent on marketing and advertising, and figure out which activities paid for themselves in the form of NEW PROFIT, and which ones should be abandoned and buried as a bad mistake. (You’ll find more advice and instructions on how to calculate ROI in my newsletter here.)

Hooray! There are only FIVE key items on your “Winter Marketing Checklist.” These shouldn’t take too terribly long (especially if you get some assistance). More importantly, they will pay GREAT dividends for you in the long run, which is really the whole point of these newsletters in the first place.

Besides, once you get all this “big stuff” out of the way, that will give you LOTS more time to post updates on Facebook!

To your success,

Brett

No, you DON’T have to TWEET!
(Or “YouTube” or “Linked-In” or FLICKR or Anything Else!)

By Brett Lloyd Abbott, MYM Austin Inc.

PLEASE don’t forward this message to any marketing people you know. It will just start an awkward fight between me and all those other marketing yokels out there who keep telling poor, innocent and unwitting business owners like you that ““Social Media Is Everything; Get out There and Do It!””

For the 50th time, IT’S NOT.

Let me tell you in no uncertain terms that Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube (and at least two dozen other social media outlets) are mostly a dismal waste of time for you, your clients and your prospects. more importantly, I believe it’s a horribly misguided mantra and disservice on the part of the marketing industry to cajole “everyone to do everything.”

This “do everything” advice is just flat out wrong. Social media is NOT everything. And it’s downright dangerous advice to try and convince pool builders otherwise.

Let’s be clear. There is a time and a place for all of the new social media. None of it is “WRONG.” But most of the STRATEGIES and TACTICS being pushed are wrong for YOU.  I’m not saying you shouldn’t do ANY social media. But I will certainly implore you to first keep in mind these two very important points:

1. You need to be very thoughtful and selective about which social media you’re going to use, and HOW you’re going to use them.
2. It’s never going to replace REFERRALS and YOUR WEBSITE as your two best sources of new leads. (You should think of Social Media like a yard sign, a billboard or the Yellow Pages. YES, it can help you sell pools, but it’s only one of MANY different ways to get and persuade leads.)

Let me clarify now, line by line, what you the pool builder SHOULD and should NOT be doing with regards to social media:

TWITTER: Do you follow the tweets of your plumber? Or your car mechanic? How about your roofing contractor? Or your favorite car salesman? Probably not. So if you’re not interested in the idle ramblings of these “sometimes providers” in your life, what on earth makes you think anyone would be interested in yours?

BOTTOM LINE for Twitter: If you’re a famous celebrity, and/or a good and prolific writer, with many adoring fans, then Twitter might be good for you. Otherwise, FAHGETABOUTIT!

LINKED-IN: If you needed to hire a landscaping company, would you start searching through LinkedIn? Or would you more likely talk to your friends and/or go to the Internet?

BOTTOM LINE for LinkedIn: It’s a “B2B” (business-to-business) medium. It may be useful if you’re trying to sell your services to another business, or trying to find a job. But selling to Homeowners? FAHGETABOUTIT!

FACEBOOK: This is slightly more complicated, because there are really two “faces” to Facebook – your “business” page, and your “personal” page. So for starters, unless you’re a famous celebrity, you should NOT be using your PERSONAL page to try to grow your BUSINESS.

Secondly, if you’re planning to use your business page to make sales pitches, then I can assure you that absolutely no one (except possibly your business partner) is interested in any of your cheesy Facebook sales pitches. In fact, let me turn a phrase here: “It’s better to be silent, and thought to be a cheesy, pushy sales rep, then to speak up, and remove all doubt.”

Here’s a quick tip on how to not sound “salesy” on Facebook: “If it isn’t something you would say one-on-one to a friend, then you shouldn’t be saying it on Facebook.”

EXCEPTION: Facebook is a GREAT place to show your current clients the day-to-day progress of their project. Then (fortunately), the “selling” in Facebook (if any) will occur between the homeowner and THEIR many hundreds of friends (which is where it SHOULD be) instead of coming from you, aimed at all your so-called “friends.”

BOTTOM LINE for Facebook: It’s not wrong to have a Facebook page, and it’s not wrong to post things – especially photographs of beautiful pools. But if you’re thinking about “SELLING” on Facebook, FAHGETABOUTIT!

YOUTUBE: YouTube is a wonderful medium for sharing videos. And I’m a big fan of videos, especially in this industry. So if you want to create your own YouTube Channel, and promote your industry expertise and beautiful pool designs, I say go for it. Just remember that the purpose of YouTube is to drive people FROM the internet TO your website.

So whatever you do, DON’T put a YouTube link on your website, to send them AWAY from your website, and over to your YouTube Channel. (That’s like taking a prospect who just walked into your store, and saying “Hey, did you see our billboard down the street? Here, go outside and walk down the block, and take a look. You’ll love it!”)

BOTTOM LINE for YouTube: If you’ve got enough videos to create your own YouTube channel, then for goodness sake, PUT THOSE VIDEOS ON YOUR WEBSITE! It’s okay to also create and maintain a YouTube Channel. But if you think you’re going to sell more pools by driving people AWAY from your website, FAHGETABOUTIT!

PS – the above advice for YouTube is exactly the same for Flickr. It’s perfectly fine and beneficial to post a bunch of photos on Flickr. Just make sure all those photos are ALSO on your website.  And whatever you do, don’t “push people out of the store” to go look at your photos somewhere else.

Yes, I guess you could call me the “Anti-Social-Media” marketing guy. But here’s the good news in all this – If you were feeling guilty because you haven’t done all the social media “stuff” that all the marketing “experts” have been telling you to do, then you just got a reprieve! FAHGETABOUTIT!!!

To your success,

Brett

Comments from the 2011 Pool Show:
“What Does the Future Hold?”

By Brett Lloyd Abbott, MYM Austin Inc.

If you’re a regular attendee at the International Pool Spa and Patio Show, then you probably hear the same question I hear whenever I get back: “So, how was the show?“

In a word, “sobering.”

Two years ago, I shared my comments and observations about the 2009 Pool Show. Ironically, I see that the overriding message from two years ago was “HOPE.” (Boy, does that sound cliché today!) Back then, I was echoing phrases such as:

• “The worst is over…”
• “We’ve turned the corner…”
• “We’ve got nowhere to go but up…”

Hmmm…that certainly wasn’t the message I got last week in Las Vegas.

No, I heard and absorbed an entirely new and different message last week. One that I don’t remember anyone predicting a year or two ago. The new, sobering message sounded more like:

• “It’s a new reality.”
• “It’s not going to bounce back anytime soon.”
• “We’re looking at at least another 5 to 10 years of this.”
• “Remember the BOOM times? Well, you can forget about that.”

Hey, I’m sorry to bring you a “downer” this morning. The usual goal of my writing is to inspire and encourage you, and ultimately help you make more money. And that’s still my goal here, even though this may feel a little heavy and not very pretty. So let’s see if we can uncover some GOOD NEWS (or at least some HELPFUL news) in all of this.

1. Rich people are going to continue buying swimming pools. So if you’re targeting the high-end homeowner, you’re probably in the safest place possible.
2. Non-rich people (i.e., middle class) are going to continue to dream and lust for a pool. And some of them will find a way to buy one, even if that means using non-equity “consumer financing” at rates in excess of 15%.
3. There are more than 5 million swimming pools in the ground right now, and most of those are more than 15 years old. Thus, there is still a huge, under-tapped market for renovations, upgrades and remodeling.

Bottom Line – the pool industry will survive. It just won’t be as big as it was. And (sorry for the bold truth here, but) not all of you are going to make it. Which I think leads us to the REAL message from the 2011 Pool Spa Patio Show:

If you’re in this for the long haul, then you should forget about “hunkering down.” You should focus instead on CHANGE. IMPROVEMENT. LEARN MORE. GET BETTER THAN YOUR COMPETITION. EXPAND INTO OTHER AREAS.

Ironic, isn’t it? One of the smartest things you could have/should have done was to attend the Pool Spa Patio Show in Las Vegas last week. Not to hear the “sobering messages,” but to pick up the new secrets and information that would help you improve, change, expand, and not just survive, but thrive and make more money.

My parting message/advice? From this moment forward, keep your eyes open for opportunities to move beyond the status quo. Become a sponge for new ideas, markets and techniques. “Turn on” your learning machine, for at least the next six months. And whatever annoying thing has been getting in the way of you improving and expanding your business (crappy website, lousy follow-up, low closing ratios, etc.), get it fixed NOW, while you still can.

To your success,

Brett

PS – You may find (yet another) irony in yesterday’s cover story from Pool and Spa News: “Industry Growth Predicted for 2012.” While it may sound contrarian to my message above, take a closer look. Pool Corp. (the source of the predictions) actually says “…looking up – or at least leveling off…“. It also predicts that most of the new construction money will be commercial.

I’m sorry, but I did warn you the news was “sobering,” didn’t I?

Check on Your Competition – ANYTIME
(It takes just five seconds…)

By Brett Lloyd Abbott, MYM Austin Inc.

If you ever wanted to know “at a glance” how you’re doing against your local competitors, I have a super-quick and easy way for you to find out. (And it’s only a tiny bit “techie,” so even if you’re a little “computer-phobic,” you can handle this in a snap.) And it’s also totally FREE, so let’s grab it while we can, shall we?

I’m referring to a great little company out there called Alexa that specializes in analyzing internet and website statistics. If you go to their website, you can download a free “page rank” status monitor that will instantly tell you the worldwide popularity of any website you visit. (I recommend you load it as a status bar, not as a toolbar.) Then, when you go to a website, you’ll see a little “traffic monitor” in the lower right-hand corner of your screen that looks just like this:

The example above (which happens to be for Pool Corp.) tells us that the Pool Corp. website is currently the 171,688(th) most popular website in the world. (By sample comparison, Google is #1 most popular, Facebook is #2, and Fox News is #169.) The squiggly line to the left of the number shows us the daily ranking over the last six months.

In the two examples below, you can see how the popularity (or more accurately, the website traffic) of the U.S. House of Congress and Lady Gaga both spiked at various times in the past six months:

So how do you use this? Simple. Just take a look at any of your competitors’ websites, and see what their current ranking looks like.  Compare that to your  own website, and you’ll instantly know whether you can be confident, or might have reason to worry.

To help you further appreciate your Alexa ranking, let me share with you some generalizations I’ve made based on looking at literally hundreds of pool builder websites all over the world:

• Most pool builder websites rank higher than (above) the one million mark. If you’re ranked under one million, then Congratulations! You are rare indeed! (Or you’re a chain/franchise, in multiple locations.) 
•  If you’re under 3 million, then once again, Congratulations! Chances are you’re beating most of your local competition.
• If you’re above 6 million, then most likely you’ve got several competitors ahead of you.
• If you’re above 10 million, then the cold truth is that not very many people are looking at your website.  You are either in a very small market (such as Christchurch, New Zealand), or you probably have some fairly serious search engine issues, and/or you’ve never done anything to optimize or drive traffic to your website.
• If you’re above 20 million, then my guess is that you and your employees are the only ones looking at your website. You need help!

Alexa stops tracking websites that are beyond 30 million, so if you see this little “kiss of death” status message when you look at your website:

…that means there are at least 30 million other websites in the world that are more popular than yours. Not good.

If your website rankings aren’t where you want them to be, here are three suggestions that should help you:

1. Make sure you have Google Analytics loaded on your website. (More information about how to get and use Google Analytics for FREE, as explained on my blog post here.)
2. Run this FREE and comprehensive “SEO Site Check-up”  analysis  on your website. It will immediately tell you what you’re doing right, and what you’re doing wrong.
3. If you’re still not where you want to be, you might consider professional SEO help. (My clients have been getting killer results with the MYM Austin SEO program, getting page 1 rankings on many of the keywords in just a few months. More info on that here.)

Meanwhile, for a little more insight into these traffic rankings, you might have a quick look at how some of your international competitors and compatriots are currently ranked in global web traffic popularity:

• APSP – 488,451
• Aquatech – 2,632,961
• Blue Haven Pools – 489,546
• Carecraft – 772,824
• Champagne Pool and Spa (Orlando FL) – 1,414,829
• Genesis 3 – 10,550,144
• MYM Austin (Hey, I can brag, can’t I?) – 716,215
• Ocean Quest Pools by Lew Akins – 1,589,479
• Pool and Spa News – 706,106

I’ve found this nifty little Alexa ranking tool to be immensely useful in monitoring the status of various websites. I hope you get some use out of it also.

To your success,

Brett

PS – When you install the Alexa page ranking tool, you have a choice of installing it as a “toolbar” (at the top) or as a much smaller “status bar” at the bottom.  Personally, I prefer the status bar, which is what I’ve shown in all the screenshots above.

My Best Friend’s Big Pool Buying Mistake (almost)…

By Brett Lloyd Abbott, MYM Austin Inc.

This isn’t just another friend. Bill and I have been best friends since our seventh grade math class. He tends to be “thoughtful” with his decisions; I’m a little more of a “life of the party” kind of guy. Between the two of us, we seem to balance each other out quite nicely. I appreciate his friendship, so I was honored the day that he called ME first to bail him out of jail. And I think he appreciates the fact that I’ve chosen him to be the “Best Man” at all of my weddings. (I joke that he’ll be Best Man at all my FUTURE weddings too. My wife doesn’t think that’s very funny, which is probably why I need a Best Man so often.)

Bottom line – Bill and I always try to help each other out. So I was pleased back in 2009, when he called me and said “Abbott – Kathy and I have decided to buy a pool. In fact, we’ve already picked the builder. I just wanted to run it by you before we ink the deal, since you’re in the pool industry and all.”

(I thought “Hey, all right! I get to help my buddy with an important decision. And maybe this will be one of those rare occasions where I know more about something than he does.)

“Great! Who did you choose?”

When he told me, I thought “Oh crap! Out of 100 pool builders in Austin, that’s the LAST one I would choose!” (I won’t tell you the name of the company, but you’ll figure it out yourself in a moment.)

I choked back my instinctive response, swallowed hard, and said “How did you happen to choose that builder?” And he told me the words that will ring in my ears forever:

“We talked to several builders last year, and then decided to wait. This guy was the only one who followed up with us. So we figured he must really want our business.”

And you know what? My buddy Bill was exactly right. He was about to make a horrible pool-buying decision, but as usual, his logic was sound. When they decided to postpone the project, the other pool builders blew them off. But this one particular pool builder made a point of checking back with them every few months. Because he really wanted the business.

Now here’s the real irony. This particular pool builder is famous for three things:

• Inconsistent quality / frequent complaints.
• An outstanding follow-up system.
• The largest pool builder in the world.

Stop and think about that for a second. How can you be famous for bad quality, and still be the largest in the world? The answer is in bullet #2. They have an outstanding follow-up system. While other builders are trying to find and sell to new prospects, these guys consistently reach out and touch the past prospects, “Until They Buy, Or Until They Die.”

Now let me chastise you for a minute. Do you see what you almost did to my friend Bill? (figuratively speaking) Because you didn’t follow up with him, you drove him to nearly make a very bad decision.

I think that’s a crime!

Let me put this bluntly: If you’re not following up with your “cool prospects” on a regular basis, you’re giving away business to your competitors. And let me assure you – it has nothing to do with how “good” or “bad” your competitor’s quality is. It has everything to do with the quality of their follow-up.

If you haven’t got an automated follow-up system in place right now, then it’s time to change. You can invests six months or more to create your own system if you want to (like “the big guy” that almost got my buddy). Or you can grab my “turnkey” follow-up system that’s ready to “plug and play” for your company right now.

(Coincidentally, we just recently doubled the number of postcard and e-mail “touches” in the system, and dropped the set-up price to HALF of what we used to charge. So there’s definitely never been a better time to check it out. Just look for “automatic follow-up” at the MYM Austin website.)

There are good people out there (like my friend Bill) who are at risk of making big pool buying mistakes. Please do your part to make sure that never happens again.

To your success,
Brett

PS – The story has a happy ending. I encouraged Bill to do a little looking around, and ask a few key questions. He quickly narrowed his list to a few, then one high-quality builder, and wound up with a beautiful $95,000 freeform beauty in his backyard. And his wife loves him for it. Which is perhaps a lesson I should pay a little more attention to…

The GAVA Awards, 2011…

If you’ve never entered, it’s time!

By Brett Lloyd Abbott, MYM Austin Inc.

I was heart-broken a few weeks ago when I read Mike Farley’s article in the March issue of WaterShapes Magazine. Mike is a brilliant designer, and he writes interesting articles and book reviews for the magazine. This time, he happened to write about the GAVA Awards book, “International Award-Winning Pools, Spas, & Water Environments.” Since I’m actively involved in GAVA, the unmistakable cover photo instantly caught my eye.

I loved Mike’s premise, that it’s the job of each and every one of us in the industry to help “Sell the Dream.”  He acknowledges Vance Gillette’s tireless crusade (which you’ve no doubt seen a time or two) as a great example to follow.  He also mentions the above-named GAVA book, along with “Scott Cohen’s Poolscapes: Refreshing Ideas for the Backyard Resort.“

So why my heartbreak? Mike was kind, flattering and accurate in his coverage of the GAVA book. Yes, it really is “a 176-page, beautifully illustrated book that records the results of the annual GAVA awards program.” And yes, the program was indeed founded by Joe Vassallo, Virginia Martino and Mary Vail of 3V enterprises.

It was Mike’s observation that “Clearly, it’s a collection of projects that were drawn mainly from a network of builders associated with Joe and his company, Paragon Pools.“

Ouch.

The hurt is not because Mike was wrong.  The hurt is because the evidence suggests that Mike may actually be RIGHT.  To the casual outside observer, it DOES sort of look like a “Friends of Joe” awards program.

I can assure you, it’s NOT. In fact, I think the greatest virtue of the GAVA Awards program is the “DON’T” aspect:

• You DON’T have to be a member of APSP, SPASA, Carecraft, Aquatech or the BBB.
• You DON’T have to be a graduate of Genesis 3.
• You DON’T have to live in the United States.
• You DON’T have to be a builder.
• You DON’T have to pay an entry fee (if you’re a charity).
• And you DON’T have to be a friend of Joe. (Even though he’s a very likable guy.)

If it looks to the casual observer like the winners are just a bunch of friends of Joe, then that tells me we ain’t gettin’ the word out.

So here’s the word: Get off your butt, and submit some of your projects to the GAVA awards program already. The judging process is the fairest that I’ve ever seen (it’s judged by people outside our industry), and the projects submitted are highly creative and international, which means  WINNING it is a major feather in your cap.

And you must admit, the award trophy is one of the coolest around.

So go ahead and take a couple of your best, most creative projects, and enter them in the contest. Do it before April 15, and you’ll save a few bucks. You’ll find the on-line entry forms right here.

To your success,

Brett

PS – The experts at 3V Enterprises tell me that if you don’t yet have “the perfect photos” for your project, you can still submit your entry NOW with the drawings, and send the primo photos later in the year. (I guess it really DOES help to be a friend of Joe!)