The Issues

Lowell Rempel’s passion has been running his own business. He’s good at what he does. When he had the opportunity to own a Jacuzzi franchise, he was quick to act. He knew that Jacuzzi was at the top of their game which meant he had the absolute best product to offer the market and ensure his success.

As with most startup businesses, Lowell was initially forced to be a jack of all trades. He had no room in his budget for administration or marketing staff to help with PR or communications. Other than the rare occasion that he was able to con his wife into helping, he was on his own.

Lowell, although a natural entrepreneur, knew what he had to do to be successful, but was left with little time to market himself as much as he wanted. Lowell stuck to what he knew best; radio spots on the air as well as newspaper and local magazine ads. Although he managed to get sales, he attributed most of his success to his store location, not the marketing, which was quite costly and impossible to track and measure.

Lowell wanted to find a better way to leverage his marketing dollars and he knew this involved getting online. The market was moving that way, but he had no idea how to get started. He found a local web developer and invested in a new website. What he didn’t expect was the amount of time it would take. Even though he outsourced the work, he was still required to provide the entire direction for the site; how it should be organized, what the pages should look like, the products and images to be included, as well as the written content for each of the pages.

It was only a short time after the site was launched that a few realizations were made. As good as the website was, there was no new business being generated from it. The new website was online, but no one was getting to it. The site needed website visitors. The only way the site could be found was by doing a search for his business name and even that traffic didn’t seem to be converting into business. The site wasn’t producing leads.

The second big issue was the site became outdated in the first few months. Jacuzzi was updating their products and the new site needed to reflect these changes. There was also a huge disconnect between what customers were seeing on the site versus the in-store promotions being run on a regular basis. Lowell didn’t realize the site was going to require so much maintenance to keep it relevant and this turned out to be costly and difficult because the developer was busy with bigger projects.

Lowell was stuck. He had made a significant investment with next to no return and he didn’t want another marketing money pit.

The Solution

Lowell set out to look for solutions to his issues. He narrowed his options to the following:

Self-education

Lowell’s initial investment into the website took a lot of time. To turn this investment around he still needed to learn how to leverage social media, generate website traffic, capture leads, and build a system to market regularly to his database. He had to come to terms with the fact that he was spending his finite hours trying to learn something new rather than devoting his time to what he already excelled at – running the store and selling tubs.

Hire a marketer

Lowell knew that there were advantages to hiring a marketer. Not only would the right person be able to handle the online marketing, Lowell would also be able to delegate several other responsibilities that weren’t well suited to his available time or existing skill set. The only problem was that Lowell had to find someone that possessed a vast variety of skill sets, since the needs were so vast. He would also have to spend time and money training the new hire on the business, and this was a luxury his own schedule and tightly managed budget would be tough to accommodate.

Continue to outsource

Outsourcing was a viable option for Lowell, but he knew of more than one business owner who had had a bad experience with web developers. Even with his small website endeavor, he found that there was little to no support for ongoing services that he required. But, the advantage of the right full service agency is that he would be able to get each specific services he required without having to hire each expertise in-house. In order to feel secure in his decision, Lowell knew that he would have to have complete trust in the company he chose.

The Outcome

After doing his research, Lowell chose to outsource, and he hasn’t looked back. He found a company that specialized in the pool and spa industry. They have since adapted their product offering specifically for Jacuzzi dealers. For the gross profit of a single hot tub sale, Lowell was able to delegate all of his responsibilities for his online marketing initiatives. He’s since been able to re-focus his time and energy on the store and sales, knowing that he’s in capable hands.

The group Lowell turned to for help was Spaleads.com. Spaleads.com’s website and online marketing product produced great results. Not only was Lowell able to gain instant credibility in the online marketplace, but the leads rolled in and traffic increased to the store. So much so, in fact, that Lowell was easily able to justify the ROI.

Lowell has been consistently adding contacts to his database and he has managed to close up to 6 additional hot tub sales per month directly related to this marketing system. Even better, these results were accomplished in less than six months. Lowell was able to achieve this in such a short period of time because his online marketing provided qualified traffic looking to buy tubs, people he would have never been in front of had he not been online.

Lowell can attest to the enormous relief he felt after using Spaleads.com, and to the quantifiable benefits he soon saw. Spaleads.com is primed to extend their solutions to other owners in similar situations – and to do so from a foundation of firm belief and active practice of the delivering qualified leads that turn into sales through online marketing.