Swimly proposal

THE
ONLY
THING
THAT
MATTERS
TO
US
&
OUR
CLIENTS

IS
ROI

Supplemental Video Notes

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SMBs Strategically Advised

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Successful Integrated Marketing Campaigns

0.0X ROI

Average Client Return On Investment

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Websites Produced
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High Performing Emails Deployed

CASE STUDY

Our Commercial Real Estate Client Saw 2020 As An Eventual Blessing - First Disguised As A Curse

The Covid ERA destroyed commercial real estate firms.
With every bad, there's a good. We used this time to re-strategize.

CASE STUDY

Home Services Is Where The Heart Is

People get in routines because that is always how they have been doing it.
"People don't change" isn't our favorite phrase because...well...change is inevitable.
We had to use the big dog hot phrase, Change Management, to achieve our wins in Lead Gen, Sales Ops and Automations.

CASE STUDY

Challenge Accepted

We typically don't do event marketing.
We saw this as a fun challenge to up our game.

Leave the campsite better than you found it, and the world will be a better place because of it

Swimly Residential Pool Service Growth Plan

Swimly doesn't need a bloated agency buildout, a six-month brand therapy session, or marketing theater. The immediate opportunity is simpler: get in front of residential pool owners in Tampa Bay who either hate cleaning their own pool, are tired of unreliable service, or are ready to switch providers.

Phase one is heavily ads-first — paid advertising, lead quality, tracking, and fast learning. The goal is a repeatable growth system for residential pool service accounts, weighted toward the neighborhoods that make the most sense for route density, response time, and long-term recurring revenue.

This is a practical growth engagement, not a year-long agency trap. Tocobaga works on a flat-fee structure, never charges a percentage of ad spend, and the agreement includes a 60 Day Exit — if it's not working, an email ends it.

The Market (Why Now)

Tocobaga's pre-engagement research on the Tampa Bay residential pool market:

  • ~150,000 residential pools in Hillsborough County. ~120,000 in Pinellas. ~104,000 in Pasco. That's roughly 374,000 pools in Swimly's backyard.
  • About half of pool owners try to do it themselves. Swimly's biggest competitor isn't another pool company — it's the homeowner fighting their own pool every weekend.
  • Industry churn runs ~6%, and most people switching are leaving providers who stopped showing up. Reliability alone wins accounts.
  • The bigger conglomerate competitors are investing in exclusive digital assets and Local Services Ads that generate high-intent conversions. They're already fishing where the fish are — Swimly just needs to fish smarter, not outspend them.

The Four Holy Marketing Metrics. Marketing and sales come down to four numbers. Everything Tocobaga builds gets tracked against these:

Holy Metric #1: Cost Per Lead

What it costs to make the phone ring. Industry benchmarks: optimized search leads can run near $21; Local Services Ads inbound calls land between $25–70; qualified Google Ads conversions run $40–120; Meta averages around $30 unqualified.

Swimly's current LSA baseline sits at $50–60 per lead — that's the number to beat, and the benchmarks say there's real room to beat it.

Holy Metric #2: Cost Per New Customer

Leads are nice. Customers pay the bills. National benchmarks put the cost of acquiring a new residential pool service customer at roughly $80–250.

Tracking this number keeps ad spend honest — it connects every dollar in to a recurring account out, and exposes which channels produce lookers versus bookers.

Holy Metric #3: Average Revenue Per New Customer (Year One)

National benchmarks show standard weekly residential maintenance around $180/month (~$2,160/year). Tampa Bay market pricing runs closer to $130–135/month (~$1,560–1,620/year).

This is the payback math: when a new account is worth ~$1,600 in year one and acquisition costs $80–250, every properly-targeted ad dollar has a clear, measurable return — and it signals when pricing power exists as reliability builds a reputation.

Holy Metric #4: Lifetime Value

The metric that makes recurring service businesses valuable. With industry churn around ~6%, a residential account that's served reliably stays for years — even conservatively, a single account retained 3–5 years is worth roughly $4,800–$8,100, before referrals.

Lifetime value is why the plan pairs acquisition with retention, reviews, and referral layers: the cheapest customer to acquire is the one a happy customer sends over the fence.

Objective

Build an ads-first residential customer acquisition system for Swimly that generates, tracks, and optimizes qualified pool service leads — keeping spend controlled, measurable, and tied to real recurring revenue growth.

Goals

  1. Launch and optimize paid advertising around residential pool cleaning and weekly maintenance.
  2. Prioritize Google Local Services Ads, Google Ads, and Meta Ads based on lead quality — Swimly has LSA history to build from, and Meta is untested upside worth a structured trial.
  3. Position Swimly against the real competition: DIY pool owners, flaky providers, and low-effort pool companies.
  4. Improve conversion from lead to booked estimate to new recurring client.
  5. Track the Four Holy Metrics — cost per lead, cost per new customer, average revenue per new customer, and lifetime value — plus booked lead rate, monthly recurring revenue added, and route density.
  6. Build a lean follow-up, email, and referral system that supports growth without overwhelming a one-person operation.
  7. Keep the plan flexible to Swimly's stage, budget, and route capacity — marketing spend should scale as a percentage of revenue as the business grows, not sit as a fixed cost.

Primary Audience

The first growth push stays focused on residential pool owners only — no commercial pools, HOA or community pools, or management-company work. That's by design, not limitation.

The strongest targets:

  • Homeowners tired of cleaning the pool themselves — the "second job" crowd.
  • Homeowners burned by inconsistent or no-show pool services.
  • Busy families who want one less recurring chore.
  • New pool owners who need reliable ongoing maintenance from day one.
  • The household vendor decision-maker — often the woman of the house, who holds the swing vote on which service providers come and go — with messaging built around reliability, consistency, and never having to chase another vendor.
  • Referral sources: current clients, local networks, and neighbors who see the work.

Campaign Positioning

Swimly's best early angle is not "we're the cheapest." That's a race to the bottom in a market where competitors cluster at nearly identical monthly pricing anyway.

The stronger position: Reliable residential pool service that shows up, does the work, and keeps the pool off the homeowner's mental to-do list.

Potential campaign themes:

  • "Your Pool Should Not Be a Second Job."
  • "Stop Fighting the Pool."
  • "Not Another Flaky Pool Service."
  • "We Show Up. We Clean the Pool. Weirdly Rare."
  • "Clear Pool. Consistent Service. No Drama."

What Tocobaga Will Build

Ad Strategy + Setup
Campaign structure, audience and neighborhood targeting, keyword direction, budget pacing, offer framing, and platform recommendations across Google Local Services Ads, Google Ads, and Meta Ads — including a structured first test of Meta.

Competitive + Market Audit
Pull the SEO visibility, paid search keywords, and ad positioning of the larger local competitors on day one. Find where they're winning, where they're lazy, and the lead-gen angles Swimly can take without trying to outspend anyone.

Lead Tracking + Reporting
Simple reporting built around the Four Holy Metrics, plus booked lead rate and recurring revenue added. Plain-English reports, no dashboard theater.

Conversion Support
Review the full path from ad click to inquiry to booked service: landing page direction, form and call behavior, follow-up timing, and lead quality filtering so ad dollars turn into route stops.

Email, Follow-Up + Referral Layer
Stand up a lean CRM and monthly email cadence — starting with contacts Swimly already has — plus follow-up recommendations for prospects, current clients, and reactivations. Staying visible is a top-two local business strategy: even unopened emails keep the name in the room when a neighbor asks "know anyone who does pools?"

Local Networking Direction
Guidance on structured weekly networking (BNI-style groups and local referral circles) as a zero-ad-spend lead channel that compounds alongside paid.

Growth Advisory
Client education is the point, not an upsell. Ongoing help thinking through route density, service areas, pricing pressure, when lead volume justifies the first hire — and what psychological makeup to hire for so the first employee is a keeper, not a last-second panic hire.

6-Month Simple Growth Timeline

Month 1: Ads Foundation
Competitor review, keyword research, tracking setup, campaign structure, offer/message testing, and initial launch across the best-fit ad channels.

Month 2: Lead Quality + Optimization
Review lead quality, adjust budgets, refine targeting, add negative keywords, test Meta Ads, and improve the inquiry path from ad click to booked lead.

Month 3: Conversion Tightening
Improve follow-up timing, lead handling, booked estimate process, and messaging around reliability, consistency, and residential pool owner pain points.

Month 4: Route Density Push
Shift spend toward neighborhoods and service areas that support cleaner routing, recurring accounts, faster response times, and better operational efficiency.

Month 5: Referral + Retention Layer
Add lightweight referral, review, customer communication, and reactivation support so new customers become longer-term residential accounts.

Month 6: Scale + Reset Plan
Double down on the best-performing channels, service areas, and messaging. Review whether lead volume, route density, revenue growth, and capacity support the next stage of growth.

Pacing note: this plan flexes to Swimly's budget and capacity. The work is sequenced so nothing gets skipped — the timeline stretches before the scope shrinks.

6 Month Simple Gantt Chart

Swimly Residential Pool Service Growth Plan
6-Month Ads-First Growth Timeline
Q3 2026 Q4 2026 Q1 2027
July August September October November December January
Discovery, Research & Setup
Competitor + Market Review
Keyword + Audience Research
Tracking + Reporting Setup
Strategy & Planning
Landing Page + Conversion Recommendations
Follow-Up Process Optimization
Scale / Reset Planning
Execution & Continuous Improvement
Google Local Services / Google Ads Launch
Meta Ads Testing
Route Density Targeting
Referral + Review Support
Client Services Communication
Lead Quality Review

Proposal Summary

Comparisons & Your Price

No one wants to feel like a dumbo overpaying an outside firm.
We get it. We abhor 99% of advisors and agencies. Our industry has a lot of snake oil.

If you’re going to try to compare bid costs, you must examine the exact same
QCD+F: Quality, Cost, Deliverability + Flexibility

Average Agency Rate

$6,563

Tocobaga’s Normal Rate

$2,500

Your Tocobaga Rate

$634

DISCOUNT
SHOT
CLOCK

Quick-Start Next Steps

Administrative & Clerical Tasks

  1. Invoice is deposited - either total for the month or deposit.

  2. Tocobaga begins working

  3. Tocobaga receives access to Tech Stack and any relevant brand collateral

  4. Quick-Start onboarding will not be sequential - aka might be a little out of order than our normal process

    1. Tocobaga will send over Company Services Agreement

    2. Tocobaga will start a Slack workspace for internal communication. If you use another internal communication app, we can integrate Slack with other apps e.g. Slack two-way sync with Teams.

    3. Tocobaga will coordinate a recurring, update meeting cadence - usually once a week initially and then every 2 weeks once we build a rhythm. If clients cannot attend because of schedule conflicts, we will record an update video and send via Slack.

If we’re ready to go right now, the button to the invoice is below or click on the invoice image to the right. Once the invoice is paid, we begin.

Let’s Go

ABOUT

TOCOBAGA

a
B2B, B2C SMB Strategic Advisory
&
Omni-channel, Integrated Marketing Agency

Fractional CMO FAQs

SERVICES

Quick Start Services

Marketing Execution Services

Support Services

Possible add-ons services and costs

Online Ad/PPC ad spend without markup

Video Content Production

Purchasing Email Lists via Data Broker

Programmatic Direct Messaging

Approach

Strategy-first approach: work big to small. Macro to Micro.  The biggest gaffe in the outsourced marketing services sector is focusing on tactics to begin.  Our approach is the following 6 phases:

1. Define Objectives, S.M.A.R.T. goals and Current Analysis & Resource Audit (a current strategy review, branding assessment, resource audit and marketing performance report).  

2. Thorough research. 

3. Develop a leveraging integrated, omnichannel strategy in lock step communication and approval with the client. 

4. Project management execution with respect to achieving KPIs, budgets and resources

5. Analyze quantitative and qualitative reporting. 

6. Continuously improve

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Strategic plans without execution = a fun idea.

Discipline is the ultimate freedom.

Over-communicate until you have concise shorthand.

Time is a commodity.

Think 3 steps ahead. Contingency plan IFTTT scenarios.

Be agile & adaptable.

The obstacle is the way.

Work short-term and long term at the same time.

Analyze the past while proactively, continuously improve your present and future. 

Execute omnichannel, integrated marketing campaigns, online and off.

Work macro and micro.

Generalize and specialize. 

Strategic and tactical.

A/B test. 

ROI should be the client's main focus and many drill down minutiae. ROI (Return On Investment) is the only thing that matters to our clients (and us). It is the cover image on every one of our proposal decks. It is our mantra; our North Star philosophy. We must provide multiple X ROI for our clients or we cease to exist.

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