Instant ROI: 20 Product Reviews in 6 Months Boost pHin’s Summer Sales

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“Overall, the pHin smart pool water monitor is a good investment for any pool owner looking for a smart and simple way to take pool maintenance and care into their own hands.” – Rachel Murphy, Reviewed.com, part of the USA Today network

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Campaign Highlights: 

  • To launch pHin into the tech market and drive consumer awareness, Caster developed a media, content, and social media program in preparation for the 2020 sales season.
  • Over the six-month pool season, Caster managed more than 20 product reviews for coverage in consumer, tech, and trade publications including Forbes, Reviewed.com, ReadWrite, PC Mag, GearBrain, Residential Systems, AVNation, and more.
  • Driven by a campaign calendar to coordinate social media, editorial, and blog topics, Caster wrote new educational, promotional, and seasonal blog content to use across editorial and as organic posts used to grow brand awareness, web traffic, and social media engagement.

 

The award-winning pHin Smart Water Care System is reinventing pool and hot tub care. pHin combines a Wi-Fi-enabled smart monitor and mobile app that checks pool and hot tub water chemistry and temperature 24/7, notifying customers via smartphone when there is an issue and providing guidance to simplify maintenance. pHin was acquired by Hayward Industries, Inc., a leading global manufacturer and marketer of residential and commercial pool equipment.

The Challenge

The pHin Smart Water Monitor entered the market in 2015, designed by a pool owner who wanted to remove the guesswork from the challenging measuring and chemical dosing needed for safe water. Thousands of homeowners use pHin to simplify their pool and hot tub water care. While many have found it the saving grace of pool ownership, pHin’s standing faltered over the years due to a few negative YouTube reviews. There was also friction between pHin and the pool technicians and the trade market, some of whom worried that pHin would become a replacement for their business. Conflicting messages for pHin’s two main audiences – consumer hot tub and pool owners and pool technicians who can use pHin as a remote monitoring tool – caused its reputation to suffer.

Ahead of the busiest sales season starting in the spring, pHin needed to advance customer awareness and education, grow its audience and traffic to its “Buy” and Amazon pages, and combat negative reviews to improve its reputation. Also, as  the pandemic triggered shutdowns and stay-at-home orders, more homeowners took on pool ownership, making pHin’s digital footprint especially critical.

“If you’re having trouble keeping your pool or spa water perfectly sanitized and crystal clear, the pHin Smart Water Monitor will tell you all you need to know about your water including the current temperature, sanitizer levels, and pH levels. Moreover, it will tell you which chemicals you’ll need to maintain a safe swimming environment, how much to add, and when to add them, and it offers professional services and an online chemical shopping option.” – John Delaney, PC Mag

The Strategy

Caster has a track record for building buzz for its consumer technology clients, from speakers to smart lights to security systems. The team dove into the pool and hot tub space to build a strategy for pHin, starting with an analysis to create customer personas and new, clearer messaging that defined the key differentiators and benefits, including the use cases for consumers versus pool technicians.

With the messages defined, Caster brainstormed topics and developed a content calendar with themes across the blog, social media, editorials, and news. The goal was to balance content between educational pieces about pool water care and chemicals with lifestyle and seasonal topics, while also highlighting case studies about pHin. The blogs were used to establish pHin as a resource for pool owners, whether posted on social media or used by the customer service team to answer questions. In addition to being organic content for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, the blogs were also a tool for editorials such as for Father’s Day gift guides in the spring, summer pool tech roundups, and smart home articles.

For much of the country, the pool season is short, and Caster planned for a ramp-up for the spring and summer, creating a cadence of news releases and media alerts about product updates to share with its tech and smart home press relationships to gain coverage. Aside from editorials, pHin needed new content that would encourage purchases, to avoid customers stumbling across some older negative YouTube videos. Product reviews were critical to pHin’s new digital footprint to give consumers confidence in the pHin experience and benefits. The news and media alerts were used as conversation-starters to find press with pools and hot tubs who could take pHin for a spin.

Caster ensured successful product reviews by working closely with press, providing them with in-depth reviewer’s guides including setup instructions and key product points, plus hand-holding each reviewer through the process and troubleshooting hiccups with customer support. The news, coverage, and media reviews established credibility and increased impressions, providing third-party praise for pHin. Caster divided media coverage to suit the different consumer and trade audiences on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram versus LinkedIn. Social engagement also increased by tagging the writers and media outlets in posts and Instagram stories.

“If you own a pool, hot tub or swim spa, we think pHin is a must have smart device. It makes water management easier, safer and enjoyable. It’s not complicated and helps assure your water is clear and clean all the time. You can even manage your water remotely, which is a nice feature.” – Wayne Reuvers, GearBrain

Results

Caster began working with pHin in the fall, with time for planning, creating content, and establishing a cohesive brand presence for the device. With the new messaging created and a plan of news and social media topics for the February through August sales season, Caster targeted and engaged with press to drive coverage. The team achieved 47 unique stories – including 20 in-depth product reviews.

The coverage spanned the six-month period peaking in July, introducing pHin and its new features (including Amazon Alexa integration) to new groups of readers and new pool owners. In addition to blog quotes, videos, gifs, and images on social media, Caster used key quotes from the media coverage and product reviews as organic content on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to highlight different benefits and use cases for pHin, as well as provide an in-depth look at the user experience. Tagging the writers and publications also drove engagement, web traffic, and impressions. Overall, Caster’s social media program organically increased audience growth over 600%, impressions by over 900%, and engagement by over 3,000%. Paid ads on Facebook and Instagram were also used to drive sales on the website and on the Amazon page, contributing to pHin’s best sales season yet.

The Numbers

6-month period:

  • 47 unique stories
  • 18 media reviews
  • Over 3,000% increase in organic social media engagement
  • 605% increase in organic social media audience growth

Full year:

  1. 62 unique stories
  2. 24 media reviews published
  3. Twitter engagement increased over 200%
  4. LinkedIn engagement increased over 600%
  5. Instagram impressions increased over 700%

Caster’s PR, social, and content program for pHin advanced brand awareness, reaching over 148 million impressions with an advertising value equivalent over $1.3 million. The cohesive, topical approach across editorial, blogs, and social media and the 20 product reviews helped to improve pHin’s reputation and consumer confidence. By the end of the six-month sales season in August, pHin sales more than doubled the year’s projections.

60+

unique media stories

3000%+

increase in organic social media engagement after 6 months

20+

in-depth product reviews published