A Marketing Plan for your Dive Shop that Works

Trying new things with your dive store can be a competitive advantage. It can also lead to some costly mistakes.

Author

Alex Huhn
December 19, 2022

I've learned some costly lessons, hopefully you can avoid them. 

My top 3 most costly mistakes while running my dive shop were all marketing related. I struggled to find that magic marketing that would bring me unlimited Open Water students. 

During my time as owner of 72 Aquatics, I tried just about every type of marketing I could think of. I ran TV ads, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Magazine Ads, Yelp Ads, Commercials during Shark Week, SEO optimization, a new website, a new CRM, and so much more. 

The best marketing campaigns contain 3 things:1. Consistency2. A positive return on investment3. A way to track results

It took me a lot of trial and error to figure out a marketing campaign that brought in divers, cost less than I spent and had trackable results. 

It feels like as a dive store owner, you are constantly being pitched different marketing ideas. Every salesperson makes it seem like they can solve your marketing problems and they know what's best for your dive store. They even seem to get better at getting you to stay on the phone or schedule the meeting. 

At the end of the day, they are doing their job. You need to do yours and compare every pitch you take against a pre-determined marketing plan. 

  • Who your ideal customer is?

  • How do you market to them?

  • How much is your budget?

  • Do you need different plans for different customer groups? (Open Water, Advanced, Professional Level, Travel)

Avoid the noise and stick to your plan. 

Once you have a plan that contains who your target customer is and how to market to them, you need to pay the piper and stick to the plan. Consistency is key and it's hard to reap the benefits of your marketing if you don't give it enough time. When the inevitable salesperson walks in to your store in May to sell you summer advertising, you already know the answer because you are sticking to a plan. 

It's easy to stick to your plan if you know that it is a positive return on investment. It's a no brainer to spend money on advertising when you know that it is making you more than you are spending (and you can prove it). 

The best marketing campaigns make it easy to track your results. For example, you spent $300 on Facebook Re-marketing that sent 13 people to your landing page for Open Water classes and 3 of them signed up and start class next week. Of the other 10, 9 signed up for your email newsletter and 1 bounced. (We will talk about landing pages in a future newsletter.)

Dive Recap

The best marketing campaign that I found to fit the requirements above is a Facebook and/or Google Re-marketing campaign. These campaigns only target people that have already proven to be interested in scuba diving based on previous search history or website visits. This in combination with a landing page that is simple, to the point and contains a clear call to action is an amazing combination for dive stores. 

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