Hi. I'm Doug Lessells. On behalf of everyone at SalesFuel, we welcome you to this month's featured Sell Smarter Award — where we honor excellence in media sales.

Cheryl Froman, a multimedia account executive from the Anderson Independent-​Mail, was looking to make a splash when she approached a pool distributor about changing their digital ad strategy.

“The business is very seasonal,” said Froman. “The owner is reluctant to change his ways, as he's been advertising on TV for years and was using a digital marketing firm that sells packages but does none of them well. He thought it was good enough at $750 a month.”

Froman said the company, that sells above-​ground and in-​ground pools, was doing all right, but she saw room for improvement. Froman’s end goal? To double the amount of in-​ground pools they sold. To make this idea viable, she turned to a combination of AdMall’s AudienceSCAN reports and demographic intelligence.

“We targeted men and women age 35–64 with a household income of $50,000 or more a year,” said Froman. “I showed them how few people go past page one on a search; how many people use search for products and services; what competitors are doing; how social media is used by the general population, as well as how advertisers utilize it to reach their target audience.”

The owner quickly realized that his minimalist approach to digital advertising was inadequate and outdated. With Froman’s guidance, he stopped his TV marketing and SEO campaigns and refocused all efforts jointly on SEM and Facebook ads.

The owner even agreed to increase the amount of his monthly spending from $750 a month to $2,750. The deal totaled $21,000 in all.

When asked about how the new campaign was going, Froman was pleased to report that the owner sold a pool within the first five days.

Congratulations to Cheryl, along with the other Sell Smarter Award recipients: Brandon Brackett of Redding Record Searchlight and Carla Klinger of Hometown Stations WLIO, ELIO, WOHL and EOHL.

To read more about these winners, along with submitting your own story for a chance at a Sell Smarter Award, please visit SalesFuel​.com/​SSA.