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- From Cleaning Pools To $1m/Year Pool Care Content Titan
From Cleaning Pools To $1m/Year Pool Care Content Titan
Steal These 6 Dead-Simple Content Strategies
Matt Giovanisci built Swim University into a $1000,000/year pool care content business (with just his wife and his brother helping him out).
I spent 7 hours digging into this amazing content empire.
In this post:
Swim University’s 3-step content strategy.
6 non-obvious insights I found that you can use to get more clicks, engagement, and revenue.
Let’s get to it.
🥽 swim university
⚙️ Strategy
The Swim University business model in 3 steps:
Stats (estimates from SimilarWeb + public profiles):
Swim University does have active social media channels (Instagram and TikTok) - but these drive negligible traffic to its website/product shop.
We’ll get right to those 6 content insights.
But first, a quick word from our partners at Premium Ghostwriting Academy.
🖋️ Together With PGA
💡6 content insights
🚀 Traffic (Get More Clicks)
1. Write Benefit-Driven Headlines
Swim University writes killer headlines for blog posts and YouTube videos.
Here’s why they’re so clickable:
They promise to save the reader time, effort, or money.
Blog Post Title Example:
“How To Clear Cloudy Pool Water In 48 Hours Or Less”
YouTube Title Example:
“How to Get Rid of POOL ALGAE (Green Water)”
It speaks directly to pool care beginners in their own language.
A lot of people won’t even know they’ve got pool algae - they'll just wonder why they’ve got green water.
Takeaway:
Promise quick, clear solutions to specific problems and you’ll get more clicks.
2. Use Consistent Thumbnails
Swim University is a master of the thumbnail game.
Vivid colors
Consistent design/illustration style
Consistent font
Matt’s trusted face on all of them
Calling out the problem in words
Takeaway:
💡 Content Psychology Tip: A consistent thumbnail design will serve as a visual anchor, guiding the viewers eyes to your familiar thumbnail among a sea of other creators’ thumbnails.
💖 Building Trust (Make Them Stick)
3. Become The Comprehensive Solution
The content goes into a level of detail where you wouldn’t need to visit any other resource.
The blog posts often use beautiful infographics to explain complex pool concepts.
Features that make it clear they’ve gone the extra mile.
One of their most popular posts is their pool volume calculator.
They could have just given you a DIY formula.
Instead, they use an embedded WordPress calculator widget to solve your problem more efficiently.
Takeaway:
Little touches of detail can make the difference between being the only resource your audience needs to visit as opposed to being one of three or four resources.
4. Consider Automating Your Newsletter
On his old podcast MoneyLab, Matt said his weekly newsletter is an automated sequence that runs for 1-2 years.
He uses a lead magnet to grow his newsletter organically through his blog posts and YouTube videos:
A pool care cheat sheet - one of the most stunning lead magnets I’ve ever seen.
swimuniversity.com
It clearly converts.
The newsletter has 100K email subscribers and accounts for a significant proportion of product sales.
Each issue offers practical advice for pool owners.
Every so often, you’ll get a soft pitch for his products at the bottom.
Takeaway:
Consider automating your newsletter sequence months in advance, especially if it isn’t your main focus.
Don’t pitch products in every email. Provide value and pitch every two to three emails to strike a balance.
💡 Content Psychology Tip: Offering value in one to two emails increases the likelihood of purchases when you eventually pitch a product in the third. Subscribers feel inclined to return the favor.
💰 Monetization (Make More Money)
5. The One Time Offer
After signing up for the cheat sheet lead magnet, you’re directed to a one-time-offer:
A 50% discount for their pool care video course ($98 → $48): 24 hours only.
The countdown at the bottom of the screen is made using the tool Deadline Funnel.
Takeaway:
While this one-time offer isn’t going to convert as high as email marketing will, it’ll still pick up sales from pool care owners desperate for a more urgent solution.
💡 Content Psychology Tip: The 24-hour timer creates a sense of urgency and scarcity - FOMO can be powerful.
6. Their Own Affiliate Program
Swim University has an affiliate program for their online video courses - 50% commission for each sale.
It isn’t difficult to set up an affiliate program these days.
They empower your audience to become brand ambassadors.
They also incentivize other influencers in your niche to share your products with their audiences.
There are plenty of tools that allow you to create your own affiliate program these days (eg. Refersion and Tapfiliate).
Takeaway:
If you sell your own products, consider boosting your reach with an affiliate program.
Digital products have high margins and it’s often worth it to give away a slice of the pie.
🐰 rabbit holes and resources
🍫 Today’s link candy for content creators:
A tool for making eye-popping animation videos in just a few clicks [link]
How to turn ChatGPT into your personal writing assistant [link]
How to get testimonials from your audience (and why it’s essential) [link]
How to scale content production (25 expert ideas) [link]
How creators are earning big money repurposing short-form videos on Facebook [link]
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And that’s all for today!
Dilshan, The Pen Pivot