Social media makes us do things, buy things, crave things we didn’t even know we needed – all because a piece of good content kept showing up on our feeds. Now, sure, building a pool isn’t exactly an impulse decision like buying a kitchen gadget or booking a last-minute trip. But when they keep seeing your builds, your process, and the insights you share, something shifts. You start to shape how they see pool building and who they’d trust to do it.
And it’s not just your work that speaks for you – when new people come across your page and see others asking questions, leaving comments, and you taking the time to respond, it all becomes part of their decision-making. They may not be ready to build a pool today, but now they know who you are. And when the time comes, you’ll be the one on their radar.
Over time, it doesn’t just build your brand – it builds trust, followers, and, eventually, leads.
Get to know who your audience is
Like most forms of pool builder marketing, social media is all about showing the right content to the right people.
Sure, as a pool builder, you’re targeting homeowners, but not every homeowner is your ideal customer. The ones more likely to be seriously considering a pool are in their 30s to 40s, interested in outdoor living, home upgrades, and have enough disposable income to take on a project like this. But even that varies depending on where you’re based.
For example, if you’re working in Silicon Valley, you’re probably talking to a younger, tech-savvy audience with a modern aesthetic. They might be looking for sleek, minimal pool designs, energy-efficient heating options, or even smart automation features. On the other hand, if you’re in Orlando, FL, your audience might skew older, more family-focused, looking for long-term durability, ease of maintenance, and maybe something classic and resort-like.
But it’s not just about age, either.
To make your content click, you have to step into your audience’s shoes.
For example, dig into what’s their financial situation like, how are interest rates or property values in the area? What kind of climate do they live in, does it justify year-round pool use? What kind of lifestyle do they aspire to? These small details can completely shift how you approach your content.
You can get started with the most basic details, like their age range and a few lifestyle traits. And as you keep going and have more and more people join you, you’ll start understanding them better and be able to tailor future content accordingly.
Remember that you have to evolve as your audience does.
So, keep experimenting. Test different types of posts, captions, and visuals. See what makes people stop scrolling, what they engage with, and what they ignore. Those metrics are gold. Use that data to refine your message, improve your visuals, and stay relevant.
Create Engaging Content
Now to the main part, where many small businesses fumble. They post what they want to say, not what their audience is actually interested in.
For example, let’s say your followers are curious about cost. Maybe they’ve dreamed of having a pool for years, but feel it’s just out of reach. Now, if all they see on your feed are technical breakdowns of fiberglass layering or construction methods, it’s not going to help them inch closer to saying yes. In fact, it might just overwhelm them.
So you need to meet them where they are.
Create content around HOW to afford a pool. You can talk about financing options, break down monthly payment estimates, or share cost-effective design alternatives that still look high-end. That way, you’re not just showing off your expertise, you’re also actively solving the mental blocks holding them back from making a decision.
That said, you don’t want to go all-in on money talk either. People get bored, fast. So, balance it out with a variety of content that shows off your work and builds trust.
You could share things like:
- Video tours of completed pools – let people see the transformation and imagine what their own backyard could look like.
- Behind-the-scenes footage shows the grit and effort that goes into building those perfect curves and tiles. It adds authenticity.
- Mini guides on care, maintenance, or seasonal upkeep – simple, visual tips they can save and revisit.
- Demonstrations – instead of saying your pool shell is strong, show a real clip of it holding weight or resisting impact. Show, don’t just say.
Promote active engagement from your audience
You’re showing off your best work, sharing all about what sets you apart, and listing out the services you offer. That’s great! BUT, if it isn’t making your audience pause their scroll and interact with your content, it won’t make a lot of difference.
Remember, social media rewards engagement.
Your people will remember you, follow you, and reach out to you, ONLY when they’ve interacted with your content in some way.
You can ask for their opinions on design ideas, get them to vote by setting up polls like, “Would you go for a sleek modern lap pool or a classic freeform with a spa?”, and maybe even run a small giveaway (like a free pool cleaning service) – essentially ANYTHING that gets them involved and talking.
You could even take them behind the scenes and ask, “Which tile would you pick for this space?” People love to weigh in, especially when it feels like they’re getting an insider peek at your projects.
The idea of having a pool installed someday in their backyard is inherently exciting, so take advantage of that and stir things up by making them imagine their future pool.
Doing something consistently is always better than nothing, but have some fun with it. Don’t just keep posting photos of pools and expect the phone to ring.
Utilizing Hashtags Effectively
Hashtags are added after the posts, telling the algorithm what you’re talking about and whose feed it should be on. People look up hashtags all the time to find content of their interest.
For example, when someone wants to see fibreglass pools being installed but they don’t know about you or any specific company to look for, they can use those hashtags to find a broad variety of relevant content published. Let’s say they try #fiberglasspools – there’s a huge possibility of them landing on one of your posts which used that exact hashtag.
Sometimes, they might even follow that hashtag so the platform keeps showing them related content repeatedly. And again, from there, if you keep doing it right, they’ll find you over and over again, until they’re finally so impressed that they give you a follow. Now, you have a direct, undeniable connection with them.
This is how they went from a stranger randomly looking for fibreglass pool inspo to your follower – that is how hashtags help. They broaden the reach of your content so that you’re not just posting for your followers but anyone (there are actually thousands of them)remotely interested in what you do.
Finding the right Hashtags to use
When you search a hashtag on Instagram, let’s say it’s #poolinstall this time, you’ll see some search suggestions and how many posts are already published in each.
On tapping the one you find most relevant, all the recent posts with that hashtag will appear like this.
Now, how do you ensure that you’re one of the top ones here, and you don’t get buried easily under newer content? That’s the tricky part.
Generally, users look for a combination of relevance and volume. In this case, that would be #poolinstallation (with over 45k posts). What they might find here is a lot of generic content, so they’ll try to narrow down to something more specific (according to their intent). It could be #poolinstallers or #poolinstaller. This makes using a combination of different hashtags important. Because, when they didn’t like what was there under #poolinstallation, they tried #poolinstaller, which filtered everything with #poolinstallation tag. But if you had them both added, you’d still appear.
The next thing to do to increase your chances of getting seen is NOT adding a hashtag that is already heavily used. It’s because your chances of being seen are minimal if you use a search term with 20 million posts. You might show up for a few minutes, but then newer content will take over. So you have to find a sweet spot there, which gets you lasting visibility, and it’s totally doable with a little bit of research and experimenting.
Last, but not least, make sure you’re checking the content in every tag before you add them to your post. Because sometimes the themes they contain are very different from what you expect them to be. For instance, you think #pool is a great one for broad reach. But if you actually look it up, it’s almost 100% OnlyFans models promoting their content in pools. So, details matter A LOT.
Of course, you can add as many as 30 hashtags per post, but we recommend using 3-5 to avoid an overwhelming block of tags.
So when you are deciding on those 5 tags, don’t limit yourself to ONLY “pool installation”.
Think about who your audience is, why they want a pool, and what kind of end result they are hoping for. For example, you could use hashtags like #PoolDesigns, #OutdoorLiving, and #BackyardParadise. They will not only broaden your post’s exposure not only to people interested in pool installation and home improvement, but also to outdoor amenities.
Brand-specific hashtags like #SunnyScapePools are also great to increase brand recognition. In addition to using them yourself, also encourage your customers to add them while sharing their experiences to boost your business’s social media presence.
Showcasing Your Portfolio
When your future client lands on your social media profile, one of the first things they’re trying to figure out – consciously or not – is what you’re capable of building. They’re scanning through your feed, picturing their own backyard in place of the ones you’ve already transformed. That’s why your social media shouldn’t just be an update board, it should feel like a curated portfolio – a collection of all the great work you’ve done for others.
So show them all the different transformations you did – small pools, big pools, indoors, outdoors – all shapes and colors. The more diverse your portfolio, the more likely someone is to come across a post and think, “That’s exactly what I want.” This is what could push them to leave a comment or send you a dm inquiring about if and how you can do the same for them, too.
There’s also a lot of value in showing what happens behind the scenes, too.
You could document the steps of a real pool installation. From the excavation to framing, tiling, the unexpected weather delays, and finally, that first fill-up. Sharing all the details would make them feel included in the whole process, making it less intimidating. And who knows, someone could be on the fence about the project, and that kind of transparency gets them over the line.
As you build momentum, you can even start creating reels and saving them in highlights or pinning them to your profile – though we’d stay focused on the basics for now.
Collaborating with Influencers
When your own social media is still a work in progress, influencer marketing can give you a serious boost, without the slow climb. It allows you to tap into a huge pool of pre-engaged audiences.
And not just any audience – these are thousands of people who already trust the person talking to them.
For example, if someone has been following a local lifestyle creator who regularly shares dreamy home upgrades, backyard inspiration, or family-friendly outdoor spaces, and then one day that creator casually shares your pool install. It could be them walking barefoot around the edge, admiring the waterline tile while mentioning it was YOU who did the great job, you immediately get framed as the pool builder to check out.
Yes, you might only get a slice of their followers paying attention, but that’s often more than enough to start meaningful conversations in your own DMs.
Now, remember, not every influencer is a fit.
You want to look for creators who already post about home improvement, family lifestyle, or outdoor design because you want their audiences to overlap with your ideal clients.
You’ll also want to approach it with a clear sense of what you want from the collaboration. It could be a full walkthrough video, maybe it’s a few stories during the install, or a photo carousel once it’s all done. Whatever it is, have it written down before you reach out.
Video Marketing Strategies for Pool Builders
Video is one of the easiest ways to help people see the value you bring.
Most of the time, homeowners don’t know a lot about what actually goes into building a pool. So, a simple walk-around video showing what that backyard looked like before, what happened during the process, and how it all came together in the end can do a lot of the talking for you. And YouTube is a powerful platform to share those snippets on.
While ideally, you’d want to create high-quality videos, don’t let that hold you from taking the first step. Just take out your phone and start recording from its camera. Then, as your channel starts to grow, you can consider investing in more high-end production.
For long-form content, you could show them how things look on-site, talk through decisions you’re making as you build, or explain the materials being used.
And for YouTube Shorts, you can do a quick timelapse of a pool install, a before/after flip, or even short clips where you answer common questions or a query you got in the comments. To give your reach a boost, add a trendy sound and relevant hashtags too.
Setting Clear Marketing Objectives
Don’t be one of those who jump in on social media without a plan and an end goal.
You could be posting here and there – some progress pics, a few “just finished” shots and hope people will magically start calling you. But without knowing WHY you’re posting or WHAT you want to get out of it, it becomes just another task you check off your list. And eventually, you burn out or give up altogether.
Having a clear objective is the key to making it work.
Let’s say your goal is to grow your Instagram following from 30 to 1,000 people in the next few months. That number gives you direction. You can now focus your content and tactics on attracting new people. It could be hopping on local hashtags, collaborating with micro-influencers, or posting consistently at the right times.
If you’ve already built a decent follower base, but not many people are clicking through to your website or booking consultations. That’s a different kind of problem – one that needs a different kind of content. Now you want to guide people from your posts to your site. It could be by showcasing a project and linking to the full build story on your blog, or running a short campaign that highlights financing options with a call to action to check eligibility online.
Whatever it is, be specific about it and give yourself a number to chase.
That number doesn’t need to be wild. You shouldn’t be trying to hit 1 million views overnight. Instead, start with something realistic that you can actually measure and reach within 3 to 6 months. Then reassess and move the goalposts forward.
So like that, when you have a goal, you post with purpose.
You experiment, you track, you learn. But when you post just to keep the feed alive without thinking it through, it’ll feel like you’re doing everything and getting nowhere.
Start With One Platform, Then Branch Out
It’s tempting to go all in, set up accounts everywhere, try to keep them all active, and hope one of them sticks. But more often than not, this kind of scattergun approach just spreads your energy too thin.
Instead of doing one thing well, you end up doing several things poorly, and that doesn’t help your business.
The right thing to do is to start SMALL.
Pick one platform that makes the most sense to you, instead of 3-4. Then go deep into learning how it works – what kind of content performs best, when your audience is most active, and how they like to engage. Once you build momentum there, ONLY then think about branching out.
The only soft exception here is Instagram and Facebook. While they’re technically two platforms, Meta allows for easy cross-posting. So, if you’re already creating visual content for Instagram, it makes sense to set up that automatic share to Facebook too. It takes no extra time, and at least keeps both pages active while you focus your main efforts on one.
To sum it up, building a presence on social media isn’t about being everywhere – it’s about showing up well wherever you are.
