AI and pool builder marketing in 2025
With the new year just around the corner, Brett Lloyd Abbott from Pool Builder Marketing decided to look into the crystal ball and see what lies ahead for pool builders in relation to AI technology.
By Brett Lloyd Abbott
Starting with the fundamentals, if you’re a pool builder, you’ll still need a great website, with a great story and photo gallery, and a tempting “low-risk offer” that will motivate both the now-buyers and the future-buyers to download for free. (In the marketing industry, we call this a “lead magnet”.)
The purpose of the lead magnet, of course, is to capture the prospect’s e-mail address right up front, so you can begin a thoughtful, long-term nurture process with anyone and everyone who visits your website. As marketing great Dan Kennedy would say, “Continue marketing until they buy, or until they die.”
And let me emphasise, just in case this is not obvious, this is an exceptionally powerful marketing tool. Any builder who proactively stays in communication with future buyers, offering them helpful, ongoing, unbiased advice throughout their buying journey will have an immense advantage over the competitors who do not.
The market and AI
Those fundamentals haven’t changed.
What has changed, however, is (1) the marketplace, and (2) the opportunity to leverage AI.
First, let’s talk about the marketplace. Without delving into the details and the drivers behind these shifts, I hope you’ll trust me when I tell you we’re seeing a distinctive split of the new pool market into two factions. And let me add, I expect this dichotomy to become increasingly stark in 2025.
Faction #1: Wealthy homeowners who are ready, willing and able to invest in a spectacular backyard experience. They have the cash, and they have the desire. They are ready to be wowed by a plan that will transform their backyard and their home. These people are obviously what all high-end designers and builders are looking for.
Faction #2: Budget-minded pool shoppers who balk at the new “six figures and up” starting-point for a custom pool. These people may have started out dreaming of a custom concrete swimming pool, but the price realities have them suddenly considering more budget-friendly alternatives, such as:
• Fibreglass and vinyl liner pools.
• Semi-inground pools.
• Container pools.
• Above-ground pools with sophisticated decks around them.
• And in some cases, an elegantly converted water tank pool.
If your target market is the wealthy faction #1, then I would encourage you to focus less on digital marketing, and more on your image (including your website and social media), your reputation (such as your five-star reviews), and your relationships with your existing clients. That’s because wealthy homeowners are much more likely to get referrals from their wealthy friends than search the internet for a pool builder.
If your target market is closer to the budget-minded faction #2, then you’ve probably noticed an increasing number of prospects who are backing out of the conversation due to financing or price. In that case, you may want to consider expanding your options to include some of the new alternatives described above.
Of course, if you’re a long-time, die-hard custom pool builder, you might bristle at the idea of expanding into fiberglass, or aboveground pools and decks.
In the United States, we’re seeing a shrinking of the market for low-$100,000 in-ground pools. Meanwhile, there are great margins to be had with these alternative products that are increasing in popularity. So it might be worth considering.
The AI improvement
Now let’s talk about artificial intelligence, and the role it might play in the marketing side of your business in 2025 and beyond.
The good news is that you have the opportunity to make multiple parts of your marketing better, and do it faster and cheaper than you might otherwise. No doubt, AI is an amazing tool that can save you time and money in a variety of areas, especially in marketing.
This includes:
• Your website. If your website is weak, AI can offer you better content – including videos – for relatively low cost. You can also use AI to check your website content for platitudes, which make you sound dull and unremarkable, like all your competitors.
• Your drip nurture marketing. Here again, AI can quickly and easily create content for a series of informative emails which you can then trickle out to persuade your prospects.
• Your social media. Creating mildly interesting posts for social media is a piece of cake for AI, and there’s plenty of software out there to automatically distribute it for you.
No doubt about it, AI can help you level-up your marketing, if you don’t mind spending the time learning how to use it.
The downside is that every one of your competitors has this exact same advantage.
After all, if everyone uses AI to describe their company, and populate their website, and create a series of messages to drip out to your prospects, how will you stand out from your competition? I see a world where everyone will sound better, but no one will sound better than anyone else.
That sort of brings us back to square one. We look better as a group, but individually, we lose our edge against the rest.
This doesn’t help our prospects either. They’re potentially seeing a never-ending flood of “me-too” content that makes everyone sound like everyone else. Their challenge of finding the ideal pool builder is greater than ever.
The human component
This is why, in my opinion, the human component will be more important than ever. To really differentiate yourself in 2025 and beyond, you’ll need to more artfully show your humanity and personality.
Yes, you should take advantage of AI, but don’t forget to let your human side come through. This is what will set you apart from all the robot-sounding profiles of your AI-generated competition.
In summary, for 2025 and beyond, I suggest you (1) decide which half of the market you are going to target, (2) leverage the heck out of AI, anywhere and everywhere you can, but (3) don’t forget to let your human side show through.
