For many HVAC companies, it’s hard enough to get more HVAC customers, let alone keep them loyal to your company over the other competitors in the industry.
And this isn’t just an issue for smaller HVAC businesses, but larger companies as well. This is a direct result of flawed HVAC marketing, advertising and lead generation.
To boost conversion rates, you need to have a seamless marketing plan for your HVAC company. The traditional HVAC marketing strategies don’t work because you are either using it wrong or they either aren’t relevant anymore.
So, how do we get more HVAC customers? In this article, we’ll go over everything you need to know to better optimize your HVAC marketing plan and your HVAC advertising to get more HVAC leads that will convert into quality, loyal customers.
How Much do HVAC Companies Spend on Marketing?
Marketing is how you get HVAC customers. If you do not have any customers, how can you make money? You can’t. So how much should you spend on marketing?
Most small HVAC businesses invest about five percent of their sales in marketing as small businesses often make fewer sales than larger companies. However, a smaller investment means smaller results.
Not every smaller HVAC business can afford to spend more than five percent, but if possible it is encouraged to do so to get maximum results as this amount is considered to only maintain your current revenue, not grow.
When it comes to marketing, businesses need to see marketing as an investment, not a cost. To increase market share and to increase your customer base, your best rule of thumb is to spend at least 10 percent on marketing. However, if you want to go big and achieve even faster exponential growth, you should aim at 20 percent.
Why Cost-Effective Marketing is Important to HVAC Businesses?
Sure, putting big investments into your marketing is effective, but you also lose a great deal of money that could be going towards profits instead.
Luckily, there are a lot of great cost-effective HVAC marketing plans out there to use to your advantage. But, do they work just as well, or better than many higher-cost strategies?
The answer is yes, and here’s why:
One of the newest and most cost-effective forms of marketing out there is social media. By making a couple of posts on sites like Facebook or Twitter, you can get a larger audience to see your advertisements for a fraction of what it would cost if you sent them by mail or put them in print.
Other cost-effective marketing strategies are SEO (Search Engine Optimization), email newsletters or nurture series, blog posts, podcasts and much more. When utilizing these cheap—and oftentimes free—online methods, hundreds or thousands of people can see your content and advertisements at a very low price without you having to buy HVAC leads.
At Selling Revolution we can help you leverage these low-cost HVAC marketing plans and more. Book a call with us today to learn how to get more HVAC customers, fast.
Cost-Effective Tips To Get HVAC Customers
Now that we’ve gone over how much you should spend on your marketing as well as how cost-effective marketing can be beneficial for your business, let’s dive into the eight best HVAC marketing tips that will boost your HVAC sales leads and convert them into loyal, qualified customers.
Create Google My Business Account
Google My Business has been the new standard for HVAC companies to gain more customers over recent years. It is an HVAC lead service that has proven time and time again to create success for a variety of businesses.
This tool is very useful to get your business found online and is the main source for potential customers to look up your website, services, reviews and prices and compare it with other companies based on their needs.
Since it’s linked with Google Maps, it’s an excellent way to promote your business to the local market and gain brand recognition and exposure.
List Your HVAC in Local Directories
Another great tool for gaining more HVAC customers is adding your business to various local directories. Local search is one of the most effective ways to get new customers.
Some directories that many other businesses find useful are:
- Yelp.
- Foursquare.
- Local.com
- Yahoo.
- Localworks.
- CitySearch.
Your business listing on these directories can have a powerful impact on how much your company gets noticed, how often it’s found online, how many new customers you get every day, and how much revenue it generates for your HVAC company.
Run Google Ads Campaigns
Another Google service that has become a key tool in HVAC lead generation and obtaining more HVAC customers is Google Ads. Google Ads is how Google makes money, so they’ve been perfecting how to match the right ads with the right people for years.
To run an effective Google Ads campaign, you need to get to know how your potential customers think, how they research their buying decisions and what are the popular search terms they are using to find products like yours.
Some popular searches could be “best gas furnace prices in Dallas” or “price estimate for replacing ductwork.” Once you have an idea of what your target audience is searching for, make sure that Google’s automated system knows which ads to display. This will effectively funnel your audience to be cost-effective.
Optimize Your HVAC Website
One of the best ways to get HVAC customers is by having a user-friendly website that best encompasses your brand, its message and the services that drive its visitors to take action.
You can optimize your HVAC website by doing several things, but it should include at least one of the following:
- Have a blog section on your website that shares various HVAC-related information that people commonly search on Google that will direct them to your website.
- Input social media links/buttons so customers can experience your business through other channels.
- Share testimonials from your happy and satisfied clients and how they benefited from what you do as a company.
- Utilize A/B Testing to compare two versions of your website and see which one has a higher user engagement.
- Include an organized menu, a Q&A section and an easy-to-find search bar to enhance customer experience.
These are just a few ways you can optimize your website and there are many more you can use to your advantage, so there really is no excuse to not have a website that is streamlined and effective in luring in more customers.
Publish Blogs Regularly
Publishing regular blogs is an effective way to attract more customers as it establishes trust and builds a good reputation with your present and potential customers. Now how can you put this blog writing strategy into action? Here are some tips:
- Be consistent – Set aside time each week to write at least one blog post. It doesn’t have to be every day; you must stay consistent though.
- Write about how-to’s – This is an easy way to establish yourself as an expert in the HVAC field, which will attract more customers as they will see how knowledgeable your company is.
- Write according to your audience – Your blog posts should cater to those who already know something about HVAC systems as well as those who don’t yet know anything about them.
If you run out of ideas, you can always hire a copywriting expert or look at what your competitors are posting about to get inspiration. Ultimately, the more content you pump out, the better chances you have in generating more HVAC customers.
Use Clear and Concise Call-to-Action (CTA)
To ensure you have a clear and concise CTA, be sure to avoid generic CTAs such as “click here” or “learn more.” These tell visitors nothing about how they will benefit from clicking on your CTA. Instead, use a descriptive headline like “Get an Estimate Today” to grab their attention and entice them to click through.
When you make it easy for customers to understand what they should do next by including simple language in your CTA, it will tell them exactly how you would like them to proceed.
You can also optimize your CTA copy with persuasive power words like “free,” “submit,” and “now.” These words trigger a sense of urgency to motivate people to take action.
Having a strong CTA is vital in getting the most number of conversions from any given ad, content or landing page. Your entire strategy will fail without one, so make sure it stands strong.
Build Your Brand Story Through Social Media
To get more HVAC customers, you have to sell them on your brand. Having a gripping brand story that your audience can resonate with is the best way to go about doing this.
And what better place to advocate your brand than through social media channels? You can do this through videos, daily posts, interacting with customers etc.
Just be clear about how you want to portray your company through each given medium. This means sharing only the relevant information that would capture people’s attention so they will be interested in knowing more about what you have to offer.
Establish an emotional connection with your HVAC customers. This will be the fuel to getting them to buy from you over another company.
Keep Your Website Mobile-Friendly
Keep Your Website Mobile-FriendlyNowadays, everyone is on their phone. More and more people are using their phones over laptops or desktops to search for information— and that includes HVAC companies.
Therefore, having a website that isn’t mobile-friendly can significantly lower how many customers you get. Even the smallest inconvenience can deter visitors.
To make your site mobile-friendly, you first need to make sure your website is W3C compliant. The W3C ensures web pages are displayed how the developer intended, and that’s how search engines index them.
Also, be sure to optimize how your site works with a touch screen because many mobile devices don’t have a mouse pad or other desktop input device. You’ll want to have all of your links easily clickable so users who might not read small text don’t get frustrated by their inability to navigate through your site.
Find HVAC Customers That Market For You
The great thing about HVAC companies is that so much of their customers organically come from recommendations from friends, family and other trusted peers. Therefore, having an exceptional service record will take you far.
However, to get those customers that rave about you in the first place, you need HVAC marketing ideas that not only work but provide consistent, reliable results. That way, you can worry less about your marketing and more about meeting and exceeding all of your customer’s needs.
At Selling Revolution, we can be the shortcut that gets you to the finish line of your greatest business goals.
Book a call with us today to learn how we can help you generate more HVAC marketing ideas to attract customers that will not only stick around but advocate for you.