The HVAC or Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning repair industry has become crowded due to its ever-increasing demand from homeowners. As such, competition is fierce. The good news is you can utilize social media and other online marketing channels to reach out to potential customers and generate leads. Here are 12 effective ways to market your HVAC company.
Here Are Your Effective HVAC Company Marketing Ideas
Marketing your HVAC services involves reaching potential customers through the website, email marketing, social media platforms, and the likes.
Invest in Paid Advertising
Paid search advertising is an efficient way to get your HVAC company noticed online. Your advertisement appears when someone types in a keyword related to your services. Suppose you’re not sure what keywords to target. Try using Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Once you’ve found the right ones, create a campaign that targets them. Using paid ads will help you reach potential clients who might never come across your company.
PPC marketing is becoming increasingly important for all companies, regardless of size. Smaller businesses can benefit from PPC because it offers them a cost-effective way to target customers on popular websites like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Bing. Bigger businesses may also benefit from PPC because they can simultaneously reach thousands of potential customers.
You know what I’m talking about if you’ve heard about a service company making millions from an AdWords campaign. But before you throw out your current HVAC SEO strategy and jump on board with PPC, you should consider a few things.
First, understand that not every business will grow equally well through PPC. Some may see success while others fail, and if you’re not careful, you could end up in the latter category. That’s why it’s critical to research your industry and pinpoint the most profitable keywords relevant to your business. Second, keep in mind that PPC campaigns take time to produce results. Like SEO, you’ll have to spend time and money developing a winning strategy. Lastly, know that PPC is a long-term investment that requires patience. Many experts say that even after a successful marketing campaign, it might take years before you start seeing positive results.
Focus on Geotargeting Your Business
Geotargeting is a type of online advertising that targets ads to geographical locations. Geotargeting is commonly used in search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure that search results are relevant to the user’s location. For example, if customers look for “restaurants” in New York City, the ad will appear when they enter the page. However, if the same user searched for a “restaurant” in Los Angeles, California, the advertisement would not appear.
Local service advertising is an effective tool for generating leads through online searches. When you advertise locally, your ad will appear when someone enters a search term that matches your location. As a result, people searching for services near them will see your ad. You can also target certain keywords in your ad copy that match your city name, zip code, or phone number. Ask your webmaster or SEO expert if you’re unsure what keywords to use.
Build a Website
HVAC websites are created equal, but not all will be ranked on the first page of Google or turn website visitors into qualified leads. On the other hand, you can implement several HVAC website design tips to increase your ranking and convert more visitors into qualified leads.
Make the Site Responsive
A website must be built with a mobile-first mindset. That means designing a site first for mobile devices before making other changes. A mobile-first approach will ensure that your site is easy to navigate and view on small screens and will also help you avoid losing traffic due to poor user experience. You should design your site to fit the screen size of your prospective customer’s device, not vice versa.
Add Trust Builders
Trust builders aren’t just for websites. They’re also important for physical locations, including retail stores, restaurants, gyms, hotels, spas, salons, car dealerships, etc. Trust builders help consumers feel confident when visiting your location. They can also help you attract potential clients. For example, if you run an HVAC listing nearby landmarks and attractions will help potential patrons feel at ease while looking for you. If you own a hair salon, highlighting local businesses and events where people go for entertainment could help draw in new clients.
A value proposition is what sets your HVAC company apart from the rest. Your customers will know if you offer them an upfront price, 24/7 emergency service, lifetime warranties, etc. before they even call. Payment methods and financing programs should also be made clear. If you accept all major credit card payments, let your customers know. If you offer financing programs, let them know.
Develop Your Website for Speed, Security, and Search Engines
Website loading time impacts your bottom line. According to Google, on average, HVAC websites take 6.5 seconds to load.
Website security has been a major issue for a while. It’s often considered a search engine ranking factor and trust factor. That means you’ll get higher rankings and more traffic if you’re using HTTPS and not just HTTP.
As Google’s page speed score increases, the search engine will give more weight to your page’s loading time and less weight to other factors like bounce rate and mobile friendliness. Your site’s loading time can affect your organic search results and paid ads, so making sure your site loads fast is important.
Apply Local SEO for HVAC
Local SEO is more important than before because of the organic results shrinking and the Local Pack’s rise. You want local customers to seek your business when it suits them. To achieve this, you must optimize your Google Business Profile page. Your GBP page is what shows up when someone searches for businesses nearby. The information you put on your GBP page powers your local listing. Optimizing your Google Business Profile page will increase your chances of getting found online.
Make sure your website has an XML sitemap. This means you’ve mapped out all the pages on your site. You must also add title tags, meta descriptions, and description tags to each page. These help search engines understand your page, which helps get it ranked higher in results. You should also associate your site with local directories. When these sites update online directory listings, you want to ensure your site’s information and ratings are correct.
Local SEO ensures that you appear highly relevant to potential customers searching for products or services within your city or region. You should also ensure that your social media profiles are consistently updated with the right information. If you’re unsure if you need to update something, ask yourself whether someone searching for your product or service would find it useful.
Invest in Social Media
A social media marketing plan is vital for any company, especially those like HVAC companies that need to reach a large audience quickly. Social media marketing is also great for connecting with existing customers and promoting your brand. Many different platforms are there, each with its pros and cons. Here are the tips for getting started with a social media marketing plan.
For Facebook
Facebook advertising can help you turn leads into customers, create loyal customers, and increase your company’s visibility. However, if you want your Facebook strategy to generate leads as part of an HVAC marketing strategy, you need to spend money on Facebook advertisements. If you’re already using paid search ads, you may be wondering why you need to invest in Facebook ads, too? The short answer is that your audience is different. You’ll also want to optimize your ad copy for each marketing platform. That means you’ll need to tailor your message for each type of ad.
You can run several ads depending on whether you’re looking for more traffic to your site, likes on your Facebook page, engagement on a particular post, or conversion.
For Instagram
Instagram is an increasingly important social media platform. It is a great place to share photos and videos of your products and services. You may even get paid for posting pictures of your company.
Use NextDoor
Nextdoor is an online social network specifically for neighborhoods. It allows residents to share information about events, services, and other happenings in their area. In addition, it helps businesses grow by providing them with a platform to connect with customers and clients.
Businesses can also use the platform to promote their products and services and reach potential customers in their area. Nextdoor is free to join, and users can choose whether to share private information or not.
Use Email Marketing to Nurture Customers and Build Rapport
You put a ton of time and energy into marketing your HVAC company. But it would help if you also put in even more time and energy to keep your current customer base engaged and loyal. Email marketing is not one of those sexy or exciting HVAC marketing ideas, but it is one of the best ways to make customers happy and engaged. Before you start marketing emails to customers, you need to collect contact info for every customer. Then, it makes you send personalized emails to clients before and after the job.
You can create a mailing list for your customers based on their last service date. For example, if you just installed a new air conditioner for a customer, you could add them to a mailing list that sends them daily reminders to schedule AC maintenance for next summer. You can also send them an automatic email at the same time next summer, reminding them about your upcoming AC maintenance plan.
If you want to increase your HVAC sales, you can start by sending monthly emails to all your clients (or select clients based on their needs) with relevant information, guides, and links to recent blog posts. These email campaigns will help you reach your target audience and boost your bottom line.
Encourage Clients to Signup for Your Newsletter
Social media is great for younger generations, but seniors aren’t interested in it. However, many seniors are still very active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, etc. So, why not encourage them to sign up for your newsletter or email list? You’ll get a steady stream of targeted traffic to your website that you can convert into sales. Besides, your audience is already familiar with your brand and products, so it’s easier for them to trust you.
By crafting an engaging and informative monthly or bi-monthly newsletter, you can maintain contact with your existing customer base while increasing customer loyalty. In addition, a well-written newsletter will provide valuable information about your company, its products, services, and special deals. You can also foster customers to visit your website, call your HVAC business, or invest in your product or service.
Your customers give you their personal information. You should never send them an excessive amount of emails or promotions. Instead, make sure they know when and what to anticipate from you. Use a schedule so your customers will know when and what to count on from you.
Dabble with YouTube to Improve Brand Trust
Most HVAC companies use YouTube to share short informative videos about their staff, products, and services. Videos are an effective marketing tool to promote your company online. You will grow your customer base and increase sales if you post videos regularly. If you want to increase your local HVAC lead generation, you should consider uploading a short video either to your website or social media page. Your goal should be to produce high-quality videos that will attract potential customers. Once you’ve uploaded your first video, you’ll need to promote it on social media. You can use Facebook ads, Twitter ads, LinkedIn ads, Google Ads, and other paid channels to get in front of the right audience.
Not only does video allow you to create an engaging experience for your customers, but it can also help you improve and build trust and authority with them. In addition, your YouTube videos can be placed in other areas of your website, meaning that every video you make has even greater value. You can add videos to your HVAC blog posts, for example.
Most HVAC companies use YouTube to share short informative videos about their staff, products, and services. Videos are effective promotional tools for your company online. You will grow your customer base and increase sales if you post videos regularly.
Online Reviews Go a Long Way
If you’re using a third-party listing site like Yelp, Facebook, Google, etc., you should respond to reviews posted about your HVAC business. You may not always agree with every review, but responding shows that you care and will help you get more positive online reviews in the long run. Be sure to thank the reviewer when you respond. If someone left a bad review, try to figure out why and fix the problem if possible. If you can’t fix the issue, apologize and let them know that you’ll take steps to prevent that issue from happening again.
A Live Chat Feature to Your Website Works
Website chat services like Help Scout leverage Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) to chat with your website visitor without diverting your customer service representatives (CSR) from the phone. Your CSR can answer any question directly from a customer without having to divert away from what they’re doing. You can choose whether to allow your CSR to handle an automated chat or engage with a customer one-on-one.
Website chat services have proven to improve website conversions by 2% on average and sales revenue by 5%. Chatting with customers while browsing your site allows you to get to know them, answer any questions about your products, and even offer discounts and promotions. Website chat is a great way to keep your visitors engaged and interested and ultimately convert them into paying customers.
To End
At this point, you have found out how to get started with digital marketing for your HVAC company or yourself. Hopefully, you can now write a business plan based on where you want to go and what you would like to achieve. If you need one more advertising idea, check out our ITD WebDesign blog post about effective marketing strategies for home improvement companies.