HVAC Marketing: Tips on How to Make Your HVAC Business Stand Out

Ahhh marketing! One of the most important, but sometimes least appreciated, parts of a business. While some may joke that marketing is the “coloring department,” it's really a vital part of how you grow your business.

In short, marketing is the loudspeaker for your company. It's the way customers find and hear about your business. Even if you offer a great product or service, if no one knows about it, you won't have any customers, and you won't make any money.

Marketing is the act of targeting prospective customers and telling them about your HVAC business. HVAC marketing strategies are also about how you represent and differentiate your company, such as its brand personality and voice. Are you the most reliable HVAC provider in your city? Do you offer unparalleled service and have thousands of 5-star reviews? Marketing for HVAC companies is how you tell people why your business is the one they should choose.

While marketing does have many layers, every activity you do should be part of overall HVAC marketing strategies that align with your business goals. Using digital marketing for your HVAC business allows you to get your business seen by more people in less time and for less money than traditional advertising and marketing.

But what does a digital marketing strategy involve? Don't worry, we'll cover everything from launching a website, capturing online reviews, using social media, publishing a blog and setting up paid advertising to get you set up for success.

The Importance of Identifying Your Target Audience

Every great marketing strategy begins with identifying your target audience. Knowing the demographics of your customers allows you to prioritize resources and better target the people who are most likely to purchase your products. The basis of any good marketing is figuring out and then targeting what's called your "ideal customer persona" or ICP. What this boils down to is, who are your best customers and potential customers? Think about their demographics. Are they residential or commercial? Do they have a certain type of system installed? Is your service focused more on installation, maintenance or something else? The answers to these questions will help you identify the right audience and the best tactics to get their attention (and business). Let's take a closer look at what you need to know about identifying your target audience.

Residential vs. Commercial Customers

Perhaps the easiest differentiation in your target audience is residential vs. commercial customers. Depending on your technicians' experience, focusing on one or the other may be an easy choice to make. But, if you've previously worked on systems from whoever gave you a call, it may be worth thinking about what is the most beneficial for your business. You may want to dig into your business's service history and analyze which customers were more profitable and simply focus on those types of customers. It all depends on what your business goals are. Residential and commercial HVAC customers behave differently. For example, residential customers want personalized service and control, while commercial customers want hands-on support to maintain their HVAC system. The needs of residential and commercial customers are different, so your marketing plans will be as well.

Segmenting Your Audience Based on Demographics and Needs

Marketing these days is all about personalization and sending the right message to the right customer at the right time. So, when you've determined the initial category of your target audience, it's time to do some customer segmentation. Segmenting your audience is simply categorizing them based on things like demographics or needs. Break down your target audience even further based on factors such as location, age, gender, and in the case of commercial customers, business size. The more you define your audience, the more effective your marketing strategies are.

Create Buyer Personas

Once you know your target audience, create a buyer persona to represent each type of customer. For instance, you may have Industrial Ivan, Homeowner Hannah, and Landlord Lance. When creating marketing material and campaigns, it is easy to gear the message towards one or more of your buyer personas. Knowing your customer is the catalyst to developing a stellar HVAC marketing strategy that takes your business to new heights.

6 Great Marketing Tips for Your HVAC Business

The ultimate goal of implementing an HVAC marketing plan is to increase profits. But building a marketing strategy can be daunting in itself, let alone if it also includes new tools such as ppc ads, Google search strategies and a website. But once you start, you'll wish you had done it sooner. Get your HVAC marketing plan off to a solid start with these 6 marketing tips.

Your website is the first impression potential customers have of your HVAC business. Visitors need to see the value you provide them through high-quality images, explanations of services, reviews, credentials, contact information and more.

1. Have an Amazing (Mobile Friendly) Website

Almost everyone begins the purchasing process through internet research. Meaning if a potential customer types “air conditioning service near me” into Google, you want your HVAC business to show up. To do this, you need to claim your Google My Business listing and have a website that is easy to use and understand.

Your website is the first impression potential customers have of your HVAC business. If visitors don't like what they see, they will move on to the next company. Visitors need to see the value you provide them through high-quality images, explanations of services, reviews, credentials, contact information and more. A well-designed website is a sales funnel for HVAC leads, leading visitors to schedule an appointment or contact your HVAC business for more information.

But having a good website isn't about making it pretty. Sure, it helps, but what's more important is usability and, specifically, that it's mobile-friendly. Mobile now takes up nearly two-thirds of website traffic. Imagine having three customers walk into your shop, and two immediately leave without a word. That's what will happen if you don't have a mobile-friendly website.

Because mobile and tablet displays have different dimensions from a desktop computer or laptop screen, your website must be designed specifically to fit mobile. Luckily, most website development tools have themes and pre-built designs that you can customize to fit your business that cover all desktop and mobile device resolutions, but it's worth making sure before you launch yours.

2. Leverage Customer Service to Boost Sales

There's a well-known saying in the business world—it costs more money to find new customers than it does to retain existing ones. Acquiring new customers costs five times as much as keeping your existing ones. This is why it's important to leverage customer service to boost customer retention and sales.

Any time you work with a customer, go the extra mile, and you'll increase the chance they hire you again. Go beyond showing up and just getting the job done. Keep your customers informed with updates via email or SMS. Use job management software to make everything easy for customers with on-site quotes and multiple payment methods. Recommend products and inform them of other services they may not know about to show you're putting their best interests first.

You may also want to invest in a customer relationship management system (CRM). These tools help to keep your contact list organized, track customer job details and identify your top customers, among many other things.

3. Prioritize Reviews

Improving your customer service also helps get your business more (and better) reviews. According to G2, about 95% of customers read reviews before making a purchase, and 93% of customers will read reviews of local businesses to determine their quality. That's a lot of customers checking reviews to determine whether they'll engage with a business to complete their job.

Therefore, one of the best HVAC marketing ideas we can give you is to invest in reviews. A significant portion of your HVAC marketing strategy should be asking for, receiving and publishing positive reviews. Don’t hesitate to ask satisfied customers to give you a review. Consider putting calls-to-action (CTAs) in your leave-behinds or emails about rating good service on public platforms such as Google, Yelp or Angi. Your website is also a great place to collect testimonials from customers. And, as mentioned above, make sure you set up your Google business profile to make it easy to find your business and for happy customers to leave you reviews.

4. Use Social Media to Your Advantage

Today, social media is a significant part of most people's daily routines. 60% of the global population uses social media, with daily usage averaging nearly 2 and a half hours! While it's important to have a website to make finding your business easy, it's just as important to be where your customers are spending their time. Learn which platforms your target audience lives on and create a social media presence through social media marketing. For example, you may find that your target audience is active on Facebook and Twitter but not Instagram. You can develop a social media presence on the relevant social media platforms. This includes creating a business page, posting valuable information, and keeping your audience in the know on the latest of your business. But the key for a business social media is to keep it business-oriented. While you don't want it to be boring, at the end of the day, your business profiles are for showing off and garnering business. If you're wondering where to start or which platform to use, check out our handy infographic on The Best Social Media Platforms for Field Service Businesses.

5. Invest in Google Ads and Business Cards

Once you have your website and social media under control, you can move on to the next level of your HVAC marketing plan: digital advertising. This includes Google Ads and social media advertising. When well-crafted, Google Local Services Ads are a great way to get your name out there and build brand recognition. This is especially true when utilizing local SEO. When creating Google Ads, it is crucial to hone in on the most important keywords and target the intended audience. Set your budget, demographics, location, and more to ensure the best ROI and conversion rates on your advertising.

While digital marketing campaigns may seem daunting to first-time users, there are many resources to get you started. Depending on your budget, you may even be able to contract someone to do it for you.

Although they are seen as the dinosaurs of marketing, one of the best HVAC marketing ideas is still around for a reason! Business cards and physical collateral. They are a crucial part of HVAC marketing and having them on hand when meeting potential customers is a great way to leave a lasting impression.

Keep the design clean, simple, and attractive. Be sure to include your logo, name and contact information. Keep several on you at all times and hand them out whenever the opportunity presents itself.

6. Use Content Marketing to Build Trust

Many purchases start as someone looking for information. A crucial part of your HVAC marketing plan should be to establish your business as the authority in the industry. Accomplish this by using content marketing to build trust. This includes creating:

• Blog posts
• Email marketing
• Videos
• White pages
• Landing pages
• E-books

These assets can showcase your expertise to your customers and prospects. Through content marketing, you can build trust, share updates and analyze industry news. Content marketing is also used to inform customers and prospects about topics they may have questions about or want to know more about. Provide valuable information that your customers will want to know without being too salesy. It's okay to add a CTA at the end, but the most important part is to provide content that is valuable to your target audience and post new content regularly.

It may sometimes feel like you're "giving away secrets," but what you're really doing is showing off how good you are at your trade. The key is to write about topics on often-searched topics and leave the more complicated things as something they should contact you about. You may also want to think about local search engine optimization. This means including topics and keywords that are specific to your immediate location to help ensure you appear when someone searches for that topic.

For example, as an HVAC business owner, you could write a blog with a list of questions or a checklist to ask potential service providers. This delivers great advice without making customers feel sold to. Hesitant about writing this sort of content? Don't be, because if they don't get the information from your website, they'll get it from someone else's.

Content marketing is not only cost-effective, but it also has many benefits for your business. For example, it keeps your website updated, supports your organic ranking on Google (the position your business appears on Google's search results) and provides you with things to share on social media. But most importantly, starting a blog for your field service business drives traffic to your website.

4 Effective Marketing Strategies for HVAC Businesses

Now that you have a broad understanding of what different aspects of marketing for an HVAC business there are, it's time to put all the best HVAC marketing ideas together and create a strategy.

Utilize SEO and Social Media Presence

The goal of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to improve your website's ranking for search terms, known as keywords. While we won't go into the nitty gritty details here—and trust us, there's a whole marketing career path dedicated to SEO—the basics are pretty simple.

Using your target audience as a base and then building off the segmentations we discussed earlier, you can begin to target the keywords that would drive traffic from that audience. For instance, if you decide your ICP is multi-level apartment complexes in Brisbane, your target keywords for local SEO may include "HVAC services for apartment complexes in Brisbane."

If you want to learn more about SEO, check out some marketing blogs such as HubSpot or MOZ. But remember, start with your audience first and then weave an SEO strategy into your plan.

While it may not seem connected, having good social media for your business can also help with your Google ranking. There are, of course, many other reasons to be on social media, as we detailed above, but the traffic it will provide to your website can boost your Google ranking.

Use Email Marketing

Have you ever been emailed about a sale at your favorite store? Or had a company email you to check if you're still interested in a product? Or even just received a newsletter from a business? This is email marketing. With so many new tools such as social media and paid advertising, you may wonder if email marketing is still worthwhile.

The answer is yes! Not only are there four billion daily email users around the world, but email marketing is still one of the highest-returning investments you can make at an average of $36 made for every $1 spent. Email marketing helps you keep in contact with your customers, and you can also remind them of upcoming appointments or services they should have completed.

The frequency your HVAC business sends out emails may vary. A good rule of thumb is no more than once a week. Otherwise, people will feel like you are spamming them with emails, and nobody likes that.

Start a Referral Program

Just like reviews, word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing provides social proof of the great quality of your business. In fact, word-of-mouth marketing drives over $6 trillion in global spending each year, and 64% of marketers say it is the most effective form of marketing. Considering this, it makes sense to kick off a referral program when you're looking to grow your business.

But when you're rewarding a customer for recommending your services in your referral program, what should you offer as that reward? From gift cards to popular shopping sites to a percentage off or credit on the next job you complete for the customer, there are lots of choices.

Once you've decided on the best option for your business, share this program with your existing customers through socials, blogs, emails, your website and even hard-copy collateral.

Publish Great HVAC Blog Content

Creating and maintaining a blog as part of your HVAC marketing is definitely one of the strategies you should use once you have the rest well in hand. Despite what many think, blogs are still alive and well. A curated blog shows that you are serious about your business and knowledgeable. These are two things every customer wants to see.

A few HVAC marketing tips for your blog:

• The ideal blog post is around 2,000 to 2,500 words, packed with valuable information and actionable insights,
• It should include high-quality images and a well-crafted CTA.
• Create a content plan for six months to one year at a time.
• Be sure to play to the seasons of the year, holidays, and anything else that may be trending. Doing so keeps your blog content relevant and relatable.

Tracking and Analyzing HVAC Marketing Efforts

Marketing efforts mean nothing without a way to track and analyze the results. Let's take a look at a few ways to measure the results of your marketing to determine strengths and weaknesses.

Set Marketing Goals and KPIs

Setting goals is important. Without goals, you are wandering around aimlessly, and your marketing efforts aren't yielding very much. Set clear, measurable goals. Next, use key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge your marketing strategy's long-term performance. You will be able to clearly see which HVAC marketing strategies are working and which ones need to be revised.

Use Marketing Analytics Tools

There are hundreds of data analyzing tools available. For instance, there is Google Analytics which is free and provides valuable insight into your website. The marketing analytics tools you use will depend on your marketing strategies and preferences. However, it is important to use at least one to track your progress and indicate when you need to make adjustments. It is the only way to know whether you are meeting your marketing goals. Performance reports should be analyzed at least once a month for effectiveness and efficiency.

Evaluate ROI and Adjust Strategies

It is no secret that you want a high ROI on your HVAC marketing plan. Using the appropriate marketing analytics tools, keep track of ROI and adjust strategies when needed. HVAC marketing techniques that worked six months ago may not work now. You have to be flexible and fluid to stay at the forefront of the HVAC industry.

Unfortunately, calculating ROI can get complicated rather quickly depending on your business and marketing activities. While you're starting out, the key is not to get too stuck in the metrics mud. Start with the basics, don't go overboard on spending money and ensure you're at least getting some business from your efforts. Then, you can start testing out different tactics and comparing campaigns against each other to see what resonates best with your audience.

Take Your HVAC Business to the Next Level

Using the HVAC marketing tips and strategies above, you are now equipped with everything you need to make your marketing journey a success. As your total HVAC business software solution, Simpro is here to support your company by giving you the tool you need to improve efficiency and make smarter decisions about your company. Take your marketing efforts a step further by checking out our 5 tips for Field Service Marketing!