Growing your revenue and HVAC business takes more than buying used equipment, creating a business card, and throwing up a business listing with your HVAC company logo on Yelp! or Yellow Pages.
If you understand the role HVAC contractor marketing plays in your success, there’s no limit to what you’ll accomplish as an owner. Understanding how to get more HVAC leads is the obvious payoff – but it goes much deeper than that.
The three most significant pain points of any HVAC owner are:
- Overcoming HVAC marketing difficulties and learning how to deploy your strategy based on fluctuating seasonal revenue. It’s essential to remain profitable even during the slow season. Mastering your marketing strategy provides a solution.
- Powering through stiff competition in an overly saturated industry. Your marketing plan helps you stand out in a sea of HVAC companies.
- Navigating Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning industry changes and shifting client behavior without sacrificing your integrity or ruining your brand image…
- Operating a winning business dialed in for real growth (and I mean more than just picking up extra customers and upgrading to the fancy HVAC business cards and stickers with your logo).
- Keeping your brand modern and one step ahead of the competition
- Achieving both of these goals without sacrificing your integrity or compromising customer relationships.
- “I don’t know how to generate HVAC sales leads.”
- “I don’t know how to market my HVAC business.”
- “How do I do internet marketing as an HVAC contractor?”
- “How do I learn how to grow my Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning company?”
- “How to market my HVAC contractor business?”
- “Where can I get tips to get more HVAC leads?”
- Dealing with unreliable, unlicensed, shady HVAC companies
- Coping with long waits or constant rescheduling and poor communication
- Establishing trust and confidence in their HVAC company
- An overall disconnect between the company and the customer
…And yes, proper promotion, advertising, customer relationship development and brand building solves this, too.
We drilled deep to uncover the most relevant data and spoke with some of the most successful Heating and Cooling contractors to get the top 9 marketing strategies for HVAC companies to increase leads and boost profit.
Ever Wondered, “How To Grow My HVAC Business?”
Would you believe me if I told you that taking the right approach to your HVAC company marketing strategy can help you accomplish three of the biggest goals of a Heating and Cooling contractor?
Mastering your online and offline marketing game means:
Achieving both of these goals without sacrificing your integrity or compromising customer relationships.
Why?
Because their demographic is equal to the number of residential and commercial buildings currently occupied (except those that haven’t upgraded to modern heating and cooling.)
Are HVAC Businesses Profitable?
When almost every home, warehouse, and office is yours for the taking, it can be extremely profitable. So, what’s stopping you from accomplishing the goals mentioned above?
Have You Ever Had These Thoughts?…
These are temporary problems with a fixable, permanent solution.
Have you ever caught yourself saying the following? “If I just learned how to get more customers for my HVAC business, all my goals will fall into place.” (It’s like a doctor treating a symptom but not the illness.)
This exact mindset is the reason why an HVAC owner could get thousands of leads and potential paying customers, and still be plagued by the inability to achieve his goals.
Instead of focusing on your goals in HVAC company marketing, you need to focus on the challenges and “choak points” stopping you from achieving those goals. Amazon and Walmart aren’t billion-dollar corporations because they focus on their goals. They dominate because they identify what’s stopping them and eliminate their “bottle necks.”
When you get a solid digital marketing plan, you solve the problem of the lack of leads and a slew of other problems. Ultimately, this road to success leads to the understanding of how to expand your HVAC businessexpand your HVAC business and not just your customer list.
“Why Are My HVAC Sales Lower Than I Want?”
You must eliminate your roadblocks to success to get more customers.
Instead of asking, “Why Are My HVAC Sales Lower Than I Want?” you should focus your energy on asking things like:Instead of asking, “Why Are My HVAC Sales Lower Than I Want?” you should focus your energy on asking things like:
Ask a better set of questions and you’ll get more profit-pumping solutions. Successfully answering these questions allows you to eliminate your roadblocks and understanding how to grow your HVAC business the right way.
When the path to success is cleared of all roadblocks – the future is wide open. Your company’s growth is only equal to your ability to overcome challenges.
How Do I Attract New HVAC Customers and Achieve Consistent Growth?…
Here’s the beautiful thing about how to market your HVAC company – it allows you to become a professional problem solver. Accomplishing your goals requires solving your problems – but you also have to demonstrate to customers that you’re able to solve their problems (and we don’t mean a busted AC unit).
Your customers’ biggest problems are most likely:
Your marketing plan allows you to kill two birds with one stone and become the most efficient problem solver in the HVAC industry.
The following tips provide the playbook to generate more HVAC sales leads, attract more customers and grow your company:
1. Optimize Your Website for Search Engines (SEO)
The things you can accomplish by dialing in your SEO strategy are unreal. Don’t just optimize your website for SEO – focus on local SEO. This eliminates more of your challenges than you might think. If you’ve ever asked, “how to market my HVAC business for free,” here’s your answer.
The most obvious advantage is making your sight more visible. You increase brand awareness and get eyes on your company. However, optimizing for local SEO allows you to demonstrate to locals why you’re the premier HVAC company in town. A win with local SEO gives your brand buzz like you wouldn’t believe.
“How Do I Get My HVAC Website To Rank Higher On Google?”When potential customers type in “HVAC in Gotham City,” and your business is at the top, you capture the trust factor. In addition, a win on Google can keep you miles ahead of the competition while maintaining brand transparency.
This also helps optimize your budget. During the slow season when your revenue isn’t hitting those big summer numbers, maintaining your SEO dominance allows you to scale back marketing costs and save big bucks on ad spending. However, don’t put things on autopilot. Keep your website active and constantly updated – Google loves modern content and attention to quality.
Take things a step further and focus on keywords that bring quality HVAC technicians of the future looking for work. You never know – local SEO using the right keywords and user intent could bring you your next prodigy.
Don’t know SEO? Don’t worry – a high-caliber, cost-efficient HVAC SEO service will handle it for you.
Leverage Direct Mail Marketing
This is when you say, “I want to stay modern. Nobody uses snail mail anymore.” You could always skip direct mail and lose out on an average ROI of 29%. Doesn’t seem high – until you consider that paid search engine and display marketing – two of the primary forms of HVAC advertising – only have an average ROI of 23% and 16%, respectively.
The truth is, leveraging the power of direct mail marketing is how to grow your small HVAC business into the large, well-oiled machine you’ve always wanted.
What Makes HVAC Direct Mail Marketing Powerful In Promoting And Growing Your Business To The Next Level?
Direct mail marketing helps you tap into high-powered emotional and mental triggers that build connections with your customer before your first conversation. You’re also able to nail down some heavy-hitting data.
Consider these facts and ideas:
- Direct mail gives customers a sensory experience not achievable through digital marketing. Use your best postcard ideas to create a mailer that stands out, making your brand unforgettable. If you can’t find your muse, search “HVAC business card design ideas” on Google
- Use pre-designed templates to generate creative ideas. Specific applications provide examples and templates you use to get started
- Crush the competition—mail air conditioning HVAC postcards or larger plastic cardstock to demonstrate your cutting-edge equipment and technology. High-quality graphics allow you to send a loud and clear message that customers digest quickly.
- Use A/B testing and get to know your target audience. Optimize and send to the people with the highest engagement and conversion rates.
- Take advantage of Heating and Cooling direct mail to stay connected with your regular and previous customers. A simple thank you mailer goes a long way.
- Use mailers to send full-color pictures, flyers, cards, and stickers with first-time customer discounts. Their first impression of your HVAC company contains a card design with your slogan and ways to save money – love at first sight.
Sending direct mail or another type of postal mailer is a cost-effective way to advertise during the off-season. You can even turn your HVAC postcard design into a refrigerator magnet – the cheapest form of re-targeting. You get a tremendous bang for your buck with a high ROI and laser-focused mailing lists.
And in the end, learning how to laser-focus and optimize all your marketing efforts – is one of the big steppingstones to growing your Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning business.
2. Set, Manage, and Maintain Your HVAC Marketing Budget
You might wonder: “How Much Should An HVAC Company Spend On Online And Offline Marketing?”
Only you know what your marketing budget looks like. What’s important is that you nail down a number based on seasonal revenue, outgoing expenses, and other information to calculate a number you can stick to. DO NOT GO OVER THIS BUDGET. Discipline and uniformity are the names of the game – without constants, you lack reliable data. Without reliable data, it becomes difficult to predict challenges. Without anticipating challenges, you can’t overcome them to facilitate growth – you get the idea.
Use a little ingenuity to find a workaround if you approach your budget threshold. What do we mean by this?
Let’s stick with the above marketing example. Look to alternative means when you’re walking a thin line between staying within budget and going over. Instead of having an expensive printing company fire off your HVAC business cards, have someone in-house handle it or do it yourself. With a little research, you can easily replicate sample direct mail pieces or postcards that flashy print companies use.
How Can I Grow My HVAC Business by Making Cards And Mailers?
Well, let’s start with the most basic. The best way to grow and market an HVAC business in the early stages is to optimize your budget and cut costs. There’s that “optimize” word again. Optimizing means fine-tuning something. Learning how to efficiently man every arm of your business with the minimal amount of cash investment possible is part of your growing pains.
If this means creating your own mailers and cards for direct mail marketing during a slow period, don’t be afraid to roll your sleeves up. And get used to doing some things you might normally outsource.
Taking the reins on simple tasks you can complete in-house is one of the golden rules of how to grow a successful HVAC business. But be smart about it. This doesn’t mean taking on everything and burning yourself out.
But it does mean printing out a few hundred graphics cards for mail-stuffing while you’re having your coffee in the morning. Do the math.
It might sound insignificant but cutting these marketing costs adds up during the slow season. How much are 5,000 business cards? You’re looking at anywhere from $100 to $150. You can quickly burn through 5,000 in a month, especially using direct mail.
Multiply that four or five times during the busy season, and you’re saving yourself anywhere between $500 to $1,000. Doesn’t sound like much, right? Ask an HVAC startup owner who couldn’t afford his $1,000 insurance payment.
That seemingly insignificant savings of $500 to $1,000 is a game-changer when it only takes 30 minutes of your time. In all reality, it probably would’ve taken you longer to drive to the print store, chat with the guy behind the counter, and place your order.
Sometimes, that insignificant number is the difference between heartbreak and success. If you’re not as comfortable maintaining your budget, a vast market exists for software and applications that handle budget challenges.
3. Focus On HVAC Lead Tracking, Reporting And Follow-Up With ALL Leads!
If you’re using all the right avenues for obtaining leads, it’s mandatory that you’ll need some software or service that tracks leads and builds reports.
Do you really expect to learn how to grow an HVAC business if you don’t know what’s working and what’s not?
You’re dead in the water without drilling into data and building reports to guide your marketing strategies. You’ll have no way to monitor trends efficiently, discover your most effective marketing channels, or nail down your most profitable demographic.
Because you’re not tracking data to find out what marketing channels your customers respond to. (You might be doing what does NOT work!)
Sure, you might get lucky on a few campaigns and hit a home run or two. But your success and ROI charts will look like a five-year-old’s attempt to draw a mountain range. We don’t want spikes and drops. This is not how to grow your HVAC business.
In the end, you want a slow, steady climb that continues for an infinite period. And there’s no reason why you can’t accomplish that if you optimize.
Using a program to track your leads allows you to cut dead weight. The last thing you want to do is continuously sink money into marketing campaigns that don’t deliver decent ROI.
4. Focus On Content Creation And Content Marketing
During our research, we asked one of the successful HVAC owners during an interview, “If someone asked you, ‘what are your best tips to grow my HVAC business?’ how would you answer?”During our research, we asked one of the successful HVAC owners during an interview, “If someone asked you, ‘what are your best tips to grow my HVAC business?’ how would you answer?”
Do you know what his answer was? And this was an old-school HVAC guy.
His answer was to spend more time focusing on content creation.
Why does he say this?…
Content creation goes hand-in-hand with local SEO – meaning you can implement both interchangeably, simultaneously – there’s power in both. What do we mean by content creation?
Any type of digestible information your potential customers interact with. This can be a blog post, a video, an infographic, a slide show, or a podcast – the choices are endless.
The point is, using content creation will help lure highly-optimized consumers. Google focuses on something called user intent. It means it puts content in front of people that is most relevant based on what the user searches for.
When a customer in Springfield, Illinois, searches for “videos to diagnose my HVAC issue,” and your site is optimized for local Springfield SEO, AND contains tons of videos on that topic, guess what? You’re getting users directed straight to your website with high intent and will most likely need your service soon.
Perfecting the art of optimizing local SEO through content creation is one of the best online marketing strategies for growing an HVAC business.
Personalize your content by creating blog posts and videos with stories about your brand. Customers love heartwarming stories of success or reading about how you, the owner, are just like them, hard-working citizens trying to make an honest buck. Not as savvy at creating videos or writing blog posts?
There are hundreds of content creation agencies that create highly optimized content that delivers traffic that’s ready to buy.
5. Show You’re 100% Up-To-Date On The Latest, Modern Equipment and Technology
This is a GREAT way to demonstrate your ultra-modern capabilities and cutting-edge technology. How will your shiny new transit and state-of-the-art equipment look on a glossy business card or website compared to Joe Blow with a couple of freon tanks and some gauges in his 1988 Astro Van?
Using this strategy, you succeed in staying modern and keeping your foot on the competition’s throat. People respond to high-quality graphics. They want to see what they’re paying for.
This is “How to Grow an HVAC Business 101”. You’ve gotta talk the talk and walk the walk.
What Do You Bring To The Table That Makes You A Better Option Than Cut-Rate Carl?
When scratching your head with questions like:
- “What’s the best way to successfully grow a small HVAC business?”
- “Why is my HVAC business now growing?”
- “How to generate sales leads?”
- “What are some tips to advertise and market my HVAC company?”
So, ask yourself: What differentiates you from “Cut-Rate Carl”?
How and why are your products and services a superior choice to solve your customers problem(s) than “Cut-Rate-Carl” (Despite his low-ball pricing strategy)?
…The answer(s) are the conversation you should be having with your customers in your marketing.
This is a great way to maximize profits and justify high-quality work. Most consumers know you get what you pay for in the HVAC industry. You can be good, or you can be cheap. But rarely can you be good and cheap. Which marketing strategy is left standing during the slow season?
We’ll give you a hint – it’s not cut-rate Carl.
The absolute worse way for any business to compete is on price. Why? There’s always someone who can offer products and services for less and steal your customers. And that strategy could backfire on your competitor, they could have financial struggle and go out of business. That lowers the competition for you!
Competing on price means there’s less money to pay overhead, grow your business and to pay your personal bills. Lowering your prices means doing a lot more work, having more overhead just to earn the same amount of profit in the end.
6. Is Your Heating And Cooling Brand Sticky?
What does it mean to make your HVAC brand sticky? You want your name, logo, and slogan to stick in the mind of your current and future customers.
But doesn’t this cost thousands of advertising dollars to put ads on the internet and television? It can – but it doesn’t have to. Not when you know how to maximize your marketing strategy.
Use HVAC logos on business cards and put your slogan and logo on your invoices. Put your brand in huge lettering and graphics on the side of your vans. Seriously – make them huge and viewable – even borderline tacky – but keep it tasteful.
You want customers to remember who you are. When someone needs HVAC service, you want your brand to pop into their mind first. They’ll remember the enormous print and your logo that’s on EVERYTHING. Use popups on your website with big, bold lettering and a high-quality logo graphic.
Come up with a slogan that uses rhyming or alliteration. Consumers remember analogies, rhymes, alliteration, and other wordplays far more than boring old catchphrases.
Don’t forget the number one rule of any transaction – initially, people spend money because they like you. This is out the window if you do a crappy job, so after the initial interaction customer service and quality is at the forefront.
But don’t forget to connect with your customers as part of your brand message. The best way to market your HVAC business through advertising is by pulling heartstrings – getting people to relate to you.
Combine photos of your high-quality equipment with photos of a family thanking a technician. Do a before and after photo of a family looking sweaty and miserable, then show them hugging a technician in their new air-conditioned climate.
Mix the high-quality angle with the down-to-earth. Don’t go too over the top – you don’t want to destroy the idea that they’re dealing with someone who is just like them and understands their problems. Learn how to connect with your customers, and you learn how to grow a successful HVAC company.
7. Make Your Website Mobile Friendly and Leverage SMS Marketing
Never underestimate the importance of a mobile-friendly website and the use of SMS marketing. Quite frankly, if you’re not incorporating these elements, you’re making a huge mistake.
Don’t believe the hype? Consider this: Studies have proven that a whopping 60% of consumers will exit your non-friendly mobile website if it’s not usable or they can’t conduct business via smartphone. That’s after attempting to navigate for a short time. But here’s the kicker – 61% stated they’ll abandon the site immediately without another thought if it’s not mobile-friendly. In marketing terms, not having a mobile-friendly site is a death sentence.
The first, and most obvious reason, is that most people obtain information and do business with their cellphones. Most consumers have a cell phone in their hand at all times.
Transactions occur on cell phones; people research, get reviews, and communicate via smart devices. This makes the site much easier to use, which customers appreciate.
Second, having a mobile-friendly HVAC options like online booking, invoice payment, and even SMS updates regarding appointment times and reminders show your clients you’re modern. And we’re in an instant gratification world, so real-time updating and any form of automation are massive.
Obtaining permission to send SMS updates also means you have a direct line of communication with your clients. Send them promotions, updates about your company, and other helpful information. You can even set up a referral system via SMS that allows them to keep track of their rewards if you want to get crazy.
8. Record Phone Calls To Convert Leads Into Customers
Using this in your arsenal of marketing weapons pays huge dividends. You don’t need a company with a massive call center to implement this method, either.
Use dedicated lines by using a VoIP service that allows you to route calls and use a hotline system. You can have different calls routed to specific service technicians. If you have a main receptionist taking calls, it also works – but you’ll get more value if you allow your service crew to field their own customer calls.
Using a dedicated line allows you to monitor customer relations. This level of transparency gives customers the peace of mind that everything promised to them is recorded. Any guarantees, quotes, and general disposition are all captured on audio.
On the customer service front, you build trust and rapport with your clients – make it a point to highlight the fact the call takes place on a recorded line. Second, you’re producing better technicians and schooling them on the customer relations side of the industry. Third, employees who take customers calls can be monitored for quality. Any problems or pattern of issues (missed phone appointment and sales opportunities) can be identified can be addressed and corrected.
This helps you weed out potential problems regarding rude or dishonest technicians. You’re also arming yourself with training ammo for the next generation. You can find companies that help with this area. They’ll compile audio and use conversion or transcription to create text or video. This helps you weed out potential problems regarding rude or dishonest technicians. You’re also arming yourself with training ammo for the next generation. You can find companies that help with this area. They’ll compile audio and use conversion or transcription to create text or video.
In the end, all of these advantages help facilitate growth. If you want to take it up a notch, combine your tracking regimen with routed phone numbers.
Designate specific numbers to certain marketing campaigns – this way, you’ll know which campaigns pushed the most call-ins. Drop what doesn’t work, and scale what does. It’s as simple as that.
9. How To Use Home Warranty Companies To Grow Your HVAC Contractor Company
As an owner, one of the most important things to remember as you’re scaling, and every moment afterward is: Get familiar with home warranty companies.
Why?
Home warranty companies are the organizations who – you guessed it, warranty new homes against any damage or situation that calls for repair. This can be anything – fires, burglary, natural disaster, faulty equipment/materials used during building – there’s no limit in some situations.
How Do I Scale My HVAC Company?
If you’ve already developed a reputation of professionalism, honesty and reliability, you become a good candidate for these companies to sub out warranty service work. This means any time these warranty companies experience a situation that requires HVAC work because of warranty protection, they’re calling you.
- Number one – the jobs you earn through these relationships are essentially cost-free from a marketing and advertising standpoint. You paid zero to acquire these customers because the warranty company provided them for you.
- Number two – use your position as a contractor for these warranty companies to build rapport with future customers. This is gold when it comes to learning how to grow your small HVAC business. How do you think customers will look at your business on your high-quality graphic with your state-of-the-art equipment saving the families of America with a line that reads, “Official HVAC Repair Service Provider of Acme Home Warranty.”
That’s huge. It’s steps like this that catapult your business into a higher tax bracket.
How To Market Your HVAC Business, Get More Customers And Grow Your Heating And Cooling Company: The Bottom Line
If you weren’t aware of how powerful HVAC internet marketing can be to grow a successful HVAC business – hopefully, you’ll view your blueprint for success in a new light. In a world where marketing was once just advertising that didn’t require much attention, the chickens have come home to roost!
It’s possible to take on these tasks in-house or even shoulder most of them on your own – but don’t overwork yourself. As an owner, your time is precious and required to grow an HVAC business.
Use a solution that handles elements of all these strategies. This all-in-one service helps pave your way to growth, visibility, and a new modern way of doing business and forging customer relationships.
For The Best Way To Grow Your HVAC Company, Schedule A Brief Marketing Session Right Now.
