9 Proven HVAC Marketing Strategies for Attracting More Customers

To compete in the HVAC industry, you have to market your business  which may seem like an enormous task.

But…

If you’re reading this, you are already on the right track!

There’s good news:

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with your HVAC marketing.

In fact:

I wouldn’t recommend doing so!

What has already worked for other HVAC companies will also work for yours!

Here are 9 HVAC marketing strategies that are already proven to generate leads and sales:

1. Bring in $258,040 in revenue with seasonal HVAC advertising.

Timing is everything.

Whether you’re focused on customer retention or generating new heating and air conditioning leads, reach your audience when they are most likely to need you:

Winter and summer!

(Ideally, you should start marketing 6 to 8 weeks BEFORE those busy seasons.)

Our HVAC clients have been very successful with their seasonal campaigns.

For example:

• This Illinois company brought in $258,040 in revenue with their winter campaign
• This Arkansas HVAC business generated an 839% return on investment with a winter furnace tune-up campaign
• This Missouri company brings in an average of $30,000 with their seasonal campaigns

But they didn’t just run ANY campaign  they didn’t use flyers or door hangers or skywriting!

All three of them used a very specific type of HVAC advertising that is proven to bring in jobs…

2. Generate a 2,655% return on investment (ROI) with HVAC postcards.

HVAC direct mail is a time-tested lead-generation method. Just look at those results above! They ALL used direct mail (specifically postcards) to reap real bottom-line returns.

And if you’re thinking “time-tested” equals “outdated,” think again!

Recent studies show:

• 54% of consumers prefer to receive promotions via direct mail
• 79% of recipients open direct mail immediately (compared to 45% with email)
• 40% of consumers have made a purchase in the last three months because of direct mail

Which is why some businesses see response rates as high as 50-60% and ROIs of up to 2,655% with HVAC marketing postcards!

And research shows that about half of recipients save direct mail for future reference.

Having said that…

You can’t neglect your online presence as a small business…

3. Get on Page 1 of Google with pay per click HVAC advertising.

With Google pay per click (PPC) advertising, you can run an ad on Google when people search for certain keywords.

You’ve seen PPC ads — you know, these guys:

The beauty of this kind of marketing is:

You only pay when someone clicks on it! (Hence the name PAY PER CLICK!)

The downside?

It’s easy to waste money on clicks that don’t convert into customers.

Plus:

In a highly competitive industry like HVAC, you might end up spending a pretty penny to get to Page 1.

If you’re not familiar with PPC, here’s the deal:

You “bid” on certain keywords, like “AC repair” or “HVAC companies.”

Google AdWords (the name of Google’s program that handles all PPC accounts) will suggest an amount, but you can actually bid whatever you want.

Several things factor into your cost per click, including:

• How relevant Google thinks your website is to your targeted keyword
• Your website’s “dwell time” (how long visitors stay on the page once they get there)
• Your conversion rate (how many visitors take the desired action, e.g., filling out a form)

I know…

It’s a lot to think about.

To keep things as simple as possible:

I recommend setting a budget (say, $50 a day) and playing around with your ads (you can change them as often as you like!) to see what works the best for you.

Download our free report: How to Do Pay Per Click Yourself (And Not Waste Your Money)

But managing your PPC ads can be a full-time job. And as the owner of an HVAC company, you already have one  or two, or three!

That’s why it’s a good idea to hire a professional to handle your PPC ads for you. (PostcardMania offers PPC management, by the way!)

4. Maximize your AC advertising results with a well-designed website.

It’s a lot harder these days to get a lead to call your business.

Why?

Because people can do their own research online  and THEY DO!

So it’s important to remember that whatever kind of marketing you do  whether heating postcards or pay per click ads or radio spots  interested prospects are headed straight for your website.

And…

What they find there determines whether or not they call you or become your customer!

An effective business website should be attractive and professional-looking (Stanford Web Credibility Research shows that 75% of people will judge your business based on the appearance of your website), but even more importantly…

It should include marketing elements that help turn visitors into customers!

Like:

• Your contact information clearly visible on every page
• An about-us page with real photos of you and your staff
• Lead-capture forms

Here’s an example of a lead-capture form:

Why is this so important?

A Kissmetrics study showed that 96% of website visitors are not yet ready to become customers.

So what happens to those leads?

They leave your site, and then…

Poof! They’re gone.

But a lead-capture form, like the one shown above, gives interested prospects a reason to interact with your company (by offering them something of value in exchange for their contact information)…

So you can follow up with them and turn them into sales! (More on that in a minute.)

You can download our ultimate guide to small business website design for FREE here.

5. Improve your response up to 400% with Google follow-up ads.

But what if an interested prospect leaves your site WITHOUT filling out your lead-capture form?

Are they lost forever?

Not necessarily…

With Google follow-up ads (also called remarketing or retargeting), you’ll never leave another lead behind!

Here’s how it works:

• A prospect receives your postcard in the mail and has some interest.
• They go to your website to learn more about your company — but they don’t need HVAC services just yet, so they leave and go about their business. But…
• While they were on your site, they were “cookied” with an unobtrusive piece of coding that tells Google to start showing them your banner ads.
• As they browse the internet, they see your ad (which looks just like your postcard) everywhere — on literally millions of sites across the Google network.
• When they need their AC or heating system fixed, YOU are top of mind!

A CMO.com study showed that Google follow-up ads can improve response up to 400%!

And when you add them to your direct mail campaign (it’s called DirectMail2.0), this happens AUTOMATICALLY.

Once you set it up, you don’t ever have to think about it — it operates on its own.

Plus:

All DirectMail2.0 campaigns include:

• Mail tracking, so you can see when your postcards are expected to hit mailboxes (and confirmation when they do)
• A call tracking number, which rings directly into your business but gets counted and recorded so you can see exactly how many calls your campaign generates (and even listen to the calls to check the quality of your sales and reception process)
• A user-friendly online dashboard that shows you all of your campaign data in real time, including how many times your banner ads have been seen and how many times people have clicked back to your website!

6. Establish trust with 92% of prospects with reviews and testimonials.

A BrightLocal survey showed that 92% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses, and 68% of those people say positive reviews make them trust a business more.

I mean:

Of course YOU are going to tell prospects that you’re a reputable, trustworthy company. But it means a LOT more coming from people who have already done business with you!

Look at this:

Which one of these HVAC companies do you think more people are going to call?

The company with:

• A 4.8-star rating based on 40 reviews
• No reviews
• A 4.5-star rating based on 8 reviews
• A 4.7-star rating based on 23 reviews

All things being equal, I’d be more likely to call the first one! Wouldn’t you?

The BEST thing about online reviews?

They’re FREE!

All you have to to is ask for them.

Download this free report to learn strategies for racking up tons of good Google reviews!

7. Attract 83% more business with a referral program.

According to Nielsen research, 83% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know.

And trust is a big deal when it comes to HVAC marketing, not only because your customers are spending a lot of money, but because you are going into their homes!

Satisfied customers are usually happy to give referrals, but sometimes they need a little nudge.

A referral program will give those people incentive to send their friends and family your way.

You could offer them, for example:

• A discount on their next service
• A free tune-up
• Movie tickets
• Gift cards to restaurants or other local businesses

And make sure that your staff on the ground know to mention and promote your referral program. You can have them hand out postcards about it after they finish a job, or add a sheet to the end of receipts about it. There are lots of possibilities to get the word out!

8. Close 80% more sales with consistent marketing.

You’ll often hear sales professionals cite this statistic:

80% of sales occur on the FIFTH contact or later.

Think about it:

Do you jump at every advertisement you see? I’ll bet not  and neither do your prospects.

Rather, it might go something like this:

1. Your prospect sees your message (via postcard, banner ad, billboard, whatever) once. They may take note if they know they’re going to need a new air conditioning unit soon, but otherwise they don’t think much of it.
2. Your prospect sees your message a second time. This time it rings a bell because they have heard of you before. You’re creating brand recognition.
3. Your prospect sees your message a third time. They’re starting to feel that you are a stable, dependable HVAC company.
4. Your prospect needs a new air conditioner. They Google “AC repair” and they see your listing, along with all of your competitors. But they recognize YOU as an established, trustworthy business…
5. And you are the one they call!

There is no “correct” number of times to deliver your message to your prospects. Marketing isn’t an exact science.

But the more often you come into contact with them, the more likely they are to think of you when they need what you offer!

9. Create 76% more customers with a follow-up system.

Remember when I talked about using lead-capture forms to collect the contact information of people interested in your business (in #4)?

This is where it pays off.

Without follow-up, no marketing plan is complete!

You may not believe this, but…

At my company, we only close 6% of our leads on the first call!

Yep. Only 6%!

The rest go into our follow-up system.

Once we follow up with those people three, maybe four times over the course of a week, that number goes up to 13%.

After about a year  with those leads receiving postcards and emails and phone calls from us regularly  it goes up to 25%.

That means:

76% of our leads close AFTER the first contact.

Could you imagine what would happen if we didn’t follow up with those people? We wouldn’t be in business!

Whether you do it with postcards, email, phone calls, retargeting or all of the above…

You HAVE TO FOLLOW UP!

And there you have them:

9 HVAC advertising ideas that are proven to work  I hope you’re inspired!

Visit our website to see examples of heating and cooling postcards that have already worked for our HVAC clients and request a FREE sample pack!

Ready to start a campaign for your HVAC business, or have questions about anything I’ve mentioned here? Call one of my marketing experts at 800-628-1804 for a FREE, no-obligation consultation!

Best,

Joy