Marketing for HVAC Companies: 4 Strategies to Get the Most Bang for Your Buck
Having a marketing strategy in place is essential for the success of businesses in every industry, including HVAC companies. Is your HVAC business utilizing a marketing plan to generate leads and sales? If not, it’s not too late to get started, and the following tips will help.
Marketing tips for HVAC companies
1. Run ads year-round based on the season
Run ads, including pay-per-click (PPC) ads, year-round, but change the content based on the season. This is surprisingly easy to forget, especially when you run ads that advertise both heating and cooling services.
However, it’s critical to advertise your services separately based on the season because people won’t really respond to ads for A/C services when it’s snowing. If someone sees your general ad in the winter, they might not see the word “heating.”
Remember that people mostly need heating services in the winter and air conditioning services in the summer. From a small business marketing standpoint, you’ll get a better response rate by crafting separate ads for each service.
2. Offer promotions
Local businesses do well by offering special promotions. Since HVAC services can be quite expensive, offering discounts, deals, and promotions can help generate positive results. The key is to figure out the right type of promotion to offer.
Some popular HVAC promotions may include:
Cash back after a new installation. A cash-back offer can be a huge incentive for people to choose one HVAC company over another. Consider offering a rebate between $300 and $550, depending on the unit installed.
In-house financing. Sometimes people don’t qualify for a loan, and if you can offer them financing—even if it's at a high interest rate—you can capture more customers.
Contests. Run an “ugly furnace” contest and have people submit photos of their furnaces for a chance to win a brand-new furnace. Unlike other promotions, contests also are a great way to generate email list sign-ups and identify leads who are actually looking to buy a new furnace.
When you run your promotions, be sure to track the results to see which ones work best for you.
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3. Optimize your website for local search
The competition for basic HVAC-related searches is huge. Without a massive budget, you’ll probably never rank in the search engines for basic search terms. However, you can start ranking for local searches.
Optimizing your website for local searches isn’t hard. It starts with placing your local contact information in several places so that search engines can pick up on the fact that you are a local business. This will help your website rank for search queries like “HVAC company near me” when a user is logged into an account with a local zip code.
Start simple. Put your phone number in your header where it’s visible on every page. In your footer, post your address and phone number, along with your hours of operation. It also helps to list the cities you serve and create individual landing pages targeting those specific areas, although if there are too many cities (20+) it might look spammy to search engines.
4. Hire a marketing professional
Although many HVAC businesses get by with a Google Business listing, you can only go so far on your own. A professional can do things you can’t, like acquire high-quality backlinks and perform intensive keyword research.
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