Marketing for HVAC businesses is changing. There are some traditional elements that absolutely still work, such as mailing out flyers or putting an ad in the local paper. But, there are also a lot of new opportunities when it comes to digital marketing for an HVAC business. 

In this article we want to talk about 5 ways you can improve and stay on top of your digital marketing strategy this winter... 

1. Creating Educational Content 

Creating content that your customers are looking for is a great first step in your online marketing strategy. This is one of the key philosophies of inbound marketing. Lots of HVAC businesses don't take the time to write articles or create lots of content about what they do. There may be a general heating page (which you should have), but not a ton else. 

Creating educational content that answers questions and helps solve problems will...

• Help you get found on search engines such as Google and Yahoo
• Give you content to post on social media
• Give you content to email your customer base
• Helps your visitors find the exact answers to the questions they are looking for 
• Establishes trust and makes your company an authority in your market 
• Separates you from your competitors who don't create any content

When people have a problem today, the first thing they do is go to the internet to look for answers. If you are creating the content that answers those questions, you are the company that is going to be found. And when the visitor realizes they need the services of a professional, you are the one they will be calling, turning this visitor into a lead, and hopefully a new customer. 

For example, if someone has a living room that never seems to stay as warm as the rest of the house, they may google, "One room in my home won't stay warm", or "My heater doesn't heat my whole home". 

If you have content that speaks about "Heating the one room that won't stay warm", your piece of content is probably exactly what they are looking for. The more content you create that speaks to the problems of your customers, and really helps them try to solve them, the more visits your website should rack up! 

What kinds of content can you produce?

Blog articles are the easiest form of content to create. Simply writing a blog that answers a particular question is an easy, cheap, and fairly quick. 

Video is also an extremely valuable piece of content you can create. More and more marketing on the internet is becoming video based, and with good reason. Check out this article with a few pretty staggering statistics about how much video can improve your overall marketing efforts. 

Case Studies are also fantastic. When you create a case study, you are creating content that has local keywords, and shows visitors an example of someone who lives in their neighborhood, is going through the same heating issues, and how your company solved their problem. 

2. Emailing Customers

If you aren't using email, you are missing out. Email is still one of the top forms of digital marketing, despite the feeling of email being a little saturated. 

First of all, you should be collecting the email addresses from every one of your leads, customers, and really anyone who comes into contact with your company. If someone isn't ready to purchase a system just yet, having their email address is far more valuable than a phone number. Email allows you to slowly and respectfully nurture and stay in touch with leads. 

Emailing your current customer base also allows you to stay in touch with current customers. Scheduling out service and keeping a loyal customer base becomes much easier when you can keep in touch with simple, inexpensive emails. 

3. Using Social Media 

If you aren't using social media, particularly Facebook, you are missing out on opportunities to cultivate new business, while staying in touch with your community. 

It's FREE to start a Facebook page for your business, and it gives you different opportunities to share content, and run paid ads at certain areas and demographics you want to be in front of. 

Social media also gives you a unique opportunity to communicate with the people in your community. You can talk about events happening in your neighborhood, and develop a different, more personal relationship with your community. This is also another place for people to come and review your business. Having a good rating on Facebook is becoming just as important as Google and Yelp.

You can read more here, but the main takeaway is that social media is something that's free and easy to start, and you should be making it happen for your digital marketing! 

4. Increase Budget As Needed 

This is a competitive time of year, and spending the proper amount of money to compete is important, and something that can carry over and help sustain you during the slower months. 

Naturally, once it gets colder your phone will start to ring. That's great, but it doesn't always last. This is also a time of year your competitors are pushing their products and services harder than ever, using up marketing dollars while people are in need. 

Setting up proper pay-per-click campaigns on Facebook and Google for the products and services you want to sell will help you get found by the demographic you are going for, in the areas you want to work in, and focus on the products that make you the most money. 

This is also a great time to generate content, like we spoke about above. Hiring a company to help you create marketing videos, case studies of your best jobs, and push your content to the proper places is usually easier during this time that you have a bunch of great content to get out there. 

If you have amazing jobs all winter long, but never bother to write about them, take a video or even a picture of them, then you don't have much to promote for the rest of the season, as well as in future winters. 

Increasing your marketing budget as needed will not only help you get more immediate business, but also set you up for increased revenue year after year. 

5. Focus on Online Reviews

Reviews have always been important, but now with all the different research people can do on the internet for any company, they are more important than ever. If someone Googles your company, and all they see is a 2 star rating and only a handful of reviews, it doesn't look good. The same goes for Facebook and Yelp. 

The more places that you have shining 5 star ratings and dozens of reviews, the better it looks for your company, and gives you more social proof. One of first things people do when they are making a decision about a company today is some online research, and reviews are usually the first or second thing they look at. Seeing recent reviews with good ratings is FAR BETTER than 1 or 2 from a few years ago. 

Start asking your happy customers if they wouldn't mind leaving you a review. Creating a followup email with links to places you would like them to leave a review can increase the amount of reviews you have, and because most of the work you do is fantastic, the more reviews, the better the rating. This is a great time of year to make a push for reviews, because you'll likely be busier, giving you a lot more opportunities. 

You are also bound to get a bad review. It happens to everyone, and it's not always your fault! Even if it is, we all make mistakes, but you don't want that one review to ruin your rating. The more great reviews you get, the less impact one bad one will have. 

Any Questions?

If you have any questions about your winter marketing strategy, we can help. There are a lot of other things you can be doing when it comes to digital marketing, but these 5 are ones you can get started on TODAY! If you don't have the time, but know you need some help, WE DO ALL OF THESE THINGS. Give us a call at (888) 519-1950, or email me at donjr@comfortmediagroup.com.