What is a good HVAC Marketing Strategy for Facebook? By posting educational information designed to answer every question a customer might have, your HVAC contracting company will establish trust and authority. When creating Facebook posts and ads, use educational and informative articles, videos, images and messages, then you will attract Facebook users well before their heating or cooling system needs your attention.

We get a lot of calls from contractors who are disappointed by the performance of their HVAC marketing strategies on Facebook, and it’s almost always because they don’t understand the Facebook environment.

Nobody wants to be sold anything on Facebook. Ever.

While you may occasionally see someone asking for recommendations, it’s up to your happy customers to respond to that, not you.

HVAC Marketing on Facebook Works

So why has Facebook’s stock soared even as they get so much bad press for playing fast and loose with their user data?

Because companies who know how to build successful Facebook ad campaigns are spending more and more money on ads.

Facebook is making money hand over fist and providing excellent ROI to both their shareholders and their advertisers.

Speak to Your Audience

This is a good time to mention that there are two basic types of Facebook post/advertisement:

• Posts and ads designed to introduce your company to potential new customers
• Posts and ads designed to speak to existing customers

You already know that the day-to-day conversations you have with prospects and existing customers are very different, so your Facebook content should speak to prospects and customers differently too.

How Can HVAC Contractors Successfully Get People’s Attention on Facebook?

By showing, not just telling.

By educating, not selling.

By talking about them, not about you.

By posting the answers to the questions you are answering every day.

There is a hard truth that reveals itself when an HVAC contractor starts out on Facebook, and it is that nobody cares about you or your company. They care about themselves. Period.

Because of this, hard selling on Facebook will get your company unfollowed or blocked and then you have lost the audience forever

Instead of “always be closing” you should always be helping.

NOTE: Once you are sitting at the kitchen table, more traditional sales techniques can still be effective, although today’s buyer is a lot more educated by the time you show up to their home.

People go on Facebook to see what’s happening with their friends, their family and maybe their communities of common interest, such as knitting, fly fishing or boating, and that’s about it.

The Four Primary Elements of Connection

To get someone’s attention on Facebook you need to use words and images that immediately signal a common bond, and for HVAC contractors, that common bond is based on one or any combination of four things.

• Location - their town, development or neighborhood
• Discomfort - hot or cold in their home
• “A problem just like mine”
• “A home just like mine”

Effective HVAC Marketing on Facebook

HVAC contractors often outsmart themselves on Facebook, posting pictures of boiler rooms and boxes instead of homes and neighborhoods.

HVAC contractors post messages that convey how awesome they are instead of the problem they solved in a specific type of home in a specific neighborhood.

When an HVAC contractor crafts a Facebook post that incorporates one or more of the four primary elements of connection, a few things happen.

• People “see themselves” or “see their pain” in the post
• The quality of the engagement is improved
• The likelihood of conversion is increased

Can HVAC Contractors Sell System on Facebook?

Don't count on it. That’s not how people buy.

What most people will do if they are interested or intrigued by your Facebook post,  is either click on the picture or the link to further investigate that area of commonality - location, discomfort, problem, or home.

Or they will open their browser and Google your name, which takes us into a whole ‘nuther topic of discussion: what will they find?

Either way, your Facebook post or advertisement has done the job.

You've successfully established common ground with the homeowner, introduced your company to them and, hopefully, whatever they find will continue to educate and close the trust gap with five star reviews, case studies and top-shelf educational resources back on your website.

HVAC Marketing on Facebook is Only Part of the Puzzle

If you don’t have a predominance of five-star reviews, and a website with all the information necessary to get people to know, like and trust your company, your HVAC Marketing on Facebook is likely to fall flat.

If, on the other hand, you do have all those pieces of the puzzle in place, you will get consistent, solid ROI on your Facebook marketing spend.

My Favorite HVAC Marketing Tactics on Facebook

#1. Boost a Video on Facebook

Upload your video directly to your company Facebook page - not a link from your YouTube channel - and boost it to your target demographic (age, education, job) in your target geography (zip code).

The more homespun the video the better, as long as it leverages one of the four elements of connection and is not simply another video about how awesome you are.

#2. Post a Case Study and Boost It

Post some pictures of an installation you did and target a boost directly to that town or neighborhood. Include a picture of the front of the home and the street. That is what people are going to connect with.

Better yet, post a link to a “city page” where people can find links to multiple case studies in their town. This gives a strong message that you are the local authority and are not afraid to show it.

Remember, “Show and tell.”

We’ve had tremendous success with this strategy running campaigns targeting specific towns, neighborhoods and home construction types, such as “condos and apartments”, “colonial homes”, “split-level homes” and “additions and renovations”.

When you offer people information that specific with messaging that is on point, the leads are excellent.

#3. Run a giveaway

This is a classic “Email List-Building” campaign, which can be a money-maker season after season if you follow it up with a well-designed email drip marketing strategy.

For example, many of our clients do a spring ductless mini-split giveaway. The investment comes in at about $10K, which is always covered by profits from sold jobs, often before the giveaway is over.

The real money is made, however, during the seasons that follow as more and more giveaway entrants come to know, like and trust your company, with more and more of them buying services and systems over time.

A ductless mini-split giveaway will result in an ROI of 30:1 to 50:1 over a three to four year period.

#4. Run a Contest

There are countless ways to conduct contests on Facebook that have a fun angle, requiring engagement and sharing in order to participate.

Example: We have had a lot of success with the “Old & Ugly Furnace” contest. People submit pictures of their furnace to qualify, then the winner is “crowdsourced”, meaning contestants must promote their old & ugly furnace among their friends and family to have it voted up.

A contest like this will get people to share information about your company while you build your email list in the process.

As with the ductless giveaway, the real revenue results from the drip email strategy behind the contest.

#5. Rebates & Financing Education

As the local authority on all things HVAC related, it’s easy to become the go-to resource in the ever-changing world of rebate opportunities and financing options.

As programs change, you want your company to be the voice of authority of these topics, and an annual or seasonal campaign around these topics will ensure that is the case.

What is a good HVAC Marketing Facebook Budget?

Your budget depends on your goals, but suffice it to say, more is always better. No matter how much you spend, it is unlikely your post will get in front of all of the target people unless your service area is sparsely populated.

NOTE: This assumes you have a bunch of five-star reviews on Google, Facebook or ReviewBuzz, and solid educational content on your website.

No matter how good your Facebook post or ad is, the campaign will fall flat if there’s no “social proof” to demonstrate your claims.

Budget is always some combination of your existing annual revenue and your growth goals. Here’s the formula we like to use, assuming you are looking for double-digit sales growth:

Annual revenue x 5-7% = Total Marketing Budget

Total Marketing Budget x 75% = Digital Marketing Budget

Digital Marketing Budget should be allocated to the various channels you plan to use and the associated management and administrative fees. Here’s an example breakdown for a $3 million HVAC contractor looking to be a $5 million dollar business:

$1500/month Content creation

$1500/month Video production

$1000-$1500/month Facebook budget

$3000-$5000/mo Google AdWords budget

$750-$1000/month Google AdWords management fees

$2000/month Agency management

Or

$8000/month In-house marketing pro

HVAC contractors with larger budgets still use traditional media and print advertising, but the $1 million to $3 million contractors should be focused almost exclusively on digital until you get to the point where you need to go broader with your lead generation efforts.

Budgets should be elastic, meaning, nothing should be set in stone, and the seasonal nature of the HVAC business should be taken into account when mapping these numbers out on your calendar.

You can see that I am not allocating a nickel for digital banner ads. Our data tell us that banner ads are ineffective, and that’s all I’m going to say about that. If you want to see our data, schedule a call and I’ll be happy to show it to you.

HVAC Marketing on Facebook - The Bottom Line

If you have a bunch of five-star reviews and high-quality educational content on your website, Facebook marketing is one of the most effective ways an HVAC contractor can deliver a message directly to people based on the customer’s location, the type of home they live in and the nature of their discomfort.

Be real and be helpful on Facebook and people will come to know, like and trust you enough to pick up the phone and call.