Customers Want to See Themselves in Your HVAC Marketing

What if there was a better way to showcase your experience and expertise than three lines from John Smith saying “Your Company is the best”?

What if prospects could find your company on Google where you demonstrate your expertise in solving a problem in a home just like theirs?

Case Studies Give You Social Proof, SEO and Customer Education

Remember the days of your Brag Book?

You'd flop that thick binder down on the customer's kitchen table and page through pictures of your favorite jobs while you described the different aspects of each one.

Then you'd flip to the installations that most closely matched the style of home construction or the solution you were recommending to the prospect.

The Brag Book showed the prospect that you really did have the expertise and experience necessary to solve their home comfort problem.

How are you doing this today?

Are your comfort consultants flipping through pictures on their phones or tablets?

Are they all doing the same things the same way?

Do you have any control over the process?

Put a Digital Brag Book On Your Website

Back when we started CMG, our first client dropped his Brag Book down on the table at one of our strategy meetings and said, "I want every one of these jobs on my website."

He wanted to be able to email his prospects a link to his Brag Book instead of waiting to get into the house to show it.

He wanted to educate the customer about his company's experience and expertise before he showed up at the house, a concept we now call Setting the Table.

He wanted all his comfort consultants to know the jobs that were showcased on the website and how to share them with prospects before and during the sales call.

And he wanted the customer experience to be the same every time.

Neither one of us knew how much of a game-changer this would be for his business and for us. 

Within weeks of publishing ECI Comfort's first handful of case studies to the website, people started calling into the shop saying how they wanted a Generac like the Kane's or to know if their home was a candidate for a high velocity system like the Metzger job.

The case studies were being found by people Googling solutions in those geographic locations.

More importantly, the case studies were closing the trust and authority gap for ECI Comfort just like the Brag Book did.

When people looked at the case studies, they called and scheduled estimates.

When people looked at the case studies, they had better questions during the sales appointment and the comfort consultants closed more jobs in less time.

How to Put Case Studies On Your Website

Let's face it, most people are intimidated by writing anything.

Getting HVAC contractors to write case studies was practically impossible, even as valuable as we were able to prove they are.

There had to be an easier way for contractors to get the information about their best jobs out of their heads and onto their websites.

We needed a simple system.

So we systematized HVAC case study production to a formula of exactly what information a contractor needed to create a compelling case study.

A few pieces of information about the job and a few simple pictures taken with a cell phone gave us everything we needed to create a powerful lead magnet on the contractor's website.

Enter the Comfort Media Case Study Wizard

To streamline the process with our clients, we created a simple form on our website where their comfort consultants or lead coordinators could enter information about the jobs.

They fill out the form, push a button and everything is automatically sent to us.

One of our experienced case study writers puts together the case study which describes why the homeowner called the contractor, what the comfort consultant discovered during the in-home consult, and how the installation techs used their expertise to solve the problem.

A solid HVAC case study highlights the benefits of the solution, whether it's a ductless mini-split, tankless water heater, smart thermostat - whatever it is. 

The story about the fix, along with pictures of the actual job, is posted on the contractor’s website and shared through social media and email.

Over time, many of our clients have built powerful libraries of case studies, which can be browsed by customers based on home construction type, location, and the types of problems you see every day.

These "category" pages, along with the case studies, are also used in email campaigns, paid search campaigns, Facebook promotions, and direct mail campaigns.

And because many of our clients use marketing automation software to track the results of all of these actions, they can measure the effectiveness of their case study platforms.

Why are Case Studies so Powerful?

While testimonials and reviews offer customers' opinions about the work you did for them - good and not-so-good - case studies tell your prospects a lot more about the kinds of problems other homeowners have experienced and the solutions your company recommends.

Case studies give homeowners a sense of transparency and security when they can see what actually happens when you are working in their home.

They get to understand why you recommended a particular solution and get to see the results, so they know what to expect for their own home.

They might have a similar problem - a split level that has hot and cold spots, or a bonus room that’s never comfortable - and by reading the case study, they know you can solve their problem because you’ve done it before.

Because each case study is written with search engines in mind, we help Google find your case studies when people are looking for solutions to their problems.

Every case study is "tagged" so it is easily found for its key factors - making it easy for homeowners to find when they simply ask Google a question like “Why is my attic too hot?” or “Is there a better solution than window air conditioners?”

Because each case study is written with human beings in mind, they tell a compelling story that is about a customer who starts out unhappy and ends completely satisfied.

Case Studies are Social Proof

We write your case study like a story two neighbors would share over a cup of coffee. A story friends would share over beers or at lunch.

Case studies tell the story about how they had a problem that drove them crazy, and how the contractor they called came, saw, and conquered it while working with them to help lower their energy bills and get peace of mind.

And isn't that what every homeowner wants?

The other day I went to a local business happy hour.

One of the people started to talk about the heating and cooling problems in their historic stone home, so I started to tell them about how there are new mini-split systems that can help provide a home like this with much better heating and cooling, and they could get rid of those pesky window air conditioners.

They talked about how awful the annual air conditioner install and storage was, and I sympathized, also telling them how stored air conditioners could also get mold and mildew if you weren’t careful.

As the conversation went on, it sounded just like one of our case studies, and by the end of it, the homeowner asked one of the local contractors in the group for more information.

Case studies identify and sympathize with the problems your potential customers have, and show them that there’s a solution - and you have already done this for someone in your community - someone like them.

That’s really what every potential customer is looking for - and that’s more powerful than “Joe smith says we’re awesome!”

Reviews are Still Important

Make no mistake; every contractor absolutely needs a pile of five-star reviews to act as a pillar of their Social Proof formula.

But once people click through that review site to your website, there are few things more likely to get them to call than a story about a problem just like theirs, in a home just like theirs, right around the corner from them.

Case studies take everything you do every day and turn it into powerful lead magnets.

If you’re interested in learning more, just give us a call here at CMG. We’d love to help you take your HVAC business to the next level.