A new year presents the perfect opportunity to inject new life into your sales and marketing efforts.
You’ve likely already developed some strategies and tactics that work for you, but the world around us is constantly evolving. So let’s explore the top marketing strategies for 2024, based on the technology and trends we’re seeing, to help your HVAC business grow.
The more ways you can engage with consumers, the more chances you have to convince them to hire you!
Here are some HVAC sales and marketing strategies you can use to engage leads, prospects, and customers alike.
Sales is largely about tenacity. It takes 8-12 touches to reach a prospect; if you’re not following up, you’re probably leaving money on the table.
Of course, you can only follow up with people on your radar! If you have leads flying in via multiple channels, it’s easy for some to fall through the cracks—unless you have a system to manage it all.
So much technology is custom-built to help you keep track of all your prospect outreach. Make 2024 the year that you invest in a CRM that enables you to manage individual relationships at scale—and use our tips on how to use a CRM so you can get the most out of your investment.
It’s anywhere from 5-25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain a current one, so make sure you’re maintaining contact with existing customers.
You can do this with annual system check ups, sharing relevant promotions, or checking in on their previous service.
A homeowner might forgo their system check without a little nudge from you. But when they get a friendly text reminding them about the benefits of regular tune-ups, they just might bite.
With retargeting, you can upload a list of your customers or prospects into Facebook or Google and target those people with social or display ads. You can also add a pixel to your website so that anyone who visits it will get ads from your business elsewhere across the web. It’s a great way to stay top of mind for customers and prospects alike and warm them up for your direct outreach.
Referrals can be a valuable source of new leads (and long-term revenue) for your HVAC business.
Sixty percent of marketers say a referral program generates a high volume of leads. And leads from a referral program convert at a higher rate and have a lifetime value that’s 16% greater than leads from other channels.
In fact, someone on our team just sent this message over recently:
With all the benefits referrals can bring to your business, incentivizing current customers to send new leads your way is a smart idea.
Consider creating a referral program to do just that. Offer discounts or other perks to customers who refer friends and family to increase your referral rates and even strengthen loyalty with current customers.
For more tips on this, head to our post on getting referrals.
Social media isn’t just for picture-perfect influencers and trendy retail brands. Your HVAC business can also carve out a niche on the hottest social platforms!
Homeowners flock to social platforms for advice–especially video platforms like TikTok and YouTube. In fact, home renovation videos saw the highest engagement growth in 2020, up 156%.
The key is to share helpful content. First-time homeowners seeking advice on social media likely have questions about basic HVAC maintenance and the signs that it’s time to call in a pro.
If you can walk them through DIY HVAC tasks (like how to change a filter or clean an outdoor unit), then you’ll already be a trusted brand that they’ll be comfortable turning to when they need a professional.
Lead aggregators can be an incredible source of new leads for your business. But with dozens out there, you must research to find the one that best suits your needs.
That starts with understanding your own business. Do you know who your ideal customers are? Sharing a profile of your target customer with a lead aggregator ensures they’re sending the right people your way.
Then, you need a system to handle these new leads. How will you manage outreach? What’s the best cadence for follow-up? How will you measure success?
Once you’ve assessed where you stand, you can use these questions find the lead aggregator that best suits your needs.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a tried and true way to help your business rank high in organic search results.
But over the years, Google and other search engines have added more paid spots to their search engine results pages (SERPs). You may get crowded out of results if you’re not engaging in paid advertising tactics.
Google places Local Services Ads, regular Google Ads, and Maps results all above organic search results on its page. This means other service providers may be listed ahead of you, even if your HVAC business website is the number one organic result.
Consider investing in some paid advertising to place your business higher up the page. Local Services Ads are tailored to service providers, and with the “Google Guaranteed” feature, you can display a badge that signals you’re a trusted provider.
That doesn’t mean you can ignore SEO! It’s still important to rank well organically–that’s the only way to put yourself on the first page of organic results.
If your business can appear in paid search and organic results below, that presents searchers with multiple opportunities to click through to your site.
Targeted keyword research can help you improve your ranking in local search.
Local SEO is a specific set of tactics that helps your business rank for searches within your geography–which is essential when you’re an HVAC business serving a distinct area!
Local SEO is a complex topic, but these practices will help Google surface your site when people in those geographies search for HVAC businesses nearby.
In 2023, 60% of all website traffic came from mobile devices. If your website is not optimized for mobile, you could be damaging your ranking in search results and making on-site navigation difficult for most searchers.
Google Lighthouse is a free tool to help you check your website’s mobile performance.
Take the time to run a checkup on your website to ensure it’s built to dazzle on mobile. You can use a tool like Google Lighthouse to assess load time, accessibility, and alignment with other technical best practices.
You’re asking customers to invite your team into their homes. You and your colleagues need to feel immediately trustworthy. There are several things your HVAC business can do to win that trust early on.
Mr. Air NYC includes photos of its team and a series of candids on its “About Us” page. Image source
Depending on the size of your market, you may be facing off against dozens of other HVAC service providers. Making consumers feel like your business is an obvious “yes” can help you win against competitors. Take some time to dig into what sets your HVAC business apart from others in your area. Think in terms of superlatives—can you claim to be the first, the only, the oldest, the quickest, etc.?
HVAC services and equipment are not small investments, so it can be helpful to use guarantees to increase your customers’ confidence in choosing your business.
In the below example, this business is offering a home assessment, with a full money back guarantee if the homeowner is not satisfied with the service or if their equipment has issues before the next annual service.
A professional, yet conversational tone is the way to communicate with consumers today. Not only does it make you human and approachable, but it’s easier to read and engage with. Write website, email, and ad copy as if you’re talking to your customers.
In the above image, for example, the copy reads like someone from the team is talking to you:
We asked ourselves what made US rave about other companies the way we want you to rave about us. Our favorite companies listened, were straightforward, professional and delivered what they promised. That’s exactly what we do!
Research shows that customers prefer to connect via text. (In fact, most will ignore phone calls from unknown numbers!)
Texting is quicker and more convenient for your customers, and it’s more cost-effective for you. What’s not to love?
So, if you’re still relying on phone calls or emails as your primary mode of outreach, let 2024 be the year you change your approach. Investing in a platform that automates texting can help you reach more prospects with less effort.
The age-old challenge for HVAC businesses is to maintain consistent revenue throughout the year, regardless of the weather outside.
To begin smoothing out your month-over-month revenue, use shoulder season to promote your maintenance services, reengage existing customers, and build out your automated follow-up processes. For more, follow our tips to prevent and navigate shoulder season.
Chances are, you’re already using automation in your sales and marketing efforts. But chances also are that you could afford to automate more. It can be messy at first to change up existing processes and switch off of legacy systems, but the long-term time and money savings is pretty much always worth it. Take a look at some of your most cumbersome or resource-heavy tasks and pick at least one to automate this year. Sometimes you have to take a step back to take three steps forward.
And while AI is still relatively new, we all know that it’s becoming embedded in society. Don’t wait until you’re falling behind your competitors and have to start using AI as remedial action. Learning is not successful under pressure. Be proactive and start getting familiar with it now so you can stay ahead of the AI revolution. Educate yourself on the pros, cons, and pitfalls of AI for contractors and start thinking about ways you can use AI for your business.
The subscription economy is on pace to become a $1.5 trillion market by 2025. People love subscriptions because they make their lives easier.
Why not create recurring revenue streams for your business? A maintenance program that offers regular service and speedy emergency care is enticing for busy homeowners and provides you with guaranteed revenue each month. That’s a win-win.
You may only have time to delve into some of these areas, but making even one or two smart strategic adjustments to your sales and marketing approach can positively impact your business.
Which of these sales and marketing trends are you most excited to explore in the next twelve months?
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