Marketing is a Mindset

Many contractors, including myself at first get overwhelmed by even the word “marketing” and do not know exactly where to start.

I was fortunate that in my business it was something I really connected twith, learned to enjoy, and also learned the impacts of marketing…both good and bad. Before we dive into the topics let’s discuss what marketing is & more importantly what it is NOT.

What marketing is NOT!

What marketing is NOT…before we get into marketing let’s discuss the two subjects that stifle most businesses. The #1 is thinking that word of mouth is marketing. It is not. Yes, it helps make the phone ring, but if you want to grow, trust me you will need much more than word of mouth to fuel that growth. A close second is viewing marketing as an expense. I have seen too many companies that cut marketing and then I watch the revenue shrink rapidly, every single time this is the experience. It is NOT an expense; it is a required investment into your company. Marketing is a mindset, just like profitability is a mindset. Hopefully, this content helps with these mindsets.

Marketing Overview

When I am asked about a specific marketing question it typically leads to a much deeper conversation. That is because marketing, which really people typically mean marketing performance, is a sum of all of it’s parts. HVAC marketing is much like any home services business marketing. The components of an effective marketing campaign rely on the components of branding (which is an entire topic on its own), calls to action, seasonality influence, audience connection, benchmarking, a/b testing, digital presence, reach of advertising, frequency of advertising , marketing budget, customer retention strategy, and ability to harvest opportunity. There are more, however this covers the basics. Let’s break these down into just a few categories and see how they play a role in an effective marketing campaign.

Building Blocks

These fundamental building blocks are often overlooked and not executed well.

  • Outdoor stickers designed for outdoors!

  • Stickers applied to every piece of equipment & the electrical panel, preferably right at eye height

  • REMOVE COMPETITORS’ STICKERS

  • Give the customer a magnetic sticker for the fridge

  • Shoe covers need to be a company policy, this is part of branding

  • Clean & organized trucks with NOTHING on the dash

  • Branding

Branding is about how the image & actions of the company are perceived by the POTENTIAL customer versus their expectation. You can also use branding to “set the bar” for the local industry, which should be your goal. Think of it this way, how demoralizing is it as a competitor to constantly see your business image branded so well all they can think of is being like you. Now their focus has shifted from serving the customer to chasing your tail lights, all the while you are focused on serving customers and increasing your brand awareness (more customers aware of who you are). This also drives your competition to raise their prices to try and keep up with you. Here are some branding tips. The stronger the branding is the quicker brand recognition takes place, frequency of branding also plays a role in branding.

  • Choose a clean, attractive logo that has a professional appearance and can easily be read

  • A mascot or character adds a significant boost to branding

  • Have all your service vehicles be the same make & model if possible (within reason)

  • Have all your vehicles wrapped or lettered the exact same way

  • If your office is located on a busy highway have a digital sign and change the message frequently

  • If you choose to print business cards only do so if it is very unique

Impressions create branding, Google Display Network (GDN), Facebook, Instagram are great branding platforms and very inexpensive impression grabs

*Pro Tip: If you have a smaller budget or just starting out some of the coupon mailer magazines are a good starting point to help establish a brand & at the same time acquire customers. The ROI of these typically aren’t great though so don’t become dependent on it

Digital Presence

Digital presence covers a vast array of topics, but the main ones are your website, social media, ppc, seo, review management and last but surely not least Google.

  • Ensure your website is mobile responsive, over 60% of customers will research your business on their phone, rather than their computer

  • Ensure you have a Google business listing with reviews associated with it

  • The average Google Score is 4.2 stars, you want to be 10% better than everyone else, therefore your minimum Google star rating should be at least a 4.6

  • Ensure you have a Google Local Service Ads account as well, become active in managing this account

  • Participate in some form of PPC campaign with a dedicated budget

  • Blog writing helps organic search as well as SEO management of your site

  • Ensure you revamp your website every 3 to 5 years old, if it is older than that it more than likely is outdated and not performing well

  • Invest in your offseason, your ROI won’t be as good but you will preserve your profit dollars by not burning through them during your off season

*Pro Tip: Participate in some form of a PPC campaign, BUT be incredibly careful here. It is easy to overspend or find yourself in a bidding war. I had a client who was spending over $65,000 a MONTH, not a year A MONTH! I was able to refer him to a marketing agency. Working with the client & the marketing company I was able to save him over $60,000 a month.

Seasonality

In the HVAC contracting business you are at the mercy of the weather. With this comes seasonality. We must preserve our profits by attempting to take the peaks of seasons and place them in the valleys of the season. Having call to actions, a seasonality strategy, and used in combination with a marketing calendar helps you to act proactively to stay busy year round. I would caution against using just a low price check up or maintenance. This strategy should only be used with mature companies in incredibly competitive markets. There is a risk of filling your business with the wrong type of customer if you aren’t that mature business.

*Pro Tip: Perform your maintenance visits in your off season, rather than also performing them during peak times. Also measure the additional service sales you receive per maintenance visit, this will help ensure you are offering solutions while in these homes 1 to 2 times a year.

Marketing Partner

I can’t stress enough how important this is. Most of us are an expert repair or replacement technician that now own a hvac business. What we typically are not ,are wonderful marketers. We know too much about the product and how it works. We have a great deal of “tribal knowledge” that the homeowner just doesn’t have. This is a blessing in our service world but a curse in the marketing world because we can’t think like the consumer. Our limited marketing experience based upon our own belief systems will only take us so far before crashing into “a wall”. I was extremely fortunate that my missed calling in life was marketing, so naturally it was much easier for me. Even with this gift I still partnered with a marketing firm to assist in me in developing my marketing knowledge and executing certain marketing tasks for the business. Running your business is far more important than you trying to crack the code at Google’s PPC algorithm or an SEO strategy. If you have questions about what a healthy marketing partner relationship looks like I am more than happy to discuss that with you.

*Pro Tip: If the previous acronyms just made you feel overwhelmed and a bit confused you aren’t the only one. I can get you pointed in the right direction.

The Marketing “silver bullet”

Another question I get quite often is something similar to “if you had to choose only 1 advertising avenue what would it be? Would it be a strong digital PPC campaign, radio ads, tv advertising, direct mail, or?”

The answer is yes there is a “silver bullet”. It is a consistent, strategic, balanced, diversified approach that considers your goals and budget, executed in an effective manner.

*Pro Tip: Use our free marketing analysis quiz to help determine your marketing budget.

Jason E