Are you a \u201creactive marketer?\u201d Let me ask you a few questions to find out…<\/p>\n
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you, my friend, are doing reactive, knee-jerk marketing.<\/p>\n
Typically, the result of reactive marketing is a lot of dollars spent, with little to no ROI. HVAC marketing works best when it’s proactive, strategic and repetitive.<\/p>\n
Creating an annual marketing plan for your business is the best way to avoid knee- jerk marketing. Easy enough to do, even for the least marketing-savvy among us. You may not have the resources to facilitate every aspect of your plan, but you can save yourself a lot of trial and error \u2013 not to mention money \u2013 by investing one day putting a plan together. Your marketing plan should include the following:<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how you begin: by writing down some goals. Start with four or five of them. Think big picture. What do you want for your company, and for yourself? You can say things like, \u201cI want more service contracts\u201d or \u201cI want to double my ductless sales\u201d or \u201cI want to hire a bookkeeper so my mother-in-law doesn\u2019t have to come in to the office anymore.\u201d All of these goals are perfectly valid. (Although some may be more popular at home than others!) Whatever yours are, write them down. Because if you haven\u2019t defined your goals, then how can you possibly hope to achieve them<\/p>\n
Give yourself a time frame for each of your goals<\/strong><\/p>\n Next, let\u2019s apply marketing strategy to your goals. Follow a process I call the \u201c7 Steps to HVAC Marketing\u201d to build a marketing plan, budget and schedule for your company.<\/p>\n Here are the steps, listed in the order they should be tackled<\/p>\n Step 1: Branding.<\/strong> Your brand is your logo, but it\u2019s so much more than your logo. It\u2019s the look, the feel, the colors, the fonts, the theme and the marketing message. All of this together makes up your brand. Your brand separates you from the pack. It\u2019s what your customers recognize. It\u2019s how they learn to trust you and ultimately why they\u2019ll spend money with you. Make sure you develop a solid brand for your company before you do anything else! It\u2019s the most important, foundational element of your company marketing.<\/p>\n Step 2: Website.<\/strong> Your website is the backbone of all your marketing efforts. Use it to help achieve your goals. Want to sell more ductless? Then put a ductless tile ad on the homepage. Want more service contracts? More plumbing leads? Then for heaven\u2019s sake, promote it on your website!<\/p>\n As I travel the country teaching HVAC marketing, I get the sense that we\u2019re all very consumed with getting people to our websites, these days. I see contractors spending an alarming amount of money on SEO and Pay-Per-Click to get as many people as possible to visit their websites. And don\u2019t get me wrong, a high amount of traffic is desirable. But let\u2019s not lose sight of why we want people to visit our websites. We want them to call us, right? So it\u2019s equally important to make sure you\u2019re giving people what they\u2019re looking for when they arrive at your site. If your website is heavy on text, short on visuals, and doesn\u2019t function well, consumers will quickly click over to a competitor\u2019s site. Because here\u2019s the sad truth, folks: people don\u2019t read anymore. It\u2019s the result of being bombarded by constant visual stimulation everywhere we go. (Even grocery store carts have advertising on them now.) Take a look at your website. Does it very clearly say WHO you are (your branding should run throughout your site), WHAT you do (in the form of equipment photos), HOW to contact you (big, bold phone number) and WHAT your offers are (let\u2019s see an equipment offer and a service offer on the home page)? If not, make some modifications, like, yesterday.<\/p>\n Step 3: Existing Customers.<\/strong> These are the low hanging fruit. Easiest people to market to, cheapest people to market to, best ROI…need I say more? Don\u2019t assume that the lady you installed ductless for last year knows that you also do plumbing. She doesn\u2019t. Don\u2019t assume that the nice young couple you did a gas conversion for knows that you also do insulation. They don\u2019t. Cross-market your services via a newsletter (printed or emailed) to these folks. And hit them pre-season with a postcard reminder to get their clean and check done before you get swamped. Remember, you get 80 percent of your sales, directly or indirectly, from your existing customers. (You\u2019ll spend most of your marketing dollars going after that other 20 percent!)<\/p>\n Step 4: Define Your Target Market.<\/strong> Pick a few towns that make sense for you to target (i.e. convenient to travel to, opportunity to gain market share, etc.). Then think about who your ideal customer is. How much money do they make? How old are they? How much is their home worth? How old is their home? Decide who you have the best shot of earning business from. Because you only want to target those people \u2014 not everyone in that zip code.<\/p>\n Step 5: Target New Customers in a Strategic Way.<\/strong> There\u2019s no cookie-cutter approach to targeting new customers, so Step 5 is a good time to ask a professional HVAC marketer for some help. But here\u2019s a few things to keep in mind: prospective customers need to see\/hear your name eight times before they even remember it! Sending one postcard to 10,000 homes won\u2019t produce as many leads as sending postcards to the same 2,000 homes, five times. Repetition matters in marketing. A lot.<\/p>\n Stack the deck by combining marketing vehicles. For example: use online marketing in the same towns where you\u2019re launching a direct mail campaign. The goal here is for consumers to go to the internet already looking for you! Market to these folks in season. I know, I know \u2014 you\u2019re already busy. But let me ask you this? Why do you wake up at 4 am to go fishing? Because that\u2019s when they are biting! If you want to build your customer base, you need to market to consumers when they are most interested in your services.<\/p>\n And it goes without saying, but I\u2019m going to say it anyway: track everything you do with call tracking phone numbers on all your marketing pieces and with Google Analytics on your website.<\/p>\n Step 6: TOMA.<\/strong> Billboards, TV, Radio and other \u201ctop of mind\u201d advertising should be approached after all other direct marketing efforts (Steps 1 \u2013 5) have been addressed because they\u2019re expensive, not easy to track and should primarily be used as branding vehicles. We can\u2019t expect the kind of direct leads from most TOMA initiatives that we get from targeted marketing. And keep in mind, just because someone stops you in the grocery store to say they saw you on TV doesn\u2019t necessarily mean they\u2019re going to buy a furnace from you. However, if you have the budget to incorporate TOMA into your marketing plan, by all means, do. But make sure you do your homework by comparing media options \u2014 don\u2019t just buy a package because it sounds like a good deal. Ask your media rep to find ways to tie your advertising to the local community and relevant media events.<\/p>\n Step 7: Make a Plan.<\/strong> Create a written document including these steps. Include a listing of your goals, a calendar with your target dates, the business activities you need to take, your plan for tracking your leads, a budget for each initiative and an overall budget. The goal here is to spend your marketing money wisely \u2013 not spend more of it.<\/p>\n Now just follow your plan. As the year progresses, refer to your plan and your goals to determine if you\u2019re on track. Look over your analytics and check your call tracking reports. You don\u2019t have to be an expert to begin to notice trends. At the end of the year, calculate your cost per lead to determine what worked well, what needs some adjustment and let the tracking data you\u2019ve collected dictate how you\u2019re going to make better marketing decisions next year.<\/p>\n Then, because goals and budgets evolve, start the process all over again.<\/em><\/p>\n You\u2019ll find that a marketing plan helps you stop reacting to all the advertising offers, gimmicks and media reps that find their way into your office throughout the year. Having a solid marketing plan also means you won\u2019t need to worry about what your competitors are doing. You\u2019ll simply follow your plan and let them react to you.<\/p>\n While there are certainly more aspects of HVAC marketing than I can possibly cover in this article, the 7 Steps is a great place to start. Follow them and you\u2019re on your way to achieving your goals by marketing your business with strategic thinking and planning \u2014 and by keeping your knee under the table, where it belongs.<\/p>\n By: Elaina Burdick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" HVAC Marketing 101:Use Your Head, Not Your Knee HVAC marketing works best when it\u2019s proactive, strategic and repetitive. Are you a \u201creactive marketer?\u201d Let me ask you a few questions to find out… Are you operating without an annual marketing plan? Ever place an ad in the local paper because your competitor did? Purchased a radio advertising campaign or a billboard because the rep had a super great deal that she could only offer you today? Have you ever rushed to use up co-op funds before year end? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you, my friend, are doing reactive, knee-jerk marketing. Typically, the result of reactive marketing is a lot of dollars spent, with little to no ROI. HVAC marketing works best when it’s proactive, strategic and repetitive. Creating an annual marketing plan for your business is the best way to avoid knee- jerk marketing. Easy enough to do, even for the least marketing-savvy among us. You may not have the resources to facilitate every aspect of your plan, but you can save yourself a lot of trial and error \u2013 not to mention money \u2013 by investing one day putting a plan together. 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