Intro
There's a lot of advice out there on what you "should" be doing to market your business. Maybe you've searched online and gone through dozens of articles to find the exact same advice:
- Get a website
- Run Google ads
- Do social media
- Blah blah
The truth is that what your business "should" be doing is different depending on what stage your business is in, the cashflow you have, and the staff you have.
For that reason, I wanted to write an article about what marketing I would do, in what order, if I were you.
The assumptions I've made writing this are:
- You're an HVAC tech planning to start his/her own business
- You don't have a ton of marketing or technical knowledge
- You're willing to do some Googling/YouTubing to figure things out here and there
- You don't have gazillions of dollars to spend on marketing yet
If either either one of those three aren't true, the order might change a bit. But assuming the assumptions fit you to a T, here's what I would do if I were you:
1. Preparation Phase
There are a few things you'll need to do to get set up before you're operational.
One of the best times to launch is during summer right as the demand hits - but there are other items that are crucial to take care of first, and you don't want the summer demand to make it impossible for you to get them done.
So if I were you, while still working at my full time job, I would start preparing in a shoulder season.
Company Name, Logo, and Branded Apparel
Watch What Dan Antonelli Says About What Makes a Brand Worse:
Contractors tend to pick horrible names for their company.
"Smith Heating and Cooling"
"J.B. Mechanical"
The problem with these names is that they aren't memorable. There's no visual that instantly pops into someone's mind. There's no promise of value in those names - just what the company does.
But what do you think of when you hear "Blue Ribbon HVAC?"
First, you probably visualize a blue ribbon.
Second, you probably think "first place."
(Blue Ribbon is a real company by the way, you can check them out here: https://www.blueribbonservices.com/)
Naming your company right is a huge opportunity to make your business name more memorable and help you get customers, while charging healthy prices, in the long run.
Even if you're name isn't perfect, it should at least meet the following three criteria:
- Doesn’t give off a bad vibe to middle-aged Moms
- Creates a visual in your mind when you hear it
- Is easy to remember
Once you have your company name decided, you can use Fiverr or Upwork to hire a talented freelancer to create your logo. The logo should only be a few colors, and should be as simple as possible while still being distinct.
Then get yourself some branded shirts and hats from VistaPrint. Just having a decent logo, company name, and branded apparel will help set you apart from the vast majority of small HVAC businesses.
This is important to build trust, and charge what you need to in order to earn healthy margins.
Learn the basics of a CRM
CRM stands for "Customer Relationship Management." A CRM software is an online tool that lets you track customers, invoices, scheduling, and more.
The reason I recommend learning a CRM so early is because:
A) You want to keep all of your contacts for potential customers. Every single one. Because even if someone doesn't sign up with you today, they might sign up in 6 months. Today you might not care. But 6 months from now you'll be kicking yourself for now having that customer's contact.
B) It will make your operations a lot smoother. Having a managed schedule, managed invoices, etc, helps prevent things from falling through the cracks. Accidentally missing an appointment, for example, could get you a negative review and set you back.
Take a look at HouseCall Pro as a basic option to begin with.
Create a Google My Business listing
Learn how to do this and get it done - it's free marketing!
A GMB (Google My Business) listing puts your business on Google Maps, and allows customers to leave reviews. Building up your reviews will help your business show up in search when homeowners are looking for a local HVAC business.
Results won't be immediate; they'll trickle in over time. But the more 5-star reviews you have, the more calls you'll get. You'll want to get this set up before the launch phase, so as you do good work for customers you can ask for reviews.
2. Launch phase!
You've laid some ground work. It's time to launch! I recommend launching right as the heat of summer starts to hit.
Companies struggle to keep up with demand, and sometimes just showing up and being professional is enough to land HVAC replacement jobs.
Knock on doors!
It might be scary, but knocking on doors is a free and possibly lucrative way to start generating business. Especially in the busy season.
Be authentic, be honest about how fresh your company is, and let people know you're looking for customers to help who need an HVAC system replacement. Those first few replacement sales can help fuel your marketing!
Post on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram
Not on social media? Well, it's time for that to change.
Maybe you don't care for Mark Zuckerberg much, but the simple reality is that leveraging Facebook and Instagram for marketing can make you rich.
If I were you, I would use my personal Facebook to start advertising (not a business page.) Personal accounts have a much bigger reach, and if you slowly work your way up to a few thousand friends, that's a lot of word of mouth power.
You can post HVAC tips, share before-and-afters, give updates on your business, give a 5% discount for veterans or teachers every now and then, and you'll probably see some business trickle in.
It takes time, it takes effort, it takes consistency - but in the beginning, time is your cheapest commodity. Trade it for money, so you can use that money to start up your marketing machine.
Start using pay-per-lead services
Once you have some money to put back towards marketing and growing your business, you'll probably want to sign up with a few lead sources.
And please, please, please...
Beware of HVAC contractors, who tell you to beware of lead services.
Those guys may be great HVAC techs, but most have no idea what they're talking about when it comes to marketing or how to grow a healthy, profitable business.
Here's the truth:
A) Some lead services work way better than others. Which one will work best for you depends on an impossible amount of variables to calculate. So you'll just have to try a few.
B) Making money with lead services requires good salesmanship, and sharp, disciplined follow-up skills. You've got to call leads first, you've got to call multiple times, and you've got to keep calling for as long as you feasibly can.
The guys who hate lead companies probably don't understand A, or aren't doing B, OR they charge way too little for their services and don't have the budget to do any marketing at all.
Because the quality in lead sources varies, I recommend starting with a few different services at the same time. Some may be higher quality, some may be lower quality, but the results will probably even out.
A few I recommend taking a look at are:
- Thumbtack
- Yelp
- Blue Fire Leads
- 99Calls
- Angi
- Modernize
As you get busier, you may want to pay for the more expensive lead sources that set the appointment for you. That can help save you some time in the follow-up, so you can get more installs done.
Get Started with An Inexpensive Website
If you're tech savvy, you may be able to figure out how to build your own website with Wix or SquareSpace.
You may have website guys, who want to sell you their website services, tell you how much those platforms suck. But if your website helps you make a bunch of money, without you having to shell out 10k, that's a win in my book. It can suck all it wants.
There are two ways a website helps you make money:
1) Building trust with the leads who are doing their research on you
2) Getting new leads to reach out, with SEO
SEO for HVAC companies is extremely competitive. So if you want it to actually work, it's going to cost a lot. That's why I don't recommend SEO in the launch phase. It's too much money you'll have to shell out, while waiting 6 to 12 months to start seeing traction from it.
So focusing on #1 - building trust - is the way to go at the beginning, in my opinion. And you can do that with a basic website builder or a pretty cheap website ($200 to $400) from someone on Fiverr.
But it's important to understand how a website actually helps you make money.
It is NOT how cool and professional the design looks (at least not at the beginning.)
The customer wants reassurance that you are professional, can do the job right, are within their budget, and that you're someone they can trust.
If I were you, I would have pictures of myself and my family, to immediately build that connection. Plus, reviews of customers who have used us in the past, and lots and lots of pictures of my work.
This will help boost your sales from leads you get from any source - door knocking, social media, pay-per-lead sources, etc. If you sell one extra $10,000 HVAC system, it's worth it.
3. Establishment Phase
By this point, you've gotten your business launched and your marketing machine is running. You have leads coming in from your paid lead sources, and probably some are starting to trickle in from all those 5-star reviews you've gotten. (Good job, guy!)
You can spend money on lead generation and convert that to 2 or 3 times the amount of gross profit in the short term, while building your long-term customer base.
You've also got a team now. Techs, office staff, etc. That means you can support even more customers, and are ready for more business coming in!
What marketing should you do next?
Meta Ads and Google Ads
Facebook and Instagram lead generation ads, and Google PPC ads, are probably a good next step at this phase.
They help generate leads in the short term, and since your ads get in front of thousands of homeowners every month, you are simultaneously building up your long term business.
People may not be ready to sign on with you today - but they see the ad, they remember you, and when they search for an HVAC company later, you're the guy they click on.
Meta ads are getting more and more competitive, as HVAC companies realize how lucrative the opportunity is. So, for this, I recommend going with a professional, specialized agency with the results to back it up.
Oh - shoot! Haha. I guess that's us. Yes, Service Allies has helped generate over $20 million in revenue for HVAC companies with Meta ads alone. And we're getting better at what we do every day.
If you're reading and you're at this phase, you can schedule a demo today to see what we're about.
Branding, Wrapped Trucks
Investing in a premium brand for your HVAC business is one of the best thing you can do. For this, I would recommend KickCharge Creative.
The reason this is such a good investment is because it makes the rest of your marketing cheaper (because you are more memorable) and because a premium brand allows you to charge premium prices. And those premium prices allow you to hire the best techs, take care of your team, and take care of your customers.
Two reasons I don't recommend it for brand new companies is first, that you're still kind of figuring out who you are as a company and secondly, because it's a significant upfront investment. But once you get to the point where your short-term marketing machine is already going, and you have the money to invest, establishing a premium brand is an excellent choice.
SEO
Now we get to SEO.
Search Engine Optimization is basically when customers find your website because Google thought it was most relevant to what they were searching for. SEO leads are some of the most premium leads you can possibly get. They have high intent, and if they reached out from your website, they're probably considering your company pretty seriously.
For this, you're going to want a steller, competitive SEO company like Hook Agency or RYNO.
You'll probably need to wait 6-12 months before seeing results - so don't panic when calls don't start coming in within the first couple of weeks.
The SEO company you go with will probably recommend upgrading from your Wix or SquareSpace website. And they're probably right. At this point, the structure of the website, and the customizability of the website will be important for them to do their job correctly.
Conclusion
I hope this article helped you understand different types of marketing, and to better plan your next steps.
There's one area where you're already on the right track - learning! You clicked this article because you wanted to learn.
Learning is a continuous process, and I highly recommend you watch YouTube videos about marketing, listen to audio books, read blog posts, and stay engaged with groups on Facebook.
Properly understanding business - NOT just the actual field work - and then taking massive action to apply that knowledge is the real key to growth and success.
Good luck on your journey!
