To grow your HVAC business’s presence online and increase business through your website, you need a sound SEO and digital marketing strategy in place. The goal of your HVAC SEO campaign is to drive traffic to your website, which leads to more conversions.
Marketing on the interweb is important for all businesses, across all industries. For air conditioner service providers in particular, consumers are making faster decisions than ever before. When the AC goes out in someone’s home, their willingness to go beyond the first few listings on page one of the Search engine results page (SERP’s) dwindles pretty quickly.
While there are many strategies for businesses of all kind to advertise on the web, today we’ll be discussing the top 10 digital marketing strategies for HVAC’s and heating & cooling companies.
Responsive website
We have to start here. The fact is that the world has gone mobile, and you know this already. More than likely, you may be reading this on some type of hand held device.
Because of this fact, you have to be able to engage visitors where they are already spending their time, and better yet, you need to provide them with a valuable and easy experience when they arrive at your website.
Consider this: 87% of smartphone users are turning to search on their phone first when looking for a product or service from a local provider.
Once you capture a users attention, you have to be able to convert that user, and engage with that user.
A responsive website design is a huge part of this, and and a crucial first step for you to take, if you haven’t already. This type of design will adjust based on the screen size of the device that a visitor is using.
If you’re unsure if your website is currently mobile responsive, use Google’s free tool, here.
Social Media & Targeting
Not only can you use Facebook targeting to reach potential new accounts, you can also use it to connect with statewide partnerships. Target home builders or realtors with your services, so when they are with their clients you will be the first company that they recommend.
Extra Tip: Think, review, and review again before you make a social media post or comment. The ability to easily take screenshots makes it difficult to take back a social media mistake.
Retargeting
This one goes hand in hand with others, but is really a new age method to an old school HVAC marketing tactics. Years ago, you may remember that magnets were really popular for marketing AC services. Companies would leave them behind for customers to place on their refrigerators as a reminder of who to call for service in the future. It was brilliant!
Remarketing to previous customers or website visitors using Facebook is a fantastic way to figuratively put your service’s “magnets on the refrigerators” of an audience that you already know has expressed interest in you.
Related: Remarketing Tactics Without Being a Creeper
Set Up Google Alerts
Google Alerts notify you when your business name (or other designated keyword term) appears in a new piece of content on the web! This makes it easy to keep tabs on who is talking about you and your accolades.
If your business is reviewed on a local bloggers website, that’s great press to share. And, alternatively, if your business gets mentioned in a negative way, that’s something you want to be notified of immediately.
Here’s a great walk through on setting up Google Alerts.
Keyword Research
As an HVAC company, you conduct many services. While you refer to yourself as an HVAC technician, your customers who are going to call you probably don’t know what the term means. They’re likely looking for ‘ac repair’ or ‘heater installation’ or ‘emergency heat repair.’
Plus, they’re searching locally. They’re looking for a company like yours in Lakeland, Florida, or whichever city or town they’re in.
There are tools you can use to find high volume searches, but it’s still about the right off-page and on-page strategy that is going to increase your visibility.
You’ll want to target keywords that look like this:
- air conditioning + your city
- air conditioner + your city
- ac air conditioning + your city
- furnace + your city
- air conditioners + your city
- hvac + your city
- air condition + your city
- heat pump + your city
- heating and air + your city
The proper use of keywords, without stuffing them into the page and making the content unreadable due to constant uses of the core keyword or the location, will help strengthen your campaign.
Increase Local WOM
Word of mouth is no longer limited to someone passing names to their next door neighbor. Americans have proven that they trust online reviews as much as they would a personal friend giving them the same recommendation. With that in mind, increasing your online reviews is paramount to you receiving more word of mouth business for your HVAC service company.
So how can you increase your reviews online, and where?
Google Reviews
Google is undoubtedly the king of the online reviews. When people search for your business, sure they’ll see other outlets like Yellow Pages and Yelp, but they’ll initially (and prominently) see your Google review rating.
Use the tool here to create a custom link that directs users directly to your Google Review page, where they can quickly and easily leave your AC Company a positive review.
Facebook Reviews
By simply adding ‘reviews’ to the end of the URL, you’ll have a direct link to your Facebook page reviews. So your new link will look like this, but with your page information:
https://www.facebook.com/yourfacebooklink/reviews/
This will open directly into a Review Box for visitors, immediately asking them to leave their review
You can also edit your Facebook page to show reviews prominently at the top of the profile. Here’s how:
Click on the Manage Tabs link in the left sidebar.
This takes you inside some of the new or updated Facebook Settings sections, such as the Edit Page section.
This is where you can reorder your tabs. You’ll also find a direct link to a tab by clicking the Settings button next to the tab.
Search Engine Optimization
At the end of the day, being on page one of Google or Bing is the best way to reach more of your local community.
There are a number of factors that go into SEO for the HVAC service industry, but two items are extremely important.
And, if you are a startup or willing to commit the time yourself, you can attempt to work through these yourself.
Content Content Content
Content is king. Google has made it clear that they are promoting websites that provide high quality, informational content to their users. We’ll dive deeper into content marketing a little further down in this article.
Directory Listings
Since the inter webs began to form, directory listings have been an intricate part of small business marketing. There are thousands of directory listing websites for small businesses, and you’ll want to be listed on any as possible. It takes time and a little concentration to ensure you are listing your business consistently across all platforms, but it can be done. For a breakdown of some of the most important directory listing websites, click here.
Earning Links
Even if your content exceeds all others in your area, your SEO meta information is clear and concise, and the site is running fast and smooth, Google still has to trust your domain. To strengthen your domain, you have to earn backlinks.
You could produce the greatest, most informative blog about DIY air conditioning repair that your customers will enjoy (and you should). But, the best types of links are from high authority websites, but they must be topical. From industry influencers to news websites or guest blogs on award sites, high-quality content earns the best backlinks.
Always stay relevant. Earn links. It’s better than building them on websites that carry little value to your overall campaign.
Video Marketing / Live Streaming
Live video has become increasingly popular in recent years. From Instagram to Facebook Live, and even to adding videos directly to YouTube, consumers love to catch quick videos of you in your team members at work. Highlight a common issue that you’re troubleshooting, or show some funny behind the scenes antics.
What makes video marketing engaging to consumers is that they get a chance to really see who you are and see some of the human side of the business.
Show your fans what your business looks like early in the morning, and some of the common things that you encounter on a given day. Show them how to make simple fixes that will benefit their AC systems, and establish yourself as the local go to provider for HVAC services
In addition to what video marketing can do for your fan base, and for your thought leadership, it also has some amazing benefits for your Google page 1 aspirations. Upload your videos to your YouTube channel and link them back to your website.
For more information on how YouTube and video marketing effects your SEO, check out our recent article on the subject, here.
Email Marketing
Don’t let anyone fool you. Email marketing isn’t dead. Not even close. In today’s busy world, it’s actually an ideal way to reach out to your customers and potential customers wherever they may be in the moment.
Collect email addresses through your contact marketing initiatives, and target subscribers with promotions and announcements.
Reach out to your current customers and ask them for referrals of their neighbors or family members.
Follow up with subscribers who take an action with your email, like opening or clicking through to your website. There’s almost an endless amount of possibilities when it comes to email marketing, and these are just a few.
Conclusion
Now it’s your turn. As a HVAC professional, what tactics have you found to help your business reach more people on the web? Let us know in the comments, or tweet to us @aginto!
To grow your HVAC business’s presence online and increase business through your website, you need a sound SEO and digital marketing strategy in place. The goal of your HVAC SEO campaign is to drive traffic to your website, which leads to more conversions.
Marketing on the interweb is important for all businesses, across all industries. For air conditioner service providers in particular, consumers are making faster decisions than ever before. When the AC goes out in someone’s home, their willingness to go beyond the first few listings on page one of the Search engine results page (SERP’s) dwindles pretty quickly.
While there are many strategies for businesses of all kind to advertise on the web, today we’ll be discussing the top 10 digital marketing strategies for HVAC’s and heating & cooling companies.
Responsive website
We have to start here. The fact is that the world has gone mobile, and you know this already. More than likely, you may be reading this on some type of hand held device.
Because of this fact, you have to be able to engage visitors where they are already spending their time, and better yet, you need to provide them with a valuable and easy experience when they arrive at your website.
Consider this: 87% of smartphone users are turning to search on their phone first when looking for a product or service from a local provider.
Once you capture a users attention, you have to be able to convert that user, and engage with that user.
A responsive website design is a huge part of this, and and a crucial first step for you to take, if you haven’t already. This type of design will adjust based on the screen size of the device that a visitor is using.
If you’re unsure if your website is currently mobile responsive, use Google’s free tool, here.
Social Media & Targeting
Not only can you use Facebook targeting to reach potential new accounts, you can also use it to connect with statewide partnerships. Target home builders or realtors with your services, so when they are with their clients you will be the first company that they recommend.
Extra Tip: Think, review, and review again before you make a social media post or comment. The ability to easily take screenshots makes it difficult to take back a social media mistake.
Retargeting
This one goes hand in hand with others, but is really a new age method to an old school HVAC marketing tactics. Years ago, you may remember that magnets were really popular for marketing AC services. Companies would leave them behind for customers to place on their refrigerators as a reminder of who to call for service in the future. It was brilliant!
Remarketing to previous customers or website visitors using Facebook is a fantastic way to figuratively put your service’s “magnets on the refrigerators” of an audience that you already know has expressed interest in you.
Related: Remarketing Tactics Without Being a Creeper
Set Up Google Alerts
Google Alerts notify you when your business name (or other designated keyword term) appears in a new piece of content on the web! This makes it easy to keep tabs on who is talking about you and your accolades.
If your business is reviewed on a local bloggers website, that’s great press to share. And, alternatively, if your business gets mentioned in a negative way, that’s something you want to be notified of immediately.
Here’s a great walk through on setting up Google Alerts.
Keyword Research
As an HVAC company, you conduct many services. While you refer to yourself as an HVAC technician, your customers who are going to call you probably don’t know what the term means. They’re likely looking for ‘ac repair’ or ‘heater installation’ or ‘emergency heat repair.’
Plus, they’re searching locally. They’re looking for a company like yours in Lakeland, Florida, or whichever city or town they’re in.
There are tools you can use to find high volume searches, but it’s still about the right off-page and on-page strategy that is going to increase your visibility.
You’ll want to target keywords that look like this:
- air conditioning + your city
- air conditioner + your city
- ac air conditioning + your city
- furnace + your city
- air conditioners + your city
- hvac + your city
- air condition + your city
- heat pump + your city
- heating and air + your city
The proper use of keywords, without stuffing them into the page and making the content unreadable due to constant uses of the core keyword or the location, will help strengthen your campaign.
Increase Local WOM
Word of mouth is no longer limited to someone passing names to their next door neighbor. Americans have proven that they trust online reviews as much as they would a personal friend giving them the same recommendation. With that in mind, increasing your online reviews is paramount to you receiving more word of mouth business for your HVAC service company.
So how can you increase your reviews online, and where?
Google Reviews
Google is undoubtedly the king of the online reviews. When people search for your business, sure they’ll see other outlets like Yellow Pages and Yelp, but they’ll initially (and prominently) see your Google review rating.
Use the tool here to create a custom link that directs users directly to your Google Review page, where they can quickly and easily leave your AC Company a positive review.
Facebook Reviews
By simply adding ‘reviews’ to the end of the URL, you’ll have a direct link to your Facebook page reviews. So your new link will look like this, but with your page information:
https://www.facebook.com/yourfacebooklink/reviews/
This will open directly into a Review Box for visitors, immediately asking them to leave their review
You can also edit your Facebook page to show reviews prominently at the top of the profile. Here’s how:
Click on the Manage Tabs link in the left sidebar.
This takes you inside some of the new or updated Facebook Settings sections, such as the Edit Page section.
This is where you can reorder your tabs. You’ll also find a direct link to a tab by clicking the Settings button next to the tab.
Search Engine Optimization
At the end of the day, being on page one of Google or Bing is the best way to reach more of your local community.
There are a number of factors that go into SEO for the HVAC service industry, but two items are extremely important.
And, if you are a startup or willing to commit the time yourself, you can attempt to work through these yourself.
Content Content Content
Content is king. Google has made it clear that they are promoting websites that provide high quality, informational content to their users. We’ll dive deeper into content marketing a little further down in this article.
Directory Listings
Since the inter webs began to form, directory listings have been an intricate part of small business marketing. There are thousands of directory listing websites for small businesses, and you’ll want to be listed on any as possible. It takes time and a little concentration to ensure you are listing your business consistently across all platforms, but it can be done. For a breakdown of some of the most important directory listing websites, click here.
Earning Links
Even if your content exceeds all others in your area, your SEO meta information is clear and concise, and the site is running fast and smooth, Google still has to trust your domain. To strengthen your domain, you have to earn backlinks.
You could produce the greatest, most informative blog about DIY air conditioning repair that your customers will enjoy (and you should). But, the best types of links are from high authority websites, but they must be topical. From industry influencers to news websites or guest blogs on award sites, high-quality content earns the best backlinks.
Always stay relevant. Earn links. It’s better than building them on websites that carry little value to your overall campaign.
Video Marketing / Live Streaming
Live video has become increasingly popular in recent years. From Instagram to Facebook Live, and even to adding videos directly to YouTube, consumers love to catch quick videos of you in your team members at work. Highlight a common issue that you’re troubleshooting, or show some funny behind the scenes antics.
What makes video marketing engaging to consumers is that they get a chance to really see who you are and see some of the human side of the business.
Show your fans what your business looks like early in the morning, and some of the common things that you encounter on a given day. Show them how to make simple fixes that will benefit their AC systems, and establish yourself as the local go to provider for HVAC services
In addition to what video marketing can do for your fan base, and for your thought leadership, it also has some amazing benefits for your Google page 1 aspirations. Upload your videos to your YouTube channel and link them back to your website.
For more information on how YouTube and video marketing effects your SEO, check out our recent article on the subject, here.
Email Marketing
Don’t let anyone fool you. Email marketing isn’t dead. Not even close. In today’s busy world, it’s actually an ideal way to reach out to your customers and potential customers wherever they may be in the moment.
Collect email addresses through your contact marketing initiatives, and target subscribers with promotions and announcements.
Reach out to your current customers and ask them for referrals of their neighbors or family members.
Follow up with subscribers who take an action with your email, like opening or clicking through to your website. There’s almost an endless amount of possibilities when it comes to email marketing, and these are just a few.
Conclusion
Now it’s your turn. As a HVAC professional, what tactics have you found to help your business reach more people on the web? Let us know in the comments, or tweet to us @aginto!
Published on July 24, 2017
About the Author: Ashley Bardonaro
