HVAC Marketing Year at a Glance

Plan by the Calendar 

We work with over 3,000 contractors a year, and the number one problem we help solve is “marketing control.” You’re a contractor. You control job flow, costs, time, design and personnel… but you often have no control of the marketing that generates the leads and sales.

Take control and get more customers in less time at a lower cost. Higher income and less stress are the natural results! Use these monthly snapshots to guide your marketing in the year to come…

January

Coming off a Christmas lull, buyers can be hard to shake. Yet your New Year’s resolutions should be to never let a marketing opportunity pass. Your marketing plan and budgets should be in place, spending around 4-6% of projected sales on marketing depending on your marketing personality profile. (You can get aMarketing Budget Calculator, based on your goals, at no-cost at the end of thisarticle.)

The weather should be bringing you enough service leads, but no need to wait around. Send letters/emails or make calls to “non-closed sales” over the last 90 days offering added incentive. Send postcards to larger groups touting your service benefits with a New Year’s Gift Discount. We’ve found $20 off to be the best combination of incentive and profitability. Post the discount opportunity to your Facebook page, with the link pointing to your main site.

February

Winter’s chill is lessened in warmer states; still frozen in cooler ones. Thus for warmer climates, prepare an “end of season” direct response replacement offer as appropriate. Colder states continue pumping selected service groups to build customer database. All states can consider a “Buy a New System at Last Year’s Price” offer to stir reluctant replacement callers.

Accessory/add-on sales can include a direct response thermostat replacement, furnace upgrade offer, or humidifier. Use social sites to post benefits of each accessory; not to ‘sell’ but to educate. Use your main site to sell.

The strategy during February is to gather more names for your hottest list. All calls – prospects, demanding service, and quotes – should be on your list to mail for your customer retention push coming up next month. This is critical. Watch for your zip code response penetration. Those who respond most have elements of “commonality” that is important for future targeting.

March

March is the beginning of your customer retention push. This means sending newsletters to your active customer base (activity within the last 48 months). Pre-season tune-up and preventive maintenance offers can begin in warmer climates. Cooler climates need their “End of Season” or other direct response promos out. Final call for getting winter’s “non-closed” sales to respond! Make your offer compelling, with the primary benefit stated in the headline.

April

April is big for IAQ and a continuation of tune-up plus maintenance agreement sales. Better to “cast a broad net” for tune-ups, then go for maintenance agreements in one step. The only place you can sell an agreement effectively in one step is in your newsletter. Use ads and postcards to spread the message.

We like Facebook posts that educate followers about benefits of IAQ, and agreements. Many are tempted to “sell” on social sites, but the “85/15” path of advice to selling is far more appealing for long-term gain.

May

According to plan, your newsletters went out last month, right? So, May begins another prospect acquisition phase that should continue through summer.

May is also the end of school, beginning of vacation and warm weather. Capitalize on this with massive “Pre-Season” replacement offers and last-minute tune-up or preventive maintenance offers.

This is the time to snatch leads and sales from competitors who are “waiting on the weather.” If you miss sales now, they’re out of the market for a long time. Be very aggressive. Use your hardest direct response ads now. The two best performers in our Marketing Powersuite are rebates that can be used toward vacations, and “trade in” offers on old systems.

We also advise using the 2-Step Lead Generator for web-based leads. First step is to post a very strong, very persuasive promotional offer on your site. Second step is to send a short email to your entire target list, with a link to that page. The next “adjustment” to that offer is a short post on social sites with a link to the landing page. Our recorded results for this method have generated 4 times the traffic in 14 days. Get the details in the 2-Step Lead Generator

June

June has hit us with the distraction of vacations, outdoor activities… and hopefully some hot weather. Your techs are the key to more replacement and HVAC upgrade leads.

Train techs for these “green lights.” Repairs over $400 or on 8 year-old systems should be replacement prospects. Recession-weary consumers will be interested in financing offers or incentives, so make sure your techs are well-versed. DO NOT let “declined repair” customers go without hearing from your salesperson or CSR to close the deal post-visit.

High image marketing helps support high margin replacements. All service calls – every single one – should be offered a maintenance agreement.

 

Okay, that list can get you through the first half of your year in good order. Save this post as a reference tool.

Just as in your contracting jobs, your marketing results are better when you have a plan. Catch a glimpse of the future, and let it become clearer by following a proven path. Share this vision with your staff to make it even more real.

It’s up to you to make this your best year ever.

Get a free “2015 Marketing Budget Calculator” by emailing to freestuff@hudsonink.com. You can also call Hudson, Ink at 1-800-489-9099 for help or visit www.hudsonink.com for other free marketing articles and reports. Remember to follow Hudson, Ink on Facebook and LinkedIn for more marketing tips and tricks.

The Past Doesn't Last if Recast Fast

Can an Additional 1,751 Web Visitors Be A Bad Thing?

Work-wise, this has been the hardest 3 months of my semi-adult life. More in a moment, but let me back up a sec.

There was a point in 2007 when everybody was gainfully employed, homeowners were current on mortgage payments, blue birds were singing, and the Kardashians weren't famous. It was a lovely, if for a brief moment.

Then in 2008, something that seemed like at least one chapter ofRevelation came to wipe out retirement savings, home values, jobs, lending, and - most damaging of all - confidence.

Those of us stricken with optimism tried to keep a game face. "Money is replaceable," we thought. "Things are re-buildable," we urged. "There is opportunity," we asserted. Yet we knew:

The Loss of confidence and morale crush the human will.

Yet those of us called entrepreneurs, business leaders, or managers for whom other faces scanned for every wrinkle of concern, a bit lip was preferable to a shed tear. This is our job, and the one others scarcely recognize. Sadder, you can share it with virtually no one, excepting therapists and eternally patient spouses. I understand your pain.

After wearing this face that felt eerily reminiscent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, opportunity did emerge. Morale didn't crumble. Optimism found a way to self-fulfill. (Link tells more than you want to know.)

During this, I became even more ignorant, (as if that was even possible!) In truth, what I didn't pay attention to faded; what I did...emerged stronger.

Then something funny happened.

Click for A) A fairly common glimpse into my ignorance, B) The 'hardest 3 months ever' and C) The emerging most powerful marketing opportunity for contractors anywhere.

"Did You Say Something?"

About two years ago, a hearing test revealed my hearing was greatly diminished in the higher-pitched range, such as a young girl's voice. "Ahh, that explains it," I thought, since I could barely hear my high school daughter speak.

So I bought a hearing aid that can eavesdrop on bats in a distant cave, only to find out my daughter had quit talking to anyone fitting the definition of "her parents". The return policy on used hearing aids would not be considered lenient.

Here's a typical afternoon conversation. "How was school?" I ask.

"Good", she says.

"Any tests?"

"Nope," this was clearly one question too many, so I decide to go out with a bang.

"Did you know there was a rabid platypus going through your purse?"

"Nope."

And the one-word (or less) answers come, until I consider mild electrical shock as a conversation starter, and finally stop, exhausted.

Contrarily, she has phone service that includes 'unlimited texting', and I'm pretty sure she's on the "Unlimited Text Watch List" for nearly reaching that number. She texts constantly. While she's doing her nails, she can actually text with her teeth. It's remarkable. And disturbing.

As a marketer, I see no slow-down in clutter, alternate communication and mild disdain for "advertisers" attempting to shoe horn messages where they don't belong. DVR allows us to skip those awful advertisers (who pay for the programming by the way) and the chances of luring a frenetic facebooker in with a paid 'traditional' ad are as likely as a congressman clipping coupons.

This behavior has affected all age groups. Your ability to effectively reach them has been grossly affected:

The 'average' texter sends or receives 180 per day. Average online user visits 40 websites a day. Checks email 45 times a day. (Not a typo.) This isn't just "kids" either, since only 29% are 25-34; the fastest growth is in the 55+ age group, who are also the largest of all age groups.

And they're all buyers. All potential customers of yours. The drop in lead generation is not your imagination.

The market has changed. It has moved. It buys differently. It communicates differently. And the 'old way' is not coming back. You're either on the front edge making money or on the back edge playing catch up. Here are 4 Steps to Push You to the Front...

The #1 Myth of Getting More Leads

I hear it all the time. And it is flat-out wrong. It comes out in coaching calls here. I see it posted on FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and nearly every Contractor Discussion board.

Contractors, understandably wringing their hands, want to know something like, "Hey, do postcards work?" Or, "Is your website getting you leads?" Or, "Anyone tried radio?"

They focus on the thing that "costs", that is, the media. They've been brainwashed by the media salespeople who all claim "theirs" is best, cheapest, fastest, blah blah. It's all a crock of crack.

What "sells" is the message. Always has been, always will be. A rotten message in any media you choose is still a rotten message. According to Clayton Makepeace, America's highest paid copywriter and marketing strategist:

"The media doesn't make the sale. The message does.
Therefore, the way you persuade people to buy never changes."

You can drive thousands to your website using sophisticated SEO strategies, or rise to the top through Google paid listings. Yet if your message is poor, the traffic comes and is gone, leaving you with one very expensive revolving door on your website. Same with 10,000 letters, a dozen billboards, and the glitziest TV ad ever shot.

It's not the media, it's the message.

Get that right and the market will respond. The media is merely the delivery vehicle. So, what makes a good message? In the last 11 years of focusing on contractor sales messages and selling a few billion dollars of equipment, this is the gold list. Click for the Top 5 Messages that nearly force prospects to respond.