For most HVAC businesses, the idea of doing HVAC digital marketing to attract customers is daunting and confusing.
There are so many HVAC digital marketing options and the threat of losing a lot of money that brings in no new customers.
Should you spend money to have the top-ranking Google ad in your city?
Is Google Guaranteed better than PPC advertising?
How often should you post on social media?
Can you win back your past customers through an email marketing campaign?
As an HVAC business owner, you already have a ton of work to do to stay afloat and run your business, and the idea of focusing on digital marketing services for your HVAC company is exhausting.
In this article, we will look at seven HVAC digital marketing tactics to grow your HVAC business. We will also dive into what you need to know about HVAC digital marketing and the right HVAC marketing strategy to attract long-term customers.
What is the Best HVAC Digital Marketing Strategy?
How do you know what HVAC digital marketing tools are the best? Which HVAC marketing strategy will bring new HVAC customers in 2024?
The truth is that all digital marketing for HVAC is effective, but that doesn’t mean they will work for your business.
As HVAC marketing consultants, we have worked with hundreds of HVAC companies to help them to devise a clear plan and to build the right HVAC marketing strategy to grow their business.
Some of the most common questions that HVAC contractors ask us are:
Should I invest in HVAC digital marketing?
How can I advertise my HVAC business online?
Does HVAC digital marketing actually work?
The reality is that before deciding on an HVAC marketing agency, it is wise to know what tools, channels, and strategies can work for you. After all, knowledge is power.
That is what we hope this article will help you to better understand, and allow you to put that knowledge to your advantage.
What is HVAC Digital Marketing?
HVAC digital marketing includes all the online activities you can use to attract new HVAC customers to your HVAC and AC service business.
HVAC digital marketing can include website SEO, Google PPC ads, Google Guaranteed, Google Local Service Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, YouTube pre-roll ads, Yelp Listings, Google Business Profile listings, and many more.
Of course, the idea of trying all of these HVAC digital marketing services or working with an HVAC marketing agency can be intimidating and overwhelming.
It’s hard to know what is an effective HVAC marketing budget, or how much time you should invest in tracking your HVAC digital marketing results.
That’s where understanding what is currently working in the HVAC digital marketing arena is useful.
Before investing in working with a digital marketing agency for HVAC companies, you must understand what to look for.
Why is Digital Marketing Important to an HVAC business?
Every HVAC business is searching for the most effective marketing strategies, but it is hard to know where to start.
Without a clear HVAC digital marketing plan, and the willingness to try out new approaches to HVAC marketing, it can be hard to stay ahead of your competition.
There are so many small and large HVAC contractors trying to stand out in the marketplace, that it is often impossible to stand out without an HVA digital marketing strategy.
Perhaps the most valuable part of digital marketing is the ability to track it much more accurately than conventional marketing channels such as Television, print ads, or radio.
You can be much more economical in your approach with HVAC digital marketing, and you can spend a small amount to test any approach before investing a larger amount.
On top of this, as the population becomes more integrated with online marketing and advertising, it makes sense that HVAC digital marketing will help you connect to customers who need your services.
HVAC Digital Marketing Begins with a Website
The most common way of attracting new HVAC customers for AC repairs, or new AC system quotes is via Google. To appear in the Google organic results (also known as the SERPs), it is crucial to have a modern, up-to-date usable website.
While gaining a good organic listing for your HVAC business website takes time, once you are established in the SERPs, it can prove to be an incredibly valuable way to attract new HVAC customers.
Your online presence is anchored by your HVAC business website. Any potential customer who needs AC repair services, or an AC system replacement will visit your website before calling you.
To be effective in your marketing efforts, you must have an HVAC website that a potential customer can read and helps to entice them to call you.
What is an HVAC Digital Marketing Strategy?
An HVAC digital marketing strategy (also known as an HVAC marketing plan) is simply deciding who, where, and how to target your HVAC marketing efforts.
It includes answering questions such as:
- Who are your ideal HVAC customers?
- What are the most profitable HVAC services you would like to deliver?
- How does your target market typically search for HVAC services?
- What is your HVAC marketing budget for the year?
- How will you track your HVAC digital marketing results?
All HVAC digital marketing experts will agree that without a clear strategy, you are essentially flying blind. But with a clear digital marketing strategy, you are ahead of 95% of all other HVAC companies who leave their marketing to chance.
An HVAC company that wants to stand out, and attract new business must find ways to be different in their market and to attract clients for their services.
You cannot simply depend on an HVAC marketing agency to do the thinking for you. You know your target market better than they do, and for this reason, you must be part of devising the digital marketing strategy.
The Seven Best HVAC Digital Marketing Strategies in 2024
While there is no ‘magic bullet’ when it comes to HVAC marketing, HVAC digital marketing, or HVAC advertising, there are certain approaches that work better than others.
Having worked with and interviewed many HVAC business owners, and keeping a sharp eye on the HVAC industry, here are the seven ways to invest in digital marketing for HVAC in 2024.
1) Targeted HVAC Email Campaigns
Almost every HVAC company has a large database of customers who they have not contacted in the past year or 18 months.
All of these past customers trust you, have bought HVAC repairs or new HVAC systems from you, and are likely very satisfied with your services.
For this reason, using a target email campaign for your HVAC customers is an excellent way to re-engage with them.
The mistake most HVAC companies make is sending out generic emails that do not target the specific need or pain point of the customer.
Instead of having a broad email marketing approach, try emailing a list of 100 past HVAC customers who have not renewed a maintenance agreement in the past year.
Or send a helpful email with useful information about the latest HVAC energy efficiency reports and SEER ratings to customers who have not upgraded their AC system as yet.
Email campaign tools like Mailchimp or even HVAC CRM tools like HouseCallPro can segment your email lists to allow you to create target campaigns.
2) Low Competition Local Service Ads for HVAC
Google Local Service Ads (GLSA) and Google Guaranteed are now becoming the standard way that most HVAC companies will stand out in the marketplace.
To ensure you are not overspending, it is important to know which areas are worth spending money on.
The average cost per click in 2024 for HVAC services is between $18 and $62 depending upon the location you are in. For some companies spending this amount is affordable, and for others, it can be beyond their budget.
The key to making Google Local Service Ads work for your HVAC business is to target them to areas where there is lower or less competition.
Choose regional locations, or keywords that target a suburb, locally named area, or subdivision of a city. Often these more specific locations will have lower competition and be more attractive to a new customer. They will also be less likely to be targeted by a digital marketing service who don’t know your local areas.
Use the advantage of knowing your local area, and where your customers are located to gain an edge in your HVAC digital marketing strategy.
3) Curated HVAC Text Message Campaigns
Today, the open rate on email campaigns is around 30% if you are very skilled and fortunate to have interested customers.
Compare this to an incredible 98% open rate for SMS campaigns in 2024. This means that every time you use text message marketing to promote your HVAC business, you will break through to your customers.
A word of caution – be careful how often, and what you choose to send as a text message marketing campaign. Sending text messages too frequently to your HVAC customers can hurt the trust you have built.
If you are going to run a special offer and send messages to your past HVAC customers, then ensure the message is relevant and as personal as possible.
Additionally, whenever you offer a special HVAC service via SMS or text message, be sure to follow it up with a phone call, email, or printed flier. This will double the impact and reach and make customers more likely to pay attention.
4) HVAC Blog Content Marketing
Perhaps the best-kept secret of building your online presence is to be helpful and useful to your HVAC website visitors.
Most HVAC webmasters and HVAC digital marketing agencies ignore the value of content marketing in favor of simply running more Google ads or social media advertising.
However, your HVAC website blog can be an incredibly useful tool to help you build trust and online authority.
Taking the time to answer commonly asked HVAC customer questions about the AC system AC repairs, or AC services such as IAQ in written format is a great way to show your expertise.
You can also send these articles as email newsletters, or as social media posts, and link them back to your website to build brand awareness.
Writing one or two useful blog articles per month can work wonders to make your potential customer trust you over other HVAC contractors in your area.
5) Specialized HVAC Website Location Pages
Another quick way to grow your HVAC website traffic is to focus on location pages. Most HVAC SEO will focus on simply getting the site up, and listing generic services such as ‘residential HVAC’ or ‘emergency services’. This is a common mistake of almost every HVAC digital marketing agency.
The reality is that most customers will type in a service and a city location when searching for HVAC services on Google.
HVAC SEO is all about matching the direct search terms your audience is looking for, and creating targeted pages with those keywords.
Before you invest money into a digital marketing campaign, ensure that you are findable on Google with the right website location service pages.
6) Programmatic Audio ads
Conventional radio ads are still quite effective when it comes to gaining brand recognition, however, there are smarter ways to target your customers through audio advertising.
Programmatic audio uses unique, targeted ads on platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and iHeartRadio that insert your HVAC ads into audio content like podcasts, digital radio, and music-streaming services.
Programmatic advertising uses automated technology to place ads in real time. By directly targeting the right audience in the local area, your HVAC ads reach customers most likely to convert.
The benefit of these ads is that they can be targeted to specific locations, as well as the target age group. Unlike radio which is more blanketed, programmatic can be specific and is trackable depending upon your offer.
7) Optimized Google Business Profile
Any HVAC company that wants to compete in 2024 must have a Google Business profile (GBP).
Sometimes known as a Google My Business or Google Maps Listing, your GBP is often the first thing a potential customer will see online.
There is no easier way to stand out from your HVAC company competitors than to have a lot of positive reviews on your Google Business profile. Every time you complete an HVAC service or system installation, you can ask your happy HVAC client for a Google review and also a photo of them next to their new system.
This photo and Google review can then be posted on your Google Business Profile to help with visibility.
Another element that you must keep on top of is making sure all the information on your HVAC website matches the information posted on your Google Business Profile. The more detailed information you can have about your services, the better.
HVAC customers will always look at Google reviews (as well as other sites like Yelp, Angis, etc) to decide on which HVAC company to work with. Help them choose your decision by taking control of your online reputation management.
The ‘Secret’ to a Winning HVAC Digital Marketing Strategy
Every HVAC client we work with as an HVAC marketing consultant asks us the same question:
“Is there a magic bullet that ensures your HVAC Digital Marketing will work?”
The reality is that no specific HVAC marketing strategy is guaranteed to work. However, the one thing that will greatly enhance your chances is being consistent.
Consistency with your HVAC digital marketing is the ‘secret’ that most HVAC business owners neglect. They spend money on an HVAC website, HVAC SEO, social media marketing, and Google local service ads.
And then, as soon as they get a little busy, they stop paying attention to their marketing efforts and lose focus.
The secret or magic bullet to success with HVAC Digital Marketing is to pay close attention to it consistently.
Keep learning more about new HVAC marketing trends, HVAC marketing services, and new HVAC marketing tools, and keep tracking the results of each of your marketing efforts.
Doing this will put you well ahead of most of the HVAC companies out there who get lazy, sloppy, or complacent with their HVAC digital marketing.