Category Archives: Internet Marketing

Feb '22

5 HVAC Promotional Ideas (Online + Digital) for 2022 & Beyond

If you’re looking for HVAC promotional ideas, this post is for you.

It can be hard to get the consumers’ attention, primarily if you operate in a crowded regional market. Nevertheless, you should consider these HVAC online promotions whether or not you have exhausted other lead generation avenues.

Promoting your business is a great way to increase brand awareness and generate leads. The best promotional tactics are subtle and prevent consumers from feeling sales pressure. The goal is to make it seem like you’re not advertising since most modern consumers don’t trust ads.

Below, HVAC Webmasters outlines five ideas to promote your AC company.

Table of Contents

1) Reach Out to Local Radio Stations

Did you know that 92% of American adults still listen to the radio? While the medium seems antiquated with the emergence of podcasts and digital streaming, your audience regularly tunes into their local radio stations.

One great promotional idea is to contact your local radio station and team up with them for a giveaway. Then, of course, you would sponsor the prize, which can range from a free AC or discounts on certain HVAC services. One of the giveaways we heard about was the radio station weather report.

A sweepstakes entrant would be drawn to receive the prize if the weatherman was off on the daily high temperature by more than 3 degrees. Of course, the prize will depend on what you can reasonably put up without hurting your bottom line. Still, this is a great way to promote brand awareness and get sweepstake entrants to opt-in to email lists.

2) Facebook Giveaways

Every heating and cooling company should have a Facebook Business Page to promote their company. As the top social media platform, Facebook provides many opportunities for HVAC promotions in 2022.

The time is now to utilize that community and grow it with a promotional giveaway for established pages. Start by creating an announcement post to the effect that you will be giving away a free service (the actual service is up to your discretion) for people who sign up with their email, phone number, or who follow your page.

Only one person can win the giveaway, so when all is said and done, you will likely have a slew of leads interested enough in one of your services to enter their information in a giveaway for it. Another great thing about this idea is that it is relatively easy to set up independently without needing a 3rd party to get involved.

3) Guest Blogging

If you have colleagues in the business, ask if you can contribute a guest post to their website. You can drive referral traffic from their website to yours if you provide valuable content.

Guest posts also help with link building, as your website’s inbound links count as an endorsement. But, of course, it depends on the website’s authority to which you contribute. Remember that nefarious guest posting (doing it only for the link) violates Google guidelines.

A white-hat guest post involves a genuine relationship where one contributor provides valuable and topical content on another’s site. For example, you can contribute a worthwhile post if you know HVAC suppliers, other contractors, or even people in similar industries.

4) Photo Contests

Photo contests help promote HVAC services and are compatible with various media platforms. One excellent photo contest example was the Ugly Furnace Contest. Entrants sent in a picture of their old, ugly furnace (including contact information) for a chance to win a new furnace.

You can partner with local print media outlets like local newsletters, newspapers, and even advertisers in your area. You can also launch the promotion on your own online.

You can promote the contest on your homepage if you have consistent monthly web traffic. You can also promote your competition on your social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Contests are a fun way to get people involved in your brand, and of course, they will identify a slew of new leads primed for furnace replacement or maintenance.

Of course, you can change the details. If AC service is more lucrative in your area, by all means, turn it into an Ugly AC Contest.

5) Facebook Quizzes

Everyone loves a good quiz now and then, especially when a prize is on the line. So once again, we are turning to Facebook because it is straightforward to set up and run a quiz on the platform and tap into your existing community.

There are even apps you can use to create Facebook quizzes ridiculously easily. Of course, you will put up a prize in this scenario, but the ROI will likely be significant.

A quiz won’t cost you anything and won’t take more than a few minutes. Plus, you have the opportunity to drive engagement and grow your social media community which is always good for business.

Bonus Idea: Promote Your HVAC Company on Google

The most efficient form of HVAC promotion is search engine optimization. Ranking your website and Google Business Profile on organic search results creates a sustainable stream of high-quality leads. In addition, unlike other time-sensitive promos, an organic search presence is everpresent.

The best way to increase rankings is to invest in Local SEO for HVAC Contractors. Many consumers click on the Google Map 3-Pack when searching for a local AC company. Various factors like proximity, prominence, and relevance come into the algorithm’s consideration.

HVAC Webmasters offers a tool called DataPins to help you rank locally and convert more traffic. DataPins allow HVAC companies to drop the location of their jobs and then inject the geo-coordinates with schema markup, serving as a digital hand-raise to Google Maps.

We hope you enjoyed the list. Keep in mind that there are never enough HVAC promotional ideas

Feb '21

HVAC Call To Action (CTA) Guide for 2022

Table of Contents

What is a Call to Action for HVAC?

For HVAC companies, a CTA is an online device that prompts or encourages users to take action. The most common HVAC calls to action are phone number links or push-to-call buttons. A website visitor who clicks a phone number link converts from traffic to lead instantaneously.

HVAC CTA Tips for 2022

Strong CTAs are clear and concise. Users respond to urgent calls and don’t have time to read through a bunch of filler. Getting right to the point encourages user action while discouraging overthinking. Remember, in 2022; consumers won’t tolerate BS. The goal is to direct them to buy your HVAC services on the spot.

Tip #1: Invoke Enthusiasm

Some words inspire users to take action, while others bore them into inaction. Understanding language is key to crafting the perfect CTA for your heating and cooling website or advertisement. For example, “save 60% on your first service” inspires consumers immediately. Conversely, “get in touch with our sales rep” only leaves them wanting more.

Tip #2: Create Urgency

Prospects often will wait to make a final decision so that they can compare your prices to competitors and seek out 3rd party opinions. Of course, creating an excellent online reputation can make those actions lead right back to your website. But creating urgency with your CTA ensures they’ll never leave in the first place. For example, putting a time limit on your special offer encourages them to take immediate action.

Tip #3: Make CTAs Responsive

Some users may access your HVACR website through their smartphones or tablets. And some still will use their desktop computer or laptop. A compelling CTA must appear ideally on each device type, and responsive design makes it happen. Losing even one of those devices can reduce your conversions enough to blow your revenue significantly.

Tip #4: Enhance CTAs with Social Proof

Most users won’t click on a CTA without some social proof. It helps to use statistics or numbers to prove your company’s worth. For example, showing that 99% of clients become repeat customers fosters credibility. You can also use pricing comparisons showing that your services save customers an average of 35 dollars per job.

Tip #5: Click to Call Functionality

Smartphones represent the top device for potential clients. Creating a linked CTA that connects the user to your phone line is one way to streamline the sales process. For example, a giant button in your website’s header, reading: Call Now, can connect from their phone to your phone in just seconds. Yes, technology can do some pretty amazing things in 2022.

Call To Action Examples

HVAC companies can publish a wide range of CTA types. For example, you might prefer that customers email you or submit a contact form. Other contractors may want direct phone calls to their office line. Either way, you can craft your call to action to fit your company’s needs and preferences in 2022. Let’s look at some HVAC call-to-action examples to create inspiration for your next venture.

Phone Number Link

The phone number link is straight to the point. Typically a phone link gets accompanied by a line of text, which creates either trust or urgency. The linked number is self-explanatory for users and frequently leads to increased call volume for local HVACR companies.

Request a Quote

Requesting a quote is an ideal CTA for contractors who prefer the form submission. You can get some basic information about your prospect before speaking with them over the phone. This way, you have more knowledge and can provide them with a personalized sales pitch, almost certainly to convert them.

Encouraging prospects to request a quote gets them invested in your company early on in the conversion process, making it more likely they will become a customer.

Request a Call

Like the request for a quote, requesting a call allows users to leave their phone number for a later callback. Some heating and cooling companies prefer to schedule the best call times instead of taking calls 24/7. Depending on staff size, the request for a call CTA could be highly beneficial and increase company efficiency in 2022.

A prospect’s phone number is the most valuable contact information you can get in the lead generation process. When customers submit their phone numbers, they are far more likely to invest.

Contact Us

The Contact Us form is the most traditional call to action. Of course, its effectiveness often predicates on the rest of your website. Is your homepage telling a story? Does it encourage trust and authority for future clients? If both of those things ring true, then the contact us form works wonders. However, keep in mind that the contact us form becomes relatively useless without a strong homepage.

Some prospects are not ready to call your company on the spot. Providing traditional contact forms encourages customers to take action before they are ready to call.

Review Us

Not all calls to action must encourage direct contact. Sometimes you need CTAs for existing clients to perform other actions. An excellent example of this is the Review Us call to action. Generating Google reviews is vital to your reputation and can help increase conversion rates across the web. Placing a review CTA on your website’s homepage encourages good things for your authority.

“Review Us” buttons are easy ways to generate actions from existing customers.

Savings / Discounts

Consumers often associate action with money. If they can save money, they are more willing to take action. Savings or discount-style CTAs are effective in encouraging swift action from future clients. You can design a variety of savings CTAs as long as each of them shows customers how they’ll save money by using your service.

Showcasing savings and discounts creates an urgency for potential customers who may choose to act faster.

Working With HVAC Webmasters

Installing CTAs on your website requires web design experience and other technical skills. HVAC Webmasters can help your company project the best version of itself to future clients. We’ve worked with hundreds of HVAC contractors in assisting them in generating high-quality HVACR leads over the past decade. Some of our services include:

DataPins: We include a reputation management tool that enhances social proof for stronger CTAs.

Responsive Design: We ensure your CTAs show up effectively across all devices.

Website Redesign: We take existing websites and improve user experience and visual appeal

Click-To-Call: We implement click-to-call functionality for phone number links

HVAC companies can’t do everything on their own. Partnering with an industry-specific marketing agency like HVAC Webmasters can empower you to focus on performing the best services. We help you get more customers through your website, organic search, and reputation management. We even help you automate the local SEO process through Jobsite check-ins and user-generated content for your specific web pages.

Jan '19

3 Essential Online Review Sites For HVAC Companies in 2022

The HVAC industry is fiercely competitive. However, there’s no silver bullet to make your company succeed online. However, after decades of experience as HVAC SEO specialists, HVAC Webmasters knows that it takes many little things done well to help improve Google rankings and get your phone ringing daily. One of those “little things” is online review sites.

We’ll talk about how to get HVAC reviews another time, but in the following post, let’s focus on which sites will drive leads to your company and how you should manage the content on those listings to stand out from the crowd.

1) Google Business Profile (Formerly Google My Business)

Hands down, the most critical citation listing for your HVAC company is Google Business Profile. GBP is a rich listing that you can claim and manage, allowing you to create a strong profile directly tied to Google. Because Google is still the search engine king, it’s only logical that you would do anything you can to appeal to this resource, with top rankings as the goal of a well-played organic SEO strategy.

One of the pleasant aspects of Google Business Profile is managing your company listing from a user-friendly dashboard. The information you enter updates instantly across Search and Google Maps. Because local searches for heating and cooling repairs are vital when service areas are fixed, this is the absolute best way to keep your NAP accurate in the most visible listing you’ll have.

Optimizing Your GBP Listing

Putting myself in the customer’s shoes, one of my favorite things about using Google to search for HVAC repairs near me is how much information I have at my fingertips when those results come back. I can click on a business name from the map results- a familiar spot to launch research when proximity matters, especially true for emergent repairs- and see an excellent overview of data about that company.

I may go ahead and place a call for service from this view alone without ever having visited the HVAC company website. (And that’s not to say that your primary website isn’t essential. It’s a vital tool for ranking well on Google and ensuring that your company is toward the top of the Map results to get that click!)

But here’s the thing, even if you’re optimizing well, if you haven’t claimed and updated your GMB listing, you may never get that call due to incorrect information. A simple typo could cost you tons of calls, and a poor user experience could result in your business tanking in the rankings.

However, with a substantial listing that incorporates keywords throughout the quality content and a linked listing that connects viewers to your website for more info (like service pages with excellent on-page SEO), you’re far more likely to earn their business.

Google Business Tools for HVAC Pros

A new Google Ad feature worth mentioning here is the Google Guarantee badge. These are paid listings (versus organic results, which are still typically seen as most valuable), but they add an extra layer of comfort for customers who want the backing of a third party.

This feature ties to your GMB account and lets you manage communication via Local Services booking. Because Google is recognized as an authority and trusted by billions of users, this paid listing could help a newly launched domain see some action before it has put in the years to rank organically.

2) Yelp

Millions of users continue to favor the Yelp app and website for finding everything from restaurants to air conditioning specialists in their area. (In fact, there is even a quick-select icon for Heating & Air Conditioning on the app’s landing page!) Because the app is closely tied to mobile use, the local search aspect is clutch and provides a good user experience.

The other benefit to users is review-rich pages tied to an identified reviewer (versus anonymous posts). Sure, you’ll still find some absurd nonsense, but it’s not nearly as rampant as sites that allow unidentified reviews.

Yelp reviews tend to be more detailed than other online review sources, so having an excellent listing for your HVAC business on Yelp is a fantastic offering for potential customers to find you…and be impressed.

Pro Tip: Respond To Yelp Reviews From HVAC Customers

While this might not seem like the SEO tips you’d expect from us, it’s essential to realize that engaging with customers is vital for the life of your company. Of course, this is true of almost any industry, but because you have a tremendous opportunity to earn business from personal referrals, thinking about how you engage with the customer is an excellent investment of time and energy.

Social media marketing, for example, hinges on good engagement to get your posts seen and allow your business to thrive online.

Replying to reviews on sites such as Google and Yelp is a great way to show that you appreciate your customers and tune in to what they need. Even if a review was mediocre, when a business owner responds respectfully and professionally, that still leaves me with a positive impression of the company. The response can be more valuable than the review or star-rating itself.

3) Facebook

You may not think of this as a review site, but it’s not uncommon for Facebook reviews to appear on a Google homepage for a company listing. As we covered earlier when discussing the power of Google rankings, a potential customer may not even make it to your website, but they will likely check out a few ratings before clicking the phone number from the SERP.

So while a user would have to be logged in to leave a comment or dive deep into Facebook content, reviews are visible to everyone (with or without an account) and should be considered necessary for your online reputation.

When potential customers vet your company for their HVAC repair business, they may start with a Google search of your company name and then check out serval online review sites to get a sense of the service you offer. Because of the incredible traffic that Facebook receives, this listing usually shows up fairly high in the rankings and should therefore be given plenty of love.

Screenshot of Facebook Business Page for Local HVAC Company

If you’re all reviews and no content, the viewer may be less inclined to pull the trigger. So don’t forsake developing a great secondary website with your social media business pages, starting with Facebook for Business.

Getting Good Reviews For HVAC Services

While we’ve spent most of this article talking about how to best claim and manage these various online review sites for your HVAC company, they won’t do you (or your customers) much good if there are no reviews to view.

While there are some tools for making review requests more streamlined, the fact remains that you have to ask for them. It’s assumed that only a tiny percentage of customers are likely to follow through to leave a review — good or bad — after their heating and cooling repairs, so you’ve got to be diligent about asking everyone to improve the odds of getting a decent turn-out.

We know that consumer behavior shows that folks are likelier to call a service provider with lots of reviews, but a mid-to-high star rating, versus a company with just a handful of reviews, even if they’re all five stars. So the quantity weighs Google rankings, too, whether the reviews are made on your GBP page or elsewhere.

For Facebook specifically, you have the benefit of a more engaged user than you’d find on Google, for example. The billions of Facebook users spend a lot of time on the social network every day, so don’t hesitate to post every so often a request for existing customers to post a review.

And if you’re trying to build up reviews on Yelp versus Facebook, tell them! It’s perfectly acceptable to make it known that you’re trying to bolster your brand reputation on a given site, but the key is to provide a link to make it as easy as possible for an existing customer to help you out. Please don’t make them search, or you’ll likely lose that willing participant.

Other Citation Sites for Heating and Cooling Repairs

Here are a few other online review sites/directories that help connect HVAC pros to new customers:

Angi
HomeAdvisor
Porch
Thumbtack

While quantity helps search engines recognize your business as reputable, it’s also worth investing some time into each listing. You can ensure a vital entry point for new HVAC customers to find your business and get those online review sites; working for you.

Apr '18

How To Get Free HVAC Images For Your Website in 2022

Companies can take several steps to find, create, and optimize web-ready images for a business website. The key to finding free HVAC images is creating them manually. Of course, you can also utilize stock photos from various royalty-free photo websites.

The solution depends on your company’s resources. For example, do you have access to a modern smartphone or camera? Are you managing your website on your own, or is it the job of your marketing company? Answering these questions will form the basis by which you’ll operate. Check out these tips for generating free HVAC images for your company website:

Take Photos With Smartphone or Camera

Websites with original content offer more value to the reader and are looked upon with higher regard by search engines. Many contractors mistakenly believe that content is text only when it expands to images, videos, and other forms of visual media. In any case, taking original photos creates original content, which is the best option for contractors. Take photos of the following:

Company Vehicle: Capture your company truck, perhaps with a wrap, via a smartphone camera
Employees: Have a staff of 2 or more? Take individual photos of them, as well as group pictures.
Heating or Cooling Repairs: Have someone snap photos of you on the job
Satisfied Customers: Ask a happy customer if they’ll pose for a picture with you

Unique photos of a personal nature that also reflect your company’s values and expertise are the best photos for an HVAC website. For example, this HVAC image shows the owner’s military background.

Download Stock Photos From The Internet

If you don’t have access to a smartphone or camera, downloading royalty-free stock photos from the internet is the next best option. While this is far from an ideal solution, since these photos are used on multiple websites, it is better than having no visual content at all. Websites like pixabay.com offer free stock photos. Another alternative is selecting “labeled for free-use” under “Tools — Usage Rights” on Google image search, which will produce usable files. Stock photos should be:

Appealing: Appear realistic rather than humorous or fantastical
Diverse: A variety of files, never used more than once on your website
Relevant: Relate to the HVAC industry, and the page topic specifically
Web-Ready: In an optimal file format

You can find free HVAC images on pixabay.com and other royalty-free image websites. Remember, stock images don’t help conversions as unique photos do.

Optimize Your Photos For Web Use

Whether you take original photos or download stock images online, you’ll need to optimize them for web use. With images captured via smartphone, you can use Dropbox or email to upload the files to the internet, at which point you can access them on your computer and make the necessary changes.

Modern cameras usually come with a USB cord to upload photos onto your PC or Mac, while stock images downloaded from the internet are already on your hard drive. Once you have the files on your computer, follow these steps:

Step 1 – Compression: Compress images with tools like Optimizilla or JPEG Optimizer
Step 2 – File Name: Make a copy of your image file and rename it with lower case letters (i.e., ac-repair-job.jpg)
Step 3 – File Type: Save your image as a JPEG, JPG, or PNG file
Step 4 – Upload: Using a content management system like WordPress, upload the photo to your library
Step 5 – SEO: After placing the image on your page, enter relevant ALT Text for SEO purposes

Help With HVAC Images Optimization

HVAC Webmasters can help you through the process. We offer photo optimization for HVAC companies as part of our website design services. First, we’ll fill your website with relevant images, either from your archive of original company photos or with relevant stock photos downloaded from the web. Then, we optimize each of your photographs for SEO purposes and keep your website running as fast as possible.

Competing for HVAC leads in today’s market can be overwhelming. Websites constantly try to outdo one another with the latest trends or techniques. Invest in SEO services from HVAC Webmasters for a process you can trust. In addition, we offer several month-to-month (MTM) plans, giving contractors their choice of payment options. With MTM, you pay a fixed price at the end of each month and avoid long-term contracts.

Jan '18

HVAC Domain Names: Picking The Best Website Name in 2022

For many heating and cooling companies, the new year means launching a new website. While you can develop aspects of your website over time, one decision you will be stuck with is your HVAC domain names. You might think this decision is simple, but rushing into a domain name registration without considering all of your objectives can be a costly decision. That’s why HVAC Webmasters presents this guide to picking an HVAC domain name.

Branding

Your domain name is a direct reflection of your company’s brand. In today’s vastly digital marketing world, having a poorly branded domain name can mean the downfall of your entire business. Therefore, in choosing a branded domain name, ensure that it is:

Concise: You want a name that users can easily pronounce and read on your business card and other marketing materials
Memorable: You want your name to jump off the business card, website, or social profile so that people can recall it later
Relevant: You’d like to get heating, cooling, HVAC, or a similar industry term in the name

Remember, your domain name will travel with your business everywhere it goes. You may even go as far as investing in a car wrap with your domain name printed right on your truck. It won’t make any difference if the domain fails to exhibit any of the above qualities. With that said, a well-thought-out domain name can catch the eye of prospective customers.

Source: https://instantdomainsearch.com/

Domain Suffix

A domain suffix, sometimes referred to as a top-level domain (TLD), follows your domain name after the period. In other words, the .com, .net, and .org you see on websites are domain suffixes. In almost every case, you’ll want to choose a .com suffix for the following reasons:

Innovation: If your .com choice is already taken, choose a more creative domain name instead of changing the suffix
Recollection: Because .com is most common, if you tell a customer that your website is .net, they might forget later on and type a .com, bringing them to a different website
Reputation: The internet has its fair share of spammy, shady websites, and many of them don’t use a .com suffix, which can be an indicator of a risky site

You may note that particular government and non-profit institutions use .org or .edu, but these suffixes are only available with proof of validation. Domain registrars regularly release new suffix variations such as .tv or .club, but none will provide the immediate authority ascribed to .com.

Keyword Placement

Keywords can complicate the domain registration process. Many companies mistakenly believe that using manipulative keywords as their domain name can drive tons of traffic to their site. Google warns against exact match domain names and can penalize your site for using one. See below:

Exact Match Domain Name: cheapHVACinTX.net
Relevant Keyword Domain Name: SmithBrosAC.com

As you’ll see in the first example, using the word cheap can be exploitative, especially if your services are not considerably more affordable than others in the area. Furthermore, the keyword cheap and the suffix .net make your website look spammy and thus unreliable. The second example shows how using a relevant HVAC keyword combined with your brand name creates a memorable option.