Tag Archives: Internet Marketing

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So You’re Starting An HVAC Company | The HVAC Marketing Plan Podcast

So you’ve taken the plunge and decided to start your own business in the heating and cooling industry. Congratulations! While there are miles ahead between you and a medium-sized company, good business sense will carry you through to the end. In our latest podcast, Nolen and Jason explain how frugal spending, do-it-yourself willpower, and cautious investments will make it so much easier to successfully launch your startup.

Key Takeaways for HVAC Professionals

  • Don’t invest in extra tools before you’ve developed a client base!
  • Keep your recurring expenses as low as possible in the beginning.
  • As much as possible, do the call handling and scheduling yourself.
  • Zealously protect your customer calls.
  • Don’t skimp on essentials: tax work, insurance, legal, and marketing.

How to Make a Clean Start

We’re all about common sense at HVAC Webmasters. Yet over the years, we’ve seen so many heating and cooling startups enthusiastically speed out of the gate without an ounce of it. The signs are obvious:

  • Buying tools, trucks, and toys before securing steady leads
  • Overinvesting in staff without the necessary revenue
  • Handing over customer calls to an untrained, rude family member
  • Denying the need for proper tax work, insurance, and marketing

That last point is especially difficult to see, because we know just how much heartache and frustration HVAC techs endure because they didn’t bother to invest in support services. Frankly, we’re tired of seeing it happen. That’s why we want to provide a simple guide for getting started in your new HVAC business!

Tip #1: Stay Frugal

So many heating and cooling services end before they even begin. What’s the number one reason? Finances. Just as poor financial compatibility dooms a large percentage of marriages across the United States, dumb spending practices kills thousands of startups every year.

There are several areas HVAC startups struggle in, but let’s take a look at the top 3 ways you can give your finances a fighting chance!

Equipment

EARN BEFORE YOU BUY

Unmerited optimism can sink a business faster than you can say “Where did our money go?” Many HVAC companies assume that homeowners will line up to use their services as soon as they incorporate, but that doesn’t happen. While it may feel tempting to buy extra tools at the start of your business, perform the following test first.

Ask yourself, “Can I continue working without these tools this month?”

Unless you absolutely cannot do your job without that fancy tool, hold off on buying it. That goes for that fancy new truck or service van too! Homeowners don’t care about your choice of vehicle (in most cases). As long as you dress neatly and keep your vehicle clean, clients will respect your skills enough to hire you in the future.

Hiring

HIRE OUT OF NECESSITY

While it may be tempting to rent out an office space and feel it with spunky staff members, odds are your startup can function just fine without them. That may require you to occasionally pause during a service visit to take a call, but you’ll save tens of thousands of dollars by scheduling visits yourself.

When you hire someone, hire out of necessity. When you start getting more service requests than you can fulfill by yourself, hire another tech. When you’re too busy to provide quality phone service, hire a customer service professional and train them. As long as you can continue your current level of customer service, skip the new hires.

DIY

D.I.Y. AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

Do it yourself. That’s a phrase that excites just as much as it irritates. It’s also a practice that will easily save you thousands of dollars every month during your startup period. For one, it limits the number of people you have to hire to manage “the office” and scheduling. It also allows you to directly control the quality of your service.

What activities qualify for DIY?

  • Service scheduling
  • Payroll and PTO
  • Inventory management
  • Calendar management
  • Service visits

Tip #2: Zealously Guard Customer Care

When literally dozens of companies provide the exact same services you do, what sets your business apart from the rest? Customer care. As long as you continue to provide courteous and convenient service, your clients will return again and again over the years. If your clients encounter a rude technician or staff member however, they’ll bounce faster than a toddler on a trampoline!

That’s why you need to do all you can to protect your customer experience. We’ve witnessed to many businesses bleed sales because they didn’t realize a staff member’s rude behavior was chasing away clients. From informational calls to final service visit, every aspect of your service should be imbued with friendliness and patience.

An Example of a Smart Accounting Service
Never Skimp Out on Tax Support, Including Payroll!

Tip #3: Invest in Support Services

When you first purchased your company phone, did customers automatically start calling your business? Of course not! You had to advertise your number and services first before people called. In the same way, you’ll have to invest in quality marketing service before HVAC leads start flowing into your business.

There are several services you can’t afford to skip out on. These include:

Some of these services help produce and regulate the flow of income, while others protect you from company-killing accidents. Skipping out on these services goes beyond tempting fate; it’s just stupid. Countless HVAC companies have been destroyed by tax violations or legal woes, while others never get off the ground without marketing.

Find support services that work just as hard as you do, and you’ll never have to lose a night’s sleep (at least due to tax problems). As far as digital marketing services go, our team at HVAC Webmasters is here for all your marketing needs. We’ve helped hundreds of startups over the years, and we can’t wait to serve you too! Call (800) 353-3409 to learn more.

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  • contractors of america best digital agency
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True Client Stories: Almost Great HVAC Marketing

Do you find your business shackled to the same sort of non-productive marketing firm every couple of years? Time and time again, we hear stories of heating and cooling professionals regretting their relationships with shady sales-oriented marketers. Despite this, HVAC technicians continue to fall for the same old tricks.

Let’s try to put a stop to that today! Jason and Nolen discuss the story of an HVAC professional who never seems to escape from lousy marketing deals. Listen in for helpful lessons on finding a capable online team!

Key Lessons to Learn for HVAC Professionals

  • Marketing teams that hard-sell results tend to provide none.
  • Accountable pricing and billing make for stronger marketing results.
  • It’s rarely a good idea to sign on for annual or year plus contracts.

Something’s Shady

We’re back with another “Bob” for this story. Bob finds himself with a very well-to-do HVAC company. However, he’s continually unsatisfied with his marketing firm’s results. As he shops around, he contacts a familiar page 1 company: our team at HVAC Webmasters.

As Nolen answers, he quickly recognizes Bob. He’s already talked with him three times before!

A Familiar HVAC Marketing Ride

It turns out, Bob had called the Webmasters multiple times before, only to turn to a firm with a more flashy sales routine. We’re fine with contractors partnering with other firms, of course. Bob however, was finding himself in the exact same situation: unsatisfied with his current results.

Clearly, his criteria for choosing the right firm to handle his HVAC company marketing clearly wasn’t working. Bob isn’t alone either!

A Google Ads Dashboard
Shady Companies Hide Cost Per Click Markups by Managing Google Ads Billing For You.

How to Spot a Sham

Thankfully, there a plenty of red flags that can help you spot a marketing sham when so many others buy it hook, line, and sinker. Many firms resort to the same old tactics to extract a profit without putting in the effort to grow their clients’ businesses. Here’s a few ways they do it:

Ways to Spot a Shady Marketing Company

  • They’re quick to bundle everything together in one package, one price.
  • They push hard for annual contracts with upfront payments.
  • The company salesforce is larger than the rest of the business.
  • All your interactions begin and end with a sales specialist or relationship manager.
  • You hear buzzwords in every other sentence, and you rarely understand them.
  • The company guarantees precise levels of traffic or leads.

Look closely at your next marketing company prospect. Examine how they talk, how they price, and how they bundle.

They Speak in Weird Buzzwords

Sales professionals tend to speak in a buzzword-heavy, high-energy routine that’s quick to promise results. You might hear phrases like “social fortress” that sound flashy, but never get fully explained. Most digital marketing salesmen have just enough knowledge to sound like they know what they’re talking about.

The most dependable professionals can easily explain their services, in clear terms.

They Promise Specific Search Numbers

Have you ever spoken with a marketing professional who promised an exact return on your investment? While some marketing fields can use predictive fields to determine an estimated ROI, no one controls Google Search. That means that even the smartest, most-experience industry professionals cannot deliver an exact number of website visitors, click-throughs, or sales.

The next time some guarantees a set volume of traffic to your website, courteously shake their hand, thank them for their time, and walk out the door. They aren’t worth the time or money.

They Only Offer Annual Package Deals

While it’s probably too much to claim that every annual marketing package is a bad deal, almost every annual marketing package is a bad deal! We hear time and time again how contractors sign up for an annual contract, get results for a few months, and never hear from their marketing management again for the rest of the year. You can bet they’ll be ready to talk you into another year, but results seem to come up short every time.

The most dependable companies price month to month, and they offer clear pricing guidelines so you know what you’re paying for.

Finding Great Results

Don’t let your heating and cooling business get sucked into a long-term marketing bust. Keep these red flags in mind as you move forward, and you can avoid those painful experiences that so many HVAC businesses suffer each year. Everything changes when you find the right marketing firm for your team!

At HVAC Webmasters, we have the experience, reputation, and results to earn your business. We skip the annual contracts in favor of month-to-month pricing, so you can rest assured we’re working hard to grow your company and online brand. Through custom web design, local SEO strategy, and crisp reputation management, we’ve managed to help hundreds of businesses find the online success they crave!

To learn more about our services, talk with one of our experts at (800) 353-3409.

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True Client Stories: I Failed Online So I’m Joining a Franchise…

Franchises off some alluring benefits to HVAC professionals just starting off, but not all brands are created equal. Is joining on truly the best move for your business, or could you earn better growth through other means?

Jason and Nolen reveal a true tale of a heating and cooling contractor thrust into this difficult choice. Be sure to listen in if you’ve considered joining a franchise.

Helpful Lessons for HVAC Professionals

  • The main value of franchise marketing is brand recognition.
  • Franchise marketing doesn’t work if your community isn’t familiar with the brand your company operates under.
  • Always check to see if the franchise already ranks well organically!
https://youtu.be/17gmaWrkQnA

Joining a Franchise

Starting an heating and cooling company is tough work! Raising it off the ground into a developed brand is an even more difficult task, with many professionals never overcoming the challenge. That’s what makes joining a franchise such an enticing solution for HVAC professionals.

By taking on the name and guidance of a parent brand, they gain access to certain marketing perks that could help them earn more leads.

Franchising Benefits

Joining a Franchise: The Pros

Brand recognition is huge when it comes to online marketing. When people search your brand directly in Google, their odds of converting into customers jumps way up over keyword searches. Many fresh-faced contractors are particularly keen to win that recognition when they sign up as a franchisee.

In addition to this brand access, many franchises offer specialized marketing tools for connecting with potential leads. These may include email templates, physical collateral (like pamphlets), and other digital marketing resources. This makes it easier for technicians who have little to no experience with advertising online.

The Costs of Franchising

Joining a Franchise: The Cons

First, franchise brands take a percentage of your income. That money typically doesn’t come out after taxes either; it comes from your gross profits. This means tens of thousands of dollars withdrawn every year. You’ll feel the loss during seasons of aggressive growth, and you’ll definitely notice it during slow seasons.

Parent brands also exercise significant control over their franchisees. This could mean your company is obligated to only work with certain marketing agencies, or that you have to pay fees for help from the parent brand. It might seem like a lot of money, but it could add up over time.

Franchising Decision Time

The guiding principle and goal behind franchising is to strengthen the overarching brand while providing better sales for the ground level contractors. In theory, an HVAC professional who becomes a franchisee should earn more money than they did before because people are comfortable with the brand. This natural raises a crucial question:

What if no one is familiar with the franchise brand?

If no one in your community recognizes the brand you’ve associated your services with, then they have no built up trust with that name. Even worse, that means that the brand has little-to-no organic presence in local search. If homeowners and commercial clients can’t even find your website, then how are they going to hire your services?

Adding to this concern is the fact that many franchises tightly control who you can use for your online marketing services. If they have a preferred (mandatory) partnership with an ineffective marketing agency, that could leave you stuck with mediocre results for the long-term. Now, all these concerns may be for naught if your franchising company is a household name, but then you’d also be paying more for the franchise rights each year.

Local Results Showing Organic and Paid Listings
Google Prefers to List Local Businesses, So Franchises Often Rely on Expensive Ads.

Is Joining a Franchise Worth It?

If you can secure a relationship with a widely known brand at a decent profit percentage, joining a franchise may be worth it. If the company that you’re considering doesn’t have brand recognition (in your area) or strong local rankings, then there’s no reason to join them. You could do better on your own with an optimized website, consistent reviews, and citations! Google prefers showing local businesses anyway, meaning you have a great chance of winning quality search ranks.

Looking to Grow Organically?

If you want to grow your own business and keep your profits, then local search optimization is the way to go. Our team at HVAC Webmasters would love to support your business with optimized web design, professional writing, and powerful reputation management. We’ve helped countless professionals earn page 1 rankings and dominate local search!

To learn more about online marketing, or to consult with an expert and see if joining a franchise is right for you, call us at (800) 353-3409.

Other Resources from HVAC Webmasters

Articles and Podcasts for Further Study
Understanding Your HVAC Brand Online (Podcast)
You Don’t Have to Be Perfect to Win at HVAC SEO (Podcast)
The Untold Dangers of Website Templates (Article)

Related HVAC Web Services
HVAC Brand Development
HVAC Company Reviews
Content Marketing for HVAC Companies

  • plumbing heating and air alliance member
  • contractors of america best digital agency
  • expertise.com best seo agencies in fort worth

Understanding Your HVAC Brand Online (Podcast)

In 2021, Branding for HVAC companies isn’t the same as it was two decades ago. When it comes to creating exposure for your HVAC business, nothing fights more challenging for your company than your online brand. If you want to earn more clients (who doesn’t?), you’ll need to understand Google’s local search process and how people find your brand.

On today’s podcast, Jason and Nolen dive into some of the general strategies behind online branding. Be sure to listen in if your business has struggled to make headway in local search ranking! Keep an ear open for these essential tips too.

Tips for HVAC Professionals:

  • Even Google needs help separating your business from others.
  • The search engine uses E-A-T to gauge your brand suitability.
  • Traditional advertising sees increasingly low ROIs.
  • Many companies see zero brand visibility without a GMB listing.
  • Google (currently) sees your website’s age as your company age.
https://youtu.be/D7Ir1H4Uafo

The Makeup of Your HVAC Brand

What is an “online brand” for an HVAC company?

  • The Domain Name (or .com)
  • The Google My Business Listing
  • All Company Reviews
  • Blogging and Other Content Updates
  • Branded / Direct Searches
  • Citations
  • Google Map Postings
  • Social Media Accounts / Activity

Google examines all of these signals to determine the value (or suitability) of your online brand. Keep in mind; the search engine has thousands of similar business listings to sort through and hundreds of millions of related pages on top of those! So even the catchiest brand name can get lost in the overwhelming number of industry competitors.

Let’s break down these branding facets into three different categories: Identity, Ability, and Activity.

Online Branding on an HVAC Website

Establishing Online Brand Identity

Your Target Branding Tools

  • GMB Listing
  • Domain Name
  • Citations
  • Social Media (Accounts)

Despite popular opinion to the contrary, Google is not an all-knowing force of the industry. The search engine’s understanding is limited to the information that users provide. Google can’t produce data from anything.

So if you think that Google knows about your 3rd generation plumbing company and overwhelming client satisfaction rate, you might be dead wrong.

A Star Brand is Born

Google My Business for Online Branding
Google My Business Makes it Easier to Earn Traffic!

Most (if not all) company online brands begin with listings and citations. Physical location, company age, operating hours, industry type, service area, and other data paint an essential portrait of your business. You’ll want to provide this data to as many established citation companies as possible.

When it comes to local search, the ideal place to kick off your brand is Google My Business (GMB). 

GMB listings are essential for appearing in local search results, but they also provide helpful interaction capabilities with potential clients via the Knowledge Graph tool. According to consumer research, 56% of search users who interact with your GMB listing use it to visit your website. Additionally, 24% use them to call your business directly (Statista).

Grab Those Citations

Of course, sharing your company information with citation sources like Yelp, Facebook, BBB, and Manta will further establish the identity of your online brand. They also facilitate the review process, a crucial part of establishing your services. We’ll talk more about this later.

For now, make sure that the information you provide across your sources is consistent. Even the way you abbreviate your physical address matters! If your HVAC business has the opportunity, you might also want to list it in relevant industry publications.

Stand Out With Your Domain

Another essential branding tool in your question for local search traffic is your domain name. What a make-or-break decision! While many companies mistake targeting generic keywords and city/state combinations, this tactic only makes your brand harder for Google to distinguish.

The best domain names combine HVAC terminology with something quirky or memorable. For instance, real-world company Main Street Heating & Cooling realized their domain name needed to be a little more distinct than their usual title. So they chose mainstreetcomfort.com, a domain name that Google can easily distinguish from other industry competitors.

On a side note, make sure you register your domain under your business’ name, not the hosting company’s, to avoid potential problems when your registration approaches expiration.

Proving Online Brand Ability

Your Target Branding Tools:

  • Website Content
  • Customer Reviews
  • Citations

Just about anyone can set up a website and claim to provide AC repairs. Thousands of professionals boast in their “best AC repairs” and “affordable furnace maintenance”, but Google only shows a handful in front page local results. So how does the search engine decide who gets picked?

E-A-T: Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness

In its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, Google has expressly stated that it looks for these qualities as it judges content. These brand values, however, can be evaluated even beyond the actual business website and service pages.

Reviews Build Credibility for Your Business and Confirm Your Service Offerings.

Online Branding Through Service Reviews
Reviews Build Credibility for Your Business and Confirm Your Service Offerings.

Matching Claims With Results

To prove your online brand’s trustworthiness, Google needs to match up the claims of your website (such as what services you provide) with the testimonies of relevant sources. One of the most powerful channels of information in the evaluation process is your client reviews. Not only do they speak to the general quality of your services, but they also verify that your company does what you say it does.

Having multiple citations enables reviews from a variety of sources. If you continue to ask for reviews after finished jobs, that means numerous sources will be confirming your brand’s abilities! As your team gains more experience and your website ages, Google will reward this proven ability with higher rankings in local search.

Engaging in Brand Activity

Your Target Branding Tools

  • Blogging
  • Customer Reviews
  • Direct Searches
  • Content Updates
  • Social Media (Posting)

Online branding is an ongoing process. While Coca-Cola and other multi-billion dollar brands can sit back and rest on their laurels, HVAC professionals have to fight to maintain their top position. Since Google doesn’t have real-world eyes watching as company’s open and close their business, the search engine relies on online branding activity to infer these details.

Content Marketing and Online Branding
Your Blog Can Be a Powerful Tool for Branding, if You Use it Right!

Managing Content & Reviews

When a site goes live, Google crawlers make their way through the pages to analyze the content. So Crawling is how Google creates an initial picture of what your business does. Later on, these same crawlers revisit the site, on the hunt for new content. The process goes on and on over the years.

If the bots repeatedly find no new content, Google might believe your business has closed down. That’s why so many HVAC companies who enjoyed top rankings find themselves on the back pages of local search.

So what online brand activity can your business use to stay up-to-date?

Content Marketing & Refurbishing

Blogging is the go-to tool for many HVAC businesses. Not only does it provide proof of continued activity, but it’s also the perfect way to earn featured listings and other high-traffic search results. Of course, Facebook Posts and Instagram posts also help, especially with original visual content.

Older content can spring back to life too. For example, some of your business’s most valuable assets are your service pages and handy guides. Take time every year to assess this valuable content and refurbish them for fresh value. You can even take advantage of this cyclical editing to amp up your keyword strategy!

Building a Review Bank

As we like to say, reviews are one of the purest forms of digital currency. Not only do they pay huge dividends with Google’s perception of your online brand, but they also encourage other consumers to try out your HVAC company! Most companies partly understand the value of customer feedback, but few make the necessary effort to collect it.

If you only take one lesson away from this discussion, let it be this: never stop asking for reviews! Train your team to ask for them immediately after repairs. Follow up with clients after installations and explain how important their feedback is to your business’ growth. You’ll be amazed just how much your online brand will climb the local search rankings.

Start Building Your Brand

Ready to start crafting a brand that lasts? Our team at HVAC Webmasters would love to help! Not only do our clients enjoy impressive rankings in local search, but they also earn higher quality leads. With years of experience in the industry, you can expect powerful results from our team of seasoned content writers, SEO specialists, website designers, and editors.