Owning an HVAC business can be highly profitable and rewarding. However, it also includes many day-to-day tasks that you never imagined would take up so much of your time — such as marketing.
Marketing is an essential aspect of running any business, be it an HVAC business or another local company type. Keeping up with current marketing trends and utilizing the best practices to reach the broadest customer base is crucial to growing your business and overall profitability. 82% of people call an HVAC company after searching for “HVAC repair.” How can you ensure potential customers call your company over competitors?
The answer is digital marketing. Using digital marketing techniques is an excellent way to improve customer retention and turn one-time customers into repeats. Read on to discover our top eleven HVAC digital marketing tips to get repeat customers.
What Is HVAC Digital Marketing?
HVAC digital marketing — also known as HVAC internet marketing — is a method of improving customer retention, broadening your customer reach, and boosting overall profits through internet-based marketing strategies.
In our digital age, prioritizing digital marketing alongside traditional marketing strategies is essential to reaching the greatest number of potential customers for your HVAC business. Your company can also utilize digital marketing to turn one-time customers into repeat customers, increasing your profits.
Our 11 HVAC Digital Marketing Tips to Get Repeat Customers
1. Use Marketing Software to Communicate with Past Customers
Customers are often more likely to schedule services with businesses they have previously worked with than to hire a new company every time they need an HVAC service. However, if a customer only needs your services once every few years, they may forget your company name or lose any loyalty they might otherwise feel toward your business.
Weave, an automated marketing software platform, allows you to implement communication strategies to stay in touch with past customers. For example, you can send an auto text to customers who have not scheduled an appointment in a while, reminding them of potential HVAC maintenance needs and encouraging them to hire your business again.
2. Use Automated Software Rather Than an Agency
Many HVAC business owners believe that they must work with a digital marketing agency to implement the necessary strategies to grow their businesses. However, hiring an agency can be expensive and may include more services than you actually need.
One way to receive similar digital marketing solutions without hiring an agency is to utilize automated marketing software. Marketing software allows you to implement many of the same marketing strategies that an agency would use through automatic processes, such as auto texts, email campaigns, and review management.
It’s so much easier to keep in contact with {clients}, keep them updated, and coordinate if they are running late or need to reschedule. As a busy office, time is essential for us, and we have so much more time to build relationships.-Jess Bacci ~ Weave Customer
Weave Helps Improve Customer Contact Rate
3. Encourage Positive Customer Reviews to Promote Your Business
Positive customer reviews are some of the most effective marketing tools you can show to potential customers. Remarkably, 82% of customers read local online reviews when considering whether to hire a business, making reviews vital to your business’s success.
Online reputation management platforms make it easy to encourage and manage your customer reviews. You can use the software to send auto texts inviting customers to leave reviews after their HVAC service appointments. Depending on your preferences, you can choose to send one text or several texts over the weeks following their appointments.
4. Address Negative Reviews to Improve Retention
Along with using positive customer reviews to market your business, you can also take advantage of any negative reviews that customers leave by showcasing your care and commitment through your response. 57% of customers will only schedule an appointment if your company has a rating of four stars or higher on local review sites.
Responding to negative customer reviews with compassion is crucial to show that your HVAC business cares about quality workmanship and customer satisfaction. However, without a review management system, you may never know when customers leave less-than-satisfactory reviews.
You can use online reputation management software to stay in the know about new customer reviews and respond accordingly. Software can send you notifications every time your business receives a review, allowing you to contact any customers who left negative reviews and address their concerns.
Crafting a public response to negative reviews can help change those customers’ opinions of your business, encouraging them to hire you again. Your response can also act as a digital marketing tool to show potential customers your high level of engagement and dedication.
5. Implement Email Marketing Strategies
- Email marketing is a form of digital marketing that utilizes email communication to:
- Reach out to customers
- Remind them about appointments
- Encourage them to leave reviews
- Demonstrate your commitment to their satisfaction
Many HVAC businesses neglect email marketing in the interest of time. Manually sending emails to every customer and potential customer can be time-consuming. However, with digital marketing and reputation management software, you can automate the email marketing process, making it easy for you to craft personalized emails and send them to customers automatically.
You don’t need to be a writer, graphic designer, or marketing expert to utilize email marketing to your advantage. The program offers pre-written email templates and free images that you can use to streamline your email writing process and reach customers faster.
6. Take Advantage of Budget-Friendly Marketing Solutions
Many local businesses choose to avoid digital marketing because they believe it will exceed their budget. However, many budget-friendly digital marketing solutions exist that your company can use to improve customer retention.
Incorporating an all-in-one scheduling and retention system into your digital marketing strategy is an excellent way to market your business without breaking the bank.
Weave is affordable and contract-free, allowing you to stop using the marketing solution at any time. However, most of our clients find that the returns they produce through our software pay off in the long run.
7. Simplify Online Scheduling
In this day and age, most customers visit a company’s website to learn more information before scheduling a service. As a result, your potential customers probably visit your HVAC business’s website to learn about the services you offer, read previous customer reviews, and see if you have expertise in the field.
One way to reel customers in while they are visiting your site is to offer online customer scheduling. Customers who are considering hiring your business for their HVAC needs will be more likely to schedule if they have a quick, easy way to do so through the website.
Weave offers HVAC scheduling software that can allow your customers to choose time slots and create appointments with your team right from your website. The Weave team can help you implement this software within your business to streamline your customer scheduling and fill up your available time slots more strategically.
8. Send Automated, Personalized Messages to New and Old Customers
Another way to improve customer retention through digital marketing is to utilize digital software to send messages to customers. You can automate text messages to your customers under a variety of circumstances.
For example, let’s say you want to send a text message to every customer exactly one week after their HVAC service appointment to check in about their HVAC system’s performance. You can set up your software to send these automatic messages using personalized language for each customer.
Some software options will analyze their responses and send another automated message that sounds like it is coming from a member of your team.
9. Use Analytics to Your Advantage
When you hear the phrase “customer analytics,” you may picture complex numbers and statistics that your business does not have time to review. However, analytics can give you valuable insight into your customer base and help you make strategic decisions for your HVAC business.
Digital marketing software makes it easy to view analytics about your customers and respond accordingly to improve retention. You can see data about which customers haven’t communicated with your business in a while, allowing you to take action to turn those customers into repeat customers.
You can also view customer demographics through your software, allowing you to analyze what types of customers typically hire your company. You can use this information to expand your business’s reach and turn your one-time customers into repeats.
10. Automate Digital Marketing Processes as Much as Possible
As an HVAC business owner, you probably have a busy schedule every day. Implementing digital marketing strategies may not be a priority because of the amount of time you dedicate to other daily tasks.
If you simply do not have the time to focus on marketing strategies, you can take advantage of automatic marketing processes to remove much of the manual labor from getting repeat customers. Automating these processes saves you time, allowing you to focus on your business and the services you offer to clients.
Automation also ensures consistency and precision throughout your customer communications. Instead of needing to reach each customer by sending individual emails and texts, you can rely on your automation software to communicate with every customer exactly when you tell it to.
11. Use Trustworthy Software to Take the Digital Marketing Burden Off Your Shoulders
Weave offers a reliable, affordable solution to marketing your HVAC business in the digital world. You can rely on our digital marketing and automation products to provide the precise marketing strategies your business needs to keep customers coming back to your company for all of their HVAC services.
How Can I Easily Promote My HVAC Business (Without Paying an Agency)?
When starting a digital marketing campaign from scratch or revamping your existing strategy, you don’t need to pay a marketing agency to do the work for you. When you use an all-in-one, digital marketing and online reputation management software like Weave, you don’t need a marketing degree to promote your HVAC business.
At Weave, we strive to simplify and automate your business’s processes to allow you to focus on what you do best: HVAC. Our suite of business products allows you to stay in contact with customers through email and texts, manage your online reputation by responding to negative reviews, and use analytics to craft a targeted marketing strategy that yields real results.
Request a demo of our products today.
