During any given time only 2% of the population has a need for your service. So, the question then becomes……how do I make sure they will call me? We all know how competitive this space is, so my goal is to give you some useful tips that both business owners and territory managers can use to help grow their business.
1. Clear Path to Success:
No matter what form of media the dealer is using to advertise, it is important to have a clear and unified plan on where to direct the potential customer. Many times I see and hear advertising jingles promoting only the business phone number. While it is great to have people calling the hotline, when is the last time you heard a radio or television commercial and stopped what you were doing and wrote down the phone number? Unless maybe you’re J.G. Wentworth who has customers actually remembering their phone number when a need arises, but this may be difficult to achieve. We have found it to be most effective to direct customers to your website. This accomplishes multiple goals for your business. For one, the customer can find your number and call you from your website, and second it generates more traffic to your website which helps to increase your organic ranking on Google. And being on the first page Google today is tremendously important…..There’s an old saying, “The best place to hide a dead body is on the second page of Google”. You can also can market other services to your potential or existing customer. Today’s busy consumer doesn’t have the time to call multiple contractors for the other services you offer. They will be glad to have a “one stop” shop.
2. The Correct Offer:
Construct an offer to cater to your customer. Often times I see advertisements focused on the brand of equipment the contractor sells. And an offer saying “call today for “X” amount off a new system”. While the offer from the manufacturer may be “great” the last thing the average homeowner wants to think about is investing the money on a new system. “Call Today For a Free Diagnostic with Repair” or “After Hours Repair at No Extra Charge” are better examples. Something free always catches people’s attention, it also appeals directly to the customer’s need. They don’t know what’s wrong…..they just want it fixed. Companies can spend huge amounts of dollars on advertising and target all the proper demographics, but if the offer is off the mark so will your ROI.
3. Measuring the Results:
Probably the most difficult yet most important part of growing your HVAC business is measuring the effectiveness of your advertising and marketing efforts. There are a few ways to achieve this, one is by assigning trackable phone numbers to each campaign. But remember, as stated previously most consumers simply grab your number off your website so you have to look at the tracking results with that skew in mind. So another way to measure the effectiveness of a campaign is to use Google analytics to compare your website traffic before and after a major campaign. It is also important to take the weather into account when making the comparison. Our knowledge of the HVAC industry allows us give valuable insights to our clients that help them maintain a competitive advantage against their competition.
What are some ways you have found helpful to measure a campaign’s ROI? If you have any questions or suggestions on another topic for our next post please comment or inbox me.
Dillon Collier
Account Executive
Effective Media Solutions
dillon@myeffectivemedia.com