HVAC Marketing – 5 Tips To Use Website Blog Posts & Get Your Voice Heard
By Michael Haines – Founder of ACDirect.com
For HVAC marketing contractors like us, the techniques we use to promote our business are a big part of success.
It can be a big investment of time. Many articles, like the one I wrote just yesterday, take me over 2 hours to write.
By now I think we all understand how important reaching our customers and building authority can be. Blog posts that are informative and insightful not only build traffic, they position you as the premier HVAC authority and add tremendous credibility to your expert postings.
Trust and credibility do more to build your business than any promotional efforts you could ever undertake.
It is the #1 reason people decide to trust you and your business and share your content with others.
This is true for all of the contractor trades including roofing contractors, HVAC, plumbing contractors, electricians, etc. Whether you realize it or not, consistent blogging is a critical aspect of your online content marketing strategy.
5 benefits blogging provides to your business:
Drive qualified visitors to your website
Improve your SEO and search engine placement
Establish your brand as an undisputed thought leader
Develop relationships and trust with your customer
Wisely position your brand and offers to qualified customers
1. Drive qualified traffic to your website:
Your HVAC blog provides a unique pathway to speak to customers and help engage them in ways that are otherwise impossible. Blogging allows you to provide relevant content that helps customers research their problems and your solutions.
Google places huge emphasis on consistent engagement and current content when determining where to position your website and blog posts. Publish your website blogs on authority sites such as Outbrain and Stumbleupon.com for valuable backlinks and traffic to your blogs.
Engage your blog as the primary foundation for all of your social media platforms.
Hopefully your website is on the social sites, like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or many others. Each time you publish a new blog, place it on your social sites with backlinks to the article.
Provide your social followers with compelling, well written content and many will click through to your website.
Additionally, post inbound links directly from your blog articles to specific pages that support the blog message. If your blog post is about the keyword “furnace repair”, when that keyword appears within the article, turn that specific keyword into a link that drives the visitor directly to your furnace repair website or landing page.
2. Improve your SEO and search engine placement
Google’s latest algorithms place a huge emphasis on how often your website is updated with fresh and relevant content. Consistent blogging is proven to improve your traffic and authority with Google.
Improved rankings will result in additional sales and customers. Keeping your content well crafted and consistent is a major factor that will help you outrank your bigger competitors within the search engine results page.
Publish 1-2 helpful articles each week for best results.
Plan out your keyword selection BEFORE writing your article. Use the Google keyword planner to find the most relevant keywords, topics, and categories that consumers are searching. Confine the subject in each post to one specific consumer need then insert the relevant keywords and related variations when writing your posts.
Include the primary keyword in your article headline and 3-5 times again within the content for longer blogs like this one. The primary keyword I used for this article is “HVAC marketing“.
Planned correctly, your blog posts will quickly rank (sometimes within days) for keyword searches and help increase the number of visitors to your website.
HINT – Go after the lower volume, longer tail keywords that include the primary high value keywords (San Diego furnace repair company) as these are easier to rank for and over time and with enough articles these can drive hundreds or thousands of qualified visitors each month.
The primary keyword (furnace repair) is still present and will begin to rank over time, driving even more traffic, as Google begins to trust your authority.
Frequent and consistent blogging with a singular focus on your customers and their concerns will naturally increase the volume of traffic you receive. Staying focused on the areas of most concern to your prospects via the Google keyword planner will ensure a high volume of eager clients looking for your products and services.
3. Establish your brand as an undisputed thought leader:
Frequent and well-crafted blog posts are the single most effective way to establish you and your company as the undisputed thought leader in your market and trade. Articles that demonstrate your knowledge and resonate within your market will, over time, provide proof of your skills and build authorship within your field.
In the HVAC marketing industry, for example, blog posts that address common concerns your customers experience with repair, maintenance and system replacements will gain the most traction.
Spend time researching the tone and subject matter of your competition’s blog post and make sure yours are the most thoughtful and insightful in your market.
Keep your tone friendly and positive and skip the formal content in favor of a more conversational tone.
Ask yourself and your staff – what are the most common concerns and challenges your customers have? Then, provide helpful solutions. Your prospects will appreciate the free insight and begin to trust you as THE knowledge source for the products and services they want.
Make good use of graphics in your blog posts
Your web visitors expect a visual, multi-media experience from the web, so give it to them. I like to use graphic images that support and reinforce my primary message. Never just place an image for the sake of placing an image. This will dilute your message and distract the reader.
Always used licensed images from sites like Fotolia.com.
You are building trust, too. The more you can keep them engaged and show that you are well-versed in your field, the more likely your consumer will trust you to supply what they need.
Your customers additionally benefit from the learning you provide them.
4. Develop relationships and consumer trust
Blogs are a unique and effective way to establish deep and long lasting connections in a way that has never been possible prior to the web. Prospects may spend a year or more engaging your articles before they actually need you. Some viewers may need you now and call right away.
But rest assured, when they do, you will be at the top of their list. By connecting directly on your website, your clients can establish a relationship on their own terms right from the comfort of their home.
Information builds trust. We all like information so become their source and they will appreciate you as their confidant.
Be sure to quickly respond to comments and interact with your visitors, just as you would on social media. When they have questions or concerns in response to your article, respond to them directly on your website. This provides viewers with more evidence of your involvement and authority.
5. Wisely position your brand and promotional offers to qualified customers
Make the primary purpose of your HVAC marketing blog about trust and relationships first. But let’s face it; the end game is to capture new customers and sales. Your blog can become a source of qualified customers via well placed and creative promotions.
Here are 3 ways to do just that:
1) Encourage visitors to sign up for your blog updates or newsletter if you offer one. At the end of the post insert a call to action, like this:
Like what you see?
Sign up for more updates! It’s FREE!
The entire blog will lead to this one primary action on the visitors part. Simply insert an email signup box with a call to action button that reads “sign up now”. the signup needs to be super simple – just ask them to fill in their name and email, nothing else.
Keep it simple and visitors will be more likely to react.
Sign up for a Constant Contact or Mail Chimp account so these interested prospects are automatically entered into your database. Then keep them engaged via email with each new article you post.
Offer compelling promotional deals once a month to their inbox.
2) Insert a coupon promo at the bottom of roughly half of your blog posts so it doesn’t appear that your only goal is to sell them something. Make the offer compelling and useful. Try a $50 or $75 gift coupon with no minimum purchase requirement.
Your blog posts readers are smart and well-informed so reward yourself with the lifetime value that $50 or $75 will buy you.
3) In addition to placing the signup form at the end of the blog post, place it above the fold toward the top of the page. But this time do it a little differently. Reward signups with your best and most compelling blog post as a download. This download must be compelling and interesting to viewers.
It will need to be at least 1500 words or more to ensure it provides valuable information and is worth their time and effort.
The call to action within this signup form will be the single most important determining factor in how often it gets downloaded. Make a contrasting and attractive “submit” button but instead of using the word “submit” write a compelling call to action.
Something like this:
4 Simple Checks Any Homeowner Can Make Before Calling for A/C Repair
Any one of these could save you hundreds!
Then insert a vibrant and colorful “Download Now!” button just under your text. Keep it short and simple.
This takes a little effort on your part but done properly it is very powerful. The download will outline 4 simple checks they should complete at the first sign of trouble, including checking for tripped breakers, dislodged or clogged filter, etc.
Don’t disappoint them with some brief and unfulfilling article.
Placement and appearance will have a huge impact on signups so make sure you get it right. These email addresses become golden opportunities to create revenue as they are qualified homeowners interested in your products and services.
Many of these prospects will quickly become paying clients.
Remember, they signed up because they trust you and will need your service now or in the near future. Staying in touch each week is as easy as pushing a button when your email account is properly structured.
To make the most of your HVAC marketing efforts, send weekly blog posts and confine special offers to about once a month. Stay low-key and to the point. The value of your offer must speak for itself.
This article is written by Michael Haines, the founder of AC Direct, the oldest and most visited HVAC e-commerce site in the country. Michael has generated over $40,000,000 in HVAC revenue using web based marketing from this and other sites, including local service and installation sites.
His websites have generated over 17,000,000 visitors and were featured in the INC 5000 list of fastest growing companies in America, 2 years in a row.
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407-459-8804 or email info@TripleYourClicks.com.com
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