The HVAC Marketing Plan: Recent Episodes

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In this episode of the HVAC Marketing Plan Podcast we hear from Nolen Walker as he explains his method for maintaining good google reviews

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Don't waste your time and resources! Nolen Walker speaks on some Google updates, and some common pitfalls to avoid.

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Dominate your market, no matter the size! Nolen Walker speaks on ways you can boost your rural business.

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Every HVAC contractor has to decide on their business model at some point. For example, do you want to be a tech or a boss? An HVAC technician is an honest way to make a living but being a boss affords you more lifetime earnings, a better lifestyle, and long-term financial security, with the right blueprint.

In today’s HVAC Marketing Plan Podcast episode, Nolen and Jason discuss HVAC business Model 101: Be a Tech or Be a Boss.

Choosing Your HVAC Business ModelLiving gig to gig adds stress to your business and prevents you from generating sustainable revenue. While you can still get by as an HVAC technician, your business value fails to increase over time. The intelligent choice is to build your HVAC business into a credible and prosperous brand.

Job to Job ModelThe job-to-job model keeps your company in the gig economy, restricting sustainable income. OF course, you can still make a living with this model, but is it good? When competitors generate more consistent leads from their website, they will lower their cost per acquisition while you pay a premium to buy leads from 3rd parties.

Boss ModelThe boss business model involves creating an HVAC company brand that generates leads from your branded online entities. For example, getting leads from your website with SEO will lower your cost per lead. Similarly, acquiring leads from your Google Business Profile will keep customers coming back next time they need an HVAC repair.

How To Create an HVAC Company BrandIf you choose boss mode as your HVAC business model, you have to create a brand. But how can an HVAC contractor create a brand in 2022? It’s not as difficult as you might think. Common misconceptions about brand building are that you need dozens of employees, trucks, and locations.

You can have one or two additional employees and still create a brand. Why? Because branding is really about marketing and presentation. If you establish your presence on Google, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, people will engage. You’ll no longer need to buy HVAC leads from 3rd party companies with a more prominent brand than you.

Digital MarketingThe first step is investing in HVAC marketing for your business. You want to appear at the top of local search results for HVAC-related queries. You’ll notice that companies like Yelp and HomeAdvisor usually rank #1 for these kinds of keywords. So you have to outrank them with your website.

Reputation ManagementEven if you rank #1 on Google, people will still vet your company. Before contacting your business, they will look for reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, and Better Business Bureau. With this in mind, it’s critical to accumulate as many reviews as possible and respond to testimonials. It also helps to showcase your reviews on your website with API plugins.

PersonalizationNameless, faceless companies fail to establish memorable brands. For your HVAC company to enjoy success, you must personalize your marketing campaign. For example, post images of yourself, your team, and your trucks on your website homepage and Google Business Profile. Consumers will engage with brands they can match with a name and face.

Help With Your HVAC Business ModelIf you need help with your HVAC business model in 2022, reach out to HVAC Webmasters. You can also consume our free podcasts from the HVAC Marketing Plan. Aside from our podcasts, YouTube videos, and free resources, we also provide valuable information in our website blog posts. You can learn a great deal about HVAC marketing on our platforms.

The post HVAC Business Model 101: Be a Tech or Be a Boss (Podcast) appeared first on HVAC Webmasters.

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HVAC companies often read about experts who suggest what they should do to improve their online marketing. But how often do contractors hear about things they shouldn’t do? HVAC Webmasters discusses marketing tactics that hurt your company in today’s podcast episode.

1) GMB-Only Marketing Puzzle piece marketing is a bad idea regardless of which element on which it focuses. Unfortunately, in 2022, the most common misstep is only focusing on Google My Business. An online presence is like a puzzle, and your GMB listing is only one piece. It’s impossible to compete with companies that cover all their bases while only incorporating one marketing aspect.

We understand your logic, though. Investing in GMB is generally a good idea. After all, ranking your listing is free and doesn’t require an agency or web designer to get going. However, you’ll quickly learn that only optimizing your GMB listing won’t get you to rank, even locally. The local algorithm is separate from the regular one, but it still looks at your website and web content when ranking your business listing.

Companies that publish a website and attach it to their GMB listing will outrank you on Google Maps most of the time. This is because Google Maps pulls content from these websites to inform their relevance and prominence ranking factors. They even use certain web pages to include local justifications, enhancing a Google My Business listing. So the bottom line is simple, only doing GMB won’t get your HVAC company good results in 2022.

2) Blogging Blog posts were once the most popular marketing strategy for many local businesses. However, with more and more blogs getting published each day, search engines have experienced oversaturation in most industries. For example, how many HVAC companies can write 500-word blog posts about the most common air conditioning problems? As a result, Google’s new trend is to ignore these low-quality posts and focus on content users want.

It’s not to say that Google won’t rank blog posts — they will as long as you are willing to write long-form posts that use statistical information and provide expert opinions from qualified sources. However, the truth is that most HVAC companies hire a content writer to regurgitate existing posts from other platforms. The days of ranking these types of posts on page one are gone, and the contractors must decide. Either dedicate your time to writing extremely in-depth posts or stop blogging altogether.

If you choose to give up blogging for good, there are ways to produce other types of high-quality content. For example, you can create dynamic service pages that update with new content each time you perform a job in the field. A software solution like DataPins will automate such updates and insert schema markups on each of your service pages. When customers leave reviews for each job, these will show up on the page too.

3) Throwing Money at an Agency (Without Self-Branding) There was a time when throwing all your money at an SEO agency could get you customers without any additional work. Those days are over in 2022. Every high-ranking heating and cooling company expands brand awareness by performing day-to-day promotional tasks, for example, networking with other companies, keeping tabs on your social media accounts, and asking customers for reviews in person.

It’s a tough pill to swallow for some contractors who believe marketers should promote your brand without any company input. However, the unfortunate truth is that Google is moving away from such a dynamic. For example, the EAT concept relies on expertise, trust, and authority to distinguish relevant websites from those consumers should NOT trust. You can only establish these qualities by showcasing your actual work and fundamental knowledge of your industry.

Unfortunately, most agencies will take your money without asking these types of questions, even though they know it won’t produce results. If you are unwilling to commit to branding your own HVAC company in 2022, there’s no point in investing much money in an agency. Instead, you should probably go for a cheap SEO company that charges a meager monthly fee. Since your results won’t be outstanding, regardless, you can get what you pay for instead of blowing extra funds on false promises.

The post HVAC Marketing Strategies That Do NOT Work in 2022 (Podcast) appeared first on HVAC Webmasters.

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Getting hosed by HVAC marketing agencies has become commonplace in 2020. There are so many scam artists in the digital marketing industry who promise things like getting into the Local Map 3-Pack. Unfortunately, promises in SEO are often intentional lies from the marketer to the consumer (the HVAC contractor, in this case). Having spoken with thousands of HVAC companies about their marketing experiences, many of them want to understand one simple thing: how to NOT get screwed by marketing agencies. The HVAC Marketing Plan podcast has decided to tackle this subject in today’s episode, and we hope you learn from it and apply it next time.

Don’t Let Them Ruin Your GMB One tactic used by hack agencies is to ruin your Google My Business listing by attaching a separate website to it. These agencies will promise you a ranking within the Local Map 3-Pack and gain control of your business listing. They distort your online credibility by putting up a new website that is cheaply built and unprofessional. Not only do they not help your GMB rank in the 3-pack, but they hurt your overall web presence. The map rankings are based on relevance, prominence, and proximity, and research shows that stronger websites with good links help the listing rank … not cheap websites. So if any HVAC marketing agency tries this, shut them down ASAP.

Don’t Trust Bulk SEO Packages If we’ve learned one thing from our HVAC clients, it’s that bulk SEO packages are not to be trusted. An agency that handles PPC, social media, web design and SEO is going to be horrible at SEO nine times out of ten. There’s a good reason for this too. It’s because most of these agencies put SEO on the back burner. Their real money is made through PPC campaigns which can be easily manipulated. For example, many PPC campaigns encourage HVAC companies to spend money on terms that are irrelevant to their business. As the campaign costs pile up, the quality of your web presence decreases. All of this time ignoring SEO only hurts your brand’s long-term trajectory. So if you want SEO, get it from somewhere like HVAC Webmasters, where we actually care about your livelihood and not just screwing you out of money.

Don’t Screw Yourself, Either Because of the frequency in which agencies overcharge consumers, there’s a tendency to go too far in the other direction. An example of this is HVAC companies who want to pay $99 dollars for digital marketing and SEO. That’s far too little to help you rank on any search engine or generate any kind of quality HVAC leads. To be fair to yourself and your commitment to business growth, you need to spend between $600-$1,000 per month. The only thing $99 dollars will get you is a glorified hosting fee which ends up as a waste of time and money. Instead, focus on affordable SEO services that actually produce tangible results. You want leads, you want business.

The “Organic SEO” Takes Too Long Myth Another myth in the SEO industry is that organic SEO takes too long. It no longer takes a full year to optimize your website online. In fact, if you do everything right, you can be optimized in less than 6 months, and maybe even within 3 months. People use this antiquated idea to encourage you to drain your bank account on PPC and Facebook ads. While those things can work if they are properly executed, they are nowhere near the ROI of SEO. Of course, it only matters if HVAC companies take SEO seriously by investing in reputation management and making a real effort to get reviews. The other piece of this is branding which is something every HVAC contractor should be taking seriously in 2020 and in the foreseeable future. For more tips about HVAC Marketing check out our other podcast episodes for free.

The post How Not To Get Screwed By HVAC Marketing Agencies appeared first on HVAC Webmasters.

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As an HVAC contractor, you probably depend a lot on word of mouth referrals and recommendations. But in a time when social distancing is a must and people are struggling to communicate, this can be a challenge for your business. Nonetheless, the current pandemic is an excellent opportunity to show your customers that your business is of value.

One of the most effective ways to do that is to maintain a high level of customer service in these trying times. If you are able to give your customers great service and friendly interactions at this time, your business will reap the benefits both now and in the future. Now is the time to strike while the iron is hot so to speak because many businesses aren’t focusing on customer service right now. Owners have their minds on other things. But if you can be the HVAC contractor that didn’t forget about delivering an awesome customer experience during COVID-19, you will have won a loyal customer.

In today’s post, we will be talking about the importance of customer service during this time as well as giving you some customer service tips that apply specifically to the current crisis. Still, it is important to realize that all the following tips revolve around thinking about the customer. And thinking about your customer is a practice that will serve you well no matter what is happening in the world.

If at any time you would like to speak to an HVAC marketing expert, please feel free to contact us here at HVAC Webmasters. But for now, let’s discuss some customer service tips to remember.

Communicate Clearly Communication is at a premium now that social distancing and quarantines are the norms. It is important that you let your customers know that you can still service all their HVAC needs, first and foremost. Secondly, it is crucial that you communicate with your clients how you intend to keep them safe even as you are in their homes or businesses working on their HVAC systems. You can accomplish both these feats simply by updating your social media pages and website. Outline the preventative measures you are taking against the spread of COVID-19.

You can also send an email newsletter to your clients, reminding them that you are still available to service them and that you will observe the recommended 6-foot distancing suggestion, wear protective face and hand coverings and limit face-to-face interactions to only what is absolutely necessary. You can also emphasize these points anytime a potential customer calls you and inquires about your services.

Understand Your Unique Position As an HVAC contractor, even you may not be aware of the unique position you are in. But the fact is that HVAC services can actually help to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Running a home or commercial HVAC system can actually stymie the spread of the virus within a building.

This is a bit of information that you can leverage to help your customers. Again, you can use email newsletter campaigns or your social media pages to let people know that you can install filters for their heaters and air conditioners to help stop the proliferation of COVID-19. Let them know that they shouldn’t be afraid to run their HVAC systems and that you can help them if their systems have been hindered in any way.

The HVAC trade is in a unique position compared to other trades in this sense so let your customers know that you are there for them to provide this essential service.

Prioritize Safety Gear The precautions you are taking off the clock (face masks, gloves, etc.) should be the same precautions you take when you are on the job site. This is another important customer service tips to remember. It is important for safety first and foremost, but when your customers see that you actually value their health and safety, that will stand out to them.

Be sure that you and your technicians are equipped with masks and gloves at all times on the job. This is the best way to stay healthy when you have to interact with people and it makes customers feel more secure. And if they feel secure with you, they are more likely ot enlist your services in the future.

Expand Communications A lot of times, estimates are given in person because a customer wants you to see with your own eyes and hear with your own ears what is going on with their HVAC systems. But in-person interaction isn’t the only way to get on the same page as your customer.

Now more than ever, it is important to familiarize yourself with and utilize video chat applications like Zoom, FaceTime, WhatsApp and others. By opening this channel of communication with your customers, you are telling them that you A) value their health and safety and B) are adapting to the crisis to meet their HVAC needs.

Plus, it is a great way for people to get that face-to-face rapport with you without risking infection of any kind. While it may not be perfect, this form of virtual communication will at least show your customers that you are doing your best to service their HVAC needs during a difficult time.

Stay Positive Throughout all this confusion and uncertainty, it is important to stay positive and focused. The last thing a customer wants is a visibly stressed out and pessimistic person to come into their home or business and work on their HVAC system. They will not call you back again if you have a dour attitude.

People need to be uplifted right now. They need positivity. So be the HVAC contractor that provides them that. It will help you too.

With a bit of persistence and diligence with these and other customer service tips, your business will get to the light at the end of the tunnel. For more information, marketing help, and customer service tips, contact us here at HVAC Webmasters.

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Google considers a wide range of information when creating the search results you see online. For Local Map rankings in particular, Google looks at thousands of businesses within a service area prior to selecting only three for the Map Pack results. Not all HVAC companies are legit but many are trying to rank anyway. One of the most effective ways to prove your worth as a company is to provide social proof, AKA evidence of actual work.

Both Customers and Search Engines Value Social Proof

Among the factors, Google considers as evidence are custom websites, reviews, and proper SEO elements. In this podcast, we are going to speak on an innovative form of social proof that can change the landscape of local SEO as we know it, and produce qualified HVAC leads for contractors. What is this we speak of? Check-ins.

What HVAC Contractors Should Know About Check-ins

• Companies who use check-ins regularly have a decided advantage over those who use them sparingly
• Reviews are still the #1 source of social proof but check-ins enhance their validity and contribute significantly to SEO ranking
• Employees and other team members can receive their own login information to perform check-ins on their own

How To Define a Check-in Check-ins are a form of user-generated content that publishes your geolocation along with your performed service.

Think about your city on Google Maps. Lots of other businesses and residential homes span across the area. You may even notice the exact address of your main office (or home). But what you don’t see, and more importantly; what Google doesn’t see, is which of the homes or business buildings you repaired air ducts, air conditioners, and furnaces for.

As we remind many professionals over the years, Google is not omniscient. It only knows what people tell it. In fact, the search engine only works as well as it does because hundreds of millions of people continually upload information for it to dig into.

Google can only produce information based on the data it can see, record, and distribute. By providing Google with check-ins, you give them the source they need to improve rankings. Check-in technology is an asset to Google and to you as a business owner.

Advantages of Using Check-ins for HVAC Check-ins increase rankings, attract qualified leads and improve conversion rates. In essence, check-in technology provides every core need for the HVAC contractor who markets their services online.

Although SEO is definitely a copycat industry, so few contractors have dipped their toes into the world of check-ins, simply because they don’t know that they exist. This lack of industry knowledge provides a great opportunity for HVAC companies who are ahead of the curve. When Google can verify detailed information about your company’s worksite performances they can highlight your service over other competitors.

In our own case studies, we’ve seen check-ins prove heavily effective in moving businesses into Google’s Local 3-Pack. Contractors are always in the market for qualified leads, especially if they have to do very little work to acquire them. With check-in technology, all it takes is a simple form submission and you are benefiting your SEO like never before.

Visualizing HVAC Check-ins Once a job is completed, take out your mobile phone and grab a picture of the freshly repaired AC unit or furnace. From there you visit your check-in dashboard and fill out the job-site check-in form. Finally, you click “check-in” and the process is done. You can just sit back and enjoy what that simple sequence of events is going to do for your SEO and lead generation.

Uploading check-ins to your company website is the most effective way to boost organic rankings. Regular updates allow for Google to crawl new information regularly and ensure your crawl schedule is frequent. Combine this with the embedded geolocation data from your job site check-ins and you are light years ahead of many competitor websites in terms of local SEO.

What Else You Need to Know Check-ins should be frequent and accurate in order to maximize its value. The more map markers you have across your service area, the more prospective customers you will attract. HVAC companies must check-in whenever they do a job in order to take their SEO to the next level in 2020. While the extra 2-5 minutes it takes to check-in may take some getting used to, the business benefits will make you want to do it every time.

Think about your map markers as a board game against other competitors. As you fill out your map, you gain a major head start on any company that will start check-ins in 6 months to a year. You are already way ahead of them.

If possible, choose a check-in solution that lets you upload fresh pictures on to your website. Customers and Google alike appreciate fresh images, and it looks nice on your site. All you have to do consistently snag photos at the end of each job. Just imagine your clients seeing projects closely related to their plumbing needs as they browse through your website!

Check-ins are nice because of map markers and geolaction but original photos really take them to the next level, especially for conversion rate optimization. Every check-in should include a photo taken by you or the job-site employee which showcases the job you did on the AC unit, furnace, etc. As visitors browse through your jobs, they can really get a feel for your work.

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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.

Table of Contents

• How to Make a Clean Start
  • Tip #1: Stay Frugal
• Equipment
• Hiring
• DIY
  • Tip #2: Zealously Guard Customer Care
  • Tip #3: Invest in Support Services
• Resources From HVAC Webmasters

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.

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:

• Professional search marketing
• Tax assistance
• Legal advice
• Insurance
• Invoice software

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.

Resources From HVAC Webmasters Related Articles and Podcasts
– True Client Stories: Almost Great HVAC Marketing (Podcast)
– Understanding Your HVAC Brand Online (Podcast)
– Should You Halt SEO During Slow Seasons? (Podcast)
– HVAC Case Study #1: Rocky HVAC (Article)

Helpful Webmasters Services
– HVAC Internet Marketing
– HVAC Brand Development

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Does it feel like your digital marketing company is trying to get away with something shady? Perhaps your marketing expenses seem to steadily climb without generating consistent leads. Hundreds, if not thousands of heating and cooling professionals are going through the exact same story. The only question is:

How will your story end?

In today’s HVAC Webmasters podcast, Jason and Nolen share some red flags that could shed some light on your marketing company’s sketchy practices. If you spot any of these tactics, it might be time to start shopping for a new marketing agency. Look for these following signs…

SEO for HVAC Pros: Red Flags

• Blackbox pricing covering up where your ad money goes
• Sudden bumps in results immediately after you call to complain
• No visible evidence that your website has changed
• 3rd party expense reporting not directly from Google

3 Signs You’re Getting Cheated Marketing money is an amazing thing. On one hand, you can invest it into the perfectly tuned advertising campaign and earn a double return on your money! On the other hand, you can trust it to an enthusiastic management team, only to see it slowly disappear with little reward.

Sadly, the latter story is one we hear all the time from HVAC professionals around the country. Unless you have the time, energy, and experience needed to execute your own marketing plan however, you’ll probably have to find a dependable company to handle it for you. You may have already chosen a team, and find yourself wondering if they really have your interests at heart.

The easiest way to spot a shady firm is to look for these three red flags:

• Blackbox pricing structure
• Inconsistent payoffs
• Lack of visible change in your website

Does Your Reporting Come Directly From Google, or a Source Recommended By Your Marketer? Red Flag #1: Blackbox Pricing Money is the ultimate test of character. You can tell a lot about a company by how willing they are to share their spending habits! In the same way, you can quickly get a feel for a marketing firm through their pricing structure.

If we could have our way, every digital marketing firm would have to bill month to month. That’s because monthly billing gives HVAC contractors the ability to examine results and judge whether their investment is paying off. It’s a challenging code to operate by (for a marketing business), but it motivates us to continually produce results!

Bundle Beware

Annual Bundle Deals On the other side lies annual contracts. Annual billing (or even longer term contracts) takes away that flexibility from the client contractor and gives it to the marketing professional. Blackbox pricing further complicates the picture by preventing heating and cooling professions from seeing how their money is spent.

Say you purchase an annual service package with website design, SEO, GMB, and PPC. The company quickly puts up a basic website, PPC campaigns start up, and results start coming in. Can you actually tell how much of your package budget was spent on each segment? That brings us to our next concern: reporting.

Reporting

3rd Party Reporting When you invest money in Google Ads, your reporting should only come from one source. Can you guess where? Google Ads. Handing the crucial task of reporting over to anyone besides Google, you’re asking for trouble.

Time and time again, we’ve heard of marketing firms (especially PPC-only companies) bumping click price above the actual cost, then pocketing the difference. That’s in addition to the money you’ve already paid them to manage your campaigns. If a client complains, the firm can easily manipulate the results.

Red Flag #2: Inconsistent Results Have you ever called into your marketing firm and complained about lack of results, only to see a sudden uptick in leads? As consumers, we like to believe that our phone call is the driving force behind the change. It also makes it feel like we have a voice in the management of our investment.

In reality, it means that your marketing company had the power the entire time to affect those results, but didn’t until you called.

Inconsistent results in your lead generation can indicate shady practices in ad spending. If your leads started slowing down a couple months after your phone call, it’s very likely your PPC management team has reduced the amount of budget going into the campaigns. You could know this for certain, if you had access to the Google Ads account or the direct expense reports. But your marketer’s third party reporting company (if there is a third party at all) makes sure that you can’t know for certain.

Regular Blogging is Extremely Helpful For SEO. Does Your Marketing Team Provide It? Red Flag #3: No Visible Change Blackbox pricing, shady reporting, and inconsistent results are all frustrating practices. What’s even more alarming is a complete lack of action in non-PPC related activities. There’s a reason why bundled marketing packages show mixed, but ultimately short-term results.

Time and time again, budget for website optimization gets sacrificed so that more money goes to PPC, which means more money can get siphoned out.

If you’ve seen very little or no change in your website design over the past few months (assuming you’ve paid for it), ask why. There’s no reason why a marketing firm couldn’t produce some timely website progress unless they simply didn’t care about it. We’ve seen a business left struggling to survive because their marketing firm never took the time to complete and verify their Google My Business account. That’s something that anyone can do.

Moving Forward At HVAC Webmasters, we know the frustration and anger that comes with getting ripped off by a shady marketing firm. That’s why we started our business in the first place, to provide dependable (results-driven) service that earns your investment every month. And yes, we bill month to month.

If you’d like to see the difference we can make for your HVAC company, give us a call at (800) 353-3409!

Other Resources From HVAC Webmasters Related Articles and Podcasts
– Streamlined SEO for HVAC Contractors: Tips and Traps (Article)
– Should You Halt SEO During Slow Seasons? | Search Trends (Podcast)
– You Don’t Have to Be Perfect to Win at HVAC SEO (Podcast)

Helpful Services From Our Team
– HVAC Website Design
– HVAC Local Search Marketing
– PPC Advertising for HVAC Companies

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The world of search marketing shifts and sways all the time. Even seasoned professionals work hard to keep up to date on the latest Google algorithm updates and industry strategies. That’s why our team invests the time, money, and energy to attend key conferences around the country.

In our latest podcast, Nolen and Jason share some of the insights they accumulated from their latest conference adventures! If you’ve struggled to cultivate your online brand this year, be sure to listen in for some HVAC SEO tips.

Key Facts on SEO for HVAC Professionals

• GMB plays a more active role now, allowing people to contact your business directly via messaging, phone, or Q&A entries.
• SSL Certificates, custom code base, and mobile-ready design should be considered basics, but not every company provides these attributes.
• Without a GMB account claimed and verified, it’s almost impossible to show up properly for local maps listings.

New Light on GMB One of the most noticeable trends discussed these days is the rising prominence of GMB and the Knowledge Graph. Google My Business (GMB) is a free listing service that allows companies to show up in local searches. Businesses simply need to claim their free listing, provide their basic operational information, and verify their address with Google.

Once the account is active, Google generates a Knowledge Graph with contact information, hours of operation, and uploaded photos for your company.

Notice the buttons in the middle of the screenshot above. These enable streamlined communication with potential customers around the area. Not only can they easily call your business (even from the road), they can also request quotes via the messaging system. GMB creates high-value prospects without ever needing to send to your website.

Optimization for GMB As the capabilities grow for your Google My Business account, so does the responsibility of ensuring your listing stays accurate and up to date. We’ve seen too many businesses lose valuable leads over the years because of discrepancies in their GMB listings. In fact, we witnessed one outside company (a roofing contractor) lose over $2 million revenue in a single year because of a suspended listing.

It’s more important than ever to keep your account optimized. How can your business accomplish this?

Listing Settings

Initial Listing Setup * Make sure you’ve gone through the official verification process. * Use the same address (including abbreviations) for all other listings. * Update your GMB when you start offering new services. * Use your home address only if you don’t have an official office. * Answer as many GMB questions about your operations as possible.

Ongoing Activities

Ongoing Activities Good for HVAC SEO * Answer prospect questions in the Q&A section. * Create a short GMB post every week with new content or promotions. * Add team photos, interior views, exteriors shots, and job site pics. * Continue asking for reviews!

Big No-Nos

Bad SEO for HVAC Professionals * Don’t try to mess with other HVAC company websites! * Do not create fake locations to try to expand your service area. * Do not offer any sort of incentives or discounts for client reviews. * Do not get rid of your website domain (barring legal reasons). * Do not leave your GMB vacant after verifying it.

Keyword Strategy & HVAC SEO Back in the day keyword optimization simply involved using a particular phrase three times for every 100 words. Unfortunately, this strategy created gobbity-gook messes that no one enjoyed reading. Nowadays, the Google Search algorithm does a much better job comprehending the meaning behind everyday speech. This allows the search giant to reward high quality content with the best rankings.

Keyword strategy plays a foundational role in SEO for HVAC company websites, but it also continues to slowly shift every year.

SEO conferences continue to speak what we already instinctively know: keyword diversity and natural writing produce the strongest results. That means incorporating synonyms and other phrases related to your primary keywords as your produce new content. Whether you’re re-writing a service page for the fifth time, or you’re constructing the latest guide for maintaining a home AC unit, keyword diversity makes for better reading and ranking.

These Related Search Terms Add More Keyword Listings for Your Website.

If you aren’t sure which phrases best match keyword, try searching it in Google and looking at the blue phrases at the very bottom of the page. You can also try out helpful keyword tools, such as Answer the Public.

Looking for Stronger Search Results? At HVAC Webmasters, we specialize in creating search-optimized websites for higher rankings and better leads. If you’ve been stuck with expensive lead channels or simply aren’t seeing the local search results you want, our team is here to help! Call (800) 353-3409 and get a free consultation for your HVAC SEO.

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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!

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.

The Lingo

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.

Exact Claims

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.

Annual Contracts

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.

Other Resources From HVAC Webmasters Podcasts and Articles
– HVAC Marketing on the Cheap (Podcast)
– You Don’t Have to Be Perfect to Win at HVAC SEO (Podcast)
– Streamlining SEO for HVAC Contractors: Tips and Traps (Article)

Related Services
– HVAC Website Design
– HVAC Brand Development
– HVAC Blogging Services

The post True Client Stories: Almost Great HVAC Marketing appeared first on HVAC Webmasters.

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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!

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.

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

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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.

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.

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 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).

Citations

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.

Domain Name

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.

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.

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?

New Content

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!

Gather Reviews

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.

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