Technology has completely changed the business world, particularly in the last decade. Consumers not only shop online at an unprecedented rate, but they’re also better informed and more educated than ever before. Did you know that 97% of consumers research products and services online before buying from a local business?
What’s the takeaway?
Essentially, if you’re business (small, large, local, or international) doesn’t have a strong online presence, you won’t be able to keep up with your competitors. It all comes down to your digital marketing strategy.
Not sure where to begin. Keep reading for our in-depth online marketing guide designed to maximize your AC repair company’s leads and sales conversions.
Establish Your Niche and Identify Your Target Market
First and foremost, you need to distinguish yourself from your competitors in the industry. Depending on the size of your town or city, there may be dozens of other HVAC companies in your area. The question is, how will you stand out in the crowd?
To establish your niche, think about what makes you better or different than the other businesses in your industry. Do you have a specialty? Are you geared toward a specific demographic of home or business owners?
Once you’ve established your niche, you can identify your target market. These will be the home and/or business owners who will most likely need, want, and invest in your services.
Defining a target market will help you streamline your overall marketing strategy. You can develop your marketing message based on the demographic of people who will be most receptive to hiring your AC repair company.
Perfect Your Website Design and Optimization
As noted above, consumers looking for products and services in your industry will visit your website to find out more about your company. As such, your website needs to make a good impression. Of course, this includes design, graphics, imagery, colors, and other aesthetics.
However, your website performance is even more important than its appearance in our marketing guide. Your website must load quickly. It must also be intuitive and easy to navigate.
If your website is difficult to use, it will turn consumers away. We’ve become accustomed to speed, convenience, and user-friendliness. If your website doesn’t provide these things, you can’t expect to convert visitors into customers.
Finally, make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices. It must load quickly and be properly formatted for smartphones, tablets, and other mobiles. Over 81% of Americans use smartphones for everything from shopping to checking the news.
Invest in Your Website’s Local SEO
One of the most important marketing tips is learning how to boost your search engine visibility. Search engine optimization is vital for creating an online presence and staying relevant to consumers. Google and other search engines use SEO coding to find relevant products, services, information, and other content based on keyword searches.
When a homeowner in your area searches for “AC repair near me,” your SEO ranking will determine how quickly they find you, assuming if they find you at all. Most people only click on the first few websites that come up in the results. You need to make sure you’re coming up at the top of the list.
There are several things you can do to improve your website’s SEO performance. Here are some suggestions:
• Create a blog for your website full of relevant articles
• Research and implement effective keywords for your niche and industry
• Use local keyword phrasing (nearby, near me, in town, etc.)
• Use internal links leading to blog articles, service pages, contact pages, products pages, etc.
• Use external links leading to credible sites to reference statistics and other important information
• Get backlinks from credible websites (usually accomplished through guest posting)
• Use multiple forms of media on your pages that can be embedded with SEO coding (images, videos, titles, headers, etc.)
Learning how to effectively build SEO into your website requires time and attention. In the beginning, it might be wise to hire an SEO agency to guide you through the process and help you establish better online visibility.
Register Your Website on Local Listing Services
One of the best ways of improving your local visibility is by registering your company with various online listing services. This is one of the easiest steps in our marketing guide.
Registering with these agencies will not only bolster your SEO ranking, but it will also provide quick easy access to consumers looking for your information. They’ll be able to see your hours, your location, your contact info, and more at a glance.
These listing services include Google My Business, the Better Business Bureau, Yelp, the Yellow Pages, Facebook, Thumbtack, Home Advisor, Angie’s List, and more.
Use Content Marketing to Present Yourself as an Authority
Because of technology, the world, in general, has never been more connected. Social media, for example, allows users to be in contact with people from around the world, day or night.
However, despite how connected we are, digital communication can leave us wanting. We begin to feel the lack of human connection. This feeling has been exacerbated by the current pandemic.
You can combat this issue by making your AC repair company feel more human through content marketing. Develop a content marketing strategy designed to connect with consumers on a deeper level. Your content (blog articles, emails, social media posts) must provide value.
You can give AC maintenance advice, review HVAC products like a vacuum pump and filters, provide DIY tutorials, and more. The goal is to provide consumers in your industry with the content they want while simultaneously building credibility in your company. The more information you provide, the more people will see you as an authority in your field.
Develop a Social Media Presence
No online marketing guide would be complete without talking about the significance of social media in the modern business world. Almost 80% of Americans are on social media. Most of us have multiple profiles that we check several times a day.
While you can’t expect to gain hundreds of thousands of followers as a local HVAC company, you can use social media to increase your brand awareness and visibility in the community. First, you can use organic social media marketing. Post engaging and relevant content (links to your blog articles, videos, memes, etc.) and encourage your followers to comment, like, and share.
You can also run giveaways to increase hype and generate traffic to your profile.
Additionally, consider investing in paid social media ad campaigns. These provide several benefits, such as:
• Determine exactly how much you want to spend per day (affects how many people see your ad)
• Identify the target demographic of people you want to see the ad (age, gender, location, etc.)
• Run A and B ads to identify the most effective marketing messages, styles, and audiences
• Get vital feedback on ad performance, user engagement, and ROI
Social media is an all-inclusive platform that should not be undervalued in your marketing strategy. You can also use social media to affiliate with other local businesses or reach out to influencers to gain access to their audiences.
Publish Customer Reviews and Testimonials to Establish Credibility
If you’re looking for relatively inexpensive marketing help, look no further than your previous customers. As noted at the beginning of this article, the average consumer does their homework. They research products and services before they invest in a company.
One of the most important things consumers look for is customer reviews and testimonials. They want to see what other people have to say about a company’s credibility, customer service, and products.
Offer point-of-sale discounts, free maintenance checks, and more for customers who post a review for your company. They can post them on Google, Yelp, or any of the other listing services we mentioned above. You can copy and paste those reviews to your website and social media.
Re-Target Consumers With Email Marketing
One of the best AC repair marketing tips is to stay relevant among consumers with email marketing. Design an email campaign that rewards past, present, and potential customers for subscribing to your email. You can send them exclusive discount offers, online content, and more.
The most important thing is that you remind them that you’re there. Before winter, remind people about HVAC and fire safety and offer discounted services for furnace checkups. Before summer, send information about proper AC maintenance and remind them of your AC repair services.
Invest in Paid Advertising to Expand Your Visibility
Finally, though saving money as a small business is important for managing your costs, you must also recognize the value in paid advertising. This is an especially important point in our marketing guide for startup companies looking to expand their visibility.
We recommend PPC and SEM advertising.
Pay per click marketing grants you access to another business’s website or a blog’s audience. The host website publishes your ad and you pay them a predetermined amount for each click your ad receives.
Alternatively, consider search engine marketing, which relies on keyword searches. SEM marketing allows you to pay the search engine for better website visibility based on specific keywords. They post your website at the top of the search results pages and you pay them for each click your website gets.
Did You Get Enough From Our Marketing Guide?
We hope you got a lot from our online marketing guide. However, we understand that learning the ropes of digital marketing takes time and effort. If you’re looking for more information, we can help.
Before you go, check out some of our other business marketing articles. The business section of our blog was created for entrepreneurs like you learning to thrive in the modern business world.
