Digital marketing is the key to driving ANY business in the 21st century.
It’s even more important for HVAC business owners to keep up with their online presence since HVAC businesses that don’t rank highly in searches don’t get valuable emergency calls. Ultimately, they end up losing business.
What digital marketing mistakes should HVAC owners avoid (and what strategies will work best to move your HVAC marketing plan forward)? Our experienced digital marketing team has answers to these questions.
Below are the Top 5 Digital Marketing Mistakes To Be Aware of as an HVAC Business Owner:
Having a Slow, Insecure Website
It’s easy for HVAC companies to focus on the content of their websites while neglecting their format and other relevant concerns. If a potential client has trouble accessing your website, they won’t spend the time and effort to troubleshoot the issue. They will go to your competitors’ sites instead.
Search engine optimization isn’t just about using keywords in your blog posts. You should also ensure that your website is both secure and functional when new prospects click to visit it.
First, as a business owner, you must ensure that your website is secure. According to W3Techs Web Technology Surveys, more than 80% of total traffic on the Internet runs on SSL encryption, which is also called HTTPS. If you collect any form of data from your users, including having a “Contact Us” form, your site needs SSL encryption. In addition, major search engines rank SSL-encrypted websites higher than non-encrypted ones.
You should also make sure that your website works well on mobile devices. In 2018, more than two-thirds of American households used mobile devices to access the Internet. Nearly 60% of global Internet traffic in 2022 came from smartphones and tablets. If you don’t make your website accessible to mobile users, your company is missing out on a huge share of your potential market.
Not Knowing Your Target Market
Before you begin any digital marketing campaign, you need to have a target audience in mind. Does your HVAC company focus on a particular manufacturer or neighborhood? Are most of your clients new to you, or are they regular customers? What makes your clientele stand out?
The more clearly you can answer these questions, the greater the impact your digital marketing campaign will have. If you attempt to focus your campaign on everyone, it won’t draw anybody in. Learn what your target market’s pain points are and what appeals to them.
Poorly Maintaining Your Social Media Presence
Having a great website is only the beginning. The next step is to actively build relationships with your present and future clientele. This means having a strong presence on social media.
No hard-and-fast rule exists for how HVAC business owners should operate their social media profiles. However, a few general guidelines that every business owner should follow include:
- Track and respond to both positive and negative mentions of your company. These actions can make the difference between quickly addressing a client’s problem and having a former client.
- Know what social networks your clientele uses and focus on those.
- Develop a unified voice for your company based on the image that you want to project to new clients.
- Develop a schedule for making new posts to your company’s social media pages. Stick to it as much as you can. Consistency is the key.
Focusing Your Marketing Budget in the Wrong Places
No HVAC business has an unlimited marketing budget. Spending your money in ineffective ways can actively harm your HVAC company. You need to know how to get the most efficient use out of the budget your company has allocated to marketing.
Every HVAC business is different, and a perfect marketing budget for one might spell certain disaster for another. Nevertheless, here are a few focal points that will benefit almost every business.
First, establish yourself as an authority in the field. If your company has a lot of positive reviews, give them a place of prominence on your website. Do likewise for any awards or certifications that make your HVAC business stand out. If your company doesn’t have many positive reviews yet, it may be worth spending money to generate reviews first.
In order to convert a site visitor into a new client, your HVAC business should also stand out from competitors on at least two of the three key selling points: cost, quality, and convenience. What are your company’s unique selling points? If you can’t answer that question, it’s worth spending money to find or build answers.
A final digital marketing mistake that we’ve already touched on is treating your HVAC business as a generic entity. Focus on specific details that make your company distinctive to advertise specific services to a specific audience–and you will almost certainly improve your odds of creating that new client relationship.
Not Tracking Your Most Important Metrics
One of the key elements of any HVAC digital marketing campaign is that what you measure will grow. Part of developing your HVAC company’s priorities in marketing is knowing what you want to accomplish and then tracking your progress toward those goals.
Regardless of what the goals of your HVAC business are, find a way to quantify and track them. These goals may refer to:
- The number of unique visitors to your website or blog
- The number of people who hire your company for a specialized service
- The source of new visitors to your site. Do they come from social media or search engines?
- Your website’s rankings on major search engines
Contact Our Team at ServiceHawk Today to Help Your HVAC Business Avoid these Digital Marketing Mistakes
If maintaining your website as the owner of an HVAC business seems intimidating, know that it doesn’t have to be. At ServiceHawk, we’re proud to partner with small and large businesses for search engine optimization, website development, and digital marketing. You don’t have to avoid digital marketing mistakes alone!
To learn more about online HVAC business reputation management from ServiceHawk, give us a call at 985-888-0455 today to schedule your free strategy call or schedule your consultation online.
