HVAC Marketing Strategies

YOU NEED A MARKETING PLAN: 

77% of contractors have no marketing plan, only 23% develop a plan, this is why it is so easy for new contractors to come on the scene. In his book Small Business Management (published by West Publishing Co.), Michael Ames gives several reasons for small business failure, including lack of experience, insufficient capital, poor inventory management, and personal use of business funds, among others. A report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University indicated that 22% of contractors with payrolls of less than $30,000 in 2003 were no longer operating in 2004, a failure rate almost ten times higher than those with payrolls of $350,000 or more. And according to HVAC management companies 2007 and 2009, 31.9 percent of contractors in the United States went under. Don’t let this happen to you! Here’s a revealing article in Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration News about the top 10 pitfalls for contractor businesses, and how to avoid them.

YELLOW PAGE ADS ALONE DON’T WORK: 

The majority of consumers in the U.S. does research online, and will not open a Yellow Pages directory. So, don’t overspend on Yellow Pages ads. The ROI is not worth it. Instead, consider social media marketing, email campaigns, mailers, etc.

Check out this Yellow Pages ROI info a Forbes article ‘Should Small Businesses Still Book Yellow Page Ads?‘:

• Cost of the campaign: $4,000
• Value of one new customer: $100
• Number of customers gained to break even: 40
• Number of leads needed to gain one new customer: 10
• Number of leads needed to break even: 400
• Number of leads needed to achieve 100% ROI: 800

In this case, if a Yellow Page contract is $4,000 for the year, you need to generate 400 real leads to break even. That is more than one call a day from your Yellow Page ad, in this example. Compare this to other marketing options you have, and calculate their relative break-evens