What separates the HVAC business owner who makes more money vs. the one who fails to grow?
Two words. Lead flow. It’s simple. The more people that know about your business, the higher your chances are of getting more customers.
Since all the other articles online regurgitate the same information over and over, here is the only guide you’ll need on how to actually* get more HVAC leads quickly.
A Quick Google Review Strategy To Get Exclusive HVAC Leads
According to BrightLocal, 93% of customers will read local business reviews to check the quality of the business. This means that 93% of the people who find you on Google will check reviews to decide if they want to work with you or not. That’s a big deal.
Here are practical steps you can take today to get more reviews for your HVAC business on Google:
1. Create an offer with an incentive
You can’t force someone to leave a Google review. People must feel like leaving one. If you don’t want to leave it up to luck, offer them something in return.
This can be:
There are plenty of channels to advertise your offer. You can send emails and SMS to past clients, post free content on social media, or just tell the client about your offer after you do your job in person.
Which leads to the next step…
2. Do amazing work!
Smile when you greet them at the door, ask how they are doing today, and make sure they feel like you care about helping them fix their problem.
I’d recommend a great book called “How To Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. It has nothing to do with HVAC but everything to do with getting people to respect and like you. Which is important in this industry.
3. Ask for the review
After you’ve got your offer prepared and you did your job, tell them that you would really appreciate it if they left you a quick review on Google.
Mention that it would only take 2 minutes out of their day and tell them about what they get in return (an incentive mentioned in step 1).
These steps do not have to be done in person. You can mention your offer on your website or business cards at your office.
The point is that every customer should know that they get something in return after leaving a Google review. If you have an email list or phone numbers of old customers, write to them! A database reactivation campaign can be a goldmine of free Google reviews.
Here is another shocking statistic:
According to Womply, a business with more than 9 Google reviews will earn 52% more annual revenue. A business with more than 25 Google reviews will earn around 108% more annual revenue than average.
The difference between no reviews, some reviews, and lots of reviews cannot be understated.
The HVAC business that has focused on getting quality reviews through the steps mentioned above will see a huge jump in revenue. Here’s a free resource that shows how to run a Google review campaign with an existing list of warm leads: How to get 50–100 new Google Reviews in 5 days for your small business
But that’s not the only proven tactic that you can use to get more HVAC leads.
Building a Referral Network: How to Market HVAC
Building a referral network can be one of the most cost-effective and powerful marketing strategies to get more HVAC leads. So how do we do it?
There are industries parallel to HVAC such as plumbing, roofing, and many other home repair services that you can partner with. Approach these businesses through:
Structure your offer in the same way as you would when advertising to customers. Create an incentive like offering to pay the business owner 20% of the revenue from the referral.
On top of that, offer to send them your clients their way. This will create a windmill of leads that flow to you and to your partner.
You can also connect with real estate agents or landlords of apartments. Any industry where HVAC is needed is a great start to building a referral network. Reach out to the decision makers (owners) and introduce yourself. Ask them if they would be interested in a partnership. From there, you can negotiate.
Referrals don’t have to come from business owners, they can also come from customers. Remember, a customer will only refer a friend or family member if they had a good experience with you.
If you only had one client, how would you treat them? Now, treat all future and current clients in that same way. Offer them a gift card or a discount on the next job if they bring in someone they know. Do this well, and you won’t have a problem building a strong referral network to get more HVAC leads.
Are you seeing a pattern here?
1. Provide incentive (your offer)
2. Ask
You can check out the blog I wrote about growing a pest control business, which mentions building a customer referral network in detail. Pest control is another parallel industry to HVAC, which you can connect with.
Google reviews and referrals are great, but how does an HVAC business owner scale even harder using the power of the internet?
How To Get HVAC Leads Through Paid Ads
Now that you’ve got a steady flow of leads from organic methods that don’t require upfront cash, you can start scaling. Without a doubt, paid ads are and will be the most effective way to get HVAC jobs. When done right, it’s essentially a cheat code to print leads out of thin air. Here's another great blog abut the topic of paid ads for HVAC businesses.
According to GWI, 49% of internet users say they are likely to purchase from brands they see advertised on social media. What does this mean for you? People purchase products and services from companies they feel familiar with.
Running paid ads on places like Google and Facebook brings your business to the front of the leads mind and creates a powerful outbound strategy.
If that wasn’t enough, by 2028, the social media advertising market is expected to grow by about $35 billion in total ad spend, from $220 billion to $255 billion, according to Sprout Social. Paid ads have become a gold mine for aggressively and quickly growing a business.
There are two paths to executing a profitable paid ads strategy for your HVAC business to get more leads:
1. Do it yourself
2. Outsource
Let’s cover option one first. The ingredients needed for getting HVAC leads using paid ads are:
1. High-converting creatives.
This means the image, text, or video ad that you run will need to be good enough to get people to stop scrolling.
2. Offer.
Single-handedly the most important part of an ad, your potential client has to exclaim “ Oh wow, that sounds interesting and I am sure this is worth my time and money!”.
Here is a free resource outlining how to make a great offer: Offer Creation
3. High-converting copy.
Not only does your creative and offer need to be on point, but the way you phrase sentences has to make someone want to click the link to your website.
Copywriting is a skill of its own, but in a nutshell, less is more. Show, don’t tell. Outline benefits, not features, while striking at the core pain of a lead.
After collecting your ingredients for this hypothetical ad soup, you’ll need to pick a pan to cook in (an advertising platform). Spoiler alert: Facebook and/or Google ads are your best bet.
Then you’ll need to set your campaign objective, set up your targeting, throw in the ingredients mentioned above, launch, and watch your metrics to make adjustments.
If all of this seems complicated, don’t worry. Let’s go over how to outsource this to a team of experts so you can start getting HVAC leads ASAP and focusing on doing the job you signed up for.
Getting Pay-Per-Call HVAC Leads
Pay-per-call is exactly what it sounds like. You pay an agency to get HVAC leads that call you over the phone. The best part about this pricing model is you only pay for the calls you get.
All you have to do is pick up the phone with a lead on the other end interested in getting their AC fixed. With so many companies offering lead generation services, it can be a confusing and frustrating process to have to pick one that does its job well.
That’s why ResultCalls has proof behind the claim “Rank high on Google all year round and only pay for cooling or heating calls”. Check out the case studies of these happy business owners.
If you get solid Google reviews, set up a referral offer, promote it, and work with a pay-per-call agency that gets you inbound leads, growing your HVAC business will feel like a walk in the park.
The only problem you’ll be worried about is not having enough staff to manage all the jobs you’re getting every single day. That sounds like a pretty good problem to have in my book.
The main thing now is to take action today. Opportunity waits for nobody so here are the action steps you need to take today to start seeing results ASAP.
Action Steps To Get More HVAC Leads
1. Use the free Google review resource in the first paragraph to reach out to all past clients through email or SMS. Remind them of who you are and send them your Google review offer. What you will promise in return for a Google review is up to you, but think about what the past client would want.
2. Pick 2 industries parallel to HVAC (plumbing and pest control for example) and start reaching out to those business owners in your area. You can email and message them on Instagram or LinkedIn. Introduce yourself and present your referral offer. Use the offer resource above to create a valuable proposal.
3. To start taking your HVAC business to the next level, and only pay for calls with exclusive HVAC leads, sign up for free with ResultCalls.
Conclusion
If you follow the steps outlined above, you will have no problem blowing past your competition. Build a strong foundation with solid Google reviews. This will ensure your authority in the HVAC space grows as well as give you an SEO boost. Google loves businesses with lots of quality reviews.
The next step would be to build your network with similar business owners that creates a referral chain. If done correctly, any other “marketing tips and tricks” will pale in comparison to the leads you are getting from the strategy mentioned above. After all, your network is your net worth.
If you still feel like you can handle more leads, consider paid ads. This is a tedious process and is a full-time job all by itself. That’s why I recommend working with a team like ResultCalls, who handle your entire marketing strategy, and the best part is you only pay for the calls you get.
FAQ
Q. How do I market my HVAC business?
A. Follow these steps to successfully market your HVAC business:
Bonus Tips:
Q. How do I make a good HVAC website?
A. To make a great HVAC website you’ll need to:
Q. Where do I get HVAC leads?
A. To get HVAC leads, you need to be looking online. Follow these steps:
Companies like ResultCalls offer pay-per-call HVAC leads.
Hello everyone! My name is Alex and I write these blogs to help educate small business owners on different ways to grow their business. My goal is to make lead generation as easy as possible for you. After reading these blogs, I hope you leave with some actionable steps that will get you closer to growing your business :)
