3 ways HVAC social media marketing helps you grow
It’s been a challenging year, and many HVAC companies are looking for ways to build new business to make up for lost revenue in 2020. Adding HVAC social media marketing to your sales and marketing activities can increase awareness, open doors, and build relationships with both prospects and customers.
1. Help prospects and customers to find you
For small businesses that don’t have a website, taking advantage of social media can establish an online presence at a lower cost. Your customers can find information about your business on your Facebook and LinkedIn pages, including contact details. They learn more about you by reading your posts, and also read comments from your customers that can serve as references.
Even for those who do have a website, social media pages are often easier to keep current and allow you to quickly and easily share real-time updates with customers and prospects.
2. Boost brand awareness
When you are actively engaged in HVAC social media marketing, your company name gets in front of more people in your target market through social impressions. That happens when you use hashtags to reach people with specific interests, and also when others you are connected with share your posts with their own followers.
When people who see you on social media find themselves in need of the services you provide, you’re more likely to be top of mind and also to be considered as a reputable company.
3. Increase your sales reach and build relationships
Social media marketing helps with sales in a couple of ways. Your posts can help you make contact with people who want and need your products or services. And, social media provides an easy way to create more touchpoints with sales prospects.
Sales and marketing experts say it takes eight or more touchpoints with your company before a potential prospect is ready to become an active sales lead. People who regularly see your messages on social media are primed for engagement with your salespeople.
In fact, social media can also help you build lasting relationships with your existing customers when you share helpful information that they want and need.
Content ideas for social media posts
Posting the right content is the most challenging aspect of social media marketing for those just starting out. Here’s the most important advice we can give you: share information that your audience wants, needs, and cares about!
In fact, social media can help you understand what’s important to your audience. Reading comments and looking at which posts get the most engagement can be revealing and helpful.
Here are some ideas to guide your social media marketing strategy.
Showcase your team, your culture, and your values. Help your customers (and potential customers) get to know the people they deal with at your company. It’s also a great idea to share photos of company events, and information about community service and charity work. These are the kinds of posts that tend to get the most engagement.
Communicate timely information. Chances are, you saw many companies taking advantage of social media to share important information during the pandemic, such as changes to their operating schedule and procedures. It’s one of the fastest ways to get the word out about timely information. That could also include sharing limited-time promotions and discounts.
Remind customers to schedule maintenance appointments. When spring rolls around, do you spend a lot of time contacting customers to get them to schedule AC startup and maintenance appointments? Reminding them via social media can help alleviate that burden and get business booked.
Promote new products or services. Have you added products and services that you want customers and prospects to know about? Share an announcement on social and direct visitors to your website and/or your sales team for details.
Share your content. Are you posting blogs and other information on your website? Share snippets of helpful info and direct followers to your website to read the full article.
Post interactive content. Don’t just tell… ask. If you want to know what matters to people, ask questions on your social pages and you’ll see increased engagement. You can even post surveys and polls online to learn more about what people think and what they value.
Don’t forget visuals. People are more likely to notice and engage with social posts that have visuals. Start with photos of your team members, of your trucks, and when possible and with permission, photos of people at work. You can work your way up to videos, infographics, and memes.
Tips for getting started with HVAC social media marketing
Start with one platform and build from there
There are so many social media platforms out there that trying to learn them all at once would be overwhelming and counterproductive.
We recommend starting with the one that’s most popular with your target market. Many companies start with Facebook — chances are you already use it personally so there’s little learning curve. However, if you’re serving a targeted commercial audience, you might find it more valuable to start with LinkedIn.
Establish a cadence and be consistent
To start out, aim to post on your social media platform(s) at least three times per week. As you become more comfortable with creating content, you can work your way up to once per day.
Consistency is key to building impressions, followers, engagement. Try to avoid gaps in your posting schedule to keep your momentum going!
It’s easy and (mostly) free to get started
All you really need are social accounts for your business on the platforms where you want to promote yourself. And you’ll need someone to write social media posts. You can start with just a few posts per week, so it doesn’t have to take a lot of time.
Once you get comfortable with the process and you’re ready to expand your HVAC social media marketing, you can invest in tools that make HVAC social media marketing more convenient, by allowing you to schedule posts in advance. Those tools also provide metrics that help you measure the results.
As you grow your skills, you can even consider investing in social media advertising, which can expand your reach further, help you grow your audience, and bring in new leads.
More helpful content for HVAC owners and managers
If you found this article helpful, here’s a page where you can find additional information for growing the success of your business.
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