8 Tips for Spring Fling Marketing
With new blooms about to burst forth, it’s just about time to spring into action with seasonal marketing for your HVAC business. Every year, homeowners are reminded that it’s time to freshen up their houses with a deep clean from top to tail, and while we know their HVAC systems should be included in that freshening up, homeowners aren’t always aware.
So, what can you do to ensure HVAC system cleaning is part of the spring cleaning conversation? There are several different marketing techniques you can employ to let your customers know you’re prepared to help them come out of hibernation and dust off the doldrums of winter.
Yelp It
Yelp is a great resource for business owners. Targeted local ads will appear in search results and on competitors’ pages, on both computers and mobile devices, and your page can include photos, videos, and a call to action with a direct link to your own website. The team at Yelp can work with you to customize an affordable campaign that will help set your seasonal cleaning apart from that of your competitors.
Form an Alliance
Partner with local stores for a full-service spring cleaning campaign, promoting all the local deals consumers can take advantage of to spruce up their homes. Clean air is always a welcome way to revitalize for a new season, so you’ll fit right in with the carpet cleaners and roofers. A mailer or email can be sent on behalf of all the partnering businesses, and the costs can be split. Include a call to action, and if you want to track the efficacy of the campaign, you can also include a unique code or special offer so you’ll know where the business came from.
Social Media: Advertising
Advertising through social media is an inexpensive, targeted approach. Create an action-oriented message with a high-quality image — social media users interact with photos more than they do with plain text. Then select the locations and demographics of your potential customer. To get the most bang for your buck, take the time to be as specific as possible when making your demographic selections, otherwise some platforms might cast too wide a net and miss the minnow for the whale.
Social Media: Public Relations
Social media is a fantastic way to take public relations into your own hands. You can communicate directly with consumers, forging personal (if virtual) relationships. When posting messages, use hashtag phrases like #SpringCleaning or #spring so that when people search those hashtags on Facebook or Twitter, your posts appear. For maximum efficiency, you can use a third-party website like Hootsuite to schedule posts in advance and to have them appear on multiple platforms simultaneously.
Catchy phrases, as corny as they may seem, resonate with people. Try making a play on words using your business name, duct cleaning or the season. Taglines like “When it comes to spring cleaning, don’t think you can ‘duct’ out of taking care of your vents” are memorable and are perfect for social media.
Keep Your Eyes on Other’s Paper
Set aside an hour to do some Googling and see what spring incentives your competitors have put forth in the past. And don’t just look at other HVAC companies’ techniques. Check out websites and social media accounts, then adapt moves to suit your own strengths and set yourself apart.
Bee Yourself
Your spring campaign might include some cartoon bees or dad jokes, but it should still be consistent with your usual messaging. And there’s no need to offer steep discounts or otherwise mount any kind of campaign that feels forced. You’re providing a useful service that’s a perfect addition to spring cleaning, and adding a little seasonal whimsy to the offering doesn’t change the essence of your brand.
Hello-It’s Me
At the very least, you should take advantage of the change in season to drop your customers a line or share a social media post reminding them that along with spring come lambs, chicks, and dust bunnies. Holidays and season changes are great times to find ways to connect with your customers and prospects just to say hello, have some informal exchanges, and remind them who you are and what you do.
Plan Ahead
Always work back from your delivery or “go-live” date to create a schedule for producing and delivering your marketing materials, thereby linking together your online and offline activities. Your campaign launch should take place before the height of the season, but not so early that consumers haven’t started thinking about cleaning out their closets for a spring trip to Goodwill yet.
If you haven’t reviewed your marketing kit or updated your website recently, you’ll want to be sure your materials are up to date and include the latest photos, newest logo, and correct contact information. Spruce things up with a spring look if you can! And make sure to label all your files clearly and keep them on a shared drive where you and your employees will all have easy access to them for future use and updating.
If your social media accounts aren’t fully fleshed out (or don’t exist yet), plan to take a few hours to get your business’s profile filled out or updated and your cover and profile photos sized correctly. That way, when you launch your campaign, you’ll be ready to put your best digital foot forward.