Marketing all boils down to the offer. Yes, technology continues to evolve, and shiny tools can be distracting, but the principles are timeless. Here is the ultimate list of do’s and do not’s for marketing your HVAC business that won’t be outdated any time soon.

DO: Focus on the offer, not the marketing. An offer is a clearly defined message that powerfully articulates your value. Marketing is the vehicle to get your offer to the public.

DO NOT: Never create an expensive offer; create an enticing offer. Its job is simply to generate interest and get the phone ringing.

DO: Make your offer appealing to everyone. Don’t be specific. An a/c tune-up, for example, only speaks to people who think they need that precise solution. Focus on what everyone always wants: money, health, and happiness. An IAQ offer might promote fresh air and the consequences of a living room being contaminated. There’s not a person in the world who doesn’t want clean air.

DO NOT: Shy away from being blunt. What’s the worst-case scenario if someone neglects his or her furnace for too long? Now, the offer is simple: just tell the truth. What do they need to do to prevent that from happening?

DO: Be fast to reply. Speed is the most reliable tool in your marketing shed. Lean Data reported on a study conducted by Lead Response Management that you are 21 times more likely to book an appointment if you respond within five minutes or less to an inquiry.

DO NOT: Let leads go stale. If it’s longer than five minutes, or you miss a call, the deal is —statistically — usually already gone.

DO: Focus on repeat business. Huify reported on a survey conducted by Invesp concluding it five times more expensive to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones. Get more business from the list you already have first and then go after new leads.

DO NOT: Only run lead generation campaigns. If you only focus only on lead generation campaigns from new prospects, your marketing spend will be astronomical. What would happen if 10% of your current list all took your offer this month? When you look at the math, it quickly makes sense to build on what you already have.

DO: Create a follow-up funnel that operates all year long. According to ServiceTitan, it takes an average of 10 phone calls to book four jobs. So, what happens to the other six callers? The fortune is in the follow up. You’ll get them next month — or the month after that, so long as you’re consistently presenting new offers.

DO NOT: Promote your website. This does nothing. Promote your marketing funnel. Your business exists in two places: online and offline, and your website is the digital version of your physical location. It’s simply where your business is located, nothing more.

DO: Understand the difference between channels, ads, content, and funnels. A channel is a platform, and on that channel exists both ads and content. Content engages consumers, like this article, and ads get clicks (traffic) to a funnel, which is everything that happens post-click. Think of a funnel like a machine, and all efforts are to get people into that machine.

DO NOT: Rely on only one channel to advertise your funnel. Utilize many channels to promote your funnel. You want as many signs in as many places as possible pointing traffic to your marketing machine (without spreading yourself too thin).

DO: Use email marketing in your funnel. Always remember to trim your email list once a year. Inactive recipients will hurt your email deliverability by suggesting to mail servers that you are a spammer. If you have a list of 4,000 customers but all your emails go to the promotions folder, it’s useless.

DO NOT: Be scared to annoy 10% of your customers at the expense of closing the other 90% on more jobs. This is how a leaky-bucket scenario floods your ship, when attrition rivals new business simply because you’re not maintaining existing relationships.

DO: Register your business for SMS marketing and add it to your funnel. Follow all the rules to avoid hefty fines and ensure your number doesn’t show up as spam on caller ID.

DO NOT: Be inconsistent. You’ll be stopping short of the goal post over and over, and psychologically this will trick you into thinking nothing you do ever works. Pick a plan and stick with it.

DO: Add retargeting campaigns to your funnel. Emails are more than inbox addresses, and phone numbers can be used for more than just calling or texting. This data can also be used to “retarget” those same people with ads; far less expensive than pouring money into cold advertising campaigns.

DO NOT: Market your services and promote the results of those services. As the saying goes: Sell the vacation, not the plane ticket.

DO: Educate your customers seasonally on which services are needed. They need an expert to guide them throughout the year, and if you don’t fulfill that role, a competitor will.

DO NOT: Use images and loads of formatting in emails. Use online tools that will check all your emails for spam trigger-words, like SendCheckit, before sending. If you try to slap your branding on your emails the spam filters will go off. Save that for the van wraps.

DO: Follow the rules when it comes to online advertising. If your ad account is shut down, there’s really nobody to call. It’s a big problem.

DO NOT: Skimp on your marketing partner. It costs a lot more to constantly hire cheap agencies who fail than it does to find one you only need to hire once.

DO: Beware of scams. If what they’re offering seems too good to be true, it is. No shortcuts exist in marketing, only thoughtful execution.

The basic principle of this article can be summed up in a one sentence: Promote smart offers all year and reply immediately. Lastly, be ruthless with consistency.