‘Old-fashioned’ strategies — direct mail, billboards, radio — still have a place in an HVAC contractor’s marketing toolbox. The first article of this two-part series discussed some of the online marketing tips Colleen Keyworth, Women in HVACR immediate past president and director of sales and marketing at Online-Access, shared with attendees of the Marketing Myth Busters: 2023 Paid & Organic Marketing Dos and Don’ts session. This article will focus on marketing tips and trips for the non-online side of marketing, like direct mail and community engagement.

Brand Guide

The first thing that has to be done, and in under no circumstances can be discounted, is creating a brand guide document. It helps ensure brand consistency across every medium of marketing.

A brand guide should have the following:

• Logo versions
• Company colors for web & print
• Fonts
• Slogans
• Taglines

Once all of that information in one place — the brand guide document — the contractor needs to refer to it to ensure new print and community marketing all have a united look and feel. Having that document also cuts out the extra step of having to go to the apparel company or the website or the van wrappers or logo designers and check which colors or fonts were used.

“It helps people actually identify the right color orange, or your tagline, what variations of slogans are acceptable,” Keyworth said. “It helps everyone be on the same page.”

Obviously, before creating the brand document, a contractor needs to have a brand in place. If they don’t, they need to create one.

Direct Mail Best Practices

In order to really nail direct mail marketing, a contractor has to prospect a list using customer data, and determine what their marketing area actually is.

Don’t buy lists, Keyworth said — there’s a better way. Purchasing lists rarely give results. Keyworth hasn’t encountered one that has accurate information, hits the target audience, and doesn’t send a million letters back.

Knowing exactly what the contractor’s marketing area is critical because they need to target based on not only their service area, but also their market area.

“Just because you pick up all the trees in the forest does not make it yours,” Keyworth said.

The market area is where people know the contractor. Company trucks driving in and out of the office every day makes an impression.

“You actually do most of your business within five miles of your company most of the time,” Keyworth said. “Pull your lists, pull your data. And when you have that, you’ll know where you’re ‘the guy.’”

Another best practice Keyworth shared was not using mail to break into a brand-new market, but instead using mail where a contractor has market saturation. When a contractor is that go-to person, they “own” the area and can mail to it — everything just works.

“Because you’re the known entity, [your mailer] is not just the spam I’m throwing away. You have that brand authority in that area and people already trust you.”

Like everything when it comes to marketing, a contractor has to be creative, but especially when it comes to club customers. Keyworth noted a few ways to do this via direct mail: newsletters, calendars, magnets, and holiday and birthday cards.

Community Marketing

Community marketing cannot be discounted, and it has to be an intentional pursuit for an HVACR contractor.

Keyworth touched on three types of community marketing — local events, giveaways, and charity contests — and shared a few best practices:

• Get involved with local community organizations
• Find out what company team is passionate about
• Enable team with a set amount
• Have a team member represent your company at local functions
• Create contests on your website for giveaways to drive traffic

Community marketing has to be a part of whatever marketing plan a contractor has. They can check with their manufacturers or distributors to see what their co-op is or what kind of options they have when it comes to giveaways.

That’s the first step, but the next step is to spread the word about their good work. Contractors don’t think to advertise the charity they do, because that’s not really what charity is about, Keyworth said, but it’s essential.

“Look at what you’re trying to do philosophically and harness that,” she said. “Most of you are doing some sort of wonderful thing for their community, or some sort of giveaway, but don’t want to be braggadocious.”

If it’s an event or a cause that potential customers are passionate about, there’s the potential to bring in a lot of traffic.

“[Potential customers] don’t care about you right now. They don’t have a need,” she said. “But if it’s for ‘St. Francis’s Home for Wayward Cats’ … it’s a big deal. And now it’s something they care about.”

Plus, when a contractor participates in something philanthropic for a charity or a local organization, that organization will likely include the sponsorship in marketing materials they send to their membership or supporters. It becomes a partnership and two-way street. And people do business with people they like.

Other Media that Can’t Be Ignored

In addition to direct mail, print, and community marketing, a number of other forms of media can be part of a contractor’s marketing plan — like billboards.

But billboards that stand out. It’s important to remember that people are usually driving by them, so don’t obsess with putting everything up there, like the company website, phone number, slogan, and address. People aren’t usually writing down phone numbers when they are driving by a billboard or yard sign.

“If you’re in a drive-by community — where most of the expressway goes through your community and people are commuting — don’t necessarily use the commuting route all the time [to place billboards],” Keyworth said. “Make sure you’re placing them internally, locally, especially if you don’t serve as a place where people are commuting to.”

Other forms of marketing to consider include radio and television, HOA newsletters, newspapers, and school events and sports programs.

“Newspapers are not dead!” Keyworth said. There are still a number of newspaper readers flipping through its pages each week. Clever, creative ads can pop out and reinforce the company’s brand.

When it comes to marketing at school events and sports programs, it could be anything that has a pamphlet or program with available ad space — something like the program for a Friday night football game, or any sporting event that brings in a lot of attendees within a contractor’s marketing area.

Sometimes a contractor has to really look for that event, or even create it themselves. Keyworth noted the best thing she ever did was a Battle of the (Marching) Bands with high schools in her market area and her competitors’ surrounding area. People rushed to the nonprofit’s website to vote for who they thought the best band was (first place got $1,000; second got $500, etc.) and shared it everywhere.

It resulted in free advertising in every Friday night football program, drove traffic to their website, and through the voting process, obtained voter emails and cell phone numbers — everything needed to get in touch with them again for marketing purposes.

Plus, voters got a coupon for the HVAC contractor’s service as a “thank-you” for voting, which is a creative way to build a customer list, Keyworth said.