As the days get longer and the temperatures rise, your customers are ready to do some spring cleaning and use your services. What about your HVAC business? Could you use some spring cleaning, too?
It’s important to wash your windows, vacuum the floors, and keep everything in your offices and shops neat and clean. But what about your website, emails, newsletters, press releases, and other marketing materials? What kind of impression do you really make — and when was the last time you checked?
With this in mind, here are three fast ways to clean up your HVAC communications for spring and make a great impression.
1. Check for errors.
This may seem obvious, but if your content has misspellings and grammatical errors, it doesn’t look good. After all, if you miss something simple like this, potential customers may wonder if you are going to miss something important when working on their homes and businesses.
A few things to look for include:
How do you use the “apostrophe s”?
The ’s is used to show possession or shortening two different words in a contraction (like it’s, she’s, let’s, etc.).
Correct: Bob’s Heating Service, the dog’s bone
Confusing: Pizza’s on sale today. Bob’s having a sale today. Everyone’s winning prizes.
While you can always add an ’s, ensure that it doesn’t confuse your audience. Not sure? Take a few minutes to check online for the appropriate usage.
Did your email go out with blanks?
No one likes to receive an email that says Dear (First Name Here) or something with generic data in it sent to a big list. There is no personalization. When you communicate, try to make it personal. Add correct names and talk to customers like they were friends. This creates credibility and people want to do business with others that they trust.
How old is your site content?
If you haven’t reviewed your website for some time, take a look. Do all of the links work? Are your blogs and articles fresh? Is it easy for visitors to know what you offer and how to contact you?
If not, your website may be sending potential customers to the competition. Check it regularly to provide valuable, current, and easy-to-follow content.
2. Contact reporters the right way.
Do you send your press releases to a list of reporters via email all at once? This rarely works. They get hundreds of emails a day like this that go straight to the trash. Instead, your public relations (PR) efforts should focus on one-on-one communications for each individual reporter.
If you really want to use your resources wisely to get free publicity, take the time to develop personal relationships with the media members who cover your industry. Send individual messages instead of a massive email distribution and you’ll have much more success.
3. Get help.
If you are not a trained copywriter or publicist, it’s well worth it to look for someone skilled in these areas to assist you. Today, you can find interns, freelancers, and consultants at all different price ranges and levels of experience. Once you find the right expert, they can create a content marketing and PR strategy for you and manage all of the appropriate actions, tracking, and updates. Then, you can focus on your core HVAC business responsibilities and nurturing customer relationships.
Get the Duster Out!
It’s time to brush the dust off of your old HVAC communications. Review all of your content and PR process for errors, provide personalized messaging to customers and the media, and get outside assistance from someone who has experience in copywriting, content marketing strategy, and PR. This way, you can ensure that all of your communications make a great first impression without wasting time or money.
