Top Local SEO Tips for Home Service Companies

Did you know that 46% of all Google searches are done to seek local information?
Nowadays, using local SEO strategies is essential for your business to find the right customers and grow your company. Keep reading to find out the top local SEO tips for your home service company.

What Is Local SEO?

There is a slight difference between SEO in general and local SEO strategies.
So what's the deal?
The main difference is that search engines will take into account your location when you're searching for local information or local businesses. That means that through local SEO efforts, you can appear both in search engine results and map searches within your functional area.
So, the difference is that you'll focus on showcasing your location throughout your SEO efforts for your business to show up in those geographically specific searches.
Let's dive into the top SEO tips you need to know.

1. Keyword Focus

As with traditional SEO, your focus on keywords is paramount in finding success with your local SEO efforts.
Not only should the location feature in your keywords, but your business should also focus on long-tail keywords.
What does this mean?
Here's the gist of it. Some people may visit Google and type in, 'home service company', but it's more likely that a searcher would use a more extended search term such as, 'home service company in Philadelphia'. If your business is located in Philadelphia, you're going to want to show up in those results.
The same can be said for your products. Perhaps you offer services or products in a specific niche, these should be included in your keyword strategy to rank for these too.

2. On-page SEO Tactics

On-page SEO is all the tactics that are within your control for the SEO of your website. These are things like:
Meta descriptions
Title tags
URL names
Internal linking
Mobile responsiveness
Image and video SEO
Heading tags and alt tags
And the above is still not the complete list!
The thing about on-page SEO is that it can get quite technical, precisely because you have to perform various tasks and tactics on one page and then repeat the process repeatedly for all the pages on your website.
That is when it can be an advantage if you decide to partner with an SEO agency that offers these types of services.

3. Google Local Ads

Even if you feel like paid-for advertising is out of your reach, it isn't!
Local services ads are a Google service that allows you to connect with customers in your operations area. If you want to get seen by the right people who are looking for your services, within your geographical location, it's almost a given that you should be looking at this service.
What local services ads does for you is on a click-by-click basis, so you only pay if someone contacts you directly through the advert itself. It gives you a great 'Google Guaranteed' badge along with your company's ad, which adds a certain level of surety.
Google local services ads even have a bidding system, which means that you can make your budget work for you. And remember, the more traffic you get, the better your SEO efforts will start to work for you.

4. Make Your Content Work

The content you're putting up on your website should not only represent your brand and your business but should also shoot the lights out when it comes to your SEO strategy.
Content should stem directly from your original SEO strategy, which means that the audience you researched and decided on when you started your SEO journey, should still be the audience that you're creating content for.
By creating content that uses the right keywords, along with the correct formatting, and most importantly, the regularity of posting, you'll be creating useful, relevant content for your ideal target audience and also, increasing your search engine rankings.

5. Get Those Reviews

Word-of-mouth marketing is far from dead; it's simply shifted from the man on the street to reviews online. Countless people will research a business or brand online before they decide to make contact.
And guess what the first thing they look at will be?
Your business reviews, of course!
By being responsive to reviews, and engaging with both happy and unhappy customers, you're showing a certain level of reputation management. This means that people will immediately look at your business in a different light!
It shows that you care about how your customer feels, that they're important and that you go the extra mile. Remember, though, that reviews can be left on any platform that your business appears on, from Google to Facebook and just about anywhere else.
The more places your brand appears, the more you need to prioritize your reputation management and make sure that you're on top of all your customer feedback and reviews.
Success With Local SEO
When you're diving into SEO, and this, of course, includes your local SEO efforts too, you need to remember that all your efforts will not give you an overnight change.

SEO is a journey, not a destination. Ensure that you're ready for the commitment to what your business needs to do to keep up your search engine rankings, and be willing to change your strategy if it's called for.

You know, if you're looking for an agency that understands home service companies and what it takes to rank, then look no further, you have found us.


Which is Better For HVAC Marketing? Online or Offline Marketing?

Are you looking to expand your HVAC business to new territories? Perhaps you just started and want to drum up attention in the local community? Whatever your reason, you need a plan, and it starts with knowing the difference between online marketing and offline marketing.

Once you expand your knowledge, you'll be able to decide on an HVAC marketing plan that works. More importantly, you'll know that each one of your marketing dollars will be leading to a high return on investment (ROI).
With this in mind, read on to learn all about HVAC marketing–both online and offline!

Online: HVAC Digital Marketing

Regardless of whether you want to use traditional, offline marketing methods in your strategy, you need to use digital marketing. Online marketing is synonymous with digital marketing. You're using a variety of digital methods in order to build authority with your brand, find new customers, and build your current relationships with customers.
Digital marketing uses a variety of different channels, such as:

    Paid social media advertisements
    Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns
    Social media posts
    Content marketing (blog posts, video, infographics, etc.)
    And more

You can see how it can quickly become overwhelming if you spread yourself too thin and try to market on all of these channels. However, an HVAC marketing company is here to make the process simple. We'll go over some of the most effective HVAC marketing strategies.

Offline: Traditional Marketing

Compared to online marketing, offline is everything that is now deemed "traditional." Even though they're not as widely used as years past, traditional marketing can still be beneficial for your business, especially if you're trying to build rapport in a local community. Here are a few examples of traditional marketing:

    Billboards
    Newspaper advertisements
    Magazine advertisements
    TV commercials
    Radio ads
    Postcards
    Brochures
    And more

Traditional marketing can be even trickier than digital marketing because you won't get as much real-time feedback on what works and what doesn't. For instance, PPC campaigns will give you instant data on how many people are viewing and clicking on your Google advertisements.
In contrast, you won't be able to tell how many people have viewed your roadside billboard. You would just have to make a conjecture based on how much traffic is on that road. Then, you'd have to manually keep track of how many more calls or website visits you received since the billboard went up. The same is true for print advertisements.
The main benefit of traditional marketing is that you'll stand out from your competitors. A well-designed brochure that includes a discount for the first-time service is more likely to be remembered. This is because your competitors will probably be focusing on digital marketing strategies alone.

HVAC Marketing Ideas: Where to Start

 

    Increasing brand awareness
    Generating qualified leads
    Increase customer value
    Building brand authority

If you're just getting started with your HVAC business, it helps to focus on building brand awareness before moving on to other goals. You'll find you'll have an easier time generating leads if many people are already familiar with your brand.

Building Brand Awareness

Digital marketing is one of the easiest ways to begin building brand awareness. You can do this by creating a functional and aesthetically pleasing website that people can navigate to in order to learn about your business, schedule appointments, and find contact information. Boosting traffic to your website is done through a combination of PPC advertising and content marketing.

Generating Leads

PPC advertising is another way to quickly generate leads without waiting for your content marketing to "kick in." Search engine optimization (SEO) is important, but it's a long-term strategy. At this point, you can also create brochures and postcards in order to mail to local residents and previous customers.

Increasing Customer Value

Once you begin building brand authority in your local area, you'll begin acquiring paying customers. However, it's important that you keep those customers happy and retain them. You'll find it's far easier and worth more of your energy to retain current customers than to constantly struggle to acquire new ones.

Providing exemplary service and making your scheduling system easier can be great ways to increase customer value. Happy customers will also be more likely to leave positive reviews on your Google Business page and recommend your HVAC business to friends and family.
This can be done through a combination of email marketing and print advertisements to keep customers engaged.

HVAC Marketing: Starting With a Strategy

When it comes to HVAC marketing, it's important to start with a strategy regardless of whether you're going the digital route, traditional, or a combination of the two methods. This is because you can quickly stretch yourself as well as your budget too thin, if you try to do anything and everything all at once.
Marketing the smart way begins with discovering your target audience and learning which marketing channel will capture their attention the most. If your budget allows for it, it is even best to invest in both.
Ready to begin your marketing strategy with a premier full-service marketing agency that's experienced with working with companies in the HVAC industry? Contact us today to get started!


Google.com

Here's Why You Should Stop Googling Yourself

It seems harmless. You own a business, and you want to find out how your digital marketing efforts are paying off. The next logical step?

Googling yourself, of course! What could go wrong?

As it turns out, quite a bit could go wrong. By searching for yourself online, you make your SEO and ads less effective. It's a total bummer if you’ve just spent half your marketing budget trying to get your rankings up.

Keep reading to find out why you should resist the urge to google yourself and how else you can safely monitor your rankings. The best part? You already know how!

Googling Yourself Is Inaccurate

Whether it’s YouTube videos, social media, or Buzzfeed articles, we’ve all fallen down internet rabbit holes before. You know, the type where a minute of searching on your mobile suddenly turns into a lost hour?

Well, googling yourself is no different. And as an HVAC business owner, you’ve got better things to do than waste your time with one-off, inaccurate Google results that give you no usable information.

At best, you will discover that based on your personal search history and Google's profiling, you’re number one in the rankings. Not that useful if you’re searching from your office PC in the exact location listed on your Google My Business page.

At worst, you’ll not show up at all. And you’ll then spend an hour looking at competitors who seem leaps and bounds ahead of you with their SEO.

It’s important to remember that the rankings you see are NOT the rankings seen by everyone else. Your search results are tailored to you. As a result, googling yourself doesn’t give you the big picture. It just gives you an (often misleading) indicator of your performance based on narrow criteria.

There Are Better Metrics Out There

Thinking that you are googling your business to ‘see how things are going’ is about as sensible as trying to buy pet food from your favorite ice cream place.

To find out how things are going, you need to look at your KPIs. You’ve got access to your analytics dashboard, and your sales performance through your marketing agency who can provide these stats for you. These should be the main indicators of your performance and how well your campaigns are paying off.

Beyond that, tracking your conversion rates, click-through, and inquiry volume will provide data that drills into your success rate. Search isn’t everything. What use is ranking as number one if your lead volume has dropped through the floor?

Rather than being hellbent on securing the top spots, take a holistic view of your digital marketing. Yes, SEO is important for small businesses and will help your ranking. But so is your content strategy and the CTA’s on your site. If in doubt, a professional marketing agency like Optic Marketing Group can make sure you’re looking at the whole picture.

You’re Not the Customer

Ever discovered that you rank for a keyword that you didn’t plan for? It happens! Your prospective customers aren’t always googling the way you expect.

After all, you have years of experience in the field and know all the terminology/jargon inside out. Your prospects, on the other hand, are at the beginning of the journey.

Google estimates that 15% of their search volume is unique. That equates to around 500 million searches a day that Google hasn’t seen before. This means there are going to be new search terms thrown up constantly. Searching for the term, you think your prospects will use is useless. You need actionable insights that will help improve your targeting.

Searching for Yourself Online Has Negative Impacts

One of the worst effects of googling yourself is that you sabotage your online presence by trying to monitor it. Clicking on your PPC ad is the equivalent of emptying your wallet and donating it straight to the search engines. And even if you don’t click, you’re going to create an impression which skews your performance stats.

Plus, when ads appear but aren’t clicked on, they’re shown less overall, and the cost goes up. Meaning fewer genuine prospects will see your ads, and you’ll pay more for the same level of visibility.

The effect on organic rankings is less powerful but still shouldn’t be ignored. Clicking on your website could artificially inflate your visitor numbers. Whilst clicking on competitor links gives Google the nod that these are useful sites, so they’ll rank higher in the future.

Googling Yourself Doesn’t Reveal Your Position in the SERP

Back when Google was just an infant, googling yourself made sense. Their search criteria were simple, and there was less content on the web, so your search position was relatively static no matter who was searching.

Today, it’s a lot more complex. The search engine results take into account many factors to determine which pages you’re shown and when you see certain ads. Your result is different from your boss's result, even if you use the same search query.

Here are some of the factors affecting SERP:

The device you’re using; mobile searches see different results to web searches and so on

Searching with voice assistants like Alexa and Google Home

Your physical location, which is determined by GPS or your devices IP address

Being logged into a Gmail account

Past search history

The search engine used, Google, Yahoo, and Bing, have different algorithms that affect the results you see

Googling yourself won’t reveal which factors are affecting your performance—but using SEO management tools will. With tools like Google Analytics, you can see which devices are used, where your prospects are searching from, and more.

Stop Googling Yourself and Test Your Rankings Professionally
Googling yourself is a fruitless exercise. It won’t reveal much about your position in the rankings, but it could lower your performance. And who would want that?

Get in touch with Optic Marketing Group, your full-service marketing agency today if you want to get a handle on your rankings and stop googling yourself for good!


man talking on the phone while on the computer

The Major Benefits of Call Tracking for Your Home Services Business

Did you know that call tracking is used by HVAC companies all around the world to grow?

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning services can be difficult to advertise when the market has a plethora of companies offering similar things. As an HVAC business owner, you must do whatever it takes to make your business stand out from others.

The best way to do that is by investing in call tracking for home services business purposes. But why use call tracking in your business? We'll go over all the major benefits of call tracking so that you can invest in it with confidence.

Read on to learn about the major benefits of call tracking!

Track ROI

One of the main benefits of call tracking is being able to improve your Return on Investment (ROI). This is essential for most businesses because it gives them a good idea of how well their full-service marketing is working. Using call tracking, you can see which sources are producing the most results.

For example, when you launch a variety of ads, you must know which ones are encouraging customers to reach out. Using unique information on each ad will make it easy for you to tell which ad a customer saw when calling you.

By knowing the percentage of how many times each ad is convincing a customer to call, you can make appropriate changes to the ones that aren't performing.

Call tracking also allows you to see how often a member of your sales team closes a sale. Acting based on the information you see will help you increase close rates, boosting profits, and gaining more customers.

Increase Conversion Rates

To effectively increase conversion rates, you must invest in good call tracking. While it was impossible to track calls in the past, you can find out exactly where a call is coming from today.

Any time you launch an ad campaign, use a unique phone number. When a customer calls you, you'll know they saw an ad from that campaign. You can then see the options they choose in the automated system and how long they've been on hold.

If customers are ignoring certain things in the menu, you can replace them with something else or remove them entirely.

Many businesses will record phone calls so that they can review them. By doing this, you can hear what your employees say and how the customers react to them.

You'll need as much information as possible to increase conversion rates, so analyze your employees' skills and determine what should be done. If employees aren't selling HVAC services, you'll need to place them in a new training program or find someone else.

Use Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

One benefit of call tracking that people commonly overlook is being able to track things with a CRM. CRM systems allow you to manage everything that involves customer data, including information acquired from call tracking.

When using call tracking data, you can make decisions that will bring in more revenue instead of launching random marketing campaigns that may not work. 

Any time you receive a phone call, you can use the CRM to see the customer's history with your company. Things like the ad source, purchase history, and location can all be viewed. This information will show you which marketing efforts are effective so that you can stop spending money on ineffective ones.

Improve Communication Skills

Call tracking is useful when you want to improve your employees' communications skills because every call will be different. When recording calls, you should write notes about the things the customers say so you can prepare mock phone calls for employees.

You won't be able to listen to every phone call unless you sacrifice a lot of time, but ensure that you listen to several in the beginning. Preparing employees for things that customers will say will increase the likelihood that they satisfy the customers' needs.

You can learn a lot about what customers are thinking about through phone calls. Figure out where their attention is and what they're worried about when calling. Getting a better understanding of your audience will help you make better decisions in the future.

Satisfy Customers

The ultimate goal of call tracking for business purposes is to satisfy the customer. While you may invest in call tracking so that you can learn about how to improve your ads, you should focus on enhancing the customer experience.

When customers contact your business, it's because they saw something that interested them or they have a question. There's no reason why they should leave the phone call unsatisfied, so you must use call tracking to figure out how you can retain them.

Customer experience is something you'll be improving for as long as your company exists, so you'll need call tracking to continue satisfying customers. As you launch new HVAC products and services, you'll receive more phone calls that will help you come up with new plans.

Invest in Call Tracking Today

Now that you've read this article, you know about all the major benefits of call tracking. No matter how well you think you satisfy customers, you should invest in call tracking to truly learn about them. Whether you have a small or large business, you'll see an increase in sales soon after implementing call tracking.

Keep in mind that when it comes to HVAC, you and your employees must know how to communicate with customers. Call tracking is the only way you can improve your communication skills because you can analyze how you and employees speak.

Contact us to learn about how we can improve your business with call tracking!


customer service person with ear piece

6 HVAC Customer Service Tips to Implement Immediately

Did you know that 84% of all companies that focus on improving customer experience record remarkable increases in their overall revenue? This trend in customer behavior is one that no company should ever ignore. One of the surest ways to ensure that you achieve remarkable growth in your business is to enhance your customer experience. 

As an HVAC company, customer satisfaction is your greatest asset. A satisfied client will not only become a repeat customer but also offer referrals to other potential clients. But how can you enhance HVAC customer service? 

In this article, we review some must-know tips on how HVAC professionals can achieve top-notch customer satisfaction. Read on to learn more customer service tips for HVAC. 

1. Make Every Phone Call Count 

As an HVAC company, most of the calls you shall receive will be from distressed customers. Some will call in for inquiries, while others will be in search of emergency services. The caller always expects that you’ll stop everything and focus on their concerns. 

If your tone, composure, and attention are missing in a phone call, it could be the last you hear from such clients. Even amid a chaotic day, you can’t afford to put your callers on hold for long. 

It’s also critical that you take your time to understand each caller's concerns and issues. Sometimes, the first impressions when communicating on the phone with clients can make or break future relations. One of the HVAC customer service tips you must always remember is treating every caller as a high-value client. 

2. Reply to All Text Messages as Soon as Possible

Not all clients will prefer a phone call. Some will opt to text or email you. When this happens, it’s up to you to ensure a timely response. Sometimes the number of texts, emails, and inboxes may be overwhelming. 

Either way, your best approach to customer service comes to the test when you receive such a message. A message that goes unanswered could easily lead to a lost client and bad reviews. On the other hand, a timely and comprehensive response to customer messages can bag you many satisfied clients. 

With more businesses embracing the idea of hiring our digital marketing services, you’ll get numerous messages from clients who are either in search of your services or need some questions answered. In such cases, having your staff ready to answer such queries is critical. 

Hiring our HVAC marketing company to address such questions might help in the long term. 

3. Time Is Money

Most of the clients you’ll encounter value their time. No one wants to wait around without the assurance that things will be done. Sometimes it’s better to under-promise and over achieve rather than keep your clients waiting for services you may never deliver. 

For you to keep time schedules to the last second, you could start by having a work plan for a day’s workload. This will ensure that you have specific areas mapped and specific techs assigned to each unique area. You may always consider using existing HVAC business scheduling applications to help you keep up with time. 

Unless you ensure that you manage all tight schedules throughout the day, you might end up losing some clients along the way. This is because each customer wants to feel like a priority to your company. 

4. Communication Is Everything 

Most times, clients call in to ask questions or request services. However, in other cases, it’s you to call in and explain that you’ll be late for an appointment or that your response team is on the way. When thinking about HVAC customer service, constant communication, and engagement with your customers can be a real deal-breaker. 

Sometimes, your communication with potential customers could be to give them a chance to offer feedback. If your customers have numerous complaints that lack a channel for feedback, they’ll seek alternative HVAC service providers. 

Part of the reason HVAC companies hire marketing services from us is to ensure that someone follows up on feedback. It may be an essential part of your HVAC customer satisfaction journey to keep a vibrant communication approach with your customers. 

5. Customer Satisfaction Is All About Self-Evaluation  

Would you do business with your company? It is an important question, but one that HVAC professionals hardly ask themselves. If you wouldn’t be comfortable doing business with your company, then most other customers may also not consider the option. 

If you wouldn’t hire yourself for tune-ups or various other HVAC components replacements, don’t assume that other clients will consider your services. As such, you might need to think about your services and what areas of improvement you might need to consider. A self-assessment allows for a moment of critical evaluation and possible improvements. 

6. Make Doing Business With Your HVAC Company Easy  

You might do everything else right but fail on one crucial aspect— ensuring ease of doing business. How easy is it to make a payment to your company? What mobile-friendly tools do you have in place to support the millions of smartphone users who are also your clients? 

Technology is one of the best frontiers that will help HVAC companies ease the process of doing business. You can take advantage of self-service scheduling, online payments, and so much more in your bid to make doing business with your HVAC company fast and easy. 

These HVAC Customer Service Tips Will Push Your Brand Higher 

The customer is king. Unless you understand this concept and purpose to win over their loyalty, your business may never scale up.

Are you wondering how to ensure a better customer experience for your customers? With these six pro HVAC customer service tips, you should be well on your way towards positive customer reviews. 

If you are looking for HVAC marketing professionals to help build your brand and ensure better customer satisfaction, we are here for you. Contact us today for the best HVAC marketing support.


5 blue stars

The Dos and Don'ts for Getting More Business Reviews

*Updated January 2022.

Reviews can make or break your HVAC business. Most customers will make their buying decisions based on what other people have said about your company and the products or services you sell. 

Getting more business reviews, therefore, is instrumental in displaying your credibility to your customers. Here are the do's and don'ts when you're trying to get more business reviews. 

Do: Respond to Reviews

A responsive business is the one that is most likely to succeed. Responding to business reviews, whether they be positive or negative, shows that you pay enough attention to your customers and are eager to improve your quality on their behalf. Since customers make buying decisions by looking at reviews, seeing that you are responsive will possibly increase your credibility.

It is also going to influence other customers to be more willing to share reviews regarding your business.

When answering reviews, make sure to show your gratitude. This can start with 'thank you for your review, we're glad you enjoyed our product' or 'thank you for taking the time to report this.' A personalized answer is also something that will be well-received by your customers.

At the same time, make sure you are providing actual solutions to issues customers have. This can come from you asking them to send you a report of what happened, providing a refund, or simply noting their concerns and keeping them in mind for the future.

Do: Ask the Right People for Reviews 

It takes wisdom and a bit of luck to reach the right customers for reviews. The main idea is you want to get more business reviews that are positive, so reaching these customers will take a bit more work.

You can set up a survey or an automated system after someone purchases an item, and if they indicate that they are happy with the product, you can invite them to submit a review as well. 

Do: Have a Review Manager

The best way to make sure all your reviews are answered appropriately - and that they stick to the tone of your company - is to have a review manager.

This person will then be able to regulate the different replies, and if the tasks are delegated, will make sure that the answers follow a somewhat consistent script. 

Do: Make It Easy for Customers to Post Reviews

Have you ever bought a product from a company and wanted to post a positive review, but you don't know where to do it? 

Customers don't like spending time when they post a review. If they don't feel completely passionate about their response to your product, it's easy to assume that they won't care enough to scour your site or Yelp in order to submit a review.

Therefore, it's important to make the process easy for them. You can achieve this by registering your company on the most common review sites. 

Don't: Delay Responses

Reviews are best responded to when they're still on the minds of your customers. A quick response time will show them that you care about what they have to say, instead of simply leaving it for the last task before the weekend. 

Time becomes everything if you want your responses to matter. Appease negative reviewers when they are still angry by reaching out to them, or make your positive reviewers know that you appreciate the time they took to review you.

Don't: Grow Emotional Over Negative Reviews

There are some reviews out there that may really get on your nerves. They're not saying much except that they hate your products. However, it's important that you keep your cool when responding to these reviews. 

If you reply with snappiness or anger, you will be the one whose reputation will take a hit. Remain professional and respond to them on the public forum, showing that you are not fazed by the review and that you're open to addressing their concerns.

Don't: Pester Customers for Reviews

When a customer submits a review, they are essentially doing something for free. Being demanding when you request reviews will instead turn them off. 

When you ask a customer for a review, let it be open for them to reject the offer. 

Don't: Only Ask for Reviews Once

You may think it's enough to ask for reviews during one period of time. After you've gotten around a dozen, it seems like your work is done. Right?

Wrong. Customers care about the most updated reviews, so even if you have tons of them but they date back to a year ago, your customers will not consider these very credible. Keep reaching out and maintain the inflow of reviews at all times. 

Don't: Offer Something in Exchange for a Review

It seems like a great idea to offer something in exchange for a review. Offer a 10% discount or a free pudding for your customer to provide a review. They're more likely to do it, and there is the added benefit that they'll even like you more. 

However, sites such as Yelp do not allow this, and may provide you with an alert or will ban your business from their site, if it happens too often. Review sites are getting smarter in distinguishing between genuine reviews and ones that are just meant to receive something else in return. 

These sorts of reviews will also skew the truth, even if just a little. Getting more business reviews is beneficial, sure, but it is only useful for your company if it provides genuine ideas for you to improve your practices. 

Encourage and answer reviews and questions

People trust other people more than they trust businesses. Having a good review can be the a big deciding factor that tips prospective customers in your favor. Google reviews can improve your Google ranking.

When is the best time to ask for a review? The best time to ask for a review is after providing a great customer experience. To make it easier, Google provides a direct link to ask customers to review your business.

To share your review request link:

1. From the dashboard, scroll down to the button that says Share review form.

 

google my business

2. Then you can copy and paste the link into a message to customers.

Getting More Business Reviews Improves Your Marketing Strategy

From increasing customer engagement to understanding problematic areas that you need to work on in your business, getting more business reviews can help you succeed. At the same time, there are some dos and don'ts that will ensure your online presence will be beneficial for you.

Contact us to find out more ways Optic Marketing Group can help you to boost your company's digital presence.


HVAC poster

Top 10 Tools to Help Your Home Services Business Grow Online

Running an HVAC home service business can be a demanding yet rewarding undertaking. However, for you to thrive in this venture, you need to work on your brand's online presence. 

In this article, we reflect on the top 10 tools to help your home services business grow online. With the changing concept of brick and clicks, your home services business will need these tips to create a concrete online business strategy. 

1. Google

Google is among the top online tools for business growth that any business looking to scale up their business should consider. When you think of Google you might just think of it as a search engine but in fact, Google provides an entire suite of tools and benefits and most of them are free to use.  

The first step is claiming your business listing on Google so that you can optimize your company details. Beyond that, you can set up Google Analytics to track metrics on your website and much more.

To kick it up a notch you can take advantage of the paid tools within Google like setting up a search campaign in Google Ads or a Google Local Ad to shine in your local market.

If you are not sure where to start or where to invest your time and money, Google is going to be the best starting point.

2. Social Media Tools

Social media is a tool used by almost every single person who owns a computer or a phone. Social media consists of several different platforms so you can reach different types of people in different ways.

Facebook alone currently has 3 billion monthly users. With such huge numbers of daily online users, tapping on to this platform and other social media sites can help you grow your business two-fold. 

It's important to identify the social media platforms that work for you in the ever-evolving HVAC market. As of now, it still stands that Facebook is the leading platform for HVAC businesses as this is where you can reach the highest number of people in your target market and where many people go to look for home-services recommendations and reviews.

When considering social media, visibility and lead conversion should be at the center of your focus. There are many different ways you can reach your audience, both for free or with paid campaigns such as marketing automation. Once the social media campaign is on, you can evaluate and assess your business's growth over time and see what strategy works best for you.

3. Content Scheduling Software

When handling so many moving pieces in your HVAC business, it can be hard to stick to a consistent content schedule without being able to schedule things in advance. 

There are many different content scheduling tools and software out there to help you to manage your media and keep you on a schedule without having to manually schedule fresh content every single day and remember to do so.  

Most of these platforms though, do not come cheap, but the good news is when you work with an HVAC marketing agency, they usually already have access to these advanced tools so by working with them, they will take care of that piece for you.

4. Website Marketing Analysis

When customers search for businesses like yours online, your website is where all your online visitors land first, so think of it as your first impression.

Unless you develop a website that will attract your customers and ensure ease of use, your business may not see enough growth online. When launching your business, the first thing to do is to consider designing a website that will stand out. Your website is the landing page that tells all your current and potential clients about your products and services. 

While some people consider designing their websites, it may take a professional's help to build a reliable site that is properly optimized for SEO and user experience. Once your website is up and running efficiently, it will be easy to attract new clients and turn them into leads. You can then use a website and marketing analysis tool to assess your business and the strides made in the process of pushing your HVAC services. Much like with the other tools, if you want access to the best enterprise level software you will be better off partnering up with agency so that they can also manage them for you as well.

5. Call Tracking Tools 

Call tracking or call listening tools are highly recommended for home services businesses. This will help you to get the full picture of your team's customer service to see how it impacts your bottom line. You can have the best marketing strategy in the world that produces an abundance of qualified leads, but if those customers call you and don't have a pleasant experience, you can lose that lead for good. 

Without listening to your calls, you won't know what kind of experience they had, or if you need to make proper adjustments to your customer service procedure, welcome message, tone of voice, wait time, etc.

6. Marketing Automation

Are you looking forward to growing a home service business online? One of the best places to start is by focusing on automation. You may need to consider a marketing automation campaign as a useful tool in capturing leads, boosting conversion rates, and managing the sales process. 

With this tool in place, you can save time while building your HVAC business one step at a time online, hands-free. That's right, with marketing automation the majority of the work is during the initial set-up, then from there it moves leads through the process automatically while you focus on the other components of your business. You may benefit from working with a marketing company like Optic Marketing Group, that understands how to set up and manage marketing automation tools.

7. Blog

A great way to improve your SEO and get noticed online is with an HVAC blog on your website. You can use your blog to publish company updates or any industry relevant information or topics that you think your customers will be interested in and as they are looking up this information, they will be more likely to land on your blog on your website, ultimately giving you exposure and potential leads.

Something to keep in mind though, if you do choose to start a blog you need to add fresh content each month so make sure you have someone on your team who is a good writer, otherwise hire a full-service HVAC marketing agency like Optic Marketing Group who has a team of writing experts who can produce SEO friendly content for you.

8. Competitor Analysis Tools

It is always important to track your progress of course, but it is almost just as important to keep an eye out on your competition. After all, you are competing for the same audience. There are many different tools out there that can provide you with insights from your competitors and even how you compare to them.

You obviously want to stand out from your competition, so by knowing what they are doing you can find ways to be even better. Work with a marketing agency like Optic Marketing Group who has unique tools to help you monitor your competition. 

9. Accounting Software Tools 

Without reliable business software, you might fail in your capacity to keep up with routine bookkeeping and accounting needs. 

Save your business from making expensive mistakes down the road by investing in an accounting tool to keep you on track.

10. Trend-tracking Software

Managing a business requires a focus on the trends in the industry. You need to keep track of the trends in the market to ensure adequate planning and make sure your marketing efforts and business procedures align with the latest trends.

Having a tool like this in your tool box, guarantees you a bird's eye view of your respective industry and the trends as your business scales up operations. 

These Are the Top 10 Tools to Help Your Home Services Business Grow Online 

Now more than ever, you need to consider ways of ensuring that your business grows online. Apart from using traditional marketing techniques, you can consider these top 10 tools to help your home services business grow online. 

Did you find this article helpful? Optic Marketing Group offers you this and much more when it comes to business marketing and growth. Contact us today for more information on how to grow your business.


SEO Is Not Dead: The Importance of SEO For Small Businesses

Running a business?

Regardless of your niche, you must know that local SEO for small business establishments is beneficial to you. But with no prior experience, you’ll have no idea about its effects. You may end up biting the dust as millions of businesses use SEO to their advantage.

Don’t dismiss SEO yet.

With this guide, you’ll learn the importance of SEO for small businesses. This way, you’ll have a definite idea of how this online marketing tactic helps drive more customers to you. Read on and find out more:

1. Your Business Gains More Brand Awareness

If people see your brand name on the first page of Google’s search engine result pages, they will become more aware of your business. It’s because this search engine has over 92% of the global market share for this industry. That means potential customers will more likely remember you the next time they need a product or service you provide.

People tend to choose brands Google puts higher on their list. This is regardless of whether these businesses are better than the ones at the top. That’s why you must ensure your website has proper SEO since it helps to bypass your competition and achieve your goals faster.

Always remember that even the most outstanding products require great marketing. This ensures more people are aware of their existence and choose them. Your digital marketing strategies will matter a lot in determining its degree of success.

2. Your Website Becomes Faster and More Convenient

Search engines will check the user-friendliness of your HVAC website. If they have positive results after crawling your website, you get a higher ranking as a reward. To optimize your website content, you must focus on improving your users’ experience.

Think about how convenient your website is right now and improve from there. Once you find the right level of convenience, you’ll have more chances of people visiting your website. After that, they also become more motivated to avail of your products or services since they had a good experience.

3. SEO Helps Your Business Beat the Competition

You're dealing with thousands of HVAC businesses. This applies whether you’re competing at a local level or national. The good news is that you can surpass them and get more customers to visit your website.

As you invest in SEO, you’ll see higher rankings, especially if your HVAC marketing company does it right. The best part is that once you’re ranked higher than them, you’ll begin to see an unprecedented growth that might make you more noticeable than your competitors. Believe in the best SEO practices in the market since it’s your best bet to get good rankings in search engines.

Do you want to make the most out of your SEO investment? If so, read our guide and learn how to pick the best HVAC marketing company for you.

4. You Get Better Conversion Rates

Optimized websites will load faster and are easier to navigate. Alongside this, they’re responsive toward mobile and tablet gadgets. With this, your business website can cater to potential customers regardless of the device they use.

With this website, your visitors feel attracted to it, meaning they will spend longer periods perusing its contents. Before long, they become regular customers. Ideally, the easy navigation and the wealth of information you give will make them subscribe more, allowing you to lay the foundation for a strong email marketing strategy.

If people stay interested in the things you offer, they will continue going back to your website. This makes organic traffic, making search engines recognize you better. These people are already searching for something you can offer, so you have better chances of converting them compared to people just passing by.

5. Your Business Gets New Customers

The growth rate of a small business with a website is twice faster compared to those without an online presence. This applies regardless of the industry you’re in. You must know better and accept the fact that you have lots of buyers online waiting for you to find them.

Your marketing efforts must yield some new customers. SEO has the same goals, but it uses other methods and strategies to accomplish them. With better search rankings, you get more targeted visits, meaning you get more potential customers as time passes.

6. SEO is More Cost-Effective

As a small business, you likely have limited resources. It means you can’t waste a lot of money on marketing. That’s why an effective SEO strategy gets you similar results with bigger companies without spending too much on advertising.

For example, you can use PPC (pay-per-click) advertising to get new customers. This is effective, but you can only use it sparingly because you can’t maintain it without a bigger budget. Instead, you must use SEO strategies that boost your search results by driving more organic traffic.

Once you start converting people, your SEO spending decreases. After all, your high ranking is enough to net you some new customers without the need for paid campaigns. The only caveat is that you must maintain your rankings by constantly doing SEO practices.

7. SEO has Long-lasting Results

Online ads bring immediate results, but their benefit ends as soon as you stop paying money. But with SEO, your investment lasts longer since it brings new customers over a longer period. It won’t bring instant rewards, but it isn’t the point in the first place.

Your goal is to remain high enough in search results to raise your brand awareness and improve your conversion rates. Again, you must maintain SEO to reap its benefits. The only reprieve is that it’s cheaper compared to online and offline ads.

Invest in SEO for Small Businesses Today!

These are some of the important reasons to invest in SEO for small businesses. Use this if you’re unconvinced of the benefits SEO can offer you.

Do you need affordable SEO services for small businesses? If so, contact us today!


phone with Facebook like icon

Best Facebook Ad Types for Home Services

There are multiple kinds of Facebook ad types you can use for your target audience to help you achieve the best results.

It varies from lead generation to conversion campaigns. You want to test and see what works best for your audience in order to give you the most sales or whatever your campaign objective is.

When you do find the best ad types, especially when it comes to home services, you have to know what can help produce more leads or more brand awareness. You know what audiences react best to a certain ad type and the home services you offer.

If you're unsure of the best Facebook ad types for home services, here's a guide that can help.

The Different Facebook Ad Types

The Facebook ad type you choose will depend on your objective and you're trying to accomplish overall in your business.

When it comes to home services, you want to choose the best kind that can give the best results. Here are some of the best Facebook ad types for your home services to consider for your business.

Lead Generation

When it comes to lead generation Facebook ads, the goal is to accumulate leads and then warm them up as they enter your funnel.

You want an ad that stands out and appeals to them. With lead generation, someone sees your free offer on Facebook, in which they exchange their information for the packet.

When someone gives you their information, they instantly become a lead. This is one of the best Facebook ad types for home services because can create leads for these kinds of businesses.

Home service businesses can then take the leads and put them on an email campaign or makes a sales call. However, it's important to remember that lead generation Facebook ad types don't immediately make a sale for a business, even for home service businesses.

They are designed to attract interest from potential customers who are interested in-home services like roofing.

Conversion Campaign

A conversion campaign is different from a lead generation campaign because, as the same implies, conversion campaigns are for direct sales.

These are also great for home services because they take someone from Facebook and immediately put them on your website or sales page. It encourages someone to take action immediately.

Conversion Facebook ad types are great for home services because it can encourage consumers to book appointments. The results are instantaneous.

Brand Awareness

The final Facebook ad type to consider is brand awareness.

When someone sees your Facebook, it takes them to your website and sparks awareness of your business. They know the story you are telling them.

Your brand should tell a story about your business and how you can help them. The more consumers understand this story, the more they feel an emotional connection with the story. The more they realize how you can help them.

When you have consumers who do become familiar with your business, you can retarget them with conversion Facebook ad types. This helps you take consumers through the funnel of your home service.

Consumers learn more about your business as they go through your funnel. However, none of these ad types matter if you don't have a proper funnel.

Funnel Ad Types

When it comes to funnel ad types, you should have:

  • Awareness
  • Consideration
  • Buyer's stage

A marketing or sales funnel should take someone from awareness to eventual sales. A common acronym to remember is AIDA - Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

Therefore, when you create an ad type, you have to keep in mind what kind of ad you are creating and where the audience is in the funnel.

This is why it's important to be strategic about how you create a Facebook ad type for your audience. When you do create ad types, you should have multiple custom audiences set up.

This allows you to market to different audiences who may be ready to buy or to people who may need home services. If you're having a problem with your funnel, you need to figure out where the bottleneck is in the funnel.

You need to figure out if you're ads are targeting the wrong audience, so the awareness campaign doesn't matter, or if you are trying to sell to your audience too quickly, which can result in fewer bookings and sales.

Other Facebook Ad Considerations

One of the most important Facebook ad consideration is knowing who your target market is. You want to know everything about them, especially what kind of problems they have and how you can help them.

Another consideration is updating your website. If you have a Facebook ad campaign that takes the consumer to your website, you want to make sure the website is updated. Not updating it is a common marketing mistake.

You don't want your consumers going to a competitor's site and realizing it looks so much better than yours. That's why it's important to have a website that appeals to your target market and gets them to take action.

Now You Know Everything About Facebook Ad Types

When you are trying to figure out how to market to your audience as a home service business, you need to know about the different Facebook ad types and which one is most effective. This guide can help make that clearer.

More importantly, you have to know how to create an effective sales funnel. This requires understanding your ideal market and what appeals to them. You have to know where they are in the funnel.

If you want help with creating a marketing strategy with your home service business, you can contact us here.


The Secrets to an HVAC Company Website That Converts

The HVAC market is so huge that it’s valued at a colossal $7.17 billion and expected to hit double that by 2025. Every HVAC company has a website and basically looks to attract and engage the same customers.

The question is, how do you use your website to convert more customers in such a competitive industry?

When it comes to getting more customers calling you or reaching out to you online for heating and cooling services, your website is your best asset. A thoughtfully designed website can help you convert your visitors into active customers.

In this post, we’ll give you some juicy secrets that you can use to drive traffic to your website, and even better, convert your potential customers into loyal customers.

Make Sure Your Website Is Responsive and Mobile Friendly

If there's one part of your website you should be concerned about, it's how responsive it is.

For your website design to have the ability to truly boost conversion rates, it must be consistent across different platforms. It's true that the type and amount of information that fits on small devices differ from laptops and PCs, but we cannot overstate the principle of mobile-friendly and responsive websites.

There are currently 5.20 billion mobile users across the globe, a number that’s growing at a rate of 2% per year. Your HVAC company will easily lose its market share if your website design does not consider mobile device users.

Half of the people who search for products or services online use mobile devices, and with this information in mind, you should focus on making sure your website accommodates all customers across the board.

Simplify Navigation

Given that your goal is to make sure your HVAC company website has a high conversion rate, one of the simplest things you can do is simplify navigation. You should lead your visitors through the action you want them to take in a simple manner, and they don't have to keep looking for what they need. Make sure your customers can navigate the website with a minimum number of clicks.

Every navigation label and heading should be easy to identify and understand. The last thing you want is to create a website that poses a challenge to your site visitors. Internet users have very limited patience and they can easily leave your websites out of frustration and look for your competitors.

Review your website navigation and make sure it is clear, accurate, and simple.

Magnify Your Calls to Action

The call-to-action button is one of the most essential parts of your company website because it leads customers exactly where you want them to go. It should be able to serve its purpose of leading them to take action. This means that more than anything else, it should stand out.

Use colors and a great position on your website to make it pop and hard to dismiss. It's highly imperative that you pay attention to how many call-to-action buttons you include on each of your web pages. Essentially, the effectiveness of your call-to-action will be reduced according to the number of buttons on each page.

It’s advisable to have only one call-to-action button on each page. Beyond that, it's crucial for you to make sure that every call-to-action is relevant to the content on the web page. If not, it will be just like another advert that your customers are most likely to ignore.

Have a Clear Value Proposition

Your value proposition is your unique selling point and the one thing that sets your services apart from other HVAC competitors. It's critical for you to articulate exactly what your customers can expect from you.

This value proposition needs to be short, to the point, and easy for customers to see. It will go a long way if it’s also in harmony with the style of your website design as well as the HVAC industry.

Minimize User Input

For an optimum chance to convert your visitors to customers, you should have a website design that enables your customers to get information as fast as possible. This means that you need to reduce the number of clicks and the number of steps they have to go through to reach their goal.

Even though pop-ups are effective, minimize the number of pop-ups on your website. This will reduce the number of clicks customers have to make to reach the services they want.

In addition to this, if you need your users to fill out forms for you to get customer information, make sure they are short and concise. Most users leave websites as soon as they realize they have to fill out a 10-page form to get what they need. Strive to get the most vital information only in order to get the leads and convert them to active customers.

Ensure Consistent Branding

Gaining popularity online is all about ensuring consistent branding. Your HVAC company website should carry the business logo and have the same style color and design on different web pages.

You only have a few seconds to leave a lasting impression on your website visitors. During this time they’re not judging you based on your content but rather on the layout, titles, colors, and images on your website.

The images, titles, and layout should all be consistent with your branding to minimize confusion for your website visitors. Items like the call-to-action button and contact information should appear in the same position on different web pages.

This will create predictability and eliminate jolting. The same goes for all other critical information that you want to embed in your HVAC company website.

Growing Your HVAC Company: Website Design Tips for Optimal Conversion

Your HVAC company website design has a lot to do with gaining popularity and attracting customers. These are some of the most essential things you should do to convert more users to local customers. Prepare yourself for split testing to experiment with various designs to decide which converts the most.

Apart from website design, promoting your business involves advertising and marketing. This will drive the traffic to your website for some of them to convert. You can increase the amount of traffic and conversions that you receive by working with a full-service HVAC marketing agency like Optic Marketing Group that specializes in the industry.

For marketing and advertising services, please contact us today and we’ll be more than glad to help your HVAC business.