Using Email As A Part Of Your HVAC Marketing Strategy

Email marketing is nothing new. We’ve been sending and receiving emails since the days of dial-up internet and AOL. Today, email is probably a little less exciting than it was back then, but it’s more important than ever when it comes to digital marketing. Using email as a marketing tool for your HVAC company is one of the best ways to generate business, nurture leads, and stay in touch with your customers. 

We’ve been developing email marketing strategies for HVAC companies for over a decade. Whether it be a mass email blast, or a campaign tailored to a targeted list, we know how to create the content that converts. 

If you are looking to get started with email marketing, or have been doing it already and want to step your game up to the next level, we can help. Give Comfort Media Group a call at 215-649-7822, or reach out to us online. We can help you put together an email strategy for your next campaign! 

Ways To Use Email For Your HVAC Business

Almost anytime you purchase anything today, you are asked for your email address, especially if you purchase something online. And then after that, you probably get emails from that company over and over. For some, it’s a great way to stay in touch with their favorite brands and companies. I know I enjoy staying up to date on email from my favorite baseball team, and some of the restaurants I like to eat at or order takeout from. It’s a great way for me to learn about specials or promotions, and get a discount here or there on products and services. 

Lots of people think email marketing isn’t an effective method, or maybe it becomes just another piece of junk email. The truth is, email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your company, and stay in touch with your customers. 

An HVAC company can use email to do exactly the same things. HVAC information isn’t as exciting as your favorite hobbies or food, so it’s important to keep the emails fresh and beneficial to the recipients. Here are some of the ways our clients use email to grow their business, and help their customers. 

Mass Email Blasts

Mass email blasts are when you send out a massive email to everyone in your contact list. This is a common practice, and a good way to send a message to everyone you’ve ever done business with. 

Some of the reasons to send an email blast out may be: 

• Promoting a special
• Holiday greetings 
• A newsletter about the company
• A significant change or announcement
• Promoting a timely service (Ex: AC Tune Up reminder in the Spring)

Email blasts are a great way to make sure you are staying in touch with a larger group, if not all, of your customers. 

Segmented Email Blasts

Email blasts can also be refined to go out to a smaller sect of people. If you have the ability and information to segment your contact list, you can send out smaller, more finely tailored blasts to groups of people. For example, if you want more AC service in the middle of the summer, you can create a list of customers who have not scheduled AC service in the past 6 months, and speak directly to them. 

This more segmented list could bring better results, and lets you fine tune your message. Instead of saying, “Have you scheduled your AC service yet?”, you can say, “I see you haven’t had your AC serviced this year. We are reaching out to…” 

You can see, this small change in tone may help drive urgency, and allows you to speak more directly. 

Email Nurturing (Follow-Up Emails)

Have you ever downloaded a guide, or free information from a site? Maybe you submitted your email to receive a coupon or a discount. Then after that, you receive emails about the product or service you were looking at. Creating this automated follow-up email campaign is a great way for a company to market their product to someone who is certainly interested in it. 

Using automation and triggers, you can design an email series that will do just that for your company. These nurturing emails can be very pointed and crafted for the exact product and persona you are aiming to connect with. From timing and frequency of the emails to the content they contain, it’s important to put together the right mix of educational, entertaining, and promotional content to help you convert this lead into a customer. 

Confirmation Emails

Something in the service industry that is very helpful to a customer is a confirmation email. If a customer has an appointment scheduled for a service, or an estimate, a confirmation email with the date, time, and picture of the employee coming out to see them goes a long way. This is an easy email to create, that gets your customer relationship off on the right foot! 

Thank You Emails/Review Requests 

Another simple touch after a successful service is an email thanking the customer for using your company. You can also use this as an opportunity to conduct a survey, and ask for a five-star review if they’ve liked your service. 

Gathering as many good reviews as possible is a great way to promote your business and let potential customers know how great of a job you do! 

How To Not Become “Junk” Email

One thing we hear from a lot of our clients, and we feel as well, is the desire to not become “junk” email. The last thing you want to deal with is more email that you don’t care about, and you don’t want your company sending out emails of the sort. This is why you want to make sure your emails have purpose, and have value for the recipient. 

A few of the main pillars of email marketing we consider very valuable are: 

Offer Value To The Customer

The best way to create interesting emails with a good open rate is to consistently offer the recipient something of value. This doesn’t always mean a discount or special offer, even though that could occasionally be the case. You may want to offer education and tips for better comfort or saving money. You could offer a seasonal checklist to getting their home ready for the next season. 

The whole point is, we aren’t always trying to sell. Obviously, the goal of a marketing email is to generate business, but if you become a constant sales pitch in someone’s inbox, it’s going to drive down open rates, and drive up the unsubscribe rate. 

Staying Educational

In our marketing emails, we try and give our customers valuable information. We aim to help them solve their problems, and give information relevant to the season. For example, in the summer, an email about how you can save money on your air conditioning bills. Or maybe during the fall, the 4 benefits of furnace service. 

There are ways to promote your services while also providing valuable information that will educate your customers. 

Don’t Over Email

The last thing you want to do is become a nuisance. Emailing a respectful amount will help you stay in touch with your customers without becoming bothersome. If the recipient is interacting with your emails, and they are on the website, you should probably email frequently. This is when they are most likely to convert to a sale. 

If they don’t convert, it’s time to ease off the emails and maybe enter them into a lead-nurturing campaign that keeps in touch with them respectfully. The most important point is to keep the customer engaged, but not bother them, leading to an unsubscribe. 

Email Marketing For Your Company

We hope this has helped you learn a little more about how you can use email for your marketing. Whether you want some help crafting professional emails for the first time, or need some help developing your strategy, we can help! Give the experts here at Comfort Media Group a call, and we can help you develop an email strategy, and implement it as well. Good luck and we hope to hear from you soon!