Strong marketing is about communicating good messaging to a target group of people who need what you sell. However, many entrepreneurs think it stops there – find the target audience, market to them through ads, some good word-of-mouth referrals, and the plan is done. For continuous growth, you must recognize that people are in a constant state of motion, and information is being passed back and forth at record speed, so your marketing strategy needs to be in a constant state of motion to compete. If not, you run the risk of stale messaging, lackluster sales, and a lack of customer leads. 

How do you upgrade stagnant marketing? 

Get in touch with what is not working and find out where your company needs an upgrade. 

Here are some steps to get started. 

Small Steps to Upgrade Your Marketing Strategy

Social Media

Social media is a beast to tackle if you don’t understand how it works. But it can be brilliant if you know what you are doing.

The first tip is that you must post three times a day which requires consistency and a dedicated social media person. If you want to see real numbers, you need to be consistent. Posting occasionally is not bad, but you are losing a giant opportunity to gain traffic and leads. Before you decide that it’s impossible, there are scheduling services like Hootsuite and HubSpot where you can schedule your posts on a Monday and let them all fly for the week. You may need to pay a monthly fee – nominal for Hootsuite – and begin to budget for additional manpower. 

Also, different socials speak to different demographics. Don’t discount this nuanced detail.

YouTube 

Every entrepreneur should be on YouTube posting expert videos or company posts. According to GWI, YouTube is quickly becoming the number one marketing tool for many reasons. In the GWI article, Your Audience is in This Platform, it states, 51% of people use YouTube to find products to buy, which is comparable for services.

Facebook 

Facebook is great for targeting, easy ad management, boosting, and conversations in groups.

Instagram 

Instagram is good not only for its popularity, but you can post to FB, and Instagram simultaneously, and videos and pictures do very well. Instagram is very intuitive for business owners so it’s not difficult to navigate. 

LinkedIn 

You will want to use LinkedIn for its groups and industry networking.

    

Funnel Marketing

Questions to ask:

Are you casting too wide a net? Are your lists old?  

Using newsletters, email campaigns, and follow-ups – are you optimizing this opportunity to get sales? 

If you answered yes to the first two questions or you are using newsletters already and they aren’t showing results, it’s time for an upgrade. The following steps will help you identify new opportunities.

    1. Start with cleaning your subscriber list. Examine how many of your emails are going to spam. If that is the case, you need to clean your list and update your subscribers. 

    2. Don’t stop adding subscribers even if you have a large list. People retire, drop off or find better business. So, start doing targeted social media and emails to your leads and contacts. Facebook walks you through targeted advertising and makes it simple to create ads and boosts. But even a post to your contacts or a search for new followers daily will help. 

    3. Do you have aggregated lists and segments? You should have aggregated lists – some for clients, and some for leads who have expressed interest but who have NEVER used your service. Those names should be in a “leads” folder. You should have lists dedicated to specialty groups – those who have maintenance contracts, customer surveys, specials, etc. Your email-drip campaigns and newsletters should not be relying on outdated lists. Constant updates, polishing, and refining must happen to see real results. 

    4. Other issues to address. What subject lines work best? What emails get opened most? How many clicks are you getting vs. unsubscribes? Any basic mailer program gives you these analytics, so it’s easy to assess. 

    5. Are your emails and newsletters scheduled and sent often? For emails, start email one by casting a wide net with your subject, then follow up with the same group with a more targeted email, and then finally send a third, highly targeted email. 

Dress to Impress

We always say that your fleet is a billboard on wheels. Well, your uniforms should be thought of as walking ads. The advantage of true uniforms – the kind with an embroidered company name – is that your service people are not only seen in uniforms on the road - good advertising - but also, they are in homes where impressions are everything. If they have a good rapport, including looking presentable, they are more likely to upsell.

Be Open to Growth

There is always room for improvement. What worked well two years ago may not work well now. Plan to learn as much as you can or work with service organizations that offer coaching and training. Also, offer employee incentives for staff who may be interested in virtual training in marketing. It doesn’t have to cost anything. YouTube is its own university. For any employee who expresses interest, allow them an hour daily to do that – paid. This training will go far if this person is interested and becomes your marketing person. If you don’t have it in the budget, then books, YouTube, and podcasts are cheap. Schedule an hour a day for yourself and start learning. 

Note: Don’t get stuck in rigid thinking where you assume you know who your customers are and there can’t be any variation. If you have been in business long enough, your customer base will change. 

Finally, remember the key to marketing – especially if you feel like it’s a language you don’t understand – is to start by taking small bites. Watch videos or when a question comes up and you don’t know, Google is your best friend. During the academic season, get creative by hiring a college intern for a few months (credit only) and allow them to teach you everything they know about marketing. There are always alternative ways to work around a lack of knowledge or any budget constraints. Movement, even in small increments, will yield results. 

When in doubt, remember what Einstein said:  We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. So, get to work. Figure out what needs changing and go about doing it in a new, upgraded way. If you do, you are bound to see improvements in leads, traffic, and sales!

Heather Langone is the Managing Editor of HVACR Magazine. For comments and feedback, email hlangone@hvacrbusiness.com.