by Amelia Krahe | April 28, 2016
Happy spring! With temperatures on the rise, now is the time to ramp up marketing initiatives for springtime customer acquisition. Increasingly diversified marketing channels means there are a number of ways to reach people preparing for the cooling season. Take a varied approach to your digital and physical marketing tactics by trying these strategies:
1. Check Out Keyword Trends in Your Area
Take a look at Google Trends to see when the searches for cooling-related terms start to spike. Here’s nationwide keyword search trends for “air conditioning repair” in 2015:
"Air Conditioning Repair" yearly keyword search trends spike in May.
Searches began to pick up early April, and really started spiking around May. Looking at a broader timeframe for “air conditioning” searches (from the beginning of 2014 to the beginning of 2016), the rise and fall are even more dramatically noticeable:
Try narrowing the keyword trends to your company’s service area to see when your customers are going to start calling for AC-related services, and prepare your marketing campaigns ahead of time to be the top company on their radar.
2. Update Your Related Service Pages
By making the content on your service pages clearly cooling-related, you greatly increase the likelihood that your site will show up for users on the prowl for a tune-up, installation, etc. Simple things -- putting the AC service copy first on the page, updating your calls to action to be cooling and comfort-related, and restructuring your menu items to show cooling before heating -- can all send signals to both Google and your visitors that you are open for cooling season business.
3. Send Out a Mailer
For our customers, print mailers continue to be a great driver of leads, particularly during maintenance and tune-up seasons. Mailers are an easy, tangible way of connecting with customers and sending them a physical reminder of your services. Send out a maintenance reminder, a deal on a new AC install, or an irresistible tune-up offer to your customer list. Remember to use a unique tracking number so you can keep record of the number of calls you get from the mailing.
4. Update Your Home Page Copy
Among our customers, the home page is one of the most-visited pages of the site, and in many cases, users are going to land directly on this page first. For new and returning customers, make it clear that you offer cooling-related services right off the bat by updating your home page content accordingly. Make sure to add internal links to your related service pages, and perhaps highlight a current cooling promotion prominently on the home page.
5. Switch Up Your #1 Google Plus Category
Though Google Plus allows you to add up to ten categories of business (things like “Contractor,” “Insulation Contractor,” “Solar Energy Equipment Supplier,” “HVAC Contractor”), the first one you list is considered your “primary” category of business. Once cooling season is approaching, make sure to update your #1 category to boost your business’s visibility for cooling-related search queries. Cooling-specific categories available through Google Plus include “Air Conditioning Contractor” and “Air Conditioning Repair Service.”