We have written on this topic before as it relates to the HVAC industry. However, this year, in addition to the yearly fall slowdown due to moderate temperatures, we have more homeowners whose budgets are being stretched thin from increased costs of gasoline, utilities, food and more. Below are three search engine advertising actions your company can use in the slower seasons to keep your phones ringing with new customers.
(1) Use sponsored link ads to attract customers looking for Indoor Air Quality equipment
While maybe not as motivating to every human as extreme heat or cold, the online search volume for IAQ products tends to be less seasonal than A/C or heating searches. Someone suffering from pollen allergies or humidity levels that are too high or low can be very motivated to get relief. The topics of whole house air filters, humidity control, ventilation, or carbon monoxide prevention are good demographic matches for Internet users, who tend to have higher average household income and education.
(2) Reach customers while they are searching online for a related topic or benefit and direct them to your website or special offer.
Related to the above, an example of this “side door approach” would be a sponsored link text ad campaign using keywords such as “pollen relief”. Your potential customer may be searching with medication or medical treatments in mind, but might buy a whole house air filter system for their home or office. In cost per click advertising, there is no incremental cost for an ad that does not get clicked. Another example would be someone searching online for information on lower utility bills. Serve them up an ad with a rebate or off-season special offer for a new high-efficiency heating and A/C system.
(3) Use the contextual mode of advertising offered by engines such as Google AdWords.
Instead of reaching customers while they are actively searching (like the two above examples), with content (also call contextual) ads you reach them with sponsored link text ads while they are reading related content. The content can be a consumer information site, a blog, Gmail, etc. In the past few months, there have been improvements in this mode of online advertising that make it worth a look, once you have maxed out the search option in the geographic area your company services.
About the Author
Gary Walker has a BS in Environmental Science and more than 25 years experience in marketing, sales management, customer service and search marketing. He is qualified as a Google AdWords professional and with Yahoo! Search Marketing. His company, TopSide Media, uses online search technology and internet publishing to connect the best local HVAC companies with consumers to achieve more indoor comfort while saving energy.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Why You Must Track Incoming Phone Call Numbers
Originally, I wrote this article for the July 2008 issue of Tom Piscitelli's monthly enewsletter System Selling Sales Bytes®. If you are not familiar with his training DVDs or seminars, you can visit his website.
If you’ve ever calculated the cost of producing an incoming telephone lead, you know how high it can go. This article explains how and why you should record and track incoming phone calls for your HVAC or similar business for three purposes: source of business, lead quality, and your company’s effectiveness of handling the lead.
How to Track Incoming Phone Calls
Asking a caller how they learned about your company is rarely reliable. First, hardly any phone reps remember to do it consistently, especially when other callers are waiting. Second, for internet leads, many customers do not know the difference in a natural search result (center part of a search results page) and your text ad on the top of the page or the right side column.
The solution: tracking telephone numbers that forward to your main telephone. These were created for marketing and offer many useful reports and features. They are available in toll-free or local numbers that look like your current phone number. In the process of forwarding, tracking numbers capture the source of the call and other important statistics. Recording the conversation is optional, and has benefits along with some privacy and HR responsibilities.
Tracking phone numbers have long been used for print ads. They can also be coded into your website to tell you the call came from the website. The latest improvement: dynamic substitution on your website to identify and track multiple sources of incoming calls. When both features are combined, you can see your calls from multiple sources in the same online dashboard: calls from natural traffic plus your marketing efforts by source.
Clients often ask us who owns a tracking number, and this is a legitimate concern. The better tracking number providers allow clients to “port over” a number at no cost. This means you can move the tracking number to a new service provider.
Why Tracking Call Numbers Puts More Profit In Your Pocket
Tracking phone calls provides three critical pieces of information: a-the source of the call (truck sign, website, etc.), b-the quality and potential value of the lead, and c- how well your phone rep handled the call. The first two parts are straightforward and monitored by some of the more effective HVAC companies. The third part gives you insights into how your phone reps can handle calls more efficiently or effectively, and often gets overlooked, especially during the busy season. Having listened to thousands of minutes of recorded conversations, I can assure you that listening to them is worth the time it takes or cost to pay a service to do it for you.
Your goal is more business and profits, not more phone leads, right? Then you must understand the source and quality of incoming calls and how effectively your company is handling them. It’s that simple. Tracking calls combined with improved internal handling allows you to spend less to get new customers leads you need at the time you need them.
If you’ve ever calculated the cost of producing an incoming telephone lead, you know how high it can go. This article explains how and why you should record and track incoming phone calls for your HVAC or similar business for three purposes: source of business, lead quality, and your company’s effectiveness of handling the lead.
How to Track Incoming Phone Calls
Asking a caller how they learned about your company is rarely reliable. First, hardly any phone reps remember to do it consistently, especially when other callers are waiting. Second, for internet leads, many customers do not know the difference in a natural search result (center part of a search results page) and your text ad on the top of the page or the right side column.
The solution: tracking telephone numbers that forward to your main telephone. These were created for marketing and offer many useful reports and features. They are available in toll-free or local numbers that look like your current phone number. In the process of forwarding, tracking numbers capture the source of the call and other important statistics. Recording the conversation is optional, and has benefits along with some privacy and HR responsibilities.
Tracking phone numbers have long been used for print ads. They can also be coded into your website to tell you the call came from the website. The latest improvement: dynamic substitution on your website to identify and track multiple sources of incoming calls. When both features are combined, you can see your calls from multiple sources in the same online dashboard: calls from natural traffic plus your marketing efforts by source.
Clients often ask us who owns a tracking number, and this is a legitimate concern. The better tracking number providers allow clients to “port over” a number at no cost. This means you can move the tracking number to a new service provider.
Why Tracking Call Numbers Puts More Profit In Your Pocket
Tracking phone calls provides three critical pieces of information: a-the source of the call (truck sign, website, etc.), b-the quality and potential value of the lead, and c- how well your phone rep handled the call. The first two parts are straightforward and monitored by some of the more effective HVAC companies. The third part gives you insights into how your phone reps can handle calls more efficiently or effectively, and often gets overlooked, especially during the busy season. Having listened to thousands of minutes of recorded conversations, I can assure you that listening to them is worth the time it takes or cost to pay a service to do it for you.
Your goal is more business and profits, not more phone leads, right? Then you must understand the source and quality of incoming calls and how effectively your company is handling them. It’s that simple. Tracking calls combined with improved internal handling allows you to spend less to get new customers leads you need at the time you need them.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Home Page - HVAC Marketing Online
We Deliver New HVAC Customers to Your Telephone or Email
Our company specializes in using search engines to make your HVAC business more visible and profitable on the web. The most powerful component of our work: search engine marketing reaches new customers at the moment they are searching online for your heating and air conditioning related services and products.
The majority of our HVAC clients are service companies who need new customers in specific geographic areas around their locations. However, we also serve clients whose customers range from local to global including equipment manufacturers. We have years of experience with search engines, websites and telephone tracking, and we know what they will do for your HVAC business. We find out specifically which part(s) of your business and profits you want to increase and customize our service to fit those needs.
Benefits to Heating and Air Conditioning Contractors and Companies
The best way to learn more about how we can help your business is to call us toll free at 1-866-516-2301 or email gary.walker@topsidemedia.com. Once you tell us your goals, we'll lay out a plan and proposal to get you there.
Our company specializes in using search engines to make your HVAC business more visible and profitable on the web. The most powerful component of our work: search engine marketing reaches new customers at the moment they are searching online for your heating and air conditioning related services and products.
The majority of our HVAC clients are service companies who need new customers in specific geographic areas around their locations. However, we also serve clients whose customers range from local to global including equipment manufacturers. We have years of experience with search engines, websites and telephone tracking, and we know what they will do for your HVAC business. We find out specifically which part(s) of your business and profits you want to increase and customize our service to fit those needs.
Benefits to Heating and Air Conditioning Contractors and Companies
- Your telephone rings and you receive emails from customers who are actively searching for heating and air conditioning or indoor air quality products and services in the geographic area you designate.
- The quantity and quality of the phone calls and emails you receive are well documented and easy to measure.
- These incoming leads give you an easy-to-calculate and high Return On Investment (ROI).
- You have the option to use the recorded telephone conversations with incoming callers to improve your employees’ telephone customer service, sales and closing ratios.
- We take care of all the details. The primary question for you is simple: How many incoming customer calls does your company need each month to generate optimum profits?
- This program works for air conditioning & heating companies with or without their own current web site.
- You can select from three sources of HVAC customers from your target area: (1) from our HVAC buyer's guide (2) from your current web site or (3) using details about your business, we build a customized HVAC micro site for your company.
- In all options, we use a special telephone number (local or 800 #) that forwards to your telephone while measuring and recording (optional) each call.
- In options 2 and 3 from above, we create sponsored link ads to display on search engines such as Google™. These keyword text ads appear on the top or side of the first results page at the moment customers search online for heating and air conditioning in your area.
- Our ads on Internet search engines are developed by in-house by a Google™ AdWords qualified professional. Note: these are Sponsored Link text ads -- not "pop-up" type graphic ads. There is a big difference!
- Local customers who are searching online see your listing on our Buyer's Guide or your ad on search engines, or both. They call the phone number that forwards to your telephone.
- We handle the details and costs of getting new customers who are currently looking for your services to call you. You get to focus on the calls and setting appointments for heating and air conditioning service and indoor air quality.
- With each option, you will know your cost per call.
- More than 66% of American adults use the Internet.*
- Due to the increasing availability of high speed Internet, more customers are using search engines as their starting point for purchases.
- Many customers find online searches easier than thumbing through phone books.
- Unlike some printed or online directories, your customized ad stands out to your local customer.
- Your computer using customers want the results of their online searches to be quick, informative and accurate. We give them that.
- We carefully target new customers for you by where their computer is located (geographic targeting) and the search terms they use (keyword targeting) and more.
- Customers respond well to our online program because it takes them from the first search results page to your company information and phone number in just one click.
- For calls from our online Buyer's Guide, the cost starts at less than $15 per call. For calls from your web site or a microsite we build for you, calls or emails usually cost two or more times as much per call, and still give a very high and measurable return on investment.
- Several factors affect our prices. They include: how many leads you need per month, whether your telephones are answered 24 hours a day (this helps), and how much online advertising competition is in your city.
- If you have ever calculated your cost per lead from other forms of advertising, you will find our service to be an exceptionally good value. You can measure your positive payback from this innovative program very accurately and quickly.
The best way to learn more about how we can help your business is to call us toll free at 1-866-516-2301 or email gary.walker@topsidemedia.com. Once you tell us your goals, we'll lay out a plan and proposal to get you there.
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