Content marketing trends continue to evolve over time. If you are looking for ideas on how to start a content marketing strategy for your HVAC business, this article is for you! In this blog, we’ll share with you steps on how to start content marketing along with some useful tips that will surely help you get more leads!

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a type of marketing approach where you create and publish relevant content for your potential customers. It is one of the cost-effective digital marketing strategies that deliver promising results. Its purpose is to attract potential customers, keep the current ones engaged, and establish your expertise in the field.

This type of marketing strategy offers tons of benefits to your HVAC website which include increased referral traffic, and improved visibility helps build relationships with your target audience, establishes a good reputation, and provides value to current and potential customers.

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Content marketing for HVAC Companies

Before creating content, it’s best that you know the different types you can use for your HVAC company. In this section, we’ll share with you content marketing strategies that will give you an idea of the types of posts you can do when you start publishing content for your target audience.

1. Blog posts

Blogging is one of the most effective content marketing strategies out there. It’s where you write an article that’s relevant to your HVAC company and publish it on your website. Businesses that have dedicated blog posts on their websites on average generate 55% more traffic than those that don’t have them.

What’s great about publishing blog posts is that it’s great for building backlinks. If your blog is well-written, has a unique approach, and covers a valuable topic to your potential customers, there are high chances that you’ll get high-quality backlinks from big websites. This will result in improved visibility and a higher rank on search results.

Aside from that, blog posts also drive long-term results. If you just started publishing blog posts it takes some time before you see results…

So, if you haven’t tried creating blogs for your HVAC company, you’re probably missing out on potential leads!

Here’s an example of a page from an HVAC website that has a dedicated page for their blog posts.

Source: https://www.bobsheating.com/blog

Blogging Best Practices:

• Implement relevant keywords throughout your content (e.g. Title, heading, body, alt tags, meta descriptions, etc.)
• Use long-tail keywords
• Write content that’s valuable to your audience
• Publish blog posts regularly
• Add internal and external links to your blogs
• Share your blog on other platforms (e.g. social media sites)

2. Videos

Short-form videos like the ones on you’ve probably seen on Instagram (reels), TikTok, or YouTube (YouTube Shorts)  have become more popular with users nowadays because it’s easy to consume, concise, and straight to the point. Examples of short-form videos you can use for your HVAC company include demo videos, company culture videos, customer testimonials, and behind-the-scenes. of your team working.

Video marketing ideas:

• Common issues faced by your customers
  • There are lots of common HVAC problems that residential or commercial owners encounter (e.g. clogged or dirty filters, drain line issues, reduced air quality, strange noises, etc.). Since people are seemed to be more engaged with short-form videos, adapting your content to this type of content is….

@hvac_king Welcome back to dirty coil tok#gradeupwithgrammarly #BigInkEnergy #PrimeDayDreamDeals #topoffchallenge #booth #stitch #summer #hvac #ice #comedy #coil #cleantok #handwashchallenge #dirtytok #cleantok #clean #memories ♬ Summer day – TimTaj

In this example, the HVAC technician showed his audience how dirty an AC system can get when placed outside. He was able to show them how important regularly cleaning their AC coils is. Some viewers find the clip satisfying because they witnessed the before and after of cleaning the AC coil.

Bonus tip: If you think your video is too long for TikTok or Instagram Reels, try dividing it into two parts like what this HVAC technician did:

@hvac_king Part 1 of Coil cleaning on a 10 year old train air conditioner #hvactechnician #havac #havcarmy #baysidecomfort #paradise ♬ Paradise – Bazzi

 

@hvac_king Pt2 of coil cleaning as requested #hvactechnician #havac #baysidecomfort #havcarmy #coil #blowyourgrasstheotherway #PepsiApplePieChallenge ♬ Way down We Go – KALEO

Cutting your content into parts gives your audience something to look forward to which will result in more views, comments, and interactions from them.

 

• Customer testimonials
  • This type of content not only builds brand awareness but is also effective in turning potential customers into actual customers! The reason why it works is that when people see how genuine your previous customers are when it comes to expressing their thoughts when providing feedback for an HVAC company, it gives them an idea that you are providing excellent services to every client you work for.

• Educational videos
  • Educational videos are another type of video content that you can share with your audience especially if you want them to gain valuable information from your HVAC company which suits individuals who are in the first stage of the buyer’s journey (awareness stage). As you provide relevant information to your target audience, you’re starting to build their trust as well as your expertise in the field.
    • Like in the example below, the HVAC technician surely knows who the video is for. It’s made for individuals who are experiencing loud A/C noises and are looking for possible reasons why it occurs.

Best practices when posting short-form videos

• Use relevant hashtags
  • Hashtags are mainly used on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest. Its purpose is to help you reach your target audience and build a community. For example, if you search #hvac on Instagram, it’ll show you millions of posts that are relevant to HVAC (whether it’s a meme, promotional post, industry news, or a regular post). But as you enter more specific hashtags, you’re starting to get results that belong to a specific category).
• Stay updated with trending audio
  • Aside from using relevant hashtags on your HVAC videos, using trending audio or sound is another way to boost the number of views you get, increase the chances of going viral, and showcase your HVAC company to a wider audience.
• Use comments for the next video
  • Running out of ideas on what content to post on your next HVAC video? Worry no more because if you’re getting lots of engagement in your post’s comment section, you will surely get ideas based on the comments from your audience. For example, if you have a unique question that caught your attention, that could be the next topic for your HVAC video!
• Use relevant keywords in your HVAC video
  • Whether it’s the title of your YouTube video or the description section, using relevant keywords to your HVAC videos will surely help online platforms understand and categorize your content. This will make viewers easier to find and add your video to the “Suggested Videos” queue.

4. Infographics

A human brain can process images 60,000 times faster than text. If HVAC concepts are too complicated to be explained, you can share relevant content using infographics. This way, you can make your content easier to understand and more interesting for your target audience.

Some of the benefits of using infographics to market your HVAC company include having increased exposure especially if the content is relevant and visually appealing to your target audience.

Another is that it helps drive more traffic to your HVAC website. If you share your infographic on social media platforms like Pinterest, there’s a high chance that you’ll generate more visitors and build high-quality backlinks (especially because of its embed feature). The more traffic and backlinks you get, the more credible your HVAC company becomes.

Here’s an example of an infographic shared by an HVAC company on Pinterest:

What’s great about this infographic is that they’ve used the right color combinations as they present data and chunks of information to their audience (dark color for the background which helps the text to stand out). They also made sure to include their HVAC company’s name and website so that potential customers who might see their infographic can easily go to their website and check out the services they are offering. Lastly, they used relevant hashtags which will help improve their brand’s visibility once a potential customer uses the hashtags #hvac and #hvactips.

Best practices when creating infographics:

• Write a good headline
• Make sure that your statistics are accurate (cite your sources)
• Present data using appropriate visual type (e.g. bar charts, scatter plots, timelines, Venn diagrams, etc.)
• Proofread before posting
• Use an easy-to-follow-template (avoid too much clutter)

Need help deciding the type of content that best suits your HVAC company?

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How to start content marketing for your HVAC website

Now that you have an idea about how content marketing works, we’ll walk you through the process of creating an effective content marketing strategy for your HVAC company!

Step 1: Set your content marketing goal

The first step in creating your content marketing strategy is by identifying what your marketing goal is. It could be building brand awareness, educating potential customers, improving your rank on the search results page, engaging with your target audience, etc. Setting a goal while creating your content marketing strategy is important because it gives you a sense of direction especially when you start tracking the progress of your marketing efforts.

Step 2: Research your competitors

After setting your content marketing goal, the next thing to do is to do research about your competitors. This includes gathering information about your other HVAC companies located in your target area such as the quality of the services they offer, the way they interact with their customers (especially on social media), the type of content they post, etc. Basically, you’re analyzing their strengths and weaknesses so that you can strengthen your marketing strategies.

Step 3: Brainstorm Ideas

Before you start posting content, it’s best that you brainstorm ideas with your team about the type of posts you want to share with your target audience. You can use a spreadsheet when writing down notes about the topics that you would like to focus on. Just remember, that it should be something that can solve the problems that are commonly faced by your target audience (something that’s valuable to them).

Wondering which HVAC-related queries are used by your potential customers? You can also find relevant phrases and search terms on Answer The Public.

Step 4: Create a posting schedule

Posting consistently is very important in content marketing due to several reasons.

First, it strengthens your online presence. One way of establishing a strong online presence for your HVAC company is by posting regularly whether it’s a blog or a social media post. By having a strong online presence, potential customers can easily find your business, and helps your content to show up on relevant search results.

Second, it builds trust with your audience. If you’re inconsistent when it comes to posting content on your website or social media account, it will confuse potential customers (thinking that you’re no longer operating). That’s why sticking to a schedule that works for you and your potential customers plays a crucial role toward your success.

To help you start planning your HVAC company’s content calendar, check out these platforms:

Google Calendar

One of the most accessible content calendars you can use as your HVAC planner is Google Calendar. All you have to do is create a Google Account and you can use all of its features such as scheduling a meeting with your team members a meeting, customizing the event or task color to make it more organized, adding attachments, and a lot more for free!

Monday.com

Another content calendar software that you can use is Monday.com. It’s easy to use, has 24/7 customer support, and most of all, it gives you a 360-degree view of your previous and upcoming campaigns.

CoSchedule

Next is CoSchedule. This is considered one of the top-rated content management software out there. Although the pricing starts at $29 per month, you get to have a real-time marketing calendar, automate your social publishing, share the read-only calendar with your team, and provide other project management tools.

Having a content calendar greatly helps content creators like you as it gives you an overview of the upcoming content you’re about to publish and at the same time, it gives you an idea of whether you are meeting your deadlines or not.

Step 5: Publish your post

As you begin posting content on your HVAC website or social media profile, there are two things that you should consider. This includes finding the best time to post your content and conducting A/B testing.

Find the right time to post content

If you search “When is the best time to post your content” on search engines, you’ll see various answers from different sources. Some will say “early mornings during weekdays” and some will state a specific time let’s say from Tuesday to Thursday morning. These recommended posting schedules are worth a try however, it still depends on where your potential customers (homeowners or owners of commercial properties) are located as well as their lifestyle.

That’s where A/B testing comes in. For you to identify which schedule works for your audience (e.g. which time of the day gets the most engagement) it’s best to try posting at different times a day or on different days. Then, for example, if you are using Instagram in posting your HVAC content, you can see an Audience insight report which will tell you more about the engagement you got from your audiences such as the number of accounts you’ve reached, engaged with, and the total number of followers you’ve gained on a specific time period.

Step 6: Monitor results

Content marketing doesn’t end with posting it online. You have to keep track of its performance so that you’ll gain useful insights about the areas that need to be improved, strategies that worked for you, and potential errors that your content might be facing. It’s best to catch up on these issues as early as it is before it goes out of hand.

If you are looking for reliable software that helps you analyze the performance of your HVAC website, check out Google Analytics. It has tons of features that can help you come up with a more effective marketing strategy. This includes real-time reports,  life-cycle reports (acquisition, engagement, retention, monetization), and user reports (demographics, devices used).

Important key metrics to look out for:

1. Conversion rate – This metric refers to the percentage of individuals who have successfully taken action toward your HVAC website. It could be calling your phone number, submitting a form, downloading an e-book, etc.
2. Top viewed posts  – It’s important to know what your top-performing pages are because it gives you an idea of the potential elements of those pages that attract the attention of your page visitors. From that, you can use those strategies and apply them to your future posts.
3. Engagement rate – This tells you the percentage of engagement your HVAC website got from your page visitors.
4. Demographics – This metric makes it easy for you to understand who your potential customers are, what suits their interests, etc. In short, it helps you make educated decisions about who your ideal customers are.
5. Traffic source – This metric refers to where your page visitors come from or how they ended up on your website (e.g. direct traffic, organic social, referral, or organic search).

Want to learn the steps on how to start measuring your website performance? Check out our blog about Google Analytics for HVAC Companies to learn more.

Need help analyzing the performance of your HVAC website?

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Best Practices for Content Marketing

After creating a content marketing strategy for your HVAC company, it’s best that you optimize it to maximize your content to its full potential. This step is important especially if you want to stay on top of the minds of your potential customers as it ensures that your content is SEO-friendly.

1. Make sure your content is aligned with every customer’s buying journey

To maximize the reach of your HVAC content and attract more visitors (including potential customers) to your website, you should be creating content for each buying journey.

What is the buyer’s journey? The Buyer’s Journey refers to the steps in the buying process of a customer.

• Awareness stage
  • Individuals who are in the “awareness stage” are the ones who are trying to solve a problem with their HVAC system. They are usually looking for educational content such as blog posts, social media posts, checklists, infographics, and other types of content that can help them have a better understanding of the current issue that they are facing.
• Consideration stage
  • Individuals who are in the “consideration stage” are now looking at specific solutions for their problems. They are now starting to weigh their options about which would be the best solution. The types of content you can post for individuals who are in this stage of the buyer’s journey could be newsletters, case studies about previous projects you have done,
• Decision stage
  • Individuals who are in the “decision stage” of the buyer’s journey are the ones who have finally chosen a solution for their HVAC problem and are now choosing which among the HVAC companies on their list is the best among the rest. Types of content you can post for potential customers who are in the decision stage includes testimonials, offering consultations, or providing coupons they can use on their first transaction with your HVAC company.

2.  Consistency is the key to success

To make content marketing work for your HVAC company, you need to have a publishing schedule. It’s not about posting new content every day. It’s about having a predictable schedule and preparing high-quality content so that your audience has something to look forward to (let’s say, every other day or every week).

Remember, being consistent not only helps you establish your HVAC company’s credibility but also builds trust toward your potential customers.

3. Make sure you provide a good user experience

Having a well-written piece of content does attract potential customers. However, if they are not having a good user experience (e.g. lots of pop-ups, images not loading, the video takes too long before it loads, text fonts are too small, color combinations are quite off, etc.) while reading or watching your piece, then you’re probably driving away potential leads.

Here are some tips that could help improve your user experience:

• Make sure that all of the elements on your page are functional (e.g. CTA buttons, links, landing pages)
• Optimize images to ensure that it loads faster whenever someone clicks on your page
• structure
• Keep your HVAC web design simple yet responsive
• Make your content skimmable (e.g. for blog posts, use a table of contents, for videos use time stamps)
• Don’t use too many pop-ups.
• 53% of page visitors leave a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. To prevent that from happening, make sure to check your page loading speed through an eye test.
• Strategically place your call-to-action buttons somewhere that can be easily seen by a page visitor
• Make sure your content is compatible with mobile users

4. Create evergreen content

Evergreen content refers to the type of content that continues to stay relevant over a long period of time. It’s one of the strategies you can do if you want to future-proof your digital marketing efforts. This could be in the form of how-to content, listicles, tips, and reviews.

Other examples of evergreen content that you can create for your target audience include FAQs from your potential customers/ page visitors in each buyer persona or how-to posts about common problems encountered by your target audience.

5. Keywords

Keywords refer to words or phrases that tell search engines what your content is all about.

Using relevant keywords in every content you post helps improve your SEO. This means it helps you get found on relevant searches from your potential customers. When done right, it could even help your content display on top of the search results page!

How to effectively use keywords throughout your HVAC content:

• Use LSIs or other variations of your chosen focus keyword
• Use long-tail keywords on your headlines for better ranking
• Check out Google’s auto-suggest
• Check out your Google Ads Keyword planner

Don’t yet have a Google Ads account? Learn how to create one by checking out our blog about Google Ads for HVAC Companies to start creating your marketing campaigns!

Key Takeaway

Content Marketing is a type of marketing strategy that’s focusing on creating valuable content to improve your HVAC company’s visibility. When done right, it could help you get more traffic and high-quality leads, especially if you’re creating content for each stage of the buyer’s journey. Just the best practices we’ve mentioned earlier and you’ll see results in no time!