“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half” ~ John Wanamaker
Painfully true.
So it’s time to…
- a) waste less than half of your advertising budget, and
- b) figure out where the waste is.
Sound good?
Great. Let’s go…
Here are 5 must haves if you’re advertising your HVAC business
1) Dedicated landing pages.
You’ve got to have dedicated landing pages if you’re paying for advertising. Preferably a unique landing page for each advertising campaign. At minimum, one dedicated landing page for your advertising traffic to connect with you. If you’re asking “What is a landing page?”, read our post “http://digitaltraffickr.com/what-is-a-landing-page/” to find out.
2) A real person answering the phone.
If you are paying for advertising, and have a phone number listed for people to contact your business, you’ve got to have a real live person available to answer the phone. Do not send inquires to voice mail. That’s throwing good money away. If you’re advertising online, and have someone available to answer the phone from 8-5, then schedule your ads to run from 8-5.
3) Call tracking
This is a huge part of knowing which half of advertising is wasted, and which half is getting people to contact your business. There are services available online that provide a unique phone number to use in your advertising. From this, it is possible to know which ads, or which keywords, are getting people to call your business. You can then increase your advertising that is working, and stop that which isn’t.
4) Customer database
There is a lot of value in owning a database of people – customers and non-customers – that have contacted your business. It allows you to follow up when you’re running a sales promotion, or sending them info on available upgrades, or checking in on non-customers to see if they are closer to a buying position. Not everyone is a buyer today, so creating your database is key to sales down the road.
5) USP
Your USP (unique selling proposition) is what sets you apart from everyone else. Without a USP, your service is a commodity, and it’s a race to the bottom for pricing. Your USP can be something you sell or service that no one else does, a guarantee (or guarantees) you offer that no one else has, a customer you service that no one else can. When you have a great USP, you eliminate the competition.
Those are your 5 must haves when you are paying for advertising for your business. It may appear overwhelming, but it doesn’t need to be.
Give me (Steve) a call at 1-866-836-9626 if you need some help getting these 5 must haves in place for your HVAC business. We can create a plan to get your company moving in the right direction.
Make it a great day,
Steve