Have you ever heard of the Rule of 7? In marketing, the Rule of 7 refers to the idea that, on average, a customer has to see a brand’s message seven times before they commit to a purchase decision. This can be a daunting thing to realize. After all, getting your ads in front of customers just one time is often difficult enough. However, it becomes a lot less daunting when you know how to leverage customer re-engagement tactics.
With these tactics, you can re-engage people who have already shown interest in your company as well as past customers who’ve done business with you before. Customer re-engagement is a powerful tool for companies across all industries—and the HVAC services industry is no exception. In this article, we’ll go over a number of proven customer re-engagement strategies for the HVAC industry that you can use to get your messages in front of potential customers who are already familiar with your brand.
What Are Customer Re-Engagement Tactics?
Customer re-engagement tactics can refer to any marketing campaign that is targeted at people who have already interacted with your brand in some form or another. This can mean things like showing ads to people who have clicked on your ads in the past, re-engaging past customers via email or SMS, and a wide range of other marketing strategies.
The reason why customer re-engagement matters is that people who are already familiar with your brand are a lot more likely to convert than those who are hearing about you for the first time. This means that re-engagement campaigns tend to have higher conversion rates and ROI than traditional marketing campaigns—especially when you use the right tactics.
7 Effective Customer Re-Engagement Tactics for the HVAC Industry
Ready to start leveraging customer re-engagement to drum up more business for your HVAC company? Here are seven of the most effective customer re-engagement strategies for HVAC companies to use:
1. Use Re-Engagement Targeting on PPC Ad Platforms
PPC platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads allow you to retarget customers who have previously interacted with your website or social media pages, and this represents one of the most direct and reliable ways to show your messages to people who’ve already engaged with your brand.
Mastering PPC ads can take some time and a lot of trial and error in the form of A/B testing. However, features like re-engagement targeting are one of the big reasons why these platforms are such a powerful tool for HVAC businesses. By creating re-engagement campaigns complete with compelling ads and landing pages, you can reach people who are a lot more likely to convert than an audience that’s never heard of your company.
2. Generate a Social Media Following
Building a social media presence is a great way to engage with customers. After all, social media platforms are where most people spend the vast majority of their time online. If you want to engage with your customers and remind them of all your company has to offer, there’s no better place to reach them.
Of course, creating a following for your company on social media platforms isn’t as simple as just waving a wand. To generate an engaged audience of followers as an HVAC brand, the biggest keys are consistency and value. You need to consistently publish content that is interesting and valuable to your target audience—whether that’s things like HVAC maintenance tips, info on special promotions, or anything in between.
3. Create a Loyalty Program
Customer re-engagement is important, but the best kind of customers are those who don’t have to be re-engaged via a marketing campaign to offer their repeat business. By promoting customer loyalty, you can passively keep customers engaged and coming back to your brand. And one effective way to create more loyal customers is to create a loyalty program.
Loyalty programs can take a lot of different forms, but the core concept is offering incentives like discounts and free services to repeat customers. This gives customers a strong reason to remain engaged with your brand and return to it the next time they need HVAC services. When combined with the other ingredients for creating customer loyalty like excellent service and high-quality work, a loyalty program can create a lot of long-term value for both you and your customers alike.
4. Run Seasonal Campaigns
HVAC services often see peaks during certain times of the year, with summer being the busiest season and winter being a close second. Your customers might not be thinking about their HVAC systems and your company’s services when the weather is nice, but when it starts heating up or cooling down, and they need those systems again, they’re a lot more likely to. This makes seasonal campaigns a great way to re-engage customers.
For example, you could send out an email near the beginning of the summer to remind your list to get their HVAC systems serviced before temperatures rise. Or, you may want to consider ramping up your social media or ad spend during the summer and winter months. Whatever tactics you choose, leveraging seasonal campaigns allows you to re-engage customers during the times of year when they will be most receptive to your messages.
5. Offer Maintenance Reminders
One innovative way to re-engage past customers is to offer them the option to sign up for automated maintenance reminders. These reminders can be sent out via email or SMS, and they’re designed to remind customers about things such as routine maintenance and filter replacements. For customers, automated reminders are a helpful convenience. For HVAC companies, they’re an effective (and low-effort) way to re-engage with customers.
Setting up automated maintenance reminders requires the right email/SMS marketing platform and a bit of technical know-how, and you’ll need to create a system for having customers sign up for the reminders as well. Once everything is up and running, though, these reminders can be a great way to keep your company and its services at the front of customers’ minds.
6. Send Personalized Email Campaigns
Few things are more engaging than personalization, and one of the best things about using email to re-engage customers is that it allows for a high degree of personalization. By segmenting your email list based on criteria such as the customer’s location, service history, and equipment type, you can create targeted email campaigns that are much more relevant and engaging to each customer.
Automated maintenance reminders are actually one example of a personalized email campaign, but there are many other tactics you can use. For instance, you could send seasonal tips and recommendations tailored to the customer’s specific HVAC system, or discounts on services and equipment upgrades that align with the customer’s previous purchases. Compared to generalized messages, these types of personalized email campaigns will be much more effective at re-engaging customers.
7. Leverage Video Marketing
Of all the content types a brand can publish, none are more interest-grabbing and engaging than videos. If you want your audience to stop scrolling and pay attention, a high-quality video is by far your best bet.
Of course, the downside of video marketing is that videos take a lot more time, tools, and skills to produce than other types of content. If it’s something you’re willing to invest in, though, it makes for a powerful way to engage with customers. Publishing videos on your social channels covering topics such as common HVAC issues, maintenance tips, or showcasing new equipment can help you reach both new and existing customers. By putting your brand’s messages in the most engaging format possible, video marketing makes customer re-engagement much easier.
How Surefire Local Can Help You Execute Effective Customer Re-Engagement Tactics
Customers who have already done business with your company (or at least engaged with it in some form) are a goldmine of potential new business. By using customer re-engagement tactics to reach out to these customers in ways that are timely, engaging, and relevant, you can keep them coming back to your company for all of their HVAC needs.
At Surefire Local, we offer an all-in-one marketing platform that is perfect for executing all types of customer re-engagement campaigns. From email marketing to social media to PPC ad campaigns, Surefire Local lets you manage all of your marketing channels in one place for customer re-engagement campaigns that are streamlined, integrated, and easy to execute.
Join a demo today to learn more about how Surefire Local can help your HVAC company reach and engage more customers!