iMarket’s Co-Owner and CEO, Gary Elekes, sat down (virtually) with Aire Texas owners Chad and Amanda Faith for a discussion on how to grow sales and profits in the HVAC industry through digital marketing. 

Aire Texas, located in the Dallas, TX area, has been an iMarket partner since 2019, and are a well established business in their community. Chad and Amanda answered some of the top questions that come from contractors in regards to their marketing efforts. Read on as we provide an overview of this Q&A session! 

Q: How Can Contractors Set Themselves Apart from Their Competitors?

In the case of Aire Texas, they’re an education-based business, with specific core values that focus on factors such as improving every day and never making a decision for the customer. 

Chad Faith: “In order to improve every day we are educating ourselves and then pushing that out to our employees so they can allow customers to make informed decisions.” 

Gary echoed this sentiment and added that great contractors have to differentiate themselves, and people are what differentiates companies like Aire Texas. What makes a company great is being committed to great customer service, trying to learn from “failures” and using them to make you great with customer experience. 

Pricing is another important factor--contractors often don’t know how to price their services in a customer-friendly but profitable way. That said, it’s also important to realize that not all customers are good customers, and so it’s important to build a level of trust with the customers who are. 

Q: How Do Contractors Produce Lead Volume? 

In digital marketing, Aire Texas takes advantage of Facebook, PPC, reviews, and more. For traditional lead volume, they employ methods such as having a “Tip the Tech” section on the back of their business cards inviting customers to leave a review. These efforts have resulted in a 4.9/5 rating on Google for Aire Texas. 

Amanda Faith: “It’s also important that customers are seeing the promotions we have available on all the different platforms.”

She advises that for maximum lead volume customers must be engaged with at least 5 times, and that this is why it’s so important to be on all possible platforms, digitally and otherwise.  

Q: How Can You Grow Your Company Organically?

Well-designed responsive websites serve as conversion hubs for businesses, and contracting companies are no exception. Organic SEO has been crucial to lead generation for Aire Texas, and iMarket Solutions agrees that this is pivotal in getting the right thing to the right customer at the right time. 

Q: How Do You Approach Goal Setting and Determining Advertising and Marketing Budget?

At iMarket Solutions, we believe strongly in having a “plan of attack” for any situation. Working in the HVAC business, there are situations that are out of our control--we never know what the weather is going to do but we can have a plan regardless of how favorable outside circumstances may be. 

Chad Faith: “What helped us in this past year is looking at data from throughout the year, which iMarket’s dashboard helped with a great deal.”

Aire Texas used the iMarket Solutions client dashboard to look at what worked, and what didn’t in order to educate themselves. It also helps, according to Chad and Amanda, to look at what worked for other contracting businesses as well and to think about what you want your business to look like the following year--how many service calls do you need, how many maintenance agreements do you have? 

Q: What Are the Greatest Obstacles in Growing and Scaling Your Business? 

Gary Elekes: “If you don’t adapt as a business, the market will adapt around you. You’ll lose traction, and when you lose traction you suffer.” 

Most contractors would likely agree that one of the biggest obstacles in growing and scaling a business is a lack of qualified employees. Amanda adds that it’s also important to “get comfortable with the uncomfortable” by staying on the leading edge of technology, teaching that technology to their techs, and thereby ensuring that they send confident technicians into customers’ homes. 

Q: What Are Your Biggest Opportunities for 2021?

As we progress into 2021, more and more homeowners are going to seek out indoor air quality solutions in the form of air purification and air filtration. Contractors should expect and anticipate calls and inquiries about better filtration, duct cleaning, UV air filters, and more. 

Gary also adds that tuck-in strategies can be an angle for contracting businesses as well moving into 2021, and can provide lucrative opportunities. 

The above is a brief overview of some of the most common questions and answers being asked right now in the contracting space. Be sure to check out iMarket Solutions’ webinars and blogs for more great information on how to grow and scale your contracting business. Or, contact us at 800-727-3920 to learn more about our products and services. 

Contact iMarket Solutions today. Dedicated to Contractor Success.