Your HVAC Preventive Maintenance Sales Strategy Should Include Social Media

using social media to market HVAC preventive maintenance plansHow do HVAC preventive maintenance plans fit into your overall sales strategy ? They should be a priority, a service that you market aggressively. Maintenance agreements, which some HVAC contractors sell as memberships in a “care club” or “comfort club” can be an easy sell — especially when you use social media to extol their benefits. Read More »

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Brand Marketing: How Do Social Media Networks Facilitate It?

brand marketingMost companies today use social media as part of their brand marketing to some extent. Social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+, allow you to use company pages. But which one is best? In large part, that will depend on your industry, along with other factors. Read More »

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Choose Keywords Wisely For Your Blog: Some Tips

keywords for blog optimizationSimply put, keywords are attractors that draw attention to your business through online activity. They are like mini-advertisements that search engines use to gauge the relevance of your website and its content. And they will generally make or break your success — or at least make a significant contribution toward it — because if you completely ignore keywords, you’d be essentially wasting your time and money with web marketing. Read More »

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Nine Effective Tips to Getting Your Blog Posts Read

Do you have a blog for your HVAC business? If so, how much time do you spend writing your blog post titles? Are they something of an afterthought, a hurried, last-minute part of your online content marketing?

Whether your topic is programmable thermostats or radiant heating, your title — the equivalent of a newspaper headline — will make or break your blog (or any of your online content for that matter).

That little string of words has to perform some big jobs. It must:

• Grab your readers’ attention

• Tell customers and potential customers how they stand to benefit by reading your content

• Provide information to search engines so that they can guide customers in your direction (so you can be found). Read More »

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SEO Keywords: Optimizing Them Means Good Copy And Natural Links

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is one method used to increase organic search engine ranking. When potential customers use a search engine like Google, if your site contains the keywords used in their search, your website may be one of the recommended pages.

However, hundreds of other sites may be using the same keywords, so how does Google know which ones best meet the needs of the user? The more times keywords are used naturally, the higher your ranking. And the more times those keywords are used in links, both to and from your website, the higher the rankings. Optimizing SEO keywords requires taking both of these factors into account. Read More »

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Social Media Tools: Some Cross-Promotional Guidelines

You’ve set up a Facebook account, a Twitter handle and a LinkedIn profile, so now what? It’s generally not enough to engage with customers via each individual social media tool, thinking it will maximize your social media marketing strategy. Using cross-promotion across social media tools will push the limits of your social media presence.

Here are some useful guidelines that will help to position your business at the forefront of your industry, and boost your online presence well beyond your immediate local demographics. Read More »

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Your Landing Pages Will Be More Effective If You Avoid These 5 Common Mistakes

Crafting effective landing pages can mean the difference between conversion and abandonment. Landing pages are designed to motivate consumers to act — on sales, content or email opt-in pages.

You can keep consumers (and the potential for conversions) within the realm of your online presence, if you avoid these common mistakes:

  • Visual appeal: The design of your landing pages should follow conventional guidelines for a strong visual appeal, which should promote a color contrast that draws consumers to your page — instead of away. Color choices should enhance the user’s ability to read the text, not obscure it. Font size matters, too, so choose one that appeals to a broad consumer base, especially those with poor eyesight.
  • Navigation: Effective landing pages should be easy to navigate. If you try to accomplish too much (translation: clutter), you’ll confuse users. The main goal should be to direct users to the purpose of that page, the call to action (C2A).
  • Page view: Research has shown that most users don’t take time to scroll down a page, so if your C2A is below the screen view, you’re likely to lose their attention. Put your sales pitch within the space that a user first sees when “landing” on that page to get your message across.
  • Headline: This one-liner is your best chance to score some action on your landing page. With consumers subjected to information overload, they’ve become accustomed to performing a two-second scan. If your headline doesn’t grab their attention, chances are they’ll abandon the page.
  • Content: Simply put, your content should clearly and succinctly lead readers to a single C2A. Keeping in mind the scanning factor, your content should easily lead users through the information with headings, blocks of text, bullet points and white space.
  • Ads: These words sum up an effective landing page strategy: Use ads sparingly. Users are generally turned off by ads; use too many,  and it’s akin to asking them to leave your page.

Avoid these five mistakes, and create effective landing pages that will support your marketing goals. After all, you’ve created landing pages for results.

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Content Marketing Strategy And Social Media Tools Make A Great Marriage

By now you know that there is no magic bullet that will increase your website traffic and online profile. You have to create and execute a thoughtful and well-designed marketing strategy to build momentum and keep it going. A combination of content marketing and social media tools is a critical component of any effective marketing strategy.

The key to content marketing 
Search engines love good content. If you can strike the right balance of both quality and quantity, you are likely to see your organic search rankings start to climb. Note that a key phrase here is quality content. If you stuff your website full of keywords in a meaningless way, it won’t help, and could possibly damage your rankings.

Optimizing some or all of the following content vehicles can go a long way toward getting your business noticed by both search engines and potential customers.

  • Website content. This is the online face of your company. Page content needs to be professional, informative and easy to read.
  • Blogs. A good blog that is regularly updated can draw a significant amount of traffic to your site. Provide information that your readers find valuable and they will keep coming back, and more importantly, share your content with their social networks.
  • Forums. Although you have less control over the quality of the content in a forum, you can create a community of dedicated customers.
  • FAQs. Most websites have a page for frequently asked questions, but not every business uses this content space at its maximum keyword potential.

Social media tools spread the message
Even with high-quality content and regular updates, if people don’t receive your message, you are not getting the most from your efforts. This is why content marketing and social media tools go hand in hand. Provide your readers with the ability to share your web pages, blog posts, articles and other content with their Facebook friends, Twitter followers and other social networks.

Using both content marketing and social media tools is an excellent way to grow your online presence. Although one can work without the other, they’re best together.

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Social Media Tools That Boost Your Online Authority: Webinars And Podcasts

Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter can help you increase your customer base and build a presence for your business online, but if you really want to position yourself as an expert, webinars and podcasts can make all the difference. Going beyond text-based platforms to include audio, video and interactive web communications can engage your audience in a completely different and more memorable way.

Use webinars to interact with potential customers

A webinar, or web-based seminar, is one of many social media tools you can employ to engage with your audience in a one-on-one capacity. The format is entirely up to you, but many people choose to do a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session.

Offering free or low-cost webinars is an excellent way to boost your online authority. Rather than a quick blog post or social media comment, webinars provide the opportunity to delve deeper into a topic, so you can demonstrate your expertise and build credibility in your field.

Use podcasts to build a digital reference library
In contrast to webinars, podcasts are traditionally used as a one-way tool to provide information to an audience. You can create either audio or video podcasts that can be downloaded by users as needed.

Many people choose to create a series of podcasts that are either episodic or serial. This entices your audience to come back for more and keeps them interested in your content in an ongoing manner. It also allows you to generate a library of content that provides a useful resource to your customer base.

The topics you select are completely up to you, but incorporating the following criteria can help you best take advantage of these social media tools:

  • Choose topics that are informative and interesting to your audience.
  • Create agendas for webinars so participants know what to expect.
  • Have the next webinar or podcast planned so you can promote it in the current one.
  • Keep topics more narrow than broad.
  • Create multiple events for broader topics if necessary.

Most importantly, speak only about topics that you know. Stay within your expertise to provide the most value to your audience.

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Make Search Engine Rankings More Effective By Incorporating These 5 Factors

Having good search engine rankings can mean the difference between business success and stagnation or failure. There are two primary ways to increase your rankings: paid advertising and search engine optimization.

Advertising can be effective for getting you on page one, but it can also be very expensive. Search engine optimization, on the other hand, is relatively low-cost and has a much more lasting effect.

Improve your organic search engine rankings by incorporating the following five factors: Read More »

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