Direct mail marketing involves sending perishable products, printed content, and other physical items to prospects and customers. Done right, it can help you engage and connect with your target audience more meaningfully. So better try out a few great HVAC direct mail marketing ideas for your company if you haven’t yet.
Now if this is your first time dabbling with direct mail marketing or HVAC marketing, we got you covered. Below are a couple of fantastic ideas that will surely help your HVAC company thrive.
Brochures
Brochures help give your HVAC company a personality, as well as establish its authority. Plus, it’s one of the more cost effective HVAC direct mail marketing ideas you can rely on. So build trust with your customers and prospects by sending them physical and digital brochures.
To create a stunning brochure for your HVAC company, you need to be creative, have clear objectives, and know your audience like the back of your hand. Practical tips to remember include:
Cut to the Chase
Go straight to the point while making HVAC brochures. That means focusing on the things that will actually catch their attention. Avoid beating around the bush or you’ll end up giving your audience blue balls. Additionally, you should refrain from dumping all the information about your products or services. Otherwise, they’ll be put off due to too much information.
Add a Great CTA
Creating a flashy HVAC brochure isn’t enough to encourage your audience to avail your products or services. You must include a good call-to-action (CTA) in it, too. Be clear and concise while writing this bit. Whenever you can, use words that invoke enthusiasm in your readers. Employ strong verbs and a touch of creativity as well.
Use Appropriate Images
People are generally visual creatures. Seeing something intriguing, beautiful, or fun can easily attract our attention. In contrast, text messages (no matter how well written) rarely pique our interest. So better do your audience a favor and add eye-catching images on your brochures. Just make sure the ones you use are relevant to your HVAC business.
Choose the Right Fonts and Colors
People respond to various fonts and colors differently. Some will love them on sight, while others will immediately drop your brochure in disgust. So best pick the right combination wisely. If your HVAC company employs signature fonts and colors, then stick with them. Then pick other fonts or colors that complement the main ones your business uses.
Postcards
You should also consider sending postcards to your target audience. Postcards work similarly to brochures as a direct mail marketing tool, and it offers pretty much the same benefits. However, postcards are more suitable for target marketing than brochures. What’s more, it provides a sneakier way to promote your products or services.
Creating a decent postcard involves the same techniques for making brochures. So instead of helping you make one, we’ll walk you through a few tips to make it stand out.
Make It Unusually Bigger
While there’s nothing wrong with sticking to a default-sized postcard, making it bigger than normal can help it get more attention. And it provides space where you can insert a few discount coupons, promo codes, or even small gift items for your customers. As an added bonus, a bigger postcard offers more room to put information (though as mentioned above, avoid dumping too much).
Send Them During Important Events
Another way to make your postcards stand out is by picking the right timing to send them. For example, you can consider sending your customers personalized cards on their birthdays or anniversaries. Aside from making them feel more appreciated, postcards are way better than emails when getting your audience to respond.
Create Interactive Postcards
Sorting through mails and simple postcards can feel like a chore for many people. By sending them interactive postcards, you can break this monotony pretty quickly. One way to make a postcard more interactive is by adding a 3D pop-up. Since you’re running an HVAC company, the pop-up should be a room (living room, bedroom, etc) with air conditioning or heater system. Alternatively, you can turn your postcards into scratch-off cards where you can include prizes and giveaways your customers will love.
Printed Catalogs
Printed catalogs can bring back various memories, depending on what generation you’re born into. If you’re among the Gen Z’s or millenials, then you probably looked at the different toys included in Sear’s annual Christmas catalog. Meanwhile, you parents might tell you about the time they got one from Montgomery Wards.
As an HVAC direct mail marketing idea, catalogs can help you visually show off your products and services. It can drive better emotional connections with your prospective clients, enable better recall over longer periods, and lead to stronger brand associations. Furthermore, it can complement your digital marketing strategies.
Ultimately, your printed catalog must be able to sell your products, tell your brand’s story, and build relationships with potential customers. If you want it to be effective, try following the tips below:
Include Your Contact Details
Your printed catalogs must not only display your HVAC products and services; it must also include your business’ contact details. That way, potential clients would be able to reach out to you should they decide to work with you.
A great place to place your contact details is at the bottom, along the footer by the page numbers. This makes them easier to spot, without distracting readers from the HVAC merchandise. Be sure to include all your contact details as well, particularly your phone number, email, and URL.
Give Thorough Product Descriptions
Alongside the photos of your HVAC merchandise, you need to provide descriptions so prospective clients can know what they’ll get from each product or service.
Talks about how the HVAC products are made, and highlights its strengths. For your services, you need to list the benefits customers could enjoy by getting it. Doing these things will help people find the product or service that best fits their needs.
Use High-Quality Photos
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So pick those that can easily tell your brand’s story, as well as show readers the benefits they’ll enjoy by choosing you. And by using only the best photos in your printed catalog, you’ll be able to capture your reader’s attention more easily.
Now to get high-quality photos, you need a decent photographer who’s good with a camera and Adobe Photoshop. So hire one if possible. But if you can’t, you can still stick with DIY photos. Just make sure you mind the following when picking the ones you’ll use:
- Sharpness
- Light and Exposure
- Composition
- Primary Post-Production
- Colors
- Resizing
- Sharpening
Give the Catalog a “Longer Life”
Printed catalogs can be pretty costly for many consumers. So better make it worth their while by extending its useful life. This simply means making it usable for a longer period of time. For example, release a catalog they can enjoy for 2022 to 2023 (instead of just 2022).
Of course, there are certain downsides when extending a printed catalog’s life. Chief among these is that unlike digital catalogs, printed ones can’t be updated on the spot. So it won’t be able to showcase any new product or service released after it gets published.
Keep Your Clients In Mind
Always keep in mind that your printed catalog’s main objective is to sell your HVAC brand. So it should be created with your prospective clients in mind.
Prioritize function over art when making printed catalogs. Include all the needed details that will help readers avail your products and services. Create a special section where the sales terms and conditions are displayed (most people place this at the back page). Then include things like minimum order requirements, turn-around times, payment methods accepted, shipping options, and refund or exchange policies.
Video Mailers
Up to 69% of consumers prefer videos over other types of content, and rightly so. Videos offer a more immersive, engaging, and informative medium. And it’s slowly becoming the most dominant way to market a brand. So better bolster your HVAC direct mail marketing campaigns by sending video mailers instead of traditional ones.
Video mailers work pretty much like the traditional mailer except for one thing. Instead of sending prospective clients letters, printed brochures, and what-not, you give them embedded, customized video messages. This can be done in several ways, but the most popular ones use LCD screens or USB flash drives.
Through video mailers, you can potentially enjoy the following:
- Increase landing page conversions by 86%
- Increase time spend on your website by 88%
- Boost qualified leads per year by 83%
- Boost organic search engine traffic by 157%
- Improve brand engagement by 53%
- Improve chances of getting your HVAC product or service chosen by 84%
So better consider adding this to your direct mail marketing campaign if you haven’t yet.
If you’ve decided to send video mailers to your potential customers and you’re in the middle of making the clips, here are a few tips to help you out:
Keep It Short
Make sure the videos are only around 90 to 120 seconds long. If the HVAC product or service is simple and straightforward enough, then you can even make it as short as a minute or less. That way, you can maximize your viewer’s attention and not bore them with too many details.
Employ Humor
Through humor, you can make your video ads more entertaining and memorable. One great example is BGH Air Conditioners’ “Dads in Briefs” video ads series. Nevertheless, don’t force it on your viewers or use too much of it. Otherwise, you might end up putting them off instead of hooking them.
Speak With a Clear Language
Use lingo that your viewers will easily understand and relate to when adding a voiceover to the videos. And avoid using industry jargon and buzzwords that might leave them confused and turned off.
Gift Items
Finally, give your customers and prospects physical items to enjoy. This can be something small that they can consume, keep, or share. Or you can opt to give them something that’s directly related to your HVAC business.
While not as cost-effective as other HVAC direct mail marketing ideas, giving physical items will nevertheless help keep your customers and prospects engaged. Some of the best gift items to give your target audience include:
Cookies
Send your target audience (particularly repeat customers) a box of cookies to munch on. To make them know you sent it, give the cookies a nice packaging with your HVAC company’s name written on it. And send the cookies on time to prevent spoiling.
Toys
Chances are, your target audience have kids. So you might as well give their little ones a few toys to play with. From mini battery-powered aircons that actually blow air to pretend HVAC tools, you’ll have a lot of options to choose from.
Air Freshener
Since you’re an HVAC company, giving your prospects and customers some air fresheners isn’t a bad idea. In fact, you can make the entire process interactive by letting your target audience choose the scent.
Educational Content
You can also give your customers educational content that will bring them up to speed about HVAC systems. This can include short tutorials on how to take care of HVAC systems, walkthroughs on minor repairs, and even a guide on how to build an SEO strategy for HVAC companies.
Free Service Trial
Or you can give them a free trial of your HVAC company’s services. These trials give your prospects a glimpse on how you provide HVAC products or services. In turn, this will make it easier for them to decide whether or not to work with you in the future.
Engage Customers With HVAC Direct Mail Marketing
Through HVAC direct mail marketing, you can reach out to new people more effectively. This will potentially boost your sales and help grow your business. So if you don’t know where to start, try the three simple yet fantastic ideas above.
