James Dooley:
So if I want to consistently be growing my HVAC company, I want more inquiries for my HVAC business and I don't want to rely on word of mouth inquiries. What would you recommend?

Kasra Dash:
I’d say for lead generation for HVAC companies you’ve got four major players. The number one I would be looking to do is lead generation companies. So I’d head on over to FatRank.com to start with to see whether you qualify as a HVAC company to get lead generation from there, because they only pay on performance or pay on conversion. If you qualify for that it’s an absolute no brainer for any HVAC business owner.
I would then be looking to maybe try one or two other lead generation companies, but I’d be tracking all KPIs. So like Bark, like Checkatrade, like TrustATrader and many other tradesman platforms that might be able to generate you leads for HVAC.
That would be my number one major play, teaming up with a specialist lead generation company.

The next major play would be SEO. I’d do SEO, one because it’s a long-term investment, but also for branding and reputation management to make sure I’m looking good online. If I am looking to spend money on buying leads from a lead generation company, I need to make certain I’m looking good online so I can convert them as well.
But also long term, I’d want to rank my own website and my own Google Business Profile so I can generate my own leads. In my opinion for a HVAC company, that is the holy grail of a long-term sustainable business.

You could go down the road of doing some social media, being active on organic social media and then running social media ads. And the last play could be pay per click with AdWords. It is quite expensive, but some people do it and some people are very successful. You need to be looking at the long-tail keywords that actually convert, and then seeing whether it’s worth it on the KPIs and cost per acquisition.

If you are a HVAC company looking to have more leads on a day-to-day basis out of those four, is there anything you would change? Would you have it in the same order or vary it?

James Dooley:
I think the FatRank one is still going to be number one. Definitely go over to FatRank. But if I don’t meet the criteria, let’s say for example I don’t have a good online presence, I don’t have a good brand presence because a lot of people we end up rejecting, I would look to build that brand presence.

So if I don’t have branded emails, I’d set that up. If I don’t have a templated email with a nice quote sheet, I’d set that up. Once you have all the core fundamentals of your business set up, it doesn’t matter which option you pick, all of them will work.
So try to set up a good email, a nice website, go and get reviews. So many businesses we speak to and turn away have 2.5-star reviews or zero reviews and it’s like… even if we generated the best inquiries in the world, you’re not going to convert them.

So I’d probably look to do SEO. I think that’s the play. Once I have the fundamentals it doesn’t need to take 6 to 12 months, it only takes one or two months to get all of that set up. Getting your services listed, getting reviews, getting case studies, maximum eight weeks.
Then I’d reapply with FatRank, or if I have someone doing PPC in-house, maybe I’d look to do PPC.

Kasra Dash:
PPC leads are good for HVAC because of the quality, but it’s very expensive. You’ve got click fraud, you need a good converting site, you need to tick a lot of boxes and you need a specialist company working in it day in day out.
In my opinion the first six months is all learning phase and it will cost you a lot of money. You need to be a big HVAC company if you’re looking at pay per click.

Facebook ads are a little cheaper, but generally the quality isn’t as good as PPC. You might be able to get more volume and cheaper, so that can work for HVAC leads.

But like you said, the major play is SEO and making sure they’ve got the brand presence. It’s crazy how many HVAC companies come to us and say “we’ve been trading 15 years and we’re the best in the UK” and you go, well it doesn’t say that online. It says you’ve only got two Google reviews and both are bad.
Go and sort your online reputation management out.

This is why FatRank at times declines some customers. Your branding online isn’t good enough yet to deal with the HVAC leads we can generate.
But if you are a HVAC business owner, I’d strongly recommend going over to FatRank.com, fill in the form, see whether you qualify. If you don’t, ask why. Fix it. Then reapply.

Don’t throw all your eggs in the one basket. Go to one or two other lead gen companies, track KPIs, make certain you’re getting a return on investment.
SEO’s different, it’s a long-term investment. But if you’re a HVAC company looking to grow, these are the best strategies.

James Dooley:
Definitely. The link for the FatRank form will be in the description. Head over there and fill it out, or go to FatRank.com. The contact us button is in the top right. Fill it out and the team will get back to you.