Annual campaigns are your opportunity to drive year-round leads for a single advertiser and generate recurring revenue for your company. By utilizing monthly email opt-ins and lead-generation questions, these campaigns can provide a steady stream of brand awareness and a pipeline of qualified leads for your advertiser throughout the year. (Check out our ultimate guide to recurring revenue!)

Businesses such as HVAC installation, service and repair, and home inspectors are all great matches for these campaigns! HVAC businesses need leads year-round and have different products and messages to share each season. Not only that, but HVAC units, servicing, and associated bills can be expensive, which makes them fantastic prizes for a contest your audience will love!

Customer Needs Analysis

Before you start planning anything for your campaign, you need to conduct a Customer Needs Analysis (CNA). A CNA is a meeting with your client to find out exactly what your client needs and what you can do to provide measurable results.

Here are some questions you should ask your HVAC advertiser to gather the information you need to identify and create the best solution to achieve their goals:

Questions about their company:

• What differentiates your HVAC business from others in the market?
• What’s your most popular service or product?
• Which is the most profitable?

Questions about their customers:

• Besides homeownership, what traits does your ideal customer have?
• What is the value of a new customer to you – HVAC repair or replacement?
• What information would help you identify someone as a good prospect for HVAC repair or replacement?

Questions about their marketing:

• What has been your most successful way to generate new leads?
• What hasn’t worked well?
• How many leads does a typical marketing campaign bring you and what’s your closing ratio on those leads?
• Do you have any co-op dollars available for digital promotions?

Questions about metrics:

• How would you define success for a marketing campaign

Promotion Ideas for a Year of HVAC Campaigns:

Q1 – January – March
In the middle of winter, furnaces are in heavy use in most households. This creates an opportunity to use quizzes to educate your audience on a topic such as furnace maintenance or energy efficiency.

• Furnace maintenance quiz
• New furnace unit + service for a year sweepstakes (turnkey available)
• Test your home energy IQ quiz (turnkey available)

Q2 – March – May
In quarter two we prepare to head into summer! Now is the time to think about how to engage your audience as the seasons change. Air conditioning units need maintenance, vents need to be cleaned, and tubes need to be changed.

• A/C Maintenance trivia quiz
• A/C makeover photo contest
• Pay your electric bill for a year sweepstakes

Q3 – June- August
The heat is always top of mind in the summer so capitalize with promotions.

• Summertime energy efficiency quiz
• Summer heat photo contest
• A/C unit and service sweepstakes (turnkey available)

Q4 – October-December
Promotions can be a great way to connect with your audience as people prepare for winter. This is a great chance to educate on furnace maintenance,

• Furnace sweepstakes (turnkey available)
• First snowfall photo contest
• Test Your HVAC Knowledge trivia quiz (turnkey available)

Lead-Generation Questions

Advertisers are looking to promotions to deliver measurable results, such as qualified leads. An annual campaign allows you to create a pipeline of leads throughout the year by utilizing lead-generation questions.

Lean-gen questions are specific questions on a registration or entry form on a promotion that are created to collect data your advertiser can use for future targeted marketing.

And, with an annual campaign, you have the opportunity to ask different lead-gen questions on each individual promotion. This is great because you can both learn a ton about your audience and build a robust database and avoid bombarding users with 10 lead-gen questions at a time.

Here are few examples of lead-generation questions to use for your HVAC-sponsored campaign:

• Did you know we offer HVAC units that qualify for special tax deductions for low energy usage?
• How soon are you looking to build or replace your furnace/AC unit?
• Do you plan to use financing to pay for your installation?
• How old is your current furnace/AC unit?
• On average, how much do you currently spend per month on heating and air?
• Does anyone in your household have allergies?
• Do you own your home?
• May we contact you for a free estimate?

Provide defined answer choices for your lead-gen questions for cleaner reporting results since open-ended answers can be varied or misspelled.

Utilize this guide to run a successful recurring campaign to drive recurring revenue for your business and qualified leads for your advertisers!

Download our Seller’s Guide to more info to help you prepare a unique campaign to achieve the specific goals of any business and make that sale