Building Your Customer Leads with Weather & Consumer Data

BY KEITH SNOW

Consumers are growing more comfortable with personal data collection, but it also means they’re expecting much more in return when it comes to marketing and advertising. Personalization is now table stakes – and 76% of consumers report feeling frustrated when they don’t get it.

HVACR businesses can finely tune their marketing efforts and deliver on these expectations by leveraging a combination of available weather and consumer data. When used together, they heighten the relevance, focus, and efficiency of campaigns and deliver better results for every dollar spent.

Although it’s more possible than ever to collect customer information, it’s not uncommon for HVACR businesses to have minimal or missing details about their customers. Many databases contain only names and addresses. For truly data-driven marketing, a greater level of detail and insight is necessary.

Tune Into Your ‘Perfect’ Customers

On the surface, it may seem that every homeowner in your service territory should be an advertising target, but the reality is, only a percentage will be the right fit for a specific product or service at any given time. Focusing on those “right fit” segments should be rooted in data, not feelings or memory, to make the most of your time and investment.

Although it’s more possible than ever to collect customer information, it’s not uncommon for HVACR businesses to have minimal or missing details about their customers. Many databases contain only names and addresses. For truly datadriven marketing, a greater level of detail and insight is necessary.

HVACR companies can enrich their customer data by leveraging the wealth of information available through national consumer databases. This information is collected, aggregated, analyzed, and updated often at least monthly by reputable providers such as national consumer credit and data companies. Their information is synthesized from a variety of credible sources such as public records, census data, aggregated credit information, publications, self-reported surveys, retail transactions, and digital

HVACR companies can enrich their customer data by leveraging the wealth of information available through national consumer databases. This information is collected, aggregated, analyzed, and updated often at least monthly by reputable providers such as national consumer credit and data companies.

data. Through these national consumer databases, an HVACR business can obtain information on 95% of the U.S. population.

Starting with very little, it’s possible to quickly develop a rich customer picture that includes many pertinent details such as demographics, income, education, life stage, property data, messaging styles, preferred media channels, financial insights, and purchase behavior. This information can be layered on top of an HVACR business’s sales data to develop detailed personas of “ideal customers” and then grouped for the type of product or service, when they prefer to purchase, on what channels to reach them, and their preferred messaging styles.

Use Anticipated Weather Events to Make Timely, Relevant Connections

It’s said that timing is everything and there is a special significance to this adage in the world of HVACR marketing. The seasonal and cyclical nature of the business means staying in sync with who needs what, and when.

This can go much deeper than simply marketing products and services by season – it’s possible to use real-time weather conditions to drive perfectly-timed campaigns. Savvy HVACR businesses are using specific anticipated weather forecasts and events to connect with their ideal customer personas at precisely the right moment.

Here’s a use case showing how your business might apply this.

Scenario 1: Let’s say in this scenario, your customer database analysis, and enrichment, revealed that first-time Millennial homebuyers who bought homes older than 15 years had the highest percentage of a/c service requests in the past two years.

When the weather forecasts predict more than four days above 85 degrees over an extended period, a digital advertising campaign can be automatically triggered to launch ads targeting consumers in your service area who fit this profile. The ads will appear on the websites on which these “target buyers” are already browsing.

And, because your research revealed that this audience is price-conscious but favors local businesses, your message can include a special offer and tailored messaging that helps your business stand out and connect on the points most important to this population.

With a deep understanding of your customers and their purchase behavior and searches, under specific weather conditions, you can make every marketing interaction more intelligent, meaningful, and effective. Personalization at scale is a powerful way for HVACR businesses to put data to work in a way that adds value for your customers and your business. u

Keith Snow is the president of B2E Data Marketing, which provides data-powered marketing campaigns to the home services industry. The data scientists at B2E help HVACR businesses leverage consumer and weather data to target ideal customers with personalized messages influenced by their unique preferences and weather-related behaviors. Learn more at marketing.b2edata.com/ home-services