The digital age has changed the marketing landscape. For businesses to survive, they must go digital. Social media is a crucial aspect of going digital. It allows you to reach a wider audience and grow your business. After all, approximately 295.4 million Americans have a social media account. Imagine all the households your HVAC business can reach.

Social media marketing is much more than a paid advertisement. Businesses need a comprehensive strategy that attracts leads and moves them along the sales journey, convincing them to opt for your services. Most HVAC business owners don’t have the time or expertise to take the task on themselves. Therefore, opt for a freelancer or agency to boost their following on social media

As a business, you want to ensure that the individual or agency you pick understands your business, audience, and gets results. To help you do that, we have seven essential questions you need to ask before you choose someone to handle your social media accounts. These will give you a better understanding of what you can expect from the service provider.

Question 1: What services do you provide?

There is much more to social media marketing for HVAC businesses than just content creation and publishing. You want to go with an agency that offers you social media services that work for your industry. This would include the following services:

• Platform-specific services: You want to go with an agency that offers services specific to social platforms for HVAC businesses. Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are the focal social platforms for HVAC and other home service businesses to garner followers. Therefore, you wouldn’t want to go with a firm that specializes solely in LinkedIn. Ask the agency, what specific approach it will take on the three platforms and if they have extensive experience marketing on them.
• Strategy planning: The agency needs to be in charge of the social media marketing strategy. They need to provide the strategy along with content.
• Branding: All content created needs to have your business brand. You need to provide them with the logo, and it is on the agency to include it in all content, how they deem fit.
• Research and analysis: Research provides insight into your competition, to improve your social media approach. Does the agency research the market frequently to adapt? Also, how often do they analyze their approach, and which tools do they use? You want to know all of this to ensure that the agency is legit, getting you the results you seek.

The services highlighted above are key to a comprehensive social media plan. They will achieve any marketing goals you have set for your HVAC business.

Question 2: How experienced are you with the HVAC industry?

Managing social platforms for an HVAC business is different from an IT firm. Though the marketing techniques may be similar, the content and approach are not. Due to the difference in the target audience.

It is vital to go with an agency with extensive experience in your particular industry. Social media channels are constantly evolving. You want an agency that knows the tricks of the trade and the specifics of your industry. This way, your business gets quicker results since the agency knows what works.

Inexperience in the HVAC industry doesn’t necessarily have to be a deal-breaker. However, you need to understand that the agency may need some time to understand your target audience, delaying results.

Question 3: How do you plan to make our business grow?

Growing your audience and generating business is your ultimate goal on social media. It doesn’t matter if your business is starting from scratch or already has thousands of followers; the social media agency needs to focus on growth. You need to know how they plan on doing that.

With so many HVAC businesses on social platforms, standing out amongst the rest can be difficult. This particular question will give you a glimpse of the strategy and tools the agency will use to maximize growth. Most will provide examples of previous clients they’ve helped grow and the process that went into it. So, you know that they’ve achieved it before and can do the same for you.

Question 4: How is paid and organic content development combined?

First, you need to understand the difference between paid and organic content development. Paid content is any content promoted through paid advertisement; the agency pays social platforms through their paid advertisement channel to generate more followers. Organic content generates followers and business for free through engaging posts. Paid content development essentially attracts leads, while organic converts them.

A mix of paid and organic content development is a must for success on any social platform. You need to know the agency’s approach and how much they will rely on the two concepts. You don’t want to go with an agency that relies heavily on paid content. Not only will it result in more costs, but “spam” followers. There is an increase in followers. But no drastic change in leads or customers.

Question 5: Which key performance indicators (KPIs) do you use to measure success?

KPIs help in determining the effectiveness and efficiency of your business's social media marketing approach. Numerous metrics can be tracked to answer questions such as:

• Are you reaching your target audience?
• Is the audience you reach engaging with your content?
• What percentage of followers inquire about your services?
• The conversion rate of followers to customers

The following KPIs should help you answer the questions above:

• Engagement: Thousands of followers mean nothing if your engagement level is low. Engagement determines how your audience receives the content. The higher the level of engagement, the more leads. Under engagements, there are different metrics to measure engagements such as likes, shares, comments, brand mentions, and active followers.
• Reach: Businesses need to know the reach of their social media page and content. To determine reach metrics such as followers/fans, impression to gauge how many times the post reached your audience's newsfeed, and page traffic.
• Leads: Likes and shares mean nothing if they don’t result in more leads. To determine leads, you need to determine the increase in sales since the social media campaign starts, inquire you get on social platforms, and the type of engagement.

These KPIs are essential, you want to go with an agency that covers these and offers more.

Question 6: How often is progress reported?

A major concern any business has when outsourcing something is the level of communication. Social media marketing will be an important aspect of your overall marketing strategy, you will want to know its progress. Therefore, frequent communication and progress reports are a must.

Look for an agency that provides monthly progress reports that give insights into all the KPIs. They should also be open to providing you with reports when needed.

Be sure to ask about who will stay in touch with you, serving as an account manager, the mode of communication, and frequency.

Question 7: When can I expect results?

Social media marketing for HVAC businesses takes time. An agency promising immediate results is a red flag, so be wary of them. You need to establish the brand on social platforms, which takes time. The timeline for results are generally as follows:

• Months 1 - 3: Building the brand, increasing followers/fans on social platforms.
• Months 4 - 12: Followers start to rise, you start to generate organic traffic to social pages.
• Months 12 - 24: Real results start to appear, substantial growth in traffic to social pages and websites. A steady flow of leads and rise in business.

The timeline can differ a little, but don’t expect a substantial increase in business until around 5-6 months after hiring an agency. Any agency promising results within the first month or two is likely not one you can trust.

Final thoughts

Social platforms continue to evolve. It's tough for HVAC business owners to run operations and keep up with the latest marketing trends. Luckily, you don’t have to, a social media agency can handle all your social accounts.

All you need to do is ensure you go with an agency with experience and a high level of skill sets. So, they stay ahead of the curve and constantly get you the results you seek. The questions outlined above will help you decide on the best agency for that. So, you can be sure that your business's social pages attract, engage, and convert customers.