In today’s business environment, brands need to cut through the noise to get ahead of the competition. It’s estimated that the average consumer sees up to 10,000 advertisements per day, which means you need a standout sales and marketing strategy if you want your HVAC business to get noticed.
One of the most overlooked yet highly effective components of HVAC B2B lead generation programs is marketing collateral. It helps your sales team capture qualified leads, share valuable information about your business, and convert prospects into long-term customers. With a few key pieces of marketing collateral, you can add extra support to your sales pipeline and increase revenue.
What Is Marketing Collateral?
Marketing collateral refers to the collection of media you can use to attract prospects, inform them about your business offerings, and convince them to buy. In addition to teaching prospects about your company history, collateral tells readers how you can solve their issues using one of your products or services. Effective collateral should educate prospects and make a lasting impression, leading them to take your desired action and move forward in the purchasing journey. It should also bring your brand message to life and help readers connect with your company.
Decades ago, marketing collateral only came in paper form. Sales reps would carry around printed brochures and hand them out during sales meetings or use them to guide their presentations. Today, collateral has evolved to include a range of optimized media materials to fit each stage in the buying journey and appeal to your target audience—both online and offline.
You can still use traditional forms of sales collateral, such as printed brochures and booklets, to educate your target audience about your business. However, many B2B leads prefer digital collateral, such as PDF sell sheets, pitch deck presentations, and videos. As a result, your HVAC company can benefit from both traditional and modern sales collateral.
Why You Need Marketing Collateral for Your HVAC Business
If you’ve been growing your business for years without the help of marketing collateral, you may be wondering: Will collateral actually make a difference in my lead generation efforts? The answer is yes. Here are six reasons why.
1. Collateral Helps You Reach Your Small Target Market
It’s not easy to find and retain customers in a B2B industry like HVAC. Not everyone needs a new service contract or HVAC system, and those who do often have a preferred provider already. Compared to B2C companies that can reach out to a wide range of customers across different demographics, you have a smaller pool of potential customers who need your products and services.
Marketing collateral helps you connect with the limited group of B2B customers who need your services. You can create custom marketing collateral that addresses their unique pain points and goals, which helps you create a connection. If you can show your leads that you understand their HVAC problems and have a proven solution, you can close more deals with your target audience.
2. Marketing Collateral Leads to Better Relationships
It can take months to convince an HVAC lead to switch to your services. During that time, it’s crucial to foster and maintain a strong relationship with your lead because it increases your chances of closing a deal in the future. However, building a connection between your sales rep and potential customer isn’t easy.
Because marketing collateral speaks directly to your ideal leads and creates a relatable brand image, it can help you build trust during the nurturing process. Additionally, collateral can speed up the sales process. When leads see that you can fix their problem now after reading a case study or sell sheet, they’re more likely to make the switch sooner.
3. Collateral Accurately Conveys Your Brand Message
Branding is an essential aspect of the B2B buying journey. Your leads want to buy from a company they recognize and trust, and marketing collateral helps you build that visibility and consistent brand image. When prospects see your company logo, read your distinct copy, and detect a uniform message across different pieces of marketing collateral, they form a positive opinion of your HVAC business.
4. Collateral Communicates Value
You might be tempted to splurge on expensive advertisements that constantly promote your HVAC business, but you might not get the return on investment you’re looking for. Marketing collateral can be just as effective at communicating value to your target leads, and your upfront investment is minimal. Plus, you only share marketing collateral with viable leads, which means you can tailor your copy and design to those leads instead of sharing a generic message.
All B2B consumers have unfulfilled needs, and marketing collateral helps you address those needs and convey value. Combining multiple forms of media, such as graphics, videos, and text helps curate content that caters and connects with particular audiences. Additionally, collateral can convince your reader to take action and move forward in the sales pipeline by demonstrating your key differentiators.
5. Collateral Showcases Thought Leadership
All clients want to work with a business that knows what they’re doing. Marketing collateral provides a way to display your knowledge and thought leadership, giving your business a competitive edge. By using forms of media to give insights and essential information to your target market, you can position your brand as an industry thought leader and gain top-of-mind awareness, rather than just being “part of the herd.” Providing in-depth marketing collateral tells your prospect that you possess the expertise they need to solve their HVAC problems.
6. You Can Easily Share Marketing Collateral
When you’re trying to connect with qualified HVAC leads, it can be challenging to get your point across. Sales collateral, such as a brochure, e-book, business card, or video, is a simple and effective way to distribute marketing content without overloading the prospect or client.
In our digital-led world, it’s easier than ever to share marketing collateral. You can send out PDF files via email or share videos and downloadable brochures on your website and social media pages. When leads can easily access your critical information, they can better understand your business with minimal effort required on their part.
Types of Marketing Collateral for HVAC Businesses
Your marketing collateral opportunities are endless, but these are the most common types of marketing collateral for HVAC businesses.
Corporate Brochures
Brochures give your potential client a quick overview of your company’s offerings in a clear and concise way. You typically break down corporate brochures into segments explaining your products and service offerings, company history, differentiators, and contact information. Brochures aren’t just a strong introduction for your business—they create a lasting impression and convince the reader to enter your sales pipeline.
Videos
Video collateral is a powerful tool to promote your business and provide leads with valuable information about your services. You can create many different types of video collateral, including “About Us” videos, “Why Us” videos, testimonials, and product tutorials. Viewers can better visualize and remember concepts when they learn about them through video, and brands can highlight aspects about their business that are more difficult to convey through text.
Sales Pitch Decks
Sales pitch decks are a great way to create a personalized sales experience for your ideal customer. You can use them during your sales presentation to describe how you can solve their pain points and challenges. In addition, sales pitch decks help you highlight aspects of your business, such as your awards, service team, or exclusive products that put you ahead of the competition.
Sell Sheets
Unlike brochures, which provide an overview of all of your service and product offerings, sell sheets give leads a detailed description of specific offerings. You can optimize sell sheets using eye-catching graphics, sleek design, and compelling copy that catches your readers’ attention.
Case Studies
Case studies are the best way to show prospects what a potential partnership will look like. Honest testimonials add credibility to your HVAC business because they draw on past customers’ experiences. You can keep a few different case studies on hand and choose the best one to connect with a specific lead during a sales presentation or lead nurturing email.
Social Media Covers
Social media covers are a popular form of digital marketing collateral that uses photos, graphics, and text to create a compelling header at the top of your social media page. Well-crafted social media covers enhance your visual appeal, incorporate your brand image, add a professional touch to your profiles, and give readers a positive impression of your business.
Business Cards
A good first impression paves the way for a valuable client-business relationship. Business cards showcase your professionalism and give prospects a channel for communication.
Trade Show Materials
Trade shows are a thriving hub of sales activity, especially for B2B companies that don’t operate in brick-and-mortar stores. High-quality materials and banners can help you capture the right audience and excel at trade shows.
Need Marketing Collateral for Your HVAC Business?
You need all the help you can get to improve your sales rate and grow your HVAC business, and marketing collateral can provide that extra support your lead generation program needs. If your current collateral is falling flat, Abstrakt can help you revamp your brand image and create the custom collateral you need.
Our team of designers and copywriters can create any of the above collateral pieces for your HVAC business or bring your custom vision to life. We know how much of a difference collateral can make in a sales program, which is why we create one piece of marketing collateral every month for our Pipeline Outbound partners.
Get in touch today to learn more about our custom marketing collateral for HVAC companies.
Want to Learn More?
