The COVID-19 Opportunity for Plumbing, HVAC & Home Service Contractors

Well, hey, this is Josh Nelson with plumbing and HVAC SEO and I wanted to shoot this quick video about the corona virus or the ko vid 19 and what’s going on. And I know that there’s a lot of concern and there’s a lot of fear, you know, working with 170 or so plumbing and HVDC contractors across the country. We just got back from the service roundtable next door que se events kind of all at the same time here in March. And I know that there’s there’s some concern and there’s kind of like, what do we do next? You know, this is going to create some problems, it’s going to create some slow down, what should we do right? Should we press forward? Should we pause and protect our team? Should we pause and protect our customers? Do we kind of turn everything off? What do we do next? And what really should we do? And I really think there’s an opportunity because if there’s really one of two ways this could go right? There’s the you know, hear the news, get really scared and concerned. And shut things down. Or there’s the let’s find the opportunity here. Let’s find the opportunity to separate ourselves from the competition. Let’s, let’s find the opportunity to get ahead. So I wanted to create this quick overview of why think, really is the COVID 19 opportunity for plumbing and HVDC and home service contractors. So here’s the reality, the situation. Tough times are ahead, right? We’ve all been watching the news, even though we should try and limit news exposure. Disney is closed, NBA shut down. Restaurants now are getting closures throughout the country. People are being told to stay home. So you know whether this turns into a massive epidemic that infects the entire country or not, there’s going to be a massive slowdown in the economy, which is ultimately going to result in some financial tough times. So let’s just face that as a reality, but I really believe that those financial hardship IPS tend to tend to really impact the largest corporations in the world. and small businesses, which is defined by the SBA is businesses doing less than $20 million per year, you know, can really pivot a lot of a lot quicker. I was on an interview a couple days ago with Mike mccalla wits, author of the books profit first and the pumpkin plan and fix this next, a lot of really, really great books and he works with almost 200,000 small businesses across the country. And he was saying he really thinks this is a massive opportunity. Despite the tough times ahead. Small Businesses can use this as an opportunity to really get it get an advantage against the against the competition, and in the end the market. here’s here’s the ultimate reality as plumbing HVDC home service companies, our customers still need our services, right? They still need your services, right? If the heating or cooling stops working. They have to get that fixed. If there’s a blocked pipe or there’s, you know, the water heater is not working correctly, they’re still going to need these services. Right? So it’s not like the demand in this industry just goes away because there’s a virus right? And I think that if you can message it correctly, you can stand out as the company that’s available to serve is completely prepared, right your Tech’s have been trained on how to keep themselves safe, and more importantly, how to keep the customer safe when you enter their home. So don’t feel like okay, coronavirus news is telling me Doomsday is ahead. That we just need to shut everything down, right you have to keep you have to keep yourself in momentum. So really, there’s I really think like there’s two potential outcomes in this in this scenario. And really, you have to decide which outcome you believe is more likely happen. Outcome one is this is the apocalypse, right? This is going to last forever. There’s going to be a massive downturn in the economy, it’s going to be a huge recession. And we might as well just fold up shop, turn things off, you know, go lay in the bed and wait for the end. Right. And if you listen to the news, and you hear what’s being sent out there, you might feel like that’s the outcome. Right? But the other potential outcome, which I personally believe is more likely, is that this is going to be a short term situation, right? This too shall pass. Right? Whether it’s two weeks, four weeks, six weeks, three months, the rest of 2020 this is going to pass right. The world and the US economy will be okay. Right. We’ll get through the coronavirus. You know, it’s probably not quite as bad as the news is making it out. To be, so if you believe that this is going to pass, and that life will return to some level of normalcy in the next 12 to 24 months, ideally in the next, you know, 12 to 24 weeks. If you believe that to be the case, then, you know, why not keep your foot on the gas? Why not try and be as effective as possible. And again, it creates an opportunity because a lot of people that aren’t strategic thinking, you know, that can only think about this present moment gets stressed out, right, they hear the news, they find out, the kids are going to be home, they find out that, you know, these major organizations are shut, and they just, they just can’t function, right. They can’t serve their team, they can’t serve their clients, they can’t keep their marketing strategy going. And so those are the two potential outcomes. If you can really get your mind around the fact that this too shall pass. Then it gives it gives you a great opportunity to really take advantage because here What I believe is going to happen. And I’m hearing this from other experts. And it was kind of reinstated by Mike McCalla, someone on my interview with him the other day. The fact is, your customers still need your services. And even if they didn’t, there’s an opportunity to expand your organic footprint, right from an internet marketing centric perspective. Right? The opportunity is to continue to put out great content. Continue now to use this opportunity to create some video content for your website that can make you stand out and get a differentiate yourself from the competition. Continue to have our team create blog content and to create links into site syndicate great information that’s going to position you so that when this does pass, because you’re still with your pedal to the metal, because you’re still creating good content, because you’re still positioning yourself, you’ll potentially be better ranked than the current competition that went to sleep during this period of time. So you want to keep thinking about the organic footprint. I also think you want to keep running paid search, there’s a really interesting dynamic that I believe is going to happen. I think that again, your customers are still going to need your services. And some of the competition is going to be so scared and so overwhelmed by the news that they say, Okay, let’s pause all over marketing campaigns. Let’s stop running SEO, let’s turn off our PPC Let’s be less aggressive, aggressive in buying our local service athletes what’s like tone it all the way down? What that results in is, you know, low hanging opportunity for you potentially lower cost per lead, lower cost per click. And and in as it relates to most of these paid advertising mechanisms, you’re only paying when somebody is looking for you. So you know if for some reason there was no search volume, there wouldn’t be any local service add leads to buy, there wouldn’t be any, you know, keywords to bid on. So By all means we need to keep our paid search campaigns running to show up for the customers that are looking, because if they are looking, they must have a serious need. Right? And, and ideally, you know, we’re going to be able to actually, you know, be at a lower cost and a higher conversion rate, because some of your competition isn’t going to be paying attention. I think the other opportunity has nothing to do with internet marketing is if you’ve been thinking about door rolling through acquisition, in a buying, you know, companies that just either they don’t have the financial resources to weather a little bit of a storm, or they’re just stressed out, and they’re like, oh, man, I don’t want to deal with this over the next couple of months. Anytime that there’s chaos in fear. It represents opportunity to gain market share, to get things at a discount. So I wouldn’t be looking at you know, who are some of your competitors that might be looking just a fold up shot, where you could take over their operation so you could pick up some real Amazing technicians that might have taken you, you know, three years to train up and develop, to take over a phone number that is already out there getting calls and getting leads to take over a website that’s already organically ranked for the planning HVC home service, key terms in your market. So I would be looking for those types of opportunities as well, because this is an unprecedented time. You know, this hasn’t happened in my lifetime. It hasn’t happened in many generations or something of this scope is happening. But if you believe this too shall pass, well then let’s find the opportunities. Let’s capitalize on those, those people that that are just thinking I’m going to fold it up right now let’s let’s get those assets, and let’s take advantage of them. So really, I believe again, there there is an opportunity. Really, I think it’s an opportunity to take market share, to serve your company, your customers in their time of need, right? They have needs, let’s make sure we need them, that we serve them and let’s get a long term competitive advantage. Because we’re picking up customers when others aren’t, because we’re being aggressive, and we’re getting those Pay Per Click opportunities that others probably wouldn’t. And because we’re planting the long term seeds, and expanding our organic reach. Now, I think it’s important if you’re going to do this, which I think we all should, is to make sure that we emphasize that our operation is open, right? We’re here, don’t worry, we’re here. We will serve you. We can dispatch technicians, we can get out to your home. And I want to make sure that you kind of emphasize that and that your team is prepared. Right there is risk for your team and for the customer. And your customers really concerned is, if I call this plumbing or HVDC, or home service company out to my house, are they going to, first of all not have the virus? Are they not going to have been exposed to someone that has the virus? Are they going to, you know, be safe for me and my family. So you really want to emphasize that your team has been briefed on the On the threat, they’ve been trained on how to proceed with whether they’re washing their hands before they enter their home, they’re putting on booties, potentially they have availability to wear a mask, if you can do that. You just want to emphasize you’re available and that you’ve thought this through, and that their safety is of utmost importance to you and you’re double checking your text to make sure that they’re, you know, they don’t have a fever, they are not showing any symptoms, and so you can safely put people into their homes. So I really think this again, this is an opportunity to focus on your organic footprint to keep your paid search campaigns running to pick up that lower cost per lead and to pick up market share, so that when this passes, which it will, you’re positioned in a better place than you were before. So we did put together a nice little resource for you. You can get it by going to plumberSEO.net/covid/kit. It’s just a message messaging kit so that if you want to send the message out to your customer Bass saying, hey, look, we’re open for business, we’re here to serve you. This is how we’ve prepared and these are the things that we have in place. There’s a template that you can download there and use. If you’re one of our clients, we can get this out one of our clients on the social media and email marketing services, of course, we can get this out for you to your customer database to make sure they know you’re open for business, your team is prepared and you’re ready to rock and roll. And then also, you know, you want to put something like this probably on your website, you know, ideally, a blog post, potentially, maybe a pop up that says, hey, here’s our quick warning about COVID 19. Our team is here to serve you, we’re prepared. If you have the wherewithal, I think a video a short video that we can add to your homepage as a pop up would be really good as well. Hey, thanks for visiting the XYZ plumbing HVAC website, you know if you’re concerned about COVID 19 Don’t worry, we can serve you. Our team is prepared. We’re going to make sure your family’s safe. You know, if you need anything, call us now click the chat button below. Let us get someone out to help serve your your family and your home during this tough time. So, you know some ideas and resources for that are available for you at plumberSEO.net/covid/kit. So go there, download that. And I would say you take advantage of this opportunity now is not the time to cower. Now it’s not the time to be in fear Now’s not the time to slow everything down. Now’s the time to capitalize and to take advantage of the Cova 19 opportunity while remaining safe while taking care of your family and while taking great care of your customers. So I hope this helps I hope maybe this is kind of jog some ideas and kind of inspires you to kind of be as proactive as possible during this time. If there’s any Anything we can do to help, feel free to call us 866-610-4647 or go to plumberSEO.net/schedule. Of course we’re open for business. Our team is here to serve support and help you generate more leads and sales and take your plumbing HVC or Home Services business to the next level. Be safe. I’ll talk to you soon.