In the crowded HVAC industry, brand awareness and customer loyalty are not just nice-to-haves: they’re essential for survival and growth. The digital marketing landscape is shifting, bringing new challenges and new opportunities. One of the most significant game-changers for HVAC businesses, particularly for mid-market channel partners, is the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) for content marketing tools. AI tools can redefine how HVAC companies engage with their audiences, through a blend of efficiency, personalization, and cost-effectiveness previously out of reach for businesses in the small to mid-sized range.

The Problem with Traditional Marketing Platforms

Traditionally, high-powered marketing platforms like HubSpot and Pardot have been the go-tos for executing sophisticated digital marketing strategies. However, these platforms come with their own set of challenges, especially for mid-market companies in the trades sector. They can be expensive, starting at $10,000 a year; and typically require a dedicated manager or team — not to mention a certificate — to run effectively. For HVAC businesses that operate with lean teams and budgets, the cons may outweigh the pros.

Not only are these traditional marketing platforms costly, but they also come with a hidden price tag – content production. Even with their sophisticated bells and whistles, a foundational blocker remains: you must create unique content. How much time and money can you spend producing consistent content marketing and managing a platform to deliver it?

According to Gartner, recent marketing budgets typically range from 6-9% of a company’s revenue.

Down from 11-12% in pre-pandemic years, this deflation signals how marketing budgets are slashed when the going gets tough, despite studies that confirm cutting marketing costs during financial downturns decreases sales. You don’t want to be left among the other companies scrambling to catch up with their competition on an upswing.

But things are changing. With AI’s help, small and mid-market HVAC businesses don’t have to cut more marketing and risk losing sales, even when costs and resources are tight.

Content Marketing in the AI Age

You’ve probably heard that generative AI tools can create new content in seconds. This speedy production time addresses one of the toughest problems of content marketing: consistency and personalization.

Consistency

Consistency is key. But how do you get content that is consistent in quality, as well as in timing, when it comes to AI? After all, the current free and low-cost content-generating AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini don’t retain the information and prompts you give them from session to session. In other words, if you refresh the page, or come back to it after idling, the A.I. will “forget” the previous conversation. So, you’re not currently able to teach these tools to gradually improve at producing your ideal content (without spending exorbitantly on AI engineers).

Here’s what you can do:

• Give free generative A.I. (like ChatGPT) outlines of the content you’d like to write, or use it for brainstorming.
• Test different prompts to get the best outcome from free content-generating A.I. tools, then save those prompts to create content later so you can simply copy and paste prompts later. Better yet, collaborate with your AI to develop the most potent prompt for your target output.
• Use a content-generating platform that can “learn.” Look for features like deterministic A.I. and machine learning capabilities. These features go beyond the simple learning language model (LLM), which is programmed to predict the words or phrases most likely to follow a prompt or question.
• Use an all-in-one channel marketing platform that generates and sends content for you. For instance, Extu’s platform generates content and packages it into monthly email campaigns that are sent to your customers and prospects automatically every month. You can engage your customers consistently for very little resource cost.

To achieve consistency in AI-generated content, explore a mix of strategies including using outlines, refining prompts, and investing in advanced platforms with learning capabilities; these tools and techniques will enable you to create a month’s worth of content in minutes. Platforms like GoTu Grow offer an automated, resource-efficient solution to ensure your content maintains high quality and measured regularity, bridging the gap left by simpler AI tools.

Personalization

Personalization is the publishing and sending of content that’s targeted and relevant to specific audiences, or a single individual, based on their preferences, jargon, and stage in the buying cycle. Groups of customers who just purchased new HVAC units won’t be interested in an article titled “Signs Your HVAC Unit Is at the End of Its Lifecycle,” for example. As consumers swim through their daily deluge of marketing messaging, they increasingly are ignoring, deleting, and unsubscribing from brand messaging that doesn’t address their specific needs.

This is where A.I. tools, such as personalization engines, can help. Gartner defines personalization engines as “technology that enables marketing professionals to identify, set up, conduct and measure the optimum experience for an individual based on knowledge about them, their intent and context.” Essentially, they crunch the data you have about your customers so you can:

• Tailor and deliver specific messaging. Craft messages that resonate with the individual preferences and needs of each customer. This level of customization increases engagement by making communications feel more relevant and prescient.
• Deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time. Personalization engines use real-time data and predictive analytics to determine the optimal timing and platform for reaching each customer. This ensures that your marketing efforts are not only seen but are also impactful, by aligning with the customer’s current needs and readiness to engage.
• Maximize marketing and advertising performance. You can tailor every marketing touchpoint to the individual customer or audience. This will lead to increased conversion rates, customer retention, and customer lifetime value, as customers become more responsive to your content.

You can integrate personalization engines with your CRM or channel marketing software to do in seconds what used to take hours: generate massive amounts of messaging that is specific to certain groups’ or individuals’ interests.

In conclusion, while there is a lot of new tech in the market that can help a company, the advent of AI content marketing represents a significant paradigm shift for the HVAC industry. It is a way to bridge the gap between the capabilities of large-scale marketing platforms and the resource realities of mid-market businesses. By adopting AI-powered marketing tools, HVAC companies can unleash their digital presence, engage customers effectively, and build lasting relationships, all while operating within their budgetary and resource constraints. In the dynamic world of HVAC, embracing AI content marketing could very well be the key to unlocking next-level growth and customer loyalty.

Author bio

In her current role as Vice President of Global Operations at Extu, Tara Yukawa harnesses her strategic acumen and data-driven mindset to steer the company’s operational excellence worldwide. Extu is a leading provider of channel marketing and sales solutions, headquartered in Atlanta, GA. Tara’s focus on innovation and improvement continues to propel Extu forward in its global operations.