Circling Back on "Cool" Air Conditioning
In the virtual Lemonade Stand, Crystal and Emily throw it back to a previous episode to talk about making your units and condensers "cool" through the power of marketing! They discuss the following topics:
2:47 - Bringing Life to Your Offers
6:38 - Language and Wording in Your Brand
8:00 - Hopping on Social Media Trends
10:10 - Using and Utilizing a Mascot
12:30 - Paying Attention to Your Community
15:00 - Create Your Own Fun
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We’ll see you next time, Lemon Heads!
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Speaker 1: 0:08
Oh, what's up? Lemonheads? Welcome back to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. Emily here and I'm going to introduce you to a throwback all the way back to episode 83, making Air Conditioning Cool. In this episode we talk about how it's summertime and everything is really busy and, especially if you're in the home service industry, in the HVAC world, times are rocking and rolling. Things are a little bit rough because everyone is dispatched and stuff, but it's a great time and if you're needing some help with your marketing from your offers to your social media, to your community and employee engagement this is an episode that you can really find a lot of benefit from. So I want you to take a listen Without further ado.
Speaker 1: 0:47
Let's sip some lemonade. So obviously we've got some puns already happening here and stuff, but and we're actually going to kind of get into how puns can make things interesting and clever in your marketing and stuff like that but at its core, air conditioning is not cool, is not sexy, is not super, like a colonoscopy. No one's excited If anybody's going to school for marketing or graphic design or anything they're like, sign me up for air conditioning units. It's not happening.
Speaker 2: 1:14
Or hot water heater well, I'm sorry, my East Texas showed or water heaters or drain clearings or indoor air quality equipment.
Speaker 1: 1:21
But then here's Lemonsay. We built a whole business around doing just that.
Speaker 2: 1:25
So yes, so you have to get out of your own way a little bit and understand. You live the life surrounded by fan coils and condensers and thermostats and pipes and jetters and all of those things, and the average consumer could care less about that, correct? So we have to figure out a way to bring back some life into those things. Stop the scroll, catch the attention. And, more than anything, we just want to be a little creative so that we can stand out in a very crowded space for a lot of you and how we can just do some creative things.
Speaker 2: 1:58
And so the first thing that I always like to start with is I like the idea of campaigns, yes, and so, so you know you'll be on certain if you watch, like national retailers and national um things like geico, insurance or fidelity or any of those things. They're running campaigns for a while, um, and they spend a lot of time creating the perfect message that's going to be short-lived but makes a, you know, has a good bang for the, a good bang for your buck. Thank you you Little punch. But what I think air conditioning companies we are like? Well, we're $89. We have an $89 tune up.
Speaker 1: 2:30
Yep, fantastic sir.
Speaker 2: 2:32
And here's my checklist of what I'm going to check, you know, and so a lot of times, with a little cute tagline or a fun pun, if you will, you can get a lot of life out of it. That just people stop and all of a sudden pay attention. Sure, because it's funny or it's clever or it's very on brand. One of the two you know Sailor Max says, or John Henry you know is working on, is the jack of all trades, like those things make people stand up and pay attention. And so that's one of the first things I wanted to bring up is, you know, when you're looking at your mundane offers, things that we've offered every day, that are consistently good, barrier of entry style promotions, so they're making it to where the homeowner is less afraid to let you in the home. So another side note for a second. I know none of y'all are surprised by this. Let me tell you what, to me, is never a good idea, can't?
Speaker 1: 3:20
wait Well, I know Percentages off.
Speaker 2: 3:27
So if I tell you Emily, hey, you can save 20% off a complete new system, I have no idea how much that actually is. Yeah, so is that like five hundred dollars? Is it five dollars? Because I thought a whole new system was three thousand dollars and people are like absolutely not, like the average ticket right now is like nine thousand dollars. Yes, and so that 20%? It loses its emotional appeal to me because I don't get it right, I don't know how much am I actually.
Speaker 1: 3:48
I can't do math, you know well or you just don't know right you just don't know what the cost.
Speaker 2: 3:53
So, hey, save 25 on indoor air quality. The homeowner's like what? What does that even mean? What is indoor air quality and what is 25 of it? I have no idea so a lot of that is like you got to speak to the consumer, not the contractor. So we get really into our feelings about like, oh well, it's, it's a 10 point inspection of the bearings.
Speaker 1: 4:12
Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh uh uh Well, and some of the contracts can get so in the weeds, well, have to be more exact and things like that. But yes, they got to kind of get out of their own way and just kind of let some things happen and set them in place that you can get rolling with the actual promotion think like so I want you, the next time you get ready to think about a promotion, I want you to think about the last thing that you maybe purchased.
Speaker 2: 4:34
So we didn't plan this, so, like emily, what's the last thing that you and chris kind of purchased or had to deal with?
Speaker 1: 4:42
I can tell you this because I dealt with it last night we bought a big bookshelf thing from Ikea, okay, okay. So I have no idea where Crystal's going to go with this. Well, because, first of all, your marriage survived. It did, but this was like a big piece, like a three piece set, and we only got through the first piece last, so we still got two more to go. We're still there, but you know, but you know barely well.
Speaker 2: 5:06
So kind of where I'm going with this is like you know when you think about your experience. So even with it, we, even with this ikea, purchased what was the experience like? You kind of lead yourself back down to you have no idea all the other shelves that were in there and all the other shelves that were there, and how much this one. Some of us have done our research so we have an idea. You have an idea of where it is. But you you bought that shelf because you wanted that particular shelf and you knew that you were gonna have to put it together.
Speaker 1: 5:33
Well, and I didn't go to five different other websites to look at their bookshelves and compare them, because once you saw this one, it was the one you wanted.
Speaker 2: 5:40
So I think when we are talking these, you have to think like the consumer thinks. So sometimes you have to think of the last time you were the consumer. So what was my experience like when I tried to do that? So that's really important and Because we know it. So I have a friend that's a doctor and he's always like I just don't understand why people don't come to their healthy visits. And I'm like, well, because you might find something wrong, right. So we don't want to come and pay you $60 to tell us that now something's wrong. Listen, right now I'm fine. Yeah, I don't want to acknowledge it, you know. So I'm like you have to think like you're you that's to me coming and getting this healthy checkup? Because right now all I think it is is taking off work. That is correct, and I ain't got time, I know I got time to be gone.
Speaker 2: 6:23
And so it's the same thing with, like, tuning up your heating and air conditioning systems Like your people don't go. You know what? Thank God, because I was worried that I needed to grease the bearings on my fan. You know, it's just not what we think about when we don't live in it, so y'all live in it every day. Same thing with drains like people. Just like my drain, it drains slow and, as a plumber, you're like why are you allowing this to do this right?
Speaker 1: 6:46
we're like well, it's fine so, but what you're getting at is like you have to be very intentional to create attention and to help make that problem of why they need you and stuff. Yeah, so you can be very creative in your actual wording, in your, your tagline, in your headlines, things like that, and so that's another thing that I think is kind of taken for granted is the language and wording of your brand. You know, when we talk about branding, I think everyone immediately thinks of the visual and what is the logo like. But your words and your semantics and things like that.
Speaker 2: 7:17
that's all greatly a part of your brand, yeah brand chunks, yeah, brand chunkables.
Speaker 1: 7:19
We call them slices like a lemon we call them slices like a lemon because, like, that's part of our brand, that's our yes wording. You know we'll say things are very zesty. So instead of they're just cool, they're zesty because the zest of a lid, we're gonna squeeze out correct or we're gonna juice this up, so all of those words all play into our brand, versus just saying we're going to do this or this is fun, this is exciting.
Speaker 2: 7:44
Yes, correct. And so when you're creating this content, you're thinking like the consumer now tie in your brand. So if you're a polka dotted brand, use things like spot on, like we've been talking about that for a friend that's doing a business.
Speaker 1: 7:57
Our service is spot on, our product is spot on.
Speaker 2: 7:59
So instead of saying we get it right every time, we're going to say oh, we are the polka dot crew, we get it right every time, we're spot on every time. So there's just these brandable pieces that really help bring it home. So when you, when you marry those two ideas, so when you say I'm going to talk to the consumer, not to the contractor, and I'm going to try to tie it into my brand, contractor, and I'm going to try to tie it into my brand, that's when you really start coming up with some cool ideas and some cool ways to word things. And then you mentioned branding, but also in the graphics. So you know, sometimes simple is better, sometimes you need to get more aggressive with your branding. Or there's a cute, something cool that you can tie in that makes people stop their scroll.
Speaker 1: 8:35
I use that. That might be like a little trendy. Like you see this one meme going around on social media, how can you take that one popular trendy thing right at this moment and attach your brand to it?
Speaker 2: 8:45
Yeah, it's just change it a little bit. You know, and I'm pretty good at that, like if people laugh at emily, and I like, if you give us like 10 minutes, we're gonna give you 20 ideas, um, and 15 of them aren't any good, but five of them are pretty good. Hey's, five more than you had you know, but a lot of that is because I can look at social media trends and immediately translate that to plumbing companies. Well, and I just I don't know what that is. It's because I live that life, uh.
Speaker 2: 9:08
But you know, when you see things it's like, um, all the pretty girls walk like this this, this, and I'm like I would love to see this beautiful, like this ugly pipe built out. And then when you plug it all in together and somebody's got it all nice and pretty and it's like this and it's plugging all the like my brain just goes there, like all the water faucet, like you see it in the kitchen, this and then the bathroom.
Speaker 1: 9:27
This and the shower.
Speaker 2: 9:28
This you know we could just rattle those off, and it just comes naturally to us. But also we try to think like the consumer, with the trendy side. And then now we're like, oh, love that. I know we have plumbers that are always trying to promote those like hands-off faucets. Now, oh, yeah, so that's an easy trend to activate with. Like waving the people oh, my gosh, that wave their hand, and it's trendy, just some cool things there. But graphics I go back to this. Like you must pay attention to your brand guide Again. Again a contractor.
Speaker 2: 10:02
Today I was like, oh, I love this character on your vans. He's like, yeah, I don't use him anymore. What? So? I was like, why? Why, it made me so sad. I was like, why?
Speaker 2: 10:06
And I was like so I'm talking to this Hispanic guy, um, and he's the owner of a company, and on the back of his van is this buffed up Arnold Schwarzenegger looking white guy with green eyes. So I was like why did you get rid of him? He's like, I just didn't know what to do with him and I was like so why don't we bring him back to life? But more like you, more like, yeah, you are, because you are this, you can be this brand. And he was like oh yeah, yeah, I really like that idea, but I don't have those muscles. I was like, well, that would probably be a topic of conversation, like you're gonna go around people be like you thought that was you on the side of the van, but again I, but I was. My point to him was there is so much life hiding in a mascot oh, no for sure.
Speaker 1: 10:46
And I've seen several times that like a customer will say like, okay, I need a mascot. I've heard I need a mascot and so they'll get a mask on, they'll just throw it up on the van. But they're like done, done, shake my hands off, right. But then, like, what's his name, what's the story, why do we have it? Like, yes, what is his like superpower, what is he known for? How does he integrate into the company and the culture and things like that? And then it's like oh, like that's the missing piece. But that's how people really make connections to the mascot and how you can really elevate the brand, versus just having a character on your truck absolutely, and when you take your, even plays off of, like your name or your mascot.
Speaker 2: 11:21
Yes yes, again we're in. Some of you are like, oh my god, that's kitschy crap, that's kitschy stuff. Listen, it's kitschy right past you.
Speaker 1: 11:28
That's right Okay.
Speaker 2: 11:29
It is a memorable, right past those guys that are defiant on. I'm not doing offers and I'm just good from the get. Go.
Speaker 1: 11:36
Well, good for you, friend, or if it's too cutesy like are people going to think I don't do good work? Yeah, because it's corny. It's too kitschy, it's corny.
Speaker 2: 11:42
Well, listen, we're going for memorable.
Speaker 1: 11:45
Correct.
Speaker 2: 11:45
Now, kitschy and corny is memorable, but there are other ways. Classy is memorable as well. So if you wanted to go classy or higher level, well, it's just a difference, you just have to own it and stick to one direction.
Speaker 2: 11:59
If the name of your company is Five Star Service, I'm going to call Five Star Service. I'm going to tell you, when you drive up, you better be dressed like a dead gum chauffeur Buttoned up, tightened up. Nice hats, gloves, white gloves yes, everything's clean and organized and up to par, and you get zero room to have anybody. Janky pants on there and so so, again, you just have to own whatever identity you're going to choose and I'll be honest, there's multiple ways, multiple ways to skin this particular cat, as long as you own it, um, and you jump in on it. And then the last thing I was going to say is, using terminology that people in your market say so kind of, like I said earlier, yeah, hot water heater.
Speaker 2: 12:39
Yes, which hot water heater is actually the third highest search term where I live for plumbing. Literally hot water heater repair.
Speaker 1: 12:49
And again, I can't help redneck terminology, but it works well, and that's just like being in tune to your culture and stuff, or like what you're around because sometimes I think contractors can do this way, especially with graphics is like get too technical, like that's not the exact wrench we use, that's not the exact tool, and just you know.
Speaker 2: 13:08
That's not the exact hot water heater, is not the exact term we're gonna, but people don't know that another thing that cracks me up and I've watched our designers struggle with stuff like this we will have contractors hold up the release of a whole campaign oh my gosh around the shape of the house that the designer used in one of the social media posts and they're like, well, I just that that that doesn't look like a house here.
Speaker 2: 13:30
And I was like, sir, this is a brick home in a neighborhood. It didn't like we put a home by the ocean in the middle of arizona, in the middle of, you know, wyoming. It was just that it didn't look like a home that they had seen. And I was like, okay, I get it, but you realize this is holding up the whole project, like we have overthought this to the point of no return.
Speaker 1: 13:51
I have one that we're dealing with this week, you know, and so this is an emergency, this has to go right now. And she spent four days literally going back and forth of where the tagline should go Should it go at the top or the bottom, or in the middle and a lot of it is just paralysis by analysis, and so we've spent four days where this could have gone out four days ago for this very time sensitive thing, and our design team was super responsive to it.
Speaker 1: 14:15
Every few minutes we were changing it for her, but it's like good grief.
Speaker 2: 14:18
So I do say this, you know. Now I want to say, sir, I promise you, if someone calls you and says you put the tagline on the bottom of the email, so I'd like for you to remove me from your call list. Or you use a red brick house in the middle of the neighborhood and I live on a ranch and so I would like for you to take me off of your. Yes, I will never use you, ever again. So again now, I'm not talking about using a home on the beach when you're not near the beach or using a home with mountains behind it when you live in east Texas. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about literal. Well, I wish the guy had on an orange shirt, doesn't?
Speaker 1: 14:50
matter, ma'am people.
Speaker 2: 14:51
That is, that we're getting way too down in the weeds when we need to be focused on hiring stuff. So, when we talk about how to make AC units cool, how can we make plumbing cool? How we do it is by tying it to our brand, yes, and being creative with our wording. And listen, it is not rocket science. We are literally a lot of times doing the same exact thing. We're just calling it something different. So if you've budgeted in $500 per system to be able to give back in either a rebate or a buy down or a gift with purchase If I know you've got $500, I'm going to write that 20 different ways. We're buying your system back. We're giving away a gift card, we're you know? No, we'll buy back your Freon, we'll I mean whatever. We'll give you cash for your clunker.
Speaker 2: 15:32
Yes, I'm going to use that same $500 to do the same thing. I'm just going to call it something different each time because the messaging speaks differently to different people. Also, if you've been given away a TV with the purchase of a complete new system for the last five years and you say people are tired of that, Well, honestly, people, the reason I didn't call you, sir, to get a new TV is my system still working Like people might not have for five years from now.
Speaker 1: 15:55
I didn't need the TV. And then also like is really everyone is over the TV or do you just think that, because you're living and breathing in these little, you're living and breathing it, yes, with your other contractor, friends and the groups that you're involved with, and they did a TV in Minnesota and they did a TV in California, so I can't do a TV where I am.
Speaker 2: 16:11
Well, and if you look and you talk to your sales team or your lead techs or whomever's selling for you and you say, hey, what's helping you get from your lower tier systems to your top tier systems? What's helping you sell a tankless water heater over a tanked water heater? What's helping you sell an upgraded electrical box? What is helping them do? It is probably a gift with purchase or upgraded rebate or something that helps the sales team creatively get to the next level.
Speaker 2: 16:37
So how can I use $500 to get them to spend five more thousand dollars? And that's where all of these cool things come into. And listen, if you're sitting there thinking that you're going to repost some things on your social media that come from the manufacturer, odds are that ain't sexy either. And let me tell you, every day I'm like if I owned a boutique, if I owned a cool restaurant like listen. Do you know social media? I could do it in my sleep, in my sleep.
Speaker 1: 17:03
You know what's hard to do.
Speaker 2: 17:04
A backflow preventer, okay, and an air scrubber, like you're looking at it, like, okay, no-transcript, think the thing backwards, because people don't really want to purchase what we are selling, correct. This is not something that people are saving their, I'm saving my, I'm saving up Emily, I want to repot my house it ain't happening out of necessity, and they're mad about it.
Speaker 2: 17:38
Yeah, we have a lady in our office right now that every time she's always telling me like, oh, I was able to put that little bonus back towards saving for my car, so she's excited to save for that, and when she gets to go buy a new car, that's an exciting day.
Speaker 1: 17:49
No, yeah and everyone's gonna roll up. Go out in the parking lot. Look at my new car she's not like everybody.
Speaker 2: 17:54
Come over and flush the toilet. I got new pipes, so like it's just not the same. And so we have to create our own fun around these things and you have to create the sexiness. So and people want to, and I say this on almost every podcast If you will just put yourself out there a little bit, make yourself the voice of your company, record a video that says hey guys with lemon seed marketing, listen, my idea of fun is not necessarily being in every video that lemon seed does, or you know and my team, listen again, we'll tell you this all the time. My I have no shortness of shy people or of allowed people on my team, but the for heating and air conditioning and for plumbers it just changes.
Speaker 2: 18:35
The dynamic inside of your business is different. So it has to start from the top or you get out of your comfort zone doing some, doing some unique offers, doing some unique things that don't break the, don't break the bank, but also you can manage inside, and so I hope you guys have enjoyed us chit chatting here about how to make your AC unit cool again and plumbing. I just we couldn't think of a a cool, fun thing to tie in with plumbing. Uh, are you tired of plumbing draining you of all fun? There you go. You're welcome, um, but how to make all these things cool again?
Speaker 1: 19:10
so I just encourage you, think outside the box, do fun things you can do it, yeah, it starts with your brand and always be looking to kick up your brand absolutely so.
Speaker 2: 19:18
Hey, if you're struggling with your brand and would love some advice, feel free to reach out to us at lemonseedmarketingcom. Follow us on all the social media channels leave usa review.
Speaker 1: 19:27
We love it yep, yep.
Speaker 2: 19:29
Well, hey guys, thanks for sipping some lemonade with us. Uh, this is actually a friday afternoon that we're recording this, so we are headed into a long weekend and so we got. We hope you guys have a fun weekend and thanks for sipping lemonade.
