How to Be the First HVAC Company Your Neighbors Call
Postcards to 15-year-old homes, weather sponsorships, and filter delivery. Hyperlocal HVAC marketing that works.
An HVAC company in a Dallas suburb tried something unusual. Every time they completed an AC installation, they mailed a postcard to the 50 nearest homes. Not a generic coupon. A specific postcard: "$79 AC Tune-Up: We just installed a new system for your neighbor on [street name]."
Response rate: 3-5%. On a $79 tune-up that takes 45 minutes. But here is what made it brilliant: 40% of those tune-up customers bought additional work. Capacitor replacements. Duct sealing. And when their 15-year-old system finally died the following summer, they called the company that had been inside their house six months earlier.
The best HVAC marketing does not start with a Google search. It starts with the house next door.
The $79 Tune-Up Postcard
Direct mail is dead for most industries. For HVAC, it is alive and profitable, if you target correctly.
The play is simple: identify homes with HVAC systems 15 years or older. In most markets, you can pull homeowner data by home age, which correlates directly with equipment age. A house built in 2008 almost certainly has its original 16-year-old system.
Send those homes a postcard offering a $79 AC tune-up in spring or a $79 furnace inspection in fall. Keep the design clean: your logo, the offer, a phone number, and one line: "Your neighbors already trust us."
At a 3-5% response rate on 500 postcards (total cost: roughly $350 for printing and postage), you generate 15-25 tune-up appointments. At $79 each, that is $1,185-$1,975 in direct revenue. But the real money is downstream. Of those 15-25 tune-ups, 6-10 will reveal systems that need repair or replacement. Average repair: $400. Average replacement: $8,000-$12,000.
One well-timed postcard campaign can generate $30,000-$50,000 in total revenue over the following 12 months.
Branded Filter Delivery
Here is a neighborhood play almost nobody uses: quarterly branded furnace filter delivery.
Offer your maintenance plan customers a free filter delivered to their door every three months, in a bag with your company logo, a fridge magnet, and a card reminding them when their next tune-up is scheduled. The filter costs you $3-$5. The bag and card cost another $1.
Every quarter, your brand physically appears at their front door. They swap the filter (which makes them feel responsible about home maintenance), see your name on their fridge, and think, "These guys actually care about my system." When something breaks, they do not Google. They call the number on the magnet.
But the neighborhood effect is even more powerful. The delivery driver parks your branded truck on the street. Neighbors see it. They ask the homeowner, "Who is that?" And the homeowner says, "My HVAC company delivers filters." That is a referral conversation that required zero effort on your part.
Sponsor the Local Weather
This works in markets with local TV news or radio. When the weather segment comes on, the one everyone watches before a heat wave or cold snap, your brand is right there.
Local weather sponsorships cost $500-$2,000 per month depending on market size. The impressions are massive, but more importantly, the timing is perfect. The viewer is literally watching because they are worried about extreme weather. Your brand appears in the exact moment they are most likely to think about their HVAC system.
"This weather forecast brought to you by [Your Company]. Call us for 24/7 emergency AC service." That single message, delivered during a 105-degree forecast, generates more calls than a month of Google Ads.
If local TV is too expensive, sponsor the weather email from your city's newspaper or local news site. Same principle, lower cost, and these emails get opened at 40-50% rates during extreme weather events.
Navigate the Rebate Maze
Most homeowners have no idea that their utility company offers $500-$2,000 in rebates for high-efficiency HVAC installations. The paperwork is confusing, the eligibility requirements are opaque, and most people give up before they start.
Be the HVAC company that handles it for them.
When presenting a replacement proposal, include a line item showing the rebate amount already deducted from the price. "The system is $12,000, but with the utility rebate of $1,500, your out-of-pocket is $10,500." Then tell them you will handle the paperwork.
This differentiates you from every competitor quoting the full price and mentioning rebates as an afterthought. You have already done the work. You have already saved them money on paper. The homeowner's decision just got $1,500 easier.
Contact your local utility company and get on their preferred contractor list. Many utilities publish lists of approved installers on their website, and being on that list generates free leads from homeowners who start at the rebate page and work backward to find a contractor.