IAQ Specialists: Boost Business by Marketing Inspections to Multiple Audiences

Are you looking for ways to increase bookings for indoor air quality inspections? One way to do that is an approach called multi-segment marketing. Let’s examine what that is, why it is effective, and how you can implement it.

First, a Definition

Multi-segment marketing involves dividing prospective customers into manageable groups that have different needs, and then delivering customized messaging to each group. It’s a strategic way of promoting a service to multiple target audiences.

Why This Approach is Effective

Multi-segment marketing will help you:

• stand apart from competitors using generic messaging for all audiences, because you’ll be using differentiated messaging for each audience

• make your company more appealing to each customer segment by addressing their unique indoor-air-quality needs

10 Tips for Implementation

1. Study What Competitors Are Doing

Pay particular attention to how they are targeting – or ignoring – various market segments. Read online reviews about their services. Visit their websites. Study their flyers, brochures and ads. Once you understand the competitive landscape, you can identify opportunities to target customers overlooked by your competitors.

2. Decide Which Market Segments You Want to Pursue

Here are some examples:

• Homeowners
• Insurance companies/adjusters
• Realtors
• House flippers
• Commercial property owners, managers and developers
• Physician practices
• Hospitals
• Nursing homes
• K-12 Schools
• Universities
• Municipal facilities

3. Consider the Needs of Each Market Segment

This will prepare you to explain how your IAQ inspections meet the unique requirements of each customer category.

For example…

• Managers of office buildings may seek to enhance their indoor environments to improve productivity.

• Medical-facility leaders may desire to create healthier settings to protect employees and patients.

• Schools administrators may want to ward off illness-related absences and enhance cognitive learning with healthier classroom environments.

• Realtors may be interested in recommending IAQ inspections to home sellers who want to ensure they receive the highest possible price for their property – or home buyers who want to know of hidden issues within houses.

• House flippers may need to ensure prospective buyers that their renovated homes are clean and safe.

• Property managers may want to reduce liability, improve tenant retention and increase property values.

• Homeowners may be struggling with allergies or asthma, or have immunocompromised family members, or may just want assurance that their homes are as healthy as possible.
  

4. Create Customer Personas

A customer persona is a brief description of your ideal customer in one particular market segment. Essentially, it should paint a picture of that customer by listing defining characteristics.

For example, if you want to target schools for IAQ inspections, describe the location, title and role of the typical person you need to contact. Is it someone at the school level or at the district level? Is it an administrator or a building maintenance manager? Do they have authority to hire outside vendors?

5. Craft Your Key Messages

Develop wording that will capture the attention of each market segment. Your messages should tell potential customers what they can expect from an indoor air quality inspection, why you’re the best contractor for that role, how your expertise sets you apart, how an inspection can help them, etc.

 6. Work Out a Marketing Plan

What tactics will you use to reach each market segment? These are some options to consider:

• YOUR WEBSITE – If you offer only IAQ inspections and nothing else, design your website to include a subsection for each audience. Then load each subsection with relative messaging and content (e.g., articles, infographics, FAQs) that speak to that particular audience. If you offer IAQ inspections along with other services, such as HVAC maintenance, include an “INDOOR AIR QUALITY” tab in your main menu to promote it as one of your core services; then build your market-segment subsections under that tab.

• BLOG POSTS – Add a blog section to your website and upload new posts on a consistent basis. This is another way you can work on educating target audiences about the importance of indoor air quality assessments.

• ONLINE ADVERTISING – Investigate ad programs offered by search-engine and social-media companies. They collect a large amount of data about end-users, making their platforms effective for targeted advertising.

• SOCIAL MEDIA – Create and publish a variety of posts aimed at each market segment, and upload your posts to popular platforms.

• DIRECT MAIL – Create a unique letter or mailer for each market segment.

• IN-PERSON APPEARANCES – Get out into the community: Visit companies and organizations to hand out business cards. Attend business luncheons. Speak at organization meetings. Promote IAQ inspections at business fairs and home shows.

Read more: How to Impress Potential Customers at Spring Home Shows

7. Stay Organized

When you are marketing IAQ inspections to multiple audiences, good organization is essential. Use computer software to maintain a database of your prospects in each market segment. Also, set up reminders for letters, appointments, follow-up calls, and other action items.

8. Create a Positive Experience at Each IAQ Appointment

The goal here is to win over customers in your various market segments and convert them into endorsers (people who are willing to provide positive testimonials).

• Appear professional and personable at every appointment. Listen to the customer’s concerns. Ask questions, and pause after each question to allow the person time to think about it. (‘Does your home ever feel too humid or too dry during certain times of the year?’ ‘Does anyone in your family suffer from allergy symptoms or asthma?’ ‘Have you noticed any problems with accumulating moisture or mold?’)

• Strive to understand their concerns by listening carefully and then repeating or paraphrasing their responses. Write notes during the conversation. Take time to answer questions. Then complete a meticulous IAQ inspection and take plenty of photos.

Use a mobile floor-plan app with a reporting function, so you can summarize your findings quickly. With the right app, you’ll be able to create a floor plan in minutes, insert your photos as visual aids, add notations, and then share the report with your customer on the spot.

9. Gather Testimonials

Make sure to request a testimonial from every customer, and collect written permission to cite it in your marketing communications.

10. Track the Effectiveness of Your Marketing

Monitor the results of all tactics to determine which ones are producing the most productive leads.

Yes, All of These Steps Will Require Some Time and Attention

But if the end results boost your business, the extra effort will be worth it!

Read our guide on why you should be adding Indoor Air Quality Inspections to your menu of services.

Or learn how to build a Recognizable Identity as a Residential Contractor Business.