sticky business blog

Applewood Plumbing and Heating, Masters of Place and Promote

This HVAC sticker marketing case study focuses on Applewood Plumbing, Heating & Electric, a residential plumbing, heating, cooling & electrical service company. A family owned business with over 50 years of experience in the Greater Denver Area, Applewood has been using custom HVAC stickers very effectively to secure both new and repeat business. I talked with Josh Ward, company Vice President and Co-founder about their stickering program and his thoughts on the role custom stickers play in his marketing program.

Jeff: In what way do you use stickers to market your business?

Josh: We primarily use stickers in our customer’s homes, adhered to their plumbing, electrical and HVAC equipment. We’ve designed our stickers to be educational as well as to provide information about our company. Each offers emergency shutdown and maintenance information about the equipment. It contains our contact information as well and a savings offer for future service. Our technicians are trained on the best placement for our stickers, but many of them develop their own systems for using the stickers – like including their business card as part of the sticker display, or using the information as an educational opportunity with customers to explain proper safety procedures and shutdown info as they place it on the equipment.

We also apply smaller stickers to items in the warehouse when possible before they leave on service calls. In this way we guarantee that the items are all tagged before going into the customer’s home.

Jeff: And how exactly does this extensive labeling of serviced equipment help you?

Josh: Our sticker program insures that customers can always find our number when they need us. Before customers open the yellow pages or go on the internet they will call us after seeing one of our stickers. They see the stickers in their homes, potentially on a daily basis. In this way we try to stay top of mind should they need any service. Even if customers move we still have that presence in that house.

Jeff: How important is quality to you? Why use outdoor vinyl instead of paper labels or magnets?

Josh: We definitely need a sticker that is durable and high quality. Often the equipment that we’re labeling lasts more than a decade. We need to make sure our information is adhered to last. Years could pass without a customer needing our number. But, when they do, it is often an emergency. We use the stickers to remain visible, and we prefer materials like outdoor vinyl that we know will stand the test of time.

Jeff: Of course in the end it is your work and service that will start conversations, not the HVAC stickers. The stickers just claim the real estate and point people toward you.

Josh: We pride ourselves on being the best of the best. No one offers the same level of experience or service that we do in our industry. Every piece of information that we leave behind with a customer needs to reflect this standard of excellence.

Jeff: How does your sticker tagging and campaigning compare to your competition? Is everyone in your industry using stickers effectively?

Josh: Stickers are pretty common in the homes services industry. For that reason we focus on providing more real and useful information on our stickers. That way we offer a sticker that a homeowner will WANT on their equipment. As I said, most of our stickers offer emergency shut-down information. So, we use stickers to educate our customers about their homes and about staying safe. In addition, we make sure our contact information is large and visible and offer future savings for services.

Jeff: Are there any ways to tell how effective your equipment & HVAC stickers program is?

Josh: Our leads are more than 60% repeat business. We have to assume that a good percentage of our repeat customers are able to find us through the stickers and tags we’ve left in their homes on previous visits. Every day our plumbers bring back old water heaters that they have replaced with as many as four stickers on them. This proves to us that HVAC stickers are one of our most cost effective marketing tools.

We are considering using specific phone numbers to track calls specifically from stickers. We believe it would be a significant number and this would be a way to back up our gut feelings with hard data.

The Take Away from this Sticker Marketing Case Study 

• If you are in a service business and can tag equipment with contact info using custom business stickers, make sure you are doing it, standing behind your work and making it easy for people to contact you if there is a problem or they need you again. Front-of-face means front of mind and directing inquiries before competitors are searched out.

• Have a plan in regards to tagging equipment and products with custom equipment & HVAC stickers. What sticker is added, when sticker is added, where sticker is placed… can all add up to more impressions over longer periods of time.

• Make sure the longevity of your stickers, decals or labels matches (or exceeds) the longevity of the equipment it is applied to. This is your tag/label with your story, make sure it reflects who you are and that you are in it for the long run.

• If other businesses in your industry are all doing the same thing with stickers, what can you do to stand out? Higher quality? Going larger (or smaller)? Better information? Better graphics? Discount coupons? Or… perhaps something completely different?

• There are ways to easily monitor the effectiveness of your sticker tagging campaign like offering coupon specials or using exclusive phone numbers on the stickers.

• And though it may go without saying, you need to back up your service & HVAC stickers with exceptional service so that both you and your stickers are sticking around for a long term relationship with customers.