HVAC marketing plan
A marketing plan that starts where your customers leak
A useful HVAC marketing plan starts with where the calls, estimates and past customers you already have are slipping away, then picks the next move by season and by town.
Facts checked by Dan Taylor. See the sources.
The short answer
A good HVAC marketing plan starts with where the company loses work today, such as missed calls, estimates left cold and past customers who never hear back, then picks the next move by season and town. Next Truck by Tekton Digital starts HVAC companies across Canada with the free Estimate Sweep and a 20-minute review at day 14. Growth, from $2,999/mo, brings a new plan every quarter.
It is late August. The AC calls are tailing off and the furnace rush has not started. Every HVAC owner has the same thought at this point in the year: what do we do to keep the trucks busy this fall? Spend on ads? Hire another tech? Drop the tune-up rate? A marketing plan answers that question with the numbers you already have, before you spend a dollar finding new ones.
What should an HVAC marketing plan cover?
For a company your size, the plan is a few honest answers on one page.
- Where do calls come from today? Google profile, Maps, website, referrals, trucks and yard signs, past customers.
- How many become sold jobs? Calls answered, estimates sent, estimates won.
- What is a customer worth over the years? The repair, the tune-ups, the maintenance plan and the replacement years later.
- Where does work leak out? The five places it usually goes are below.
- What is the one move this quarter? One, with a date and a number to watch.
The five places HVAC work usually leaks
- Missed calls. The no-heat call after hours, or the one that rings while every tech is on a job.
- Estimates left cold. The replacement quote sent once and never followed up.
- The review ask. Good jobs finished without anyone asking for a review.
- The maintenance plan. No plan, or a plan nobody is offered at the end of a service call.
- Past customers. Homeowners who paid you once and never heard from you again.
Why start with speed and follow-up?
Because that is where the evidence points. A Harvard Business Review study of U.S. online sales leads found that firms that tried to reach a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it, meaning a real conversation with the decision maker, as firms that tried even an hour later[1]. The same audit found that 37% of companies responded within the hour, 23% never responded at all and the average response took 42 hours[1].
A homeowner with no heat in January will not wait 42 hours. Every new call a marketing plan brings in is only worth something if it gets answered and followed up, so the plan fixes the catching first and the bringing second.
Where does the free Estimate Sweep fit?
It is the first step, and it gives your plan real numbers from your own shop. Start the free Estimate Sweep.
- The sweep, for 14 days. We text your unsold estimates and the customers due for a tune-up, in your company's name. Every reply goes to your office to book, and you see the jobs land in your own software. Missed-call text-back runs for the same 14 days, so no reply gets lost.
- The review, at day 14. We take 20 minutes to go through what got booked. It runs on video across Canada, or in person in Brantford, Brant County, Ancaster, Burlington, Oakville and Waterdown.
You leave knowing what got booked at your own shop. If you want it to keep running, Next Truck goes into your own Jobber, Housecall Pro or ServiceTitan account, in your name.
How do you pick the towns and the seasons?
Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence[2]. Distance from the person searching is fixed, so the plan goes after towns close to where your trucks already run before it reaches for the ones across the county. Relevance and prominence are the parts you can work on: a profile and pages that match what people search, and reviews that keep arriving.
The seasons set the order of the work.
- Before heating: furnace and boiler pages, no-heat hours and a tune-up email, ready before the first cold week.
- Before cooling: AC repair and install pages live ahead of the first hot spell.
- Shoulder seasons: tune-ups, maintenance plans and replacement estimates, when your techs have room on the board.
Where does pricing fit in the plan?
A marketing plan leans on what you charge. A service call rate homeowners understand, a tune-up offer worth booking and maintenance plan tiers that make sense all decide how much each new call is worth. The pricing strategy page covers how we look at your service call fee, tune-up rate and plan tiers.
Where this fits, and the investment
The free Estimate Sweep comes first, with no contract and no card. Four shops a month. If you want it to keep running, as of November 5, 2026 Next Truck is $2,499 to set up, half to start and half when you sign off, then $1,199 a month. Month to month, 30 days' notice, no minimum term.
When you want more new calls, Growth is the step up from Next Truck, from $2,999/mo, one HVAC company per town. It includes everything in Next Truck, a monthly call with Dan and a new plan each quarter, written from the numbers Next Truck collected. All plus HST. See the packages page.
A useful companion read is what HVAC marketing costs in Ontario in 2026.
Common questions
What should an HVAC marketing plan include?
Where your calls come from, how many become sold jobs, what a customer is worth over the years and where work leaks out. Then one move for the quarter, tied to the season, with a number to watch. One page is enough for most HVAC companies.
Should I spend more on ads before fixing anything else?
Usually not first. If calls ring out or estimates go unanswered, more ads bring more leads to the same leak. Research on online leads found that trying to reach a lead within an hour made qualifying it far more likely. Fix answering and follow-up, then add new calls.
What is the free Estimate Sweep?
The first step with Next Truck. For 14 days we text your unsold estimates and the customers due for a tune-up, in your company's name. Every reply goes to your office to book. At day 14 we take 20 minutes to go through what got booked. Free, no contract, no card. Four shops a month.
How often should an HVAC marketing plan change?
At least every season, since heating and cooling change what homeowners search for. On Growth, Dan writes a new plan each quarter from your call and booking counts, and you review it together on the monthly call.
Do I need to meet Dan in person?
No. The 20-minute day-14 review runs on video for HVAC companies anywhere in Canada. In-person meetings are available in Brantford, Brant County, Ancaster, Burlington, Oakville and Waterdown.
What is the investment for an HVAC marketing plan?
The free Estimate Sweep comes first, with no contract and no card. Next Truck is $2,499 to set up, then $1,199 a month, and Growth, with a new plan every quarter, is from $2,999/mo. All plus HST.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against these sources on .
- Harvard Business Review, The Short Life of Online Sales Leads, accessed November 3, 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help, Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, accessed November 3, 2026.
Strategy guides
What Does a Marketing Agency Actually Do Each Month?
A plain breakdown of where a monthly retainer goes, what a real deliverables list looks like, and the wording that hides an agency doing very little.
·5 min read StrategyHow to Choose an HVAC Marketing Agency in Ontario: Questions to Ask Before You Sign
Ten questions that separate a good HVAC marketing agency from an expensive one, the answers to listen for, and the red flags, from an Ontario agency that works with HVAC companies.
·6 min read StrategyHow an HVAC Company Fills the Shoulder Seasons
Why April, May, September and October go quiet for furnace and AC companies, and the six moves that book planned work into those months, with an Ontario calendar.
·6 min read StrategyTurning Maintenance Plan Customers Into Replacement Jobs
Your maintenance plan members are the warmest replacement leads you have. How to record equipment age at every visit, raise the replacement early and honestly, and follow up without pressure.
·6 min read StrategyWhat HVAC Marketing Costs in Ontario in 2026
The four lines on an HVAC company's marketing bill, what each one costs today with sourced figures, and the counts that tell you whether the money is working.
·7 min read StrategyHow Much Should a Trades Business Spend on Marketing?
A practical way to set a marketing budget for a plumbing, HVAC, electrical or roofing business, based on what a job is worth rather than a percentage rule.
·6 min read StrategyAgency, Freelancer, or In-House: What a Trades Business Should Actually Hire
A plain comparison of the three ways a plumbing, HVAC or electrical business can get its marketing done, what each really costs, and the size of business each one suits.
·6 min read StrategyHow to Get Repeat Customers, Not Just New Ones
Winning new customers is expensive. How a local business earns repeat visits instead, from the follow-up that brings people back to small loyalty that sticks.
·4 min read StrategyEmail Still Beats Social for Local Businesses. Here Is How to Start.
Why email still outperforms social media for local businesses, and a simple way to start collecting addresses and sending messages people actually open.
·5 min read StrategyThe Handful of Numbers Every Local Business Owner Should Watch
You do not need a finance degree. The small handful of numbers that tell a local business owner where the money comes from and where it leaks away.
·5 min readNext Truck
Start with the work already in your software.
The free Estimate Sweep runs on your own shop first. Next Truck then keeps it running, in your accounts.
If you like what the sweep books, Next Truck keeps doing it every month: $2,499 to set up, then $1,199 a month, +HST. Month to month, and everything stays yours if you leave.
Get the free Estimate Sweep
Increase revenue: every lead caught day or night, outstanding estimates reactivated, maintenance and service calls booked from the customers you already have. Cut expenses: the answering service goes, and your on-call tech is woken only for a real emergency. Free up admin time: we do the follow-up for your office. All in your company's name. It starts with a free 14-day Estimate Sweep of your unsold estimates and the customers due for a tune-up. Free, no contract, no card. Four shops a month.
- You see every text first, and the first 15 go out before the rest
- Missed-call text-back runs for the same 14 days
- At day 14 we take 20 minutes to go through what got booked