Sent Text Messages: 76%
Used Downloaded Apps: 54%
Used Browser: 52%
Accessed Social Networking/Blog: 39%
Played Games: 34%
Listened to Music on Phone: 29%
The information above comes courtesy from comScore's November US Mobile Subscriber Share report.
Other interesting information from the report includes Samsung having a higher market share than Apple, 26% vs 18%, and Google's Droid operating system (54%) having a higher market share than Apple (35%).
This means if you are looking to develop an app - you might want to target the Droid operating system first.
Overall, 123.3 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (53 percent mobile market penetration).
Brian Starzec | HVAC Business Solutions, LLC | January 23, 2012
HVAC Business Solutions helps contractors use technology to grow their businesses. Our core services include a next-generation flat rate pricing system, website design, mobile website design, search engine optimization (SEO) and custom iPad application development. Our blog is focused on technology, marketing strategies, new products and methods to combine these concepts to help HVAC contractors attract new customers and grow their businesses.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Friday, January 18, 2013
The #1 Search Engine Is...
Google. Again.
Ok, that may not come as a surprise, but what might be interesting to know is that Google's share of the search engine market is more than all of the other search engines combined.
Here is the data for December, 2012:
The other interesting point from this survey is that the percentages moved by only less than 1/2 of 1%, unlike the stock market that swings wildly every day. This mean people are locked into their favorite search engine and do not switch.
From a marketing investment perspective this is reassuring because of this stability. You can feel comfortable investing into search engine optimization targeting Google because there is a very high probability they will continue to be the #1 search engine for the foreseeable future.
My recommendation for heating and air conditioning companies that have limited marketing budgets is to focus your resources on Google. Our company has been providing Search Engine Optimization services for a long time and our experience has taught us that the techniques required to improve your ranking on Google is different than for Bing (Microsoft) and Yahoo.
Therefore, if you are going to target search engine ranking improvement for just one search engine, pick Google.
Brian Starzec | HVAC Business Solutions, LLC | January 18, 2013
Ok, that may not come as a surprise, but what might be interesting to know is that Google's share of the search engine market is more than all of the other search engines combined.
Here is the data for December, 2012:
- 66.7% - Google Sites
- 16.3% - Microsoft Sites
- 12.2% - Yahoo Sites
- 3.0% - Ask
- 1.8% - AOL
The other interesting point from this survey is that the percentages moved by only less than 1/2 of 1%, unlike the stock market that swings wildly every day. This mean people are locked into their favorite search engine and do not switch.
From a marketing investment perspective this is reassuring because of this stability. You can feel comfortable investing into search engine optimization targeting Google because there is a very high probability they will continue to be the #1 search engine for the foreseeable future.
My recommendation for heating and air conditioning companies that have limited marketing budgets is to focus your resources on Google. Our company has been providing Search Engine Optimization services for a long time and our experience has taught us that the techniques required to improve your ranking on Google is different than for Bing (Microsoft) and Yahoo.
Therefore, if you are going to target search engine ranking improvement for just one search engine, pick Google.
Brian Starzec | HVAC Business Solutions, LLC | January 18, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
2012 U.S. Online Video Rankings
comScore, Inc released their December 2012 U.S. Online Video rankings. Highlights:
The top sites for videos include:
Create a YouTube Channel for your Business
It is free to setup. It will allow you to create a profile for your business and allow you store all of your videos. When you load videos, you get to tag them, which means identifying keywords to your video which will again, if done correctly, improve your search engine ranking. For example, when you search "hvac flat rate book" on Google, would you rather view one of many websites (our company is #1 overall by the way) or would you rather view the only video that appears - our company's video is #5 overall.
Use Smartphones to Record Short Videos
The quality of videos on Smartphones is absolutely acceptable for your business. There is no need to buy expensive equipment or hire a production company. Your techs can create a quick video showing the result of an installation and then captured feedback from the home owner. The marketing return on that short 1 minute video would be significant.
Create Slide Shows/Animations
A video does not have to mean including real people or situations. Turning a PowerPoint presentation into a slide show, with a simple voice over can be equally as effective and can be easily added to YouTube.
The bottomline is more and more people are viewing videos. If you want to attract more home owners and customers, you will need to create video content to help educate them, build your online credibility and differentiate yourself from the competition.
Brian Starzec | HVAC Business Solutions, LLC | January 17, 2013
- 38.7 Billion online content videos viewed
- 11.3 Billion video ad views
- 84.9 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video
- The duration of the average online content video was 5.4 minutes, while the average online video ad was 0.4 minutes.
- Video ads accounted for 22.6 percent of all videos viewed and 1.9 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.
The top sites for videos include:
- Google (YouTube) - 13.2 Billion videos viewed
- AOL - 692 Million videos viewed
- Facebook - 420 Million videos viewed
- Yahoo - 383 Million videos viewed
Create a YouTube Channel for your Business
It is free to setup. It will allow you to create a profile for your business and allow you store all of your videos. When you load videos, you get to tag them, which means identifying keywords to your video which will again, if done correctly, improve your search engine ranking. For example, when you search "hvac flat rate book" on Google, would you rather view one of many websites (our company is #1 overall by the way) or would you rather view the only video that appears - our company's video is #5 overall.
Use Smartphones to Record Short Videos
The quality of videos on Smartphones is absolutely acceptable for your business. There is no need to buy expensive equipment or hire a production company. Your techs can create a quick video showing the result of an installation and then captured feedback from the home owner. The marketing return on that short 1 minute video would be significant.
Create Slide Shows/Animations
A video does not have to mean including real people or situations. Turning a PowerPoint presentation into a slide show, with a simple voice over can be equally as effective and can be easily added to YouTube.
The bottomline is more and more people are viewing videos. If you want to attract more home owners and customers, you will need to create video content to help educate them, build your online credibility and differentiate yourself from the competition.
Brian Starzec | HVAC Business Solutions, LLC | January 17, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
How To Totally Suck at Marketing
The link below is to a very humorous slide show created by one of the marketing strategists at Hubspot - a leading provider of inbound marketing software. I would recommend that you take a couple minutes to scroll through the slides if you are planning to spend money this year on marketing or if you just need a laugh.
Enjoy!
How To Totally Suck at Marketing Slide Show
Brian Starzec | HVAC Business Solutions | January 16, 2013
Enjoy!
How To Totally Suck at Marketing Slide Show
Brian Starzec | HVAC Business Solutions | January 16, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Federal Tax Credit is Back!
Several of my HVAC contractor clients have notified me that the Federal Tax Credit for new equipment purchases has returned. Here is the information I have recevied:
On January 2, President Obama signed legislation designed to avoid the “fiscal cliff” and keep tax rates from increasing for every American who pays taxes. In addition to its many other tax provisions, the bill retroactively reinstates the 25C tax credits for highly efficient HVAC and water heating equipment that expired at the end of 2011.
Specifically, the bill extends the tax credits that expired in 2011 from January 1, 2012, until December 31, 2013, for qualified equipment listed in Section 25C of the Internal Revenue Code. Because the credits were made retroactive to January 1, 2012, they can be used for qualified equipment that was installed any time after December 31, 2011. Qualified equipment includes:
Water Heaters ($300 Tax Credit)
A fan used in a natural gas, propane, or oil furnace with an annual electricity use of no more than 2 percent of the total energy use of the furnace
Brian Starzec | HVAC Business Solutions, LLC | January 15, 2012
On January 2, President Obama signed legislation designed to avoid the “fiscal cliff” and keep tax rates from increasing for every American who pays taxes. In addition to its many other tax provisions, the bill retroactively reinstates the 25C tax credits for highly efficient HVAC and water heating equipment that expired at the end of 2011.
Specifically, the bill extends the tax credits that expired in 2011 from January 1, 2012, until December 31, 2013, for qualified equipment listed in Section 25C of the Internal Revenue Code. Because the credits were made retroactive to January 1, 2012, they can be used for qualified equipment that was installed any time after December 31, 2011. Qualified equipment includes:
Water Heaters ($300 Tax Credit)
- Electric heat pump water heaters with an energy factor
of at least 2.0
- Natural gas, propane, or oil water heater with an
energy factor of at least 0.82 or a thermal efficiency of at least 90
percent
- Natural gas, propane, or oil furnace with an AFUE of
not less than 95
- Natural gas, propane, or oil boiler with an AFUE of not
less than 95
- Split system central air conditioner that achieves the
highest efficiency CEE tier as of January 1, 2009 (16 SEER; 13 EER)
- Packaged central air conditioner that achieves the
highest efficiency CEE tier as of January 1, 2009 (14 SEER; 12 EER)
- Split system electric heat pump that achieves the
highest efficiency CEE tier as of January 1, 2009 (8.5 HSPF; 12.5 EER; 15
SEER)
- Packaged electric heat pump that achieves the highest
efficiency CEE tier as of January 1, 2009 (8.0 HSPF; 12.0 EER; 14 SEER)
A fan used in a natural gas, propane, or oil furnace with an annual electricity use of no more than 2 percent of the total energy use of the furnace
Brian Starzec | HVAC Business Solutions, LLC | January 15, 2012
Monday, January 14, 2013
Why Speed Matters
Here is an interesting article about how intolerant Internet users have become when it comes to waiting for a video to load - Study: Streaming Video Viewers Lose Patience After 2 Seconds. Here are the key findings:
Quite simple - you need to make sure that your website loads quickly. Most HVAC contractors do not have websites with video, so you can expect that patience is probably even lower for the average website.
This is especially critical for home owners on a mobile device. If they are accessing your website through a mobile device, it is absolutely critical that your website is optimized for mobile browsing and mobile download.
Test out your website on your iPhone, iPad, Droid, Blackberry or other device. How long did it take to load? Was it easy to view all of the information? Was it formatted for the device?
If the website took too long to load, if the information was to small to read or the page required scrolling, then it is not optimized for mobile devices. If you have any doubts about the importance, please read our previous post 23 Eye-Opening Mobile Marketing Stats You Should Know.
If you need assistance obtaining a Mobile Optimized Website, we are here to help.
Brian Starzec | HVAC Business Solutions | January 14, 2013
- Viewers begin to abandon a video if it hasn't loaded in 2 seconds
- If the video hasn't started within 5 seconds, 25% abandon the video
- If the video hasn't started within 10 seconds, 50% abandon the video
- Each additional second of delay resulted in a 5.8% increase in the abandonment rate
- 1/2 the people with high speed Internet access believe that 5 seconds is too long to wait for a video to load and play
Quite simple - you need to make sure that your website loads quickly. Most HVAC contractors do not have websites with video, so you can expect that patience is probably even lower for the average website.
This is especially critical for home owners on a mobile device. If they are accessing your website through a mobile device, it is absolutely critical that your website is optimized for mobile browsing and mobile download.
Test out your website on your iPhone, iPad, Droid, Blackberry or other device. How long did it take to load? Was it easy to view all of the information? Was it formatted for the device?
If the website took too long to load, if the information was to small to read or the page required scrolling, then it is not optimized for mobile devices. If you have any doubts about the importance, please read our previous post 23 Eye-Opening Mobile Marketing Stats You Should Know.
If you need assistance obtaining a Mobile Optimized Website, we are here to help.
Brian Starzec | HVAC Business Solutions | January 14, 2013
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