Week 13A: Researching Advertising

  Organic is always the best route for a company's advertising and marketing goals.  Paid search and advertising can be costly.  For instance, traditional advertising like an ad in the local newspaper or magazine, a postcard, radio or Pandora commercial, or a simple flyer can accrue costs overtime for any small company such as American Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning (APHAC). 

  We Care, Andersons, Sherlock, AnyTyme, and 1st Choice are five similar businesses who are actually our competitors.  Like many others, these five companies rely on organic search and yet are sometimes forced to take an alternative route, paid search in order to get the results desired.  Sometimes organic is not always the route for a business that is more along the lines of seasonal or even a need for consumers.  For example, a family may not need plumbing services until an event requires them to find a local plumber and request for their services.  Organic works when consumers are looking for services needed or wanted.  For other industries it works best most of the time.  For instance, a retail store or a restaurant.  Consumers are chatting, spreading news, or just searching for the best spot for their wants and needs.  So, organic searches plays a role in reminding, persuading, and informing consumers to visit sites of such businesses.  These consumers are always in the market for these services!  This draws the conclusion that with our industry either APHAC or our competitors strive for organic, yet it does not always works for the business.

  Advertising on social media has come a long way from using common text and fonts for information to imagery that invokes our senses to take action!  As previously mentioned, APHAC and our five competitors strive to use imagery either to persuade, inform, or remind consumers of the services provided and to chose the right company for them, which of course is APHAC!  If a post appeals to the consumer, would he/she ultimately make the move that the post is requesting? 

Week 12C: Blogger's Comments

I have responded to the following three bloggers:

Blea_Nicole
Clark_Bryce

Valdez_Marcela

Week 12B: Using Other Social Media Tools

  Coupons are great to beat competitors pricing, however there are risks involved!  As a business, image is top priority!  It builds morale for you to obtain your target market and such.  Coupons if not used properly could depreciate a company's image and morale by making it seem cheap and desperate for customers.  This is not what a business would wants! 
  On the upside, coupons can be very beneficial to a business if used properly.  What are the types of deals your consumers are looking for?  Does it meet their needs and is it a good deal worth using?  I love using coupons and finding the best deals are always great, however, the experience that comes after is also as important as the deal itself!  Otherwise, customers wont want to come back and that's the goal of promoting these specials in the first place.  You have to open the door with a special your consumers would want so they can walk through and have the experience where they will want to come knocking on that door again.  If this fails, what good was that deal?  Maybe you learned something in return?  Well, the main objective is to get customers in. 
  At American Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning (APHAC), types of deals or specials we would promote would depend on the season, weather, holiday, and needs of the industry.  Plumbing is a need throughout the year, however, when it rains or snows, plumbing becomes more of a priority.  Heating and air conditioning (HVAC) is more of seasonal needs.  In the winter, consumers are looking for great prices and deals on furnace and heating services.  In the summer, consumers are looking for cooling specials. 

  APHAC has a Yelp page and has increased its reviews within the last year!  Within our industry we strive for Google and Yelp reviews.  It is the first place that our consumers go to in finding the best plumbing, heating, and air conditioning company to service them.  When they see how pleased our customers are before, during, and after the service we provided them, they are more likely to contact us.  Other Yelp users as well as APHAC thrive on word of mouth whether it is the same industry or another.  Yelp gets the word out about how a business is doing whether it is good or bad, and for APHAC so far its GREAT!

Week 12A: Using Other Social Media Tools

Q&A

What four additional online marketing tools do you believe could be important to the growth of your business? 

  Since American Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning (APHAC) is a service company, we do not have a store or location that provides these services.  Instead we come to you!  Although, we do have a dispatch office.  Four marketing tools that would be important to the growth of this company would be Google+, Yelp, LinkedIn, and Groupon. 

How could you integrate them into your current strategy?
  Google+ and Yelp helps bring our reputation and company image to the level we hope for.  Within this industry, "word of mouth"  is our special weapon!  We thrive on what our consumers say about us.  Without it, we wouldn't survive!  To better integrate this into our current strategy, we can incorporate a competition for our technicians to get more reviews, a rewards program for our customers when referring us and having that referral post a review, and possibly bring more awareness to our community of what others have to say about us!  For instance, at the upcoming Fallbrook Avocado Festival we can share our reviews and ask them to greet us on these sites as well as our Twitter and Facebook pages since meeting us at the event! 
  LinkedIn is great to connect with B2B.  We have many business in which we service to and have developed a relationship with.  LinkedIn could be integrated by almost the same as Google+ and Yelp, by bringing in more awareness!  How do our consumers know we are on LinkedIn?  By seeing the connection with the business they're connected with!  Another great thing about LinkedIn is that if we need to hire anyone, LinkedIn is a great door to walk through! 
  Groupon can be integrated by advertising specials and opening up new avenues to obtaining new customers and even our loyal peeps could enjoy!  Who doesn't like a great deal?  I do! 

If you choose to create a new account in GooglePlus, or create a location on a Google map, post the information on the Discussion Board. 
  APHAC already has a Google+ account that has our location mapped out!  Check us out here.

Week 11C: Email Marketing

Below is a screen shot of my post on Facebook and of the newsletter sent for Easter for this week's assignment of my fictitious business called Crafty Dove.  I hope ya'll had a wonderful Easter weekend!!

Week 11B: Blogs I Commented On

I responded to the following three bloggers for week 9 assignment:

Blea_Nicole

Clark_Bryce

Valdez_Marcela

Week 11A: Email Marketing

  Newsletters are great for communicating, announcing, and giving incentives for any business!  With American Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning (APHAC), we send our newsletters once every month with all three in mind!  Sometimes it includes community events or events our company is participating in!  For instance, this month we had one about our donation incentives for Emilio Nares Foundation.  This promotion entails that for every service call and appointment made on a Friday with notice to the dispatch specialist of this promotion, APHAC will donate $15.00 to this foundation.  The following link will give more detail regarding this promotion:  http://americanplumbinghvac.com/enf-kids-cancer-relief-network/.    Another example for a Newsletter we may do for May is an event like the Avocado Festival held in Fallbrook!  After participating in this event we would have some footage from the event sharing our experience with our customers!  Something we may want to consider the next time we do an event like this would be to send a newsletter out before the event inviting our customers to join us!  Other information may include tips, do's and don'ts, weather expectancies, and the like.  Usually our contents are up to three categories within one main topic.  For instance, for Earth Day we had sent out a newsletter containing a coupon promoting saving energy, local community events, and tips on saving water, energy, and, of course, money!
  Our consumers are interested in seeing good professional tips, easy fixes for anyone, and hot deals!  Everyone wants to save money and would love to get things done themselves!  Wouldn't you? 
  I have not yet signed up for a competitor's newsletter, though at first I did think it wouldn't be good to do so using my business email.  Do they check the addresses?  Would this even matter?  I may just end up using my personal email or better yet create a false email just for that! 
  Here's an example of what we had sent out in our Newsletter's earlier this year:

Week 10C: Blogger's Comments

I have responded to the following three bloggers:

Blea_Nicole

Clark_Bryce

Carlo_Alison

Week 8C: Blogger's Comments

I have responded to the following three bloggers:

Burns_ Madison

Carlo_Alison

Enders_Ashley

Week 10B: Blogging for Business

The categories chosen for American Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning (APHAC) would consist, but is not limited to the following:

• HVAC
• Plumbing
• Drain
• Reroute
• Water Heater
• Heating
• Air Conditioning
• Central Air
• Leak Detection
• Tune-Up
• Greywater System
• Drain Line Location
• Slab Leaks
• Faucet leak
• Air Flow Ducts
• Troubleshooting and Diagnosis
• System Installations
• Pressure Regulators
• Heat Pump
• Furnace
• Ventilation

These categories will help our company to enhance awareness to our consumers about what we do, how we can assist, easy fixes they are able to do as well, and other information they may not already know about their homes and businesses!  The blogging category will shed light to unknown resources right at their fingertips.  Whether it is located within the blog itself or a redirection to an outside source with connection to APHAC.  Our business will grow with the help of each blog from building trust and loyalty with the readers!  Content like a personal touch to each blog connects them to our service on a personal level.  Therefore, creating a relationship with each reader resulting in one of American Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning's consumers!

Week 10: Blogging for Business

Adding a personal touch to a blog post helps with many things, such as connecting to your reader and bringing light to what your trying to communicate.  Just like in social media platforms you aim to reach your target audiences and ultimately engage with them!  Within a post there's a goal to either persuade, inform, reveal, discuss, etc., and so having a personal touch helps execute this goal. 

Connecting plays a key role in accomplishing any of these goals as well!  People should be able to relate to what you are posting about.  Either they are seeking an adventure for new ideas or to improve something they already have.  A personal touch helps with emotions like making them feel warm and fuzzy about this new adventure!  A reader may not even have interest in what your post is about, though a personal touch could intrigue them to open your post and read on!  I don't see when it would not be a good time to incorporate a "personal touch" to your post.  Anytime is good, because for every post there is always opportunity!  What do you think?

Week 9: Blogs I Commented On

I responded to the following three bloggers for week 9 assignment:

Conahan_Patrick

Mejia_Abraham

Valdez_Marcela