How a local home services
company toppled the giants. 

DMG Mechanical, a family-owned HVAC company, with the help of a (self-serving statement coming) spectacular digital marketing company, took a shot at Goliath and knocked him down (in the Google rankings).

When toppling a giant, start by
identifying the weak spots

1. Weak spot one: Content.
The large HVAC companies were spending the majority of their digital marketing budgets on search ads, driving up the cost of clicks so high that smaller companies had no chance of entering the fray. They were also creating copious amounts of content; however, most being AI-generated and higher-funnel topics, leaving an opening for human-created content and topics focused on lower-funnel clients that were in need.

2. Weak spot two: Targets.
When the weather gets warm, the giants switch gears from heating systems and furnace repair and shift the entirety of their mammoth marketing budgets to cooling systems. Makes sense, but to topple a giant, you need to do the things they are not doing. Being a spectacular marketing company, the question of capacity is always asked. When do you need the most leads? When is business slowest? The answer, in the summertime, the phones don’t stop ringing, and we can barely keep up. When the weather gets cold, and people need furnace repair, that’s when we need help.

3. Weak spot three: Exploitation.
What can’t the competitor say that you can? When we ask clients that question, they routinely (like clockwork) say they offer better service, better equipment, or that we are honest. Every competitor can say the same thing, even if you argue it’s not true, they can still say it, which means you can’t claim it as your position of strength. There is always a position of strength, just ask yourself, what can’t the giant private-equity-funded competitors say? They can’t say that they are small. They can’t say they are family-owned. DMG can say that. Some people like to work with smaller companies. Most people trust family-owned businesses. Marketing success relies heavily on finding those positions of strength and working them into the brand narrative. It’s not just about being found, we have to be chosen in order to win. These positions of strength are what get David chosen over Goliath.

Creating an Intelligent Content Strategy

1. DMG Mechanical shifted their strategy to focus on marketing heating systems all year long, releasing furnace and heating system topics when everyone else was entirely focused on cooling. DMG developed an authority level around the topic of furnace repair in NJ because they were the only ones speaking on the topic. These topics were indexed in Google and quickly DMG became the first HVAC company to appear when searching for “Furnace Repair in NJ”, knocking down the larger competitors in the search rankings while they were focused elsewhere.

2. Create social posts for all the furnace content created in the summer and release them throughout the winter. DMG was already dominating the organic results (mostly ignored by the giants as they focused on paid ads). Now, when others shifted back to promoting furnaces, DMG was already there and was releasing social media posts related to their indexed blog posts, such as “What is the lifespan of a furnace?” AI was picking up on the signals from the social posts and blog content, citing DMG for related topics, and further creating authority for the subject of furnace repair.

3. Beat and repeat. The temperature rises, and like clockwork, the giants shift focus to cooling. DMG’s phone starts to ring off the hook, more future state intelligent content is created, quickly search optimized, and indexed, and we are now ready for the cold times.

Did David really destroy the giants with his little rock?

No, the giants keep moving forward, focusing on the business of giants, mostly ignoring David and the small dent on their foreheads that his rock left. The giants continue to thrive, but now, so does David, acquiring customers in his slowest time, scoring business that 12 months ago would have been won by others.

The moral of the story is that winning in marketing is strategic, qualitative and quantitative. No magic marketing tools can get the job done; no amount of average effort will get you there. If you are willing to put in the work, sophisticated marketing can always carve a path to success. A sophisticated digital marketing company finds a way to win through a deep understanding that beating every competitor is the only mission that matters.

Interesting factoid:
The owner of DMG Mechanical is actually named David, and he is now addicted to toppling giants.