Digital Marketer Builds Relevance, Authority for Ductless HVAC Contractors

The world of Internet marketing continues to evolve, as it has from the days of website wallpapers, to the “blog-o-sphere,” to chat rooms and endless other new ways to get noticed and clicked.

Notwithstanding the many bumps along the Internet road, the most enterprising home service companies have always had a stake in the development, growth and innovation that’s at the core at the best Internet marketing strategies, right up to today, where it seems as if each day brings a new “must try” customer outreach tactic.

Digital marketing expert Michelle LaFrance has seen many innovations come and go. Her first offering was for home builders and remodelers, a sector that crashed famously in 2008, and with it the US economy. Since that time, she’s been helping HVAC contractors achieve greater visibility on the Internet by going beyond what everybody else is doing. It started with a call from a desperate contractor in need of help.

“He was scared about losing his company and asked if I could make him Number1 in the search category of 'ductless heat pumps.' I said, ‘Yes, but what is a ductless heat pump?’”

LaFrance and her team learned about the ductless category quickly and took that client to the top of the ductless HVAC contracting category.

“Everybody else was dying on the vine, and he went on to have the best year in the history of his 25-year-old company. He sold 364 ductless systems in that year,” LaFrance said.

The lesson was that it’s possible to be successful during a recession. And that client’s ringing endorsement helped establish her as the “Duchess of Ductless,” and a provider of unique ductless heat pump marketing strategies for contractors.

“I realized that a website is just a website, and there would come a day when it was not the most important asset. People are changing the way they search, watching video, reading reviews, looking for third-party validation,” LaFrance said. “Our team asked if we want to be like everybody else and just build websites, which seemed ordinary and boring to me. I looked at the Google algorithm, which is built largely on off-site SEO, and decided I wanted to offer an off-site location that has relevancy and authority. I knew home heating and cooling was going to ductless heat pumps, and that Google needs this part of the algorithm to be met to give somebody an advantage, and that’s when I decided to transition my company from building websites to one that builds off-site relevance for contractors.”

LaFrance works with small and large companies, but she does indeed have a heart for the little guy.

“A lot of my companies are of small-to medium-size, and they need an advantage. And while everybody else is doing the same thing, we come along and take over the market, with things that matter to Google, and in a way that matters to the consumer. Google is now recommending my clients.”     

LaFrance is extremely enthusiastic about what she does for the contractor, because it’s helping them to stand out from the rest of the pack.

The Newest Change

“What used to work related to lead generation and referrals is no longer working. It is probably the biggest shift that we've seen in a long time,” said LaFrance during the third “Masters of HVAC Marketing” webinar she hosted earlier this summer, which analyzed Google’s newest ranking method – the AI Overview –and how her newest lead generation innovation  – The Ductless Directory  –is helping ductless HVAC contractors land new customers within the ductless HVAC market. She does that for them by giving the AI Overview what it wants: specialty content and videos that capitalize on the continuing growth of ductless mini-splits as an alternative to whole-home ducted split comfort systems, installed by some of the best contractors in the business that she accepts as clients.

LaFrance’s strategy includes developing case study articles on ductless HVAC “trophy projects” accompanied by a press release that’s broadcast throughout the contractor’s region. LaFrance also includes company promotional videos for the “Ductless All Stars” which comes with a fee but has rocketed many of her clients to become the ductless contractors of choice in their respective regions.

The Ductless Directory is a website much like other “find a contractor” search engines used by many service providers, but with more relevant proof of their high-quality results, that being the case studies and company videos. Qualified contractors may purchase a spot in the Directory, and depending on their star power, could be selected to be featured as “Ductless All-Stars,” There are currently 12 companies LaFrance has retained as clients –who she has designated as “Ductless All Stars” for 2024-2025. The case studies and contractor profiles are then circulated around the Internet and picked up by the Google’s AI Overview, which is hungry for high-quality content beyond a five-star review.

BELOW: Mountain Heating & Cooling's hotel "Trophy Project " story by Michelle LaFrance and her team gained the HVAC contractor great attention in the AI Overview.

The AI Overview started to appear early in 2025. It utilizes the scraping resources of artificial intelligence to establish new requirements for those who want to see their company featured most prominently in the Google universe. LaFrance knows that you can’t beat the Google wizards, so join ‘em, and play the game to win.

The AI Overview requires rich content that goes beyond the 5-star review or customer comments. It prefers expanded features articles and video descriptions of service company activity, case studies and links picked up by major media companies, such as Bloomberg News, which recently did feature one of her clients.

Results from the AI Overview appear at the top of the search results. Google goes through the first page of search and is scraping content, looking to see who has a website, and which three contractors have developed the most interesting promotional and information content that makes them standout to web browsers.

“When a contractor comes into my world, there are two things that I’m looking at,” said LaFrance. “How can I present my contractor to Google in a way that’s going to differentiate them from every other contractor, and how can I present the contractor to consumers in a way that’s going to differentiate them from every other contractor that wants the same thing? We’re all chasing the same leads, and you can’t get found frequently enough off of your website in a place that has relevancy and authority.”

“Contractors get treated like a commodity,” said LaFrance. “People get their three, four or five [customer] quotes, but when you come into my world, I start giving you assets, like getting listed in the Ductless Directory, and then we also do feature articles.”

LaFrance acknowledges the importance of websites, but they’re not working as hard as they should for the contractor who faces intense competition from everybody else.

“The website did all the work for you, and it worked well for the last 20 years. I'm not saying that you don't need a good website, because you do. But it was never intended to be the only marketing asset that you have online. It was never intended to be that way, but because it worked, and because people were getting results, they treated it as if it was the only thing.”

More Immediate Learning

LaFrance created the “Masters of HVAC Marketing” webinar series as an alternative or adjunct to annual trade shows, which basically require contractors to wait months before they get the help they need by attending a seminar.

“The old way of doing things was for contractors to go to a trade show maybe once a year and spend the rest of the year implementing the things they learned. Those days are gone,” LaFrance said. “This is a brand new format. I thought, from the contractor’s point of view, with things changing as fast as they are, what if I gathered the brightest minds in the industry, and picked a topic that was of relevance and invited them to the table so that contractors could stay current on everything that’s happening?”

Michelle LaFrance’s June “Masters of HVAC Marketing” webinar provided a look at the purpose and features of the Ductless Directory and included commentary from four other leaders in HVAC outreach technology, whose services are linked to the additional key steps in the HVAC lead acquisition, marketing , operational and referral processes:

• AJ Jain from Broccoli, providers of AI-powered customer service and operational solutions for HVAC and other home services businesses.
• Logan Marshall from Bluon, providers of equipment and parts data from over 200 brands.
• Don Brandon from Volca, providers of AI services for front office operations.
• Joshua Crouch from Relentless Digital, designers of marketing systems specifically for contractors, with automated follow-ups, better rankings and more booked jobs.

Each guest was joined by an HVAC contractor customer who provided a testimonial to the value of the respective offerings.

The next “Masters of HVAC Marketing” webinar will be offered in September, and will look at how to successfully compete against private equity.

Contact the Ductless Directory for more information at ductlessdirectory.com/contact-us. Michelle LaFrance can be reached via email at heysmartypants.com.