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Most contractors think marketing is about getting noticed. Zac Garside knows it’s about being remembered.
As president of Prolific Brand Design and a veteran of the home service marketing world, Zac has written over a thousand high-performing emails across HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and beyond. His background spans from coaching CSRs at Power Selling Pros (where he eventually became CEO) to building one of the only agencies focused exclusively on contractor email marketing.
But Zac’s approach isn’t about flashy tactics or growth hacks. It’s about something deeper: creating “emblematic touchpoints,” moments in the customer journey that are so uniquely you, so memorable, that customers can’t forget you even if they tried.
Whether it’s turning a customer list into a goldmine through strategic email marketing or designing truck wraps that make people do a double-take, Zac understands that great marketing starts with knowing what you stand for and having the courage to say it out loud.
This show is sponsored by Blue Crocus Solutions, a web design and SEO agency focused on helping home service companies grow.
When Zac mentions that his CSR training helped companies book 85-90% of their calls, most people think that’s impossible. Industry standard hovers around 50-60% on a good day.
But Zac’s perspective is simple: “When the customer is calling you, why would you not book 90% of those jobs? They literally called you for service. If you don’t book it, then you must have done something wrong.”
Think about it. People don’t wake up and decide to call an HVAC company for fun. They have a problem that needs solving. Your job is to make that process as smooth and welcoming as possible.
The difference between a 50% booking rate and a 90% booking rate isn’t luck, it’s approach. It’s treating every call like an opportunity to create a “wow experience” rather than just another interruption in your day.
To improve your booking rates immediately, focus on these fundamentals: act like you want to be there, show enthusiasm, ask questions instead of just answering them, show empathy for their situation, focus on what you can do (never what you can’t), and always ask for the business.
Most importantly, communicate your value before you mention price. Don’t just say it’s $69 for a service call, explain what’s behind that fee and what makes your process different.
“People don’t just wake up in the morning and go, ‘You know what I wanna do today? I wanna call the local HVAC company.’ They only call when they have a problem that they need to solve.” – Zac Garside
Most contractors approach email marketing like a sprint. Zac treats it like a marathon.
“I like to tell people it’s a five-year thing, not a five-week thing. Just imagine for a moment if you were to nurture and build a relationship with your email list at least every single week for four years, where they come to trust the from name more than the subject line.”
This long-term thinking changes everything. Instead of crafting the perfect subject line or designing elaborate templates, you focus on building genuine relationships. When people see your name in their inbox, they open it regardless of what the subject line says, like getting an email from your mom.
The first step isn’t writing better emails, it’s making sure your emails actually reach the inbox. Zac sees countless companies who think email doesn’t work, only to discover their messages are landing in spam folders.
Once you solve deliverability, consistency becomes your competitive advantage. While competitors send sporadic promotional blasts, you’re showing up weekly with value, building trust one email at a time.
After five years of consistent, relationship-focused emails, Zac can send something as simple as: “Hi Lewis, it’s Zac. We just had 10 unexpected openings come up on our calendar this week. Would you like one of them?” That’s the entire email. No fancy design, no copywriting tricks, just a friend asking people to do business with him.
“When you have the relationship, I could write any email, I could say anything I want to my email list to get sales.” – Zac Garside
Most home service companies make it hard to respond to their marketing. They ask people to call (when they’re not prepared to make a phone call) or fill out forms (adding unnecessary friction).
Zac takes the opposite approach: he asks people to reply to the email.
“When I say reply to this email with the word ‘fix it’ because you need to fix your AC, now I have 25 people in my inbox that just, all they had to do was click reply with the word ‘fix it,’ and boom, we’re in business now.”
This works because of context. People check email when they’re bored, procrastinating, on the couch, or killing time. These aren’t situations where they’re prepared to make phone calls or navigate websites, but they can easily hit reply and type a few words.
The strategy also improves your email deliverability. When people reply to your emails, it signals to spam filters that your messages are wanted and valuable.
Most importantly, it starts conversations. High-ticket home services aren’t impulse purchases, they’re serious decisions that require discussion. Your job is to make starting that conversation as easy as possible.
Instead of creating barriers between you and potential customers, remove every possible point of friction. Make it so simple to engage with you that saying yes becomes the obvious choice.
“How can I make it as simple as possible for my customer to have a conversation with me? My whole job at this point is to have as many conversations with the right people at the right time as possible.” – Zac Garside
Zac doesn’t mince words about cold email: “Cold email is illegal, folks. Unless it’s under one circumstance where you’re doing one-on-one outreach, bulk cold email is spam. Period. End of story.”
His passion comes from experience, he’s tried it, seen the results, and understands what it actually takes to make it work. More importantly, he’s seen how it damages relationships and trust.
“This is the epitome of marketers who think that they’re smarter than their customers and their customers are stupid. That’s what cold email really is.”
The problem isn’t just legal compliance (though the CAN-SPAM Act is real). It’s that cold email treats potential customers with disrespect. It assumes they’re too dumb to recognize mass-sent, automated messages. It prioritizes the sender’s convenience over the recipient’s experience.
Zac’s alternative is simple: if you don’t have a relationship, don’t reach out in bulk. One-on-one outreach where you research the person, understand their needs, and craft a personalized message? That’s different. That’s respectful.
But buying a list of 20,000 emails and blasting them with templated messages? That’s spam, and it deserves to end up in the spam folder.
The bigger principle applies to all marketing: treat your communication like you’re talking to the most important person in your career. Show respect, do your research, and focus on providing value rather than extracting it.
“If you knew you’re about to get in touch with the most important person that will ever talk to in your career, you would not treat them with the disrespect that people who do bulk cold email treat their customers with.” – Zac Garside
Zac’s most powerful concept is “emblematic touchpoints,” moments in the customer journey that are emblematic of who you are as a company.
It’s not just about being memorable. “If it was just supposed to be memorable, we’d call them memorable touchpoints. But we call them emblematic touchpoints because they have to be emblematic of who you are.”
Consider Carvana’s car vending machine. When you buy a Tesla, they give you a coin to put into the machine, and your car comes down like an elevator. It’s not just cool, it’s emblematic of their innovative, tech-forward approach to car buying.
Or Chick-fil-A’s drink policy. They’re the only fast food restaurant where you can’t get your own drinks, employees handle everything behind the counter. Why? Because their brand is built on service. “It’s our pleasure to serve you” isn’t just a slogan; it’s embedded in their operations.
DoubleTree Hotels gives every guest a warm chocolate chip cookie at check-in. It doesn’t scale efficiently, but it’s emblematic of the homey, welcoming environment they want to create.
For home service companies, this might mean leaving old parts in a box so customers can see the difference between what was replaced and what was installed. Or rolling out a red carpet from the equipment to the front door to keep floors clean while communicating “we roll out the red carpet for you.”
The key is starting with identity: Who are you? What do you believe? What do you want to be known for? Then reverse-engineer touchpoints that communicate those values in ways competitors couldn’t replicate without it feeling cheap or forced.
“First of all, who are you? What do you believe? What is your personality? What do you want people to say about you? Now let’s reverse engineer that and figure out what can you do that no one else could do.” – Zac Garside
In the age of AI, how-to content has become commoditized. Anyone can generate a list of “5 Ways to Maintain Your HVAC System” or “Signs You Need a New Water Heater.”
What AI can’t replicate is your point of view.
“What I encourage people to really lean on is your, what is your point of view? What’s your stance, what’s your opinion? And can you back it up?”
Zac’s passionate stance against cold email is a perfect example. Plenty of people make cold email work, but his position is clear, backed by experience, and aligned with his values around relationship-building and respect for customers.
Your point of view doesn’t have to be controversial, but it should be authentic. What do you believe about your industry? What practices do you think are outdated? What approaches do you think work better than what everyone else is doing?
The key is backing up your opinions with real experience and data, not just armchair theorizing. When you combine a clear point of view with the credibility to support it, you become someone worth listening to rather than just another voice in the crowd.
This applies to all your marketing, emails, social media posts, sales conversations. People don’t just want information; they want perspective. They want to understand how you think about problems and solutions.
“Content is ubiquitous. What’s your point of view? What’s your stance, what’s your opinion? And can you back it up?” – Zac Garside
Zac uses AI extensively but draws clear lines about when and how.
“Off the record, I use AI a lot. I’m a big fan, but I don’t wanna trick people. And what I see happening is AI being used to trick people, and AI being used to take shortcuts when people use AI as like, it’s doing their thinking for them.”
The problem isn’t the technology, it’s when people outsource their thinking entirely. AI should amplify your ideas, not replace them. It should help you communicate more clearly, not mask the fact that you have nothing to say.
Zac can spot AI-written content immediately: the cadence, the three-line structures, the excessive emojis, the generic inspirational tone. When people try to pass off AI-generated content as their own thoughts, it breaks the relationship he’s trying to build.
His approach: use AI for technical explanations, simplifying complex concepts, or generating analogies. Don’t use it for personal opinions, relationship-building content, or anything that should reflect your unique perspective.
The goal is authenticity. People want to hear from you, not from ChatGPT pretending to be you. They want your way of putting things, your experiences, your insights.
Train AI like you’d train an employee, give it instructions on how to communicate with you, ask it to ask clarifying questions before providing answers, and never let it become a yes-man that just agrees with everything you say.
“Your thinking might be the most important part of your life and business, and you’re outsourcing it.” – Zac Garside
Whether it’s email marketing, branding, or customer service, Zac always comes back to the same foundation: know who you are and what you stand for.
“The question needs to be not, ‘What are other companies doing? How can I duplicate it?’ The question needs to be ‘Who are we, what would be uniquely us?'”
This isn’t just philosophical, it’s practical. When you’re clear on your identity, every marketing decision becomes easier. You know what kind of emails to send, what your truck wraps should look like, how your CSRs should answer the phone.
Without that foundation, you’re just copying what others do and hoping it works in your context. With it, you can create marketing that’s so uniquely you that customers couldn’t forget you even if they tried.
The process starts with honest self-reflection: What do you believe about your industry? How do you want to be remembered? What kind of experience do you want customers to have? What would make someone choose you over a competitor who charges less?
Once you have those answers, everything else, the logos, the emails, the service processes, becomes a way to communicate and reinforce that identity.
“We want you to have a symbol that you can proudly take into your community that represents who you are. That gives your team something to be proud of and stand behind.” – Zac Garside
Zac’s entire approach is built on long-term thinking. Five-year email strategies. Relationship-building over quick wins. Emblematic touchpoints that create lasting impressions rather than momentary attention.
This patience is what separates successful contractors from those who struggle. While others chase the latest marketing fad or look for quick fixes, the winners focus on building something sustainable.
Your customer list isn’t just a collection of past transactions, it’s a goldmine of relationships waiting to be developed. Your brand isn’t just a logo, it’s a promise you make and keep every day. Your marketing isn’t just about getting noticed, it’s about being remembered when it matters most.
The contractors who understand this don’t just survive market changes, they thrive regardless of economic conditions, competition, or industry disruption. They’ve built something that can’t be easily replicated: genuine relationships with people who trust them.
Start with the foundation. Know who you are. Then build everything else around that identity, one touchpoint at a time, one email at a time, one customer interaction at a time.
The long game always wins.
“We’re focused on roots, not branches.” – Zac Garside
Want to learn more from Zac? Visit Prolific Brand Design to get his free guide: “Seven Questions to Ask a Branding Agency Before You Trust Them with Your Life’s Work.”
If you’re wanting to learn more about Prolific Brand Design, check out their website here, their Facebook, or request a connection on LinkedIn.
This Podcast is sponsored by Blue Crocus Solutions, a marketing agency offering website design, branding, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services for Home Service businesses.
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