Guides for running marketing across several branches

Google Business Profiles for a heating company with several branches

The branch profiles guide explains how to apply Google's one-profile-per-location rule to heating branches, most of which are service-area businesses.

What you'll learn:

• The four questions that decide whether a location qualifies for its own profile
• How to name branches consistently, and why the city usually doesn't belong in the name
• How to draw service areas so your branches don't compete with each other
• Why bulk verification usually isn't available to heating companies, and how to plan around it
• A 15-minute monthly check for every branch profile

Read it first if a newer branch doesn't appear in map results, or if you suspect duplicate profiles. It pairs with our location pages and profiles service.

Branch marketing budget maths for heating companies

The budget maths guide shows how to set and judge marketing spend for each branch, with three example branches in a table you can recheck.

What you'll learn:

• The four numbers you need per branch, and where to find them
• How to calculate cost per booked job and the share of gross profit it takes
• How to build next month's budget backwards from the jobs each branch needs
• Three rules for splitting shared costs, with a worked example
• A launch curve for judging a new branch fairly in its first year

Read it if marketing is one line in head office's ledger, or if branch managers ask for more budget without owning results. It pairs with our branch budgets service.

Buying a heating company: the marketing handover checklist

The acquisition guide covers the marketing side of buying a competitor, from the inventory before closing to the staged rebrand months later.

What you'll learn:

• The full inventory of phones, profiles, domain, ad accounts and customer lists to secure before closing
• Why consent records matter under Canada's anti-spam and privacy laws
• A day-one plan that gives you control without customers noticing
• The order of a safe rebrand, and why the phone numbers should stay
• What to do when the acquired company is in a town where you already have a branch

Read it while a purchase is being negotiated, not after. It does not cover valuation, deal terms, legal or tax matters, which belong with your own advisors.

How to use these guides with your team

The guides work best as shared reference documents. Three suggestions from how owners use them:

1. Send the profiles guide to every branch manager and ask each to run the monthly check on their own branch.
2. Build your first budget statement from the budget guide's table before your next quarterly review.
3. Keep the acquisition checklist on file, even if no purchase is planned. Opportunities tend to arrive suddenly.

Each guide is updated when the sources it relies on change, and the date at the top of the page tells you when that last happened.

What the guides don't cover

We write about marketing and business management for multi-location heating companies. We don't write about equipment selection, installation practice, safety codes or licensing, because we are not a heating contractor and our consulting deals with branch marketing and management, not engineering, mechanical design, inspection or code-compliance services. For regulators in each province, see the areas pages. For help applying any guide to your own branches, the contact page explains how to reach Ali.