A complete guide to generating leads for your heat pump installation business. Covers digital marketing, referrals, partnerships, and strategies specific to the heat pump market.
Matt Franklin
Most heat pump installers I talk to get their leads from three places: MCS listings, word of mouth, and maybe a Facebook page they update when they remember. That works when you're doing five installs a month. It stops working when you're trying to do twenty.
The heat pump market in the UK is growing fast - government targets, the BUS grant, rising gas prices, and improving technology are all pushing demand. But more demand also means more installers entering the market. The businesses that grow are the ones that treat lead generation as a system, not something that happens to them.
Here's what I've seen work for the heat pump businesses we work with, and what I'd prioritise if I were starting from scratch.
A homeowner spending £12,000-20,000 on a heat pump is making one of the biggest purchases of their life outside of a car or a house. They research for weeks or months before contacting anyone. They compare multiple installers. They ask detailed technical questions.
This matters because most marketing advice is written for businesses selling things people buy on impulse or after a quick comparison. Heat pumps are the opposite. Your marketing needs to build trust over time, demonstrate technical expertise, and answer specific questions - not just shout about special offers.
The typical heat pump buyer owns a detached or semi-detached house, has garden space for an external unit, and is motivated by some combination of a dying boiler, rising energy bills, and environmental concern. They're usually middle-aged or older, and they've done a lot of reading before they pick up the phone.
The opportunity
The UK government targets 600,000 heat pump installations per year by 2028. There are roughly 3,000 MCS-certified heat pump installers currently active. That's a lot of demand per installer for businesses that can capture it.
When a homeowner decides they want a heat pump, the first thing they do is search "heat pump installer near me" or "air source heat pump [their town]". If you're not showing up in those results, you're invisible to the majority of your potential customers.
This is the single highest-ROI thing you can do, and most installers have a half-finished profile or none at all.
Pick the right categories ("Heat pump supplier", "HVAC contractor"), list every service you offer (air source, ground source, hybrid systems), define your service area accurately, and upload photos of completed installations - not stock images. Real photos of your team on site, finished external units, and happy customers standing next to their new system.
Then collect reviews systematically. Not "ask for reviews sometimes" - build it into your process. Send a message after every handover asking for a Google review. The installers with 50+ reviews dominate their local search results. The ones with three reviews from 2023 get skipped.
If you install heat pumps across Somerset, don't just have one page that says "we serve the South West". Create individual pages for Bath, Taunton, Bridgwater, Frome - wherever you actually work. Include genuine local detail. Mention the types of properties in that area, local planning considerations, anything that shows you actually know the area rather than having swapped in a place name.
Make sure you're on the MCS Certified Installer database, RECC, the Heat Pump Association member directory, TrustMark, and any local authority approved contractor lists. These listings matter for credibility when customers are checking you out, and they help with search rankings too.
The heat pump buying journey involves a lot of research, and the installer who answers a homeowner's questions during that research phase is the one they call when they're ready to buy.
But there's a difference between content that generates leads and content that just fills a blog. I've seen installers publish dozens of generic articles that get no traffic and generate no enquiries. The content that works answers specific questions with specific numbers.
These are the topics that consistently drive traffic and enquiries for heat pump businesses:
"What size heat pump do I need?" - This is one of the most searched questions. Explain heat loss calculations in plain English, give rough sizing guidance by house type, and make the point that any installer who quotes without doing a heat loss survey is cutting corners. This positions you as thorough and gives you a natural lead-in to offering a free survey.
"How much does a heat pump cost to run?" - Give real numbers. Compare against gas and oil for different house sizes. Include the BUS grant. Homeowners are trying to build a business case for their partner or family - give them the data they need.
"Is my house suitable for a heat pump?" - Address the common concerns: terraced houses, listed buildings, small gardens, old radiators. Be honest about where heat pumps work well and where they're more challenging. Honesty here builds more trust than pretending every house is perfect.
"What grants are available?" - Keep this updated. The BUS grant details, any local authority schemes, ECO eligibility. This page will need regular updates but it's worth it because people searching for grant information are serious buyers.
A two-minute walkthrough of a completed installation, filmed on your phone, with you explaining what you did and why - that builds more trust than ten blog posts. Film at completed projects (with the customer's permission), explain the system, show the external unit placement, talk through the controls.
Post on YouTube for search visibility, then clip shorter sections for Facebook and Instagram. You don't need production quality. You need a real person who clearly knows what they're talking about.
I'll be honest - social media is not where most heat pump leads come from directly. But it's where homeowners check you out after finding you through search or a referral. An active Facebook page with recent installation photos and customer comments is reassurance. A dead page with a cover photo from 2021 is a red flag.
Facebook is your primary platform. It has the largest UK homeowner audience and good local targeting. Post completed installations with system details, customer testimonial clips, and the occasional educational post answering a common question.
Instagram works for installation photos - before/after shots, neat pipework, external unit placements.
YouTube is a long-term investment that compounds over time. Educational videos keep generating views and enquiries for years.
Pick two platforms and do them consistently. Three posts a week is better than a burst of daily posting followed by two months of silence.
Facebook ads targeting homeowners in specific postcodes, with interests in sustainability or home improvement, can generate good leads at £10-20/day. Use your best installation photos (not stock images), offer something specific like a free heat loss survey or a downloadable guide to heat pump costs, and test different approaches before scaling.
The key metric is cost per survey booking, not cost per click. A click that doesn't convert is worthless.
The highest quality heat pump leads almost always come through referrals. But most installers treat referrals as something that happens passively rather than something they build systems around.
Offer a meaningful incentive - £200-300 per installed referral is typical. Some customers prefer a charity donation instead. Either works.
The timing matters more than the incentive. Ask at handover when satisfaction is highest, then again after the first winter when the customer has seen the system perform through the cold months, and again at the annual service visit. Most installers ask once (or never) and wonder why they don't get referrals.
Solar installers are your best referral partners. A huge number of homeowners considering solar are also interested in heat pumps, and vice versa. If you don't do solar, find a solar installer who doesn't do heat pumps and set up a reciprocal referral arrangement.
Architects and builders specify heating systems for new builds and renovations. Get on their radar with a lunch meeting and leave them with clear information about what you offer and when to refer.
Energy assessors conduct EPCs and advise homeowners on improvements. They're talking to exactly the right audience.
Offer referral fees, reciprocal arrangements, or both. The important thing is making it easy for partners to refer - give them a simple way to pass on a name and number, and follow up quickly so they look good.
Not every enquiry is worth a two-hour site visit. Ask the right questions early and you'll spend your time on leads that actually convert.
Before booking a survey, find out: do they own the property (renters almost never proceed), what's their existing heating system and why are they changing, what's their realistic timeline, and do they have a rough budget expectation. You're not trying to filter out everyone - you're trying to identify the leads worth prioritising.
A good CRM with pipeline management makes this much easier. You can see at a glance which leads are hot, which need nurturing, and which have gone cold - instead of relying on memory and a spreadsheet.
If you're starting from nothing, here's what I'd focus on first:
Week 1: Claim and fully optimise your Google Business Profile. Add real installation photos, list all your services, define your service area. This alone will start generating enquiries.
Week 2: Write one in-depth guide answering the most common question you get from customers. If I had to pick one, it would be "How much does a heat pump cost to install and run?" Publish it on your website.
Week 3: Launch a referral programme. Email your last 20 customers with a simple offer - £250 for every referral that leads to an installation. Make it easy for them to refer.
Week 4: Set up systematic review collection. After every completed installation, send a message asking for a Google review. Aim to get your review count above 20 within two months.
Once these foundations are working, expand into content marketing, paid ads, and partner referrals. But get the basics right first - most installers don't, and that's your advantage.
Related reading: Managing heat pump compliance requirements | Solar marketing strategies
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