Solar panels are basically magic.
The sun comes pouring in like liquid gold and somehow, amazingly, these great shimmering slabs of metal and glass turn that light into energy.
From almost nothing, you gain electrical power that can charge your car, turn on your lights and boil your kettle.
It's amazing, solar power generates electricity for free (kind of).
If only finding solar leads was the same. All you'd need to do is start your solar business for solar installations, open your doors, and watch the customers come streaming in.
Perhaps you might even have convinced yourself that solar marketing does work something like this.
Bash out a couple of posts on social media, whack out a solar website and some blogs and bob's your uncle, you can put up your feet and watch the solar leads materialise.
Unfortunately, solar company marketing doesn't work like magic and although there is a lot you can do to start converting potential customers into cash, it will take some work to get there. You need to invest more into your solar marketing efforts because—oh, surprise—there are plenty of other solar companies and solar installers around.
But don't worry, there is plenty you can do to create solar marketing strategies that get your solar business flying.
Read on and we'll show you how.
Okay, so you might be asking yourself what is the point of marketing for solar energy? I'm sure you've seen targeted ads and offers pop up online for all sorts of products, but you may question how relevant advertising is for a company of solar installers. After all, your target audience in the solar market understands the importance of investing in solar power, right? Surely, solar customers and potential customers interested in solar energy know they can save money on electricity bills and improve the environment.
Well, marketing isn't just something for hipsters and giant swanky businesses. An effective marketing strategy can be a tool for any business of any size, including local businesses that install solar panels.
In fact, all that solar marketing really is is just a process for promoting and selling products or services, such as a solar system. Or, in other words, marketing is a way of getting brand visibility and brand recognition in the crowded solar industry by leveraging industry trends. And like it or not, whatever your business, you need to be known if you want to generate leads. This is also valid for solar businesses.
In all likelihood, you are already performing some solar marketing campaigns now. So the point of solar marketing is to make sure you reach your target market and target audience.
Maybe you've been talking to some local people in your area or you've been asking for recommendations from others in your industry. Whatever it is you are doing, if you've got customers, then you're probably doing marketing.
Once you think of marketing in this way (as a method to increase exposure and gain new leads) the importance of this process becomes more clear.
Despite this, you might still question the need for digital marketing, but actually this is one of the most effective strategies in the solar installation market and it's not as confusing as you might think.
Let's consider a few of your options.
There are essentially two types of marketing, physical (or offline) and digital, for solar panel companies. Regardless of which type of solar marketing you pursue, both start with market research to better understand your potential customers. You also want to run a competitor analysis to find out which solar businesses you are up against.
Bear in mind, though, that potential customers often need multiple interactions on multiple channels (both physical and online) before making purchasing decisions. In other words, your local solar marketing efforts should include a variety of marketing campaigns and activities.
The physical stuff you're probably already familiar with; it involves in person events and interactions such as knocking on doors, picking up the phone or attending local events promoting solar energy.
Physical marketing also includes printing flyers, running ads in the paper, or putting up a billboard. All these forms of marketing are physically produced and can be interacted with directly in physical space. They enable a solar business to meet potential clients and share its sales pitch for solar energy.
Digital solar marketing takes place online and closely mirrors physical marketing, just through a different medium, to generate solar leads. For example, email newsletters are the digital equivalent of a flyer; social media ads are equivalent to the ad you might see in a paper, and a YouTube video might even stand in for in person events.
All these techniques work to achieve the same thing, generate leads and bring in new solar customers - both have their place. We just need to establish which is best for your solar system business.
As we've already mentioned, basically every solar business will be doing some solar marketing efforts of some kind and the ones that aren't struggle to attract potential customers.
What separates a truly successful solar company from the rest of the solar industry is an effective and well-defined solar marketing strategy.
Now that might sound a bit much, but a good strategy shouldn't be complicated for a solar business. In fact, the most effective strategies tend to be simple and easy to follow. The more difficult bit is defining the right strategy for your solar business and getting the different parts in motion.
So what should your solar marketing strategy look like?
Well, a good place to start is to define what your solar company is about.
Yes, I know you're all about installing solar panels, but what are your unique selling proposition (USP)? What unique value proposition makes you different in the local solar industry and why should a potential customer go to you over anyone else?
Some examples of good USPs might be your speed of delivery or a guarantee of quality. Maybe you offer a longer payback period on panels, or perhaps your solar company specialises in high-end installations.
Whatever it is, having a clear understanding of what your solar company is about and how you want to sell yourself is an important step in tailoring your marketing efforts.
Once you've got this clear, you can move your solar marketing thinking further. Start thinking about the techniques that align with your business identity and which ones your marketing teams should prioritise:
For example, if you were focusing on high-end potential customers or other businesses you might want a strong online presence that puts an emphasis on LinkedIn marketing and SEO so that it appears on Google search results pages for the right target. Or if you wanted to focus on your local area and present yourself as a family business, then local and targeted ads on social media platforms, local referral programs, and door-knocking might work for you.
With a clear understanding of who you are, you will have a clearer understanding of who your ideal potential customers are and, therefore, be able to tailor your solar marketing more effectively.
Now chances are you have already tried some in-person marketing events to introduce your solar energy solutions.
Many solar companies use door-knocking as a method to promote their business and reach potential customers. It's a good strategy as it allows you to build a relationship and create a positive reputation in your local area.
However, combining this with a digital strategy could make your marketing far more effective. For example, rather than doing your initial solar energy consultations in person you could deliver these meetings virtually via a video call. If the initial call goes well you can always follow it up with an in-person meeting.
In fact, you could even record a few online calls with the authorization of your customers and share them as part of your content marketing as a blog post or social media activities. Remember to remove any confidential data first! This would allow you to do more calls in the time you would have spent visiting someone in person while also increasing the outcomes for search engine optimization or social media.
This is the primary benefit of digital marketing, you can get in front of far more people in far less time, giving you more opportunities to convert your leads. Additionally, you can also use data analysis on your content. For instance, if you turn a recorded video call into a blog post, you can track via Google Analytics how site visitors are engaging with it. This can provide more guidance for further content marketing activities.
Digital marketing can also be a far more passive process. Rather than having to go out and find your leads on the streets, once you've got a digital ad out running you can essentially let it be. Furthermore, many ads can easily be adapted and recycled, allowing you to reach more people with less effort. Make sure, however, to pair each ad with a targeted landing page stating your official business email address, physical address, and phone number. Remember, potential leads need to be able to check you're a legit business!
When it comes to social media marketing, there are many possibilities. For instance, one ad might be adapted for multiple social media channels. One YouTube ad can become several different ads for Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Using data analysis, you can also continually improve your social media marketing and ads.
Digital forms of advertising don't have to cost you a lot of money either. In fact, when employed correctly the only major cost will be your time and effort and even that can come down as you get better at it.
A big aspect of marketing is about producing organic content. That's where content marketing can be very diverse and repurposed on many platforms, including web blog posts, social media shares or YouTube videos. All this stuff can be put out online for free, all you have to do is create it. Organic content educates your audience and helps speed up purchase decisions.
In case you're unfamiliar with the terminology, organic marketing is about creating content and posting it online for free. The idea is to try and create high-quality content that will organically surface on a person's social feed or appear on an internet search.
With paid advertising, you are paying a platform to promote a piece of content you have designed. Even though you have to pay for these ads you do still have to compete for visibility.
Both can be part of your content marketing activities.
With Google Ads, for example, your ad will be ranked based on how much you've spent, the quality of the ad, and its relevance to the topic you're advertising against. It can also be ranked for local customers.
This set-up is similar on social media platforms where engagement with the ad is taken into account. A highly engaging ad will be shown more even if less money was spent on it.
Despite this, paid ads are still a good idea for getting your solar brand out there.
The main benefit of a paid ad is it allows you to reach further than you would with organic content. You are able to create more targeted material that can hit your ideal customers directly.
To run a paid advertising campaign you need to be prepared to put in some money. Typically, a good campaign will cost between £500 to £1000 or more. You can spend less than this, but your campaign will be less effective.
Part of the process of delivering a good campaign is testing and adjusting your ads.
For example, you might put out several posts on Facebook with the same image but slightly different copy, or you might run the same ad targeted at different demographics. Based on how each ad does, you can switch them on and off and adjust them so that the most successful ads run the longest.
What's great about using this kind of advertising is that you can really target your content so that you hit a very specific customer base.
If you've taken the time to define your marketing strategy and you have a clear picture of what your ideal customer looks like this will allow you to tailor your ads to hit these primary customers directly.
Whenever you're running a solar ad campaign it's very important that you've got a good strategy in place to measure the success of your adverts. You need to have a clear understanding of your cost per acquisition (CPA) and compare this against the value of that lead.
For example, running an ad campaign might cost you £500 and you might acquire only 3 leads. But if just two of those leads convert on installations worth £25k each then that campaign has been successful.
On the flip side, you might acquire 50 leads, but only 30 convert and they're for low-value jobs, then these leads might not justify the cost of the campaign.
This is why it's really important to understand your business costs and profits and measure this closely against the value of the leads you generate.
Okay, so we've covered why paid advertising can be effective, but you're probably thinking, “That's great, but what should I actually be putting in my ads?”
Do not fear, my solar-loving friend, we've got you covered.
There are four key components to any good ad. These are the hook, problem, solution and call to action (CTA).
A good hook should really draw attention to itself. This can be done by using over or undersized objects, loud noises, quick curious statements or emotionally triggering reactions. Anything that will grab the attention of the viewer or reader.
The problem should speak to the prospect's needs and concerns without smacking them directly in the face. For example, instead of saying “Are your energy bills too high?”, you should say something like “My electricity bill was growing every year until I decided to install solar panels. Now my energy provider is paying me!”
The solution should show what value you bring and explain what sets you apart. Then your CTA might provide a limited-time offer, for example, a free quote.
An example of a very simple but often effective solar installation ad is to get an image of a current client's electrical bill now they have solar panels installed and just promote that.
Now it might be that you're not in a position to be running paid ads or perhaps you're looking for more of a long-term evergreen approach to your marketing. This is where organic content comes into its own.
Unlike paid ads this type of content doesn't cost any money, however, it's more of a long-term strategy that is unlikely to give you instant results as paid ads do.
To make this strategy work you need to create high-quality content that appeals to your target audience. The idea is to become the trusted expert in the solar space providing potential customers with resources and information on solar-related topics.
This approach works best on YouTube and via web search. You should aim to produce content that addresses common queries and concerns about solar installations. Your audience will read and watch this content and come to associate you as an expert.
You can then direct these prospects down your sales funnel, linking them across to your website and then hopefully converting them into a new customer.
What's great about this kind of content is that it stays evergreen. Rather than being a flash in the pan, it remains relevant and will continue to draw in new leads for as long as it exists online.
You can do something similar with social posting. You want to create high-value or highly engaging digital posts that will attract your target audience to your website where you can convert them.
You should be aware that different social platforms suit different types of content. For example, LinkedIn is better for informative and learning-led content whereas TikTok favours amusing or curiosity-first content.
Ultimately the best solar strategies combine a mixture of paid advertising and organic content creation to produce the best results.
So, you've now got a bucket load of new leads streaming in from your organic and paid ad content. Great job. Now you need to think about how you're going to convert and process these leads.
Probably the most important thing you can do before you start doing any marketing is to set up a good website.
Even if you primarily focus on in-person marketing you should still have a website as it is an important part of making your business appear credible and is an essential tool for converting new leads.
Plus, setting a site up is easy to do with providers like Wix and Squarespace providing easy-to-use templates and tools. Or, if you want to remain hands-off then Built for Trades will create a site for you.
When you've got a website this will act as the middle to top of your sales pipeline. You can direct prospects from your paid and organic content to a landing page on your site.
This should have a clear call to action in the middle and utilise key hot words relating to solar - words that address the customer's pain points and any offers are good examples. You should also include testimonials and example pics to build your credibility.
The final piece of the puzzle comes down to how you handle the new leads and enquiries that reach you. There's no point in having an excellent sales funnel from top to middle if the final part leaks like a sieve.
To really get your solar business running like a well-oiled machine you need a good management system in place. We're talking about a fully optimised CRM that can process your new leads, set up new work events in your calendar and send out confirmation messages without you needing to raise a finger.
A solar project management system like Payaca will do just that, allowing you to take on new customers with ease while ensuring that no one slips between the cracks at any point in the customer life cycle.
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