Looking to generate more solar leads and increase sales, without having to cold call or knock doors? Or maybe you’re looking to empower your sales team with a consistent, reliable stream of exclusive solar leads?
This post provides solar lead generation advice for businesses that want to grow. Some of the topics covered in this post are how digital marketing can help generate more sales, why installation companies need a team managing their ads and website, and what makes online advertising so effective (scalable & trackable).
In this article, I’m going to break down exactly how you can take advantage of the most effective online marketing strategies to produce a consistent and reliable flow of solar leads right to your email inbox or phone.
When solar panels and solar energy first became popular in the late 1970s, their cost was prohibitive. For this reason, marketing companies turned to television and print advertising as a means of generating leads for homeowners who were interested in solar power. The problem with those approaches is that they require huge budgets and are not scalable—meaning you have to spend more money every time you want to target an additional customer segment or location.
Digital marketing & online ads offer scalability: Google Ads lets marketers effectively reach customers at all levels of interest without ever leaving home; Facebook offers users the ability to generate new leads organically by targeting people based on interests & demographics (i.e., demographics/interests).
Online solar lead generation tactics can be a great way to find new business. There are many different ways for businesses in the solar industry to generate leads, and it’s important that you have a reliable system in place before investing your time or money into any one tactic.
Most solar panel companies rely on door-to-door sales to break into new markets and provide a reliable way of making sales. This is a great way of reaching homeowners directly but requires a massive amount of undesirable labor and time spent.
Another common way for solar companies to generate leads is by direct mail, although that may not be the most effective tactic in this day and age. Direct mail usually requires a large up-front investment and is much harder to track compared to online advertising efforts.
Solar lead generation strategies can also include online ads like Facebook or Google Adwords campaigns that use advanced data targeting to find qualified buyers. Although this tactic is the most scalable and trackable method available, it also requires a vast array of skills to ensure the campaigns are profitable and worth running. This is why hiring experts to manage the process for you can get you to your sales goal much faster, as a lot of moving parts are involved when it comes to digital marketing such as building a conversion-focused website made to generate leads, creating advertising graphic designs, setting up and managing the ads, analyzing ad data to optimize, etc…)
Buying solar leads is one of the most effective ways to quickly generate more revenue for your company and grow faster. It’s cost-effective, scalable, and doesn’t require you to leave your home or office.
With online ads for residential solar systems, you’re able to get in touch with people that are already interested in solar, in comparison to having to “persuade” homeowners to listen to your sales pitch when they may not be ready to buy.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say you’re a door-to-door salesperson for a solar company, and you’re spending 8 hours a day knocking doors in neighborhoods making a couple of sales a day. The money might be great, but all of your time is spent walking around working in the sun talking to people you don’t know… How much is your time worth to you? With the help of online ads, you can reach MORE people in a day than it would be humanly possible to reach going door-to-door.
On average, let’s say a solar lead costs $50. If you can close 1/5 of those leads, that means you’d make a sale with $250 spent. Are your commissions on average more than $250? Most likely!
Now let’s take it further and say you’re paying a solar lead generation company to set everything up for you and manage the campaigns on a daily basis… Let’s say you have $2000 to invest into your ads, which will generate 40 leads at $50/lead… Once again, if you can close 1/5 prospects, you’d make 8 sales! Now multiply 8 times whatever your average commission is, and voila, you have your newfound business revenue! And the best part is that you can sit at home in your pajamas, or on your mega yacht in your birthday suit while these solar leads come straight to your phone.
Think of your online ads like little digital versions of yourself, running around talking to hundreds or thousands of prospects in the comfort of their home about the benefits of solar panels for you! This way you only have to speak with them once they’ve filled out a form and expressed they’re interested!
One of our clients received 79 leads in his first month and ended up closing 8 deals over the phone, which earned him more than double the cost of our marketing services back in the first 30 days! If you’re experienced at solar panel sales and have good conversion rates, there’s literally no reason you can’t do the same.
If you need help with solar energy lead generation, contact us today. We’ll work on a marketing plan that will give your company the best ROI and see great results from day one!
Our team of digital marketers knows how to profitable generate new residential solar customers from Facebook ads & Google ads, and we have the results and case studies to back it up. Start connecting with interested homeowners today!
So maybe you’re not ready to invest in online ads for your business… Here’s what you can do to start generating solar leads organically.
Organic social media posts can generate organic solar leads, however, this approach can be time-consuming, hard to track, and is not scalable.
Another way of generating qualified organic solar leads is by asking for or attracting referrals. This approach can be time-consuming as well and does not always produce a sufficient volume of leads since referrals are “random” and come in only when customers have a great experience.
One tactic worth mentioning is setting up an SEO-optimized website for your solar business. By creating valuable content for homeowners and positioning yourself or your company as a trusted authority in the local marketplace, over time your search traffic and inbound marketing visitors will grow. Creating an SEO-optimized website is a great long-term inbound marketing strategy for generating exclusive solar leads, but typically you won’t see results from your search marketing efforts for at least 6-12 months, unlike digital ads which you can turn on or off at any moment like a water faucet.
On average, a lead can cost anywhere from $40 to $100 depending on how effective your marketing team and campaigns are. Typically our team generates exclusive homeowner leads for under $50, which allows our customers to scale their business and get a great return on their marketing investment with us.
There are other platforms available online that can allow you to buy leads, however, you should be warned that sometimes these companies sell the same leads to other business owners as well. This is why we always set up customized, branded campaigns for our solar customers to ensure you’re only receiving exclusive, qualified solar leads.
Looking for residential solar leads? We’re here to help. The first step is knowing the question you want to be answered before the lead even starts answering it! Here are a few questions that will increase sales:
Asking these four key questions in your ads has two major benefits: It helps potential customers understand their options better so they can make more informed decisions about what’s best for them. By invoking interest with your digital ads, homeowners will naturally look to you like the solar expert that can help them get the job done, resulting in a better lead.
First, we’ll schedule a quick 10-minute introduction call to understand your goals and determine if it’s a good fit to work together. We don’t work with just anyone, and we’re only looking for people that have a proven sales process and are ready to scale their business. We’re not looking for newbies that don’t know how to close – Our most successful partners and clients are experts in the solar industry and have a firm grasp on how to close the leads they receive to get the most out of our marketing efforts.
If we determine we’re a good fit, we’ll begin by creating a custom website or landing page for your company. This is where we will be sending all the online ad traffic to, to explain what you do in a way that generates their interest and compels them to speak with you as soon as possible. We will even set up text notifications to go to you the instant someone fills out your form so you can call and close the deal right away while the lead is still hot. When leads go through your landing page, you’ll receive their name, phone number, email address, zip code, why they’re interested in solar, budget, you name it! Our lead forms are fully customizable so we can ask consumers your choice of questions.
Our design team creates customized advertising graphics, animated videos, and other assets needed for a successful lead-gen campaign.
Once everything is created and approved by you, we launch the lead-gen ads in your local market and often our clients start receiving leads within the first 24 hours!
From there you’ll receive weekly or bi-weekly meetings with your dedicated account manager, who is there to keep a close eye on your campaigns and ensure we’re hitting your goals. We even provide a monthly PDF report detailing exactly how things are performing in a transparent way, also showing what we’re doing to increase lead volume and results moving forward.
If you’re using a CRM tool to manage your contacts and business, we can import your leads directly into it with our marketing integrations. If you’re not using a CRM (customer relationship management) tool, we will provide you with one to make tracking your solar energy leads easy.
A lot of solar companies are trying to find new, creative ways to drive more leads and make sales. But if you’re looking for a way that’s proven time and time again, digital marketing is the answer. And it doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive! Let us handle your marketing so you can focus on running your business profitably and making money instead of wasting time with other strategies that don’t work. If you’re in the solar business and you’re ready to connect with customers ready to invest in renewable energy and get more homeowner leads in your service area, book a call with our team today to see how we can help get you generating those all-important solar leads as quickly as possible!
How Do We Help Real Estate Professionals Build a Rock-Solid Online Presence with Our Premier Video Production & Marketing Services? If a picture is worth
4 Reasons Realtors Should Incorporate Video Content into Their Marketing Efforts “The play button is the most compelling call-to-action on the internet.”– Michael Litt 86%
contact@zimamarketing.com
ph: +1 (425) 225-3393