How To Generate Solar Leads Online

By Rylan Urban

Many solar companies don’t consider generating their own leads until after they try buying them – finding out later that the poor quality wasn’t worth their time. This is why Solar Sell Marketing* recommends generating solar leads instead.

Generating leads isn’t about traffic gimmicks or quick fixes for high ROI (exactly what the other guys promise). It’s about branding your solar company as a local authority – and then capitalizing on your positioning. [Disclosure: This article has been kindly sponsored by Solar Sell Marketing.]

There are just three parts to this equation:

• Build Assets
• Drive Traffic
• Track, Analyse, and Optimize

That is it.

1. Your Assets: Website & Landing Page

As with every installation you complete, quality is king. Your online assets are no different. If you have any chance at converting traffic into customers, you need a solar website that converts well. In general, potential customers will fill out your contact form only if they trust you.

Here are a few non-obvious points to keep in mind:

• Post images of your associations (BBB, SEIA, NABCEP) to increase credibility.
• Write your content in a way that answers frequently asked questions.
• Embed testimonial photos, captions, and videos to increase relatability.
• Include multiple call to actions (photo above).

These points will help you move away from generic content and help you speak directly to your potential solar customers.

2. Your Traffic: Paid Search, Organic Search, Social Media

When it comes to driving traffic to your solar website, you’ll want to focus on relevancy. Specifically, focus on the aspects that you can control: where your visitors live, and their interest in going solar. Your visitors can be pre-qualified customers.

Here are three common traffic sources and captions that you can use market yourself on each:

• Social Media – “Click Here To Download Our Free Solar Homeowner’s Guide.”
• Organic Search – “Your Trusted Local Solar Installer In [Your Location].”
• Paid Search – “$0 Down Solar Financing For [Your Location] Homeowners.”

Notice that depending on the traffic source, the strategy changes slightly. Those are headings that work well for our existing clients.

3. Your Secret: Track, Analyse, and Optimize For Conversions

Conversion analytics & optimization is the most important part of a data-driven, solar marketing campaign. The only way to assess whether or not your strategies are working is to measure them. From traffic to leads, leads to appointments, appointments to sales, everything must be tracked and measured.

Here are just are a few tools that you can build into your website:

• Heat Maps – track where visitors are clicking (photo above).
• Content Analytics – track how far down each page visitors are scrolling.
• Integrated Pixels – track where visitors come from, where they go, and who converts.

The first two are available for free at sumo.com. If you can integrate these into your website along with an associated plan for monthly changes – you are miles ahead of your competitors.

Conclusion

There’s no quick fix or overnight miracle for sustainable business building. Generating solar leads online is about branding and positioning – not about gimmicking. Stick to the three principles mentioned above: Assets, Traffic, Optimize…  and don’t get sidetracked by low priced, “exclusive leads”. They aren’t worth your time.

Generate your own solar leads instead.

About the Author: Rylan is the founder of energyhub.org

*This article has been kindly sponsored by Solar Sell Marketing