5 Ways to Generate Leads For Solar Sales

So, you’ve got a great product to offer, your installation team is trained and ready, and most likely, you’ve got bills to pay. Having a trickle of clients may be enough to keep the account in the black, but how do you convert this into a steady stream of work?

A steady stream of work that allows you to grow and scale your business. Giving you the size of business you want with the revenue (and preferably profit) to show for it.

In this blog, we’ll answer this question and tell you all about how to generate leads for solar sales.

The Top 5 Ways to Generate Leads For Solar Sales

It’s easy to get started with increasing your sales leads. Our five go-to solar lead generation strategies are:

1. Search Engine Optimisation,
2. Pay-Per-Click advertising,
3. Leveraging Social Media,
4. Direct Mail,
5. Establishing Partnerships.

Let’s get into them.

01. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Consider the many times you’ve ever used a search engine like Google, or dare I say it…bing. 

You may be wondering how the search results are ordered- why do certain links, businesses or other results appear at the top of the first page? 

The answer lies in a number of factors, collectively known as SEO. Here’s how to optimise your website for SEO- helping you to generate those leads for solar. 

1. Make sure your content offers actual value, is informative and engaging.
2. Ensure the copy has relevant primary and secondary keywords in the right places throughout.
3. Ensure that your website loads quickly and is easy to use and navigate by all users across all devices. Remember, mobile devices get updated all the time, and these updates can cause havoc for your website to load properly on certain devices.
4. Establish backlinks- where other, authoritative, relevant websites show and promote links to your web pages. These work like a vote of confidence for your website, boosting credibility. 
5. Develop your local SEO: ensure you target local customers by creating and optimising your Google My Business listing, ensuring your company information is uniform across all platforms, and acquiring local and trusted reviews. 

Of course, another key way to arrive at the very top of the listings is through…

02. Pay-Per-Click Advertising

At the top of search engine results, you’ll often see a handful of listings labelled ‘sponsored’. These businesses aren’t about to complete a charity fun run or a local 5-a-side tournament- they’re taking advantage of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.

This is where advertisers bid on specific keywords that are relevant to their business, product or service. When users search for these keywords, the sponsored ads appear at both the top and the bottom of the results page.

PPC is useful as advertisers only pay when users click on their ads, hence the name. PPC allows businesses to generate a more qualified lead with genuine intent and reach them at the exact moment that they’re searching for the types of products or services that they provide. 

If you want to get started with PPC advertising to help gain leads for solar sales, give us a shout- we’ll happily get you started. 

03. Social Media

Here’s an avenue of generating leads for solar sales that you’ve probably already dabbled with. 

In the early days, these websites and apps merely offered an alternative to appearing in the Yellow Pages, however now, it’s widely recognised that these platforms can be used in many creative ways to showcase your brand, your services, and results.

Our favourite platform is LinkedIn as it’s where our target market hangs out. You also need to select the platform that best suits your target market. Research where they hang out and go and market o them their.

You can gain a following, contributing toward to your credibility and brand awareness. With increased brand awareness, visibility and immediate approachability, any business will benefit from leveraging social media.

While social media marketing is an industry in its own right, having an up-to-date business page with photos, contact information, and content showcasing your work will all help generate leads for solar sales without constant posting.  

So relax, you don’t have to start jumping on the latest trends, performing dance routines while installing a solar panel on a roof, or posting diatribes about the state of the local ecology.

There are, however quite a few downsides to social media, some of which many wouldn’t mention as they’ll be trying to sell you social media content creation:

1. It is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out on any social media platform. The prevalence of AI has made social media marketing more accessible. This means there is more content on each platform and fewer views for you as a business.
2. Social media platforms are there to generate money, and as such, they want businesses to pay for advertising. So unless you are very talented with social media marketing you’ll be unlikely to reliably generate leads from posting content alone. You’ll also likely find that the account of your CEO/ Owner/ MD will likely get more followers than your business page. This is because people want to connect to people and not faceless a faceless business.
3. Someone else owns the platform that you are relying on to get business. So, although social media is great as part of a more comprehensive marketing strategy, if it is your sole source of leads, you’re going to be in trouble should you ever get banned or algorithm changes affect your posts.
4. It’s difficult to strike a balance between content that generates leads and content that appeals to a wide audience. What happens to most businesses is they end up attracting an audience that is unlikely to buy from them but who likes their content. Your content should be solely focused on talking to your ideal customer.

04. Direct Mail

In today’s world of digital communication, you may have to find a dictionary (or Google it) to find out what this is. 

Direct mail is the original form of marketing by post. This can be things such as letters, flyers, brochures, or catalogues. But our favourite is a personalised sales letter that is designed to stand out from the competition.

Direct mail has fallen out of favour because it is more costly to distribute when compared to online marketing avenues such as email. However, the tangible physicality of a letter or flyer in your hands makes it instantly more attention-grabbing and memorable. It also adds another level of credibility to your brand or business.

Let’s put it this way: if you were targeting a business or affluent area for solar panel installs…

…would you say their business is worth around £50 per target in marketing costs?

What works best when it comes to direct mail is often surprising. Corporate style shiny brochures and leaflets are often a massive failure. Yet slightly lower quality printed goods with a well-written sales letter and a personalised note perform extremely well.

Here are some tips for an effective direct mail campaign to help you generate leads for solar sales: 

• Ensure you send your direct mail to the right potential customers by using a targeted mailing list. 
• Add personalisation, this could be a covering letter or hand written note with their name, and a personalised offer. 
• Ensure your offer is clear and enticing, encouraging the recipient to take action. No-risk offers such as a free survey are ideal- show them they have nothing to lose but everything to gain. 
• Provide educational content within your mail. This positions you as an authority in the industry and helps build credibility. 
• Include something fun or useful that relates to your solar business (like a novelty PV array keychain, perhaps) that will make you instantly more memorable. Larger items will also guarantee that your mail is opened – who doesn’t like to receive a mystery package? 
• Include a clear call to action. This could be visiting your website, giving you a call or filling out a form (which is a handy way to qualify your leads, too, if you haven’t already).  
• Follow up your direct mail with an email, call or further direct mail.
• Use QR codes to help people navigate to your website from the physical mail.

05. Partner Up

Lastly, we come to professional partnerships. Establishing these can be an effective strategy for generating leads for solar sales and can be quite good fun if you’re the outgoing or extroverted type. 

Partnering with other businesses can help your sales strategy in many ways. You can reach a whole new customer base, boost your own credibility through affiliation, cross-promote each other’s businesses, products or services, offer value-added services, and gain referral work too.

You can get started with establishing a professional partnership by reaching out to local businesses that have the type of customers that you would like to work with. For instance, local builders who could sell a PV array as part of a roof upgrade, EV charger installers, heat pump installers etc (just make sure they aren’t in direct competition with you).

Also, make sure you attend industry events to expand your network and find firms to collaborate with. Do your research to ensure their credibility, good reputation, and compatibility with your brand values. Once you get to know each other’s business, a collaboration or partnership can seem like an obvious step that benefits you both. 

Final Thoughts – It Won’t Just Be Your PV Arrays That Generate

Prospecting for clients can be one of the most difficult, laborious and demoralising parts of growing and scaling a business. It can feel like you’re putting 120% energy in but getting 0% interest in return. 

With these 5 lead generation techniques up your sleeve, though, it won’t be just your monocrystalline PV arrays that are highly efficient; your marketing will be, too. 

And if you need a hand with creating informative, engaging and persuasive marketing or establishing an effective marketing strategy…

Get in contact, and we can have a chat to see if we are a good fit to work together.

You’ll be getting leads for solar sales in no time.