Marketing should be your best solar leads generator. Instead of buying solar leads, marketing can organically generate leads and surge sales for your solar company. With so much potential impact at stake, how you go about your solar marketing really matters.
Whether you’re looking for new solar marketing ideas or marketing your solar company for the first time, we’ve got 11 digital and physical marketing techniques to supercharge your solar marketing strategy.
Let’s get to it!
Digital Solar Marketing Tactics
When it comes to solar marketing, the digital world is your oyster. Solar prospects are looking for information about solar online. And if you put advertisements out on the internet, you’ll be able to get in front of a wider audience.
Here are six of the best digital marketing strategies for solar companies.
1. Search Engine Optimization
You might be surprised to see SEO as a marketing tool, but it certainly is one.
When you optimize your solar website for keywords, your site will naturally market itself. After all, optimized keywords will shoot your page to the top of search results pages. And what better way to market your solar business than to show up as the top result for solar questions?
Optimize your website pages by implementing a solid link-building strategy. For instance, you should link your pages to each other and to other established websites to build your site’s authority. Seek out linking opportunities with your solar suppliers and associations to gain momentum for your solar website.
2. Social Media Marketing
Using social media provides four significant benefits for your business. You should use Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn when marketing solar. However, you can certainly use more than just those three social platforms.
Social media marketing aims at getting your solar company in front of your target audience. So, if your potential customers spend more time on TikTok or Twitter, that’s where your business should be.
Boost your company’s social media presence by posting regularly. Highlight your newest products, showcase your team members, or mention any promotions you have.
Additionally, you can use social media ads to market your company. The platform will automatically promote your solar ads to users who fit your target audience.
3. Email Marketing
In 2019, worldwide email users jumped to over 4 billion. And that number has only increased since then.
Email marketing can get your solar business in front of hundreds and thousands of people. In terms of hitting a massive number of targeted people, email marketing is hard to beat.
Create a series of emails to send in an email campaign at set intervals. In these marketing emails, keep the content short, engaging, and tied to a benefit. Your solar marketing will be much more effective if prospects see some sort of value in what you’re offering.
Additionally, send your emails from an official business email address. That precaution will help keep your emails from being marked as spam.
4. Search Engine Advertising
Search engine advertising, a type of paid advertising, can be a powerful driving force for leads, especially in the solar industry.
The next time you search for something on Google, look at the first few results. They likely all have a little label next to them that says “Ad” or “Sponsored.” That’s search engine advertising.
Those top spots are highly sought after because they’re higher up on the page, making customers more likely to click on the ad.
To get your solar ad there, though, you have to bid for the space. You can bid using cost-per-mille (one price for 1,000 impressions) or cost-per-click (a small cost each time someone clicks on your solar ads).
Both bidding methods can effectively get you ad space and drive traffic to your company. You should try both options and see which type works best for your solar marketing strategy.
5. Content Marketing
Digital content marketing makes your solar company website helpful and exciting. Making infographics and videos is part of a strong content plan, but we’ll focus on the most prominent aspect of content marketing: blogging.
Including a blog on your business website is a best practice. Furthermore, blogging provides your site visitors with relevant content and can boost your site’s SEO.
How often should you add to your solar blog? The bigger your company (and marketing team), the more you ought to post. HubSpot suggests publishing a new blog post 1–4 times a week. If that seems too lofty, especially at first, commit to releasing a new blog post at least once a month.
6. Referral Marketing
What is referral marketing? When you ask your customers for referrals, you’re implementing referral marketing. And when your solar customers promote your brand through word of mouth, that’s referral marketing too.
If you don’t currently have a word-of-mouth referral program, you’re missing out on a vast portion of the solar market. Referred customers are more loyal and can bring in up to 25% higher profits than customers who come in through paid ads.
Tailor your referral program to what you’re willing to offer.
You could give customers a discount on their solar panels. Or you could send them a $100 gift card. In either case, talk about your referral program, so customers know about it. They won’t spread the word if they don’t know it exists.
Physical Marketing Strategies for Solar Companies
Solar marketing extends beyond the digital sphere. Sometimes, the best solar marketing is tangible. We’ve gathered a list of the top five methods for solar marketing in the physical world.
Since physical marketing requires delivery in some form, we recommend you use these techniques for your local area.
7. Flyers
Solar marketing flyers are great because you can mail them or give them to people in person. If you visit a neighborhood, you can leave them on doors or in mailboxes.
Your flyer should interest but not overwhelm potential customers. In fact, your flyer should be one page or less (double-sided is okay). Anything longer than a page loses attention—and racks up printing costs!
Remember that you don’t want your sales pitch to parrot what the flyer says. Potential customers can refer back to the flyer after they’ve talked to you, so it should go hand in hand with your pitch, not copy it.
8. Door Hangers
Door hangers are an excellent solar marketing tool. When you install solar panels, bring some door hangers with you to place around the neighborhood. Even if you never see the homeowners, they’ll have a chance to learn about your solar company.
Don’t forget to include your business’s logo, contact information, and unique selling points.
9. Billboards
For solar companies that want to get their brand out there, billboard marketing might be for you. 71% of drivers look at billboards while they drive, so something as simple as putting an ad on a high-traffic street can skyrocket your brand awareness.
Since you want your solar billboard to stand out for all the right reasons, your billboard design is critical. Go for something creative, simple, and location specific. After all, most people will only have a few seconds to process your billboard before driving past it.
10. Brochures
Brochures are like flyers but cover more information and are often more visual. Brochures are great to keep in the office, at the job site, and at community events for which you sponsor or volunteer.
What should you put in your solar brochure? Don’t miss this guide about how to write a brochure for your solar advertising.
11. Swag
Who doesn’t love swag? These items can help spread brand awareness and keep your solar company top of mind.
However, cheap, poorly made, or boring promotional products aren’t worth investing in. If you’re going to go with swag, choose something people will use or enjoy. Consider representing your solar business with Bluetooth speakers, power bank chargers, mouse pads, or drink coasters.
Electrify Your Solar Company Marketing
Try out one (or some) of these 11 techniques to turbocharge your solar marketing campaign. You’ll see a flood of new leads, sales, and customers.
What marketing techniques work for your solar business? Let us know in the comments below!
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3 Responses
Yay! Fantastic read! These top 11 solar marketing strategies are a game-changer for solar businesses. I especially loved the focus on social media engagement and community collaboration.
So good!! Thank you for sharing this with us because I work in the SEO field and I know how much it takes it to rank websites for the solar equipment.
Thank you so much for your kind words, Samridhi! It’s great to hear from someone in the SEO field, especially considering the unique challenges of ranking websites in the solar equipment niche. If you have any additional insights or strategies to add, we’d love to hear them. Wishing you all the best in your SEO endeavors!