The solar industry is burning brighter as more users turn to natural, renewable sources of energy. In as early as 2018, more than 10 million homes in the US had already installed solar power. According to statista.com, the US residential solar PV market is valued at 4.6 billion USD.
While these figures testify to the potential of the solar industry, solar installation companies face one major problem—lead generation. Companies in this rapidly growing industry find it difficult to generate online solar leads.
Getting eligible commercial and residential solar leads demands more work than just putting up a billboard. Companies have to create interest in their services, present their value proposition, and convince solar energy leads to pick their services.
So, how can businesses in this industry lead? This post outlines important tips that can help businesses attract qualified leads through inbound marketing.
Creating buyer personas
The first step in solar lead generation is to know your target audience. You can do this by imagining your ideal customer and putting yourself in their shoes. This can help you understand what you should do to bring them in as customers. Writing up a few buyer personas with demographic data such as gender, geographic location, income, asset ownership, and age could help you accomplish this goal.
Once you do this, you’ll have a clearer view of your target customer. It gives you a better idea of whom you should target as potential leads. And this takes you to the second point.
Develop content that targets those personas
Inbound marketing works only if you give your target audience the reason to engage with your company. With this in mind, you need to ask yourself what type of content potential solar customers are looking for. Once you get this right, you can provide them with content in various categories:
Informational blog posts
This type of content can cover a wide range of issues regarding solar energy. From general information to an in-depth comparison between solar and traditional sources of energy, you can give your customers information that will answer their questions and bring them closer to your company.
E-books and other downloads
This type of content deals with a specific aspect of solar energy. It delves into it exhaustively and accompanies it with a downloadable resource. “A Complete Guide on How to Save Money on Energy Costs Using Solar” could be a nice example.
Video presentation
One video presentation can speak volumes about your company and your business. For installation companies, you can draw scores of your prospects by delivering hands-on information about your services, which they don’t know much about. Video presentations also educate customers and allow them to build trust with your business.
Encourage your online solar leads to take action
Once you establish trust with your potential customers with great content and other resources, you want them to convert into leads and actual customers. The secret to inbound marketing is to make sure you collect information. For instance, you could allow your web visitors to download your e-book only after giving their name and email address.
Similarly, you can provide a “Free Quote” on your website, where your target customers can provide detailed information in addition to their name and e-mail. The idea here is to find a way of contacting your potential online solar leads. At this point, you can hand them over to your salesperson for further engagement.
At SOLAR EXCLUSIVE, we help customers in the solar industry to grow their businesses with high-quality exclusive solar leads. Feel free to visit us and learn more about our services.