It’s easy to waste time and resources on fly by night marketing efforts, but launching a long-term marketing strategy is one of the smartest investments you can make in your business. This is Part Two of a series. Read Part One.
By Carter Lavin, Solar Power World Contributor
To be financially savvy about marketing for your solar installation firm, there are three main things to do. Leverage free promotional tactics, be wary of the secretly expensive tactics and engage in cost-effective marketing that lays the groundwork for bigger activities in the future.
After creating a website and making a brochure, the next three cost-effective marketing activities are developing case studies, setting up a referral program and launching a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaign. These three marketing steps won’t immediately flood you with leads, but your sales process will get easier, and the number of incoming leads will grow.
Case Study Development
For a homeowner or business, choosing a solar installer is all about trust. The installer they pick will climb on their roof, drill holes, install high-power electronics and file lots of paperwork on their behalf — all as part of a 25-year investment. Those aren’t exactly things you want just anybody to do. Fortunately, there are a lot of different ways for installers to earn potential clients’ trust.
A strong tool for establishing trust is a set of compelling case studies. Most people want their installers, like any other service provider, to be highly experienced — so providing case studies that outline your other successful projects generates trust. The case studies should tell compelling stories about how you helped a previous client. Have attractive photos, include details about the project that potential clients would find interesting, provide tangible values derived from the project and close with a glowing testimonial from the satisfied customer.
Developing a case study is a fairly low-cost project and a strong investment, as an installer will use a well-crafted one regularly in talks with potential clients for years.
Setting Up a Referral Program
Many installers get significant shares of business from word-of-mouth recommendations. One way to encourage your customers to provide this free marketing is to set up a formal referral program. By providing a financial incentive to anyone who successfully refers a client to your company, you transform your satisfied customers from positive references to solar missionaries.
While there are many different ways to structure a referral program, effective ones generally have the same elements. They include a referral bonus to be paid after the new client signs up, an online platform for people who want to make the referral and a transparent tracking mechanism for the referral maker and the internal sales team.
Referral bonuses vary based on the target market, your resources, your preferences, and what people will find motivating. Once you line up these elements and start promoting the program, your sales channel will pick up momentum.
One warning: It’s important to look into local regulations regarding payroll before you launch a referral program. In some jurisdictions the line between referral maker and salesperson can get fuzzy.
Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) gets your website placed higher for key search engine results. This can be done through Search Engine Optimization (e.g., adjusting website content) or through search-engine advertising like Google Adwords. Generally speaking, with an SEM campaign, a company purchases ad space on the search results page for when people in a specific demographic search for certain words or phrases.
SEM can be confusing to navigate and optimize, but if properly executed it can significantly increase traffic to your website. For a solar installer’s SEM campaign to be effective, it’s critical to think of which search terms a potential client will use when they are looking to go solar. Keep in mind that other companies are competing for many of the same search terms as you. You can lower your SEM costs by narrowly focusing your campaign so you can connect with the targeted potential clients who need your particular services.
At the end of the day with SEM (and many other campaigns) you have to spend money to make money. Since you have to bid on search terms you are technically able to have a $100 campaign, but it won’t achieve anything. A monthly spend of a few thousand will be significantly more effective.
With That in Mind
Marketing campaigns are a worthwhile investment in your sales efforts. Effective campaigns strengthen your brand, educate potential customers and generate leads to make your sales team’s jobs easier. It’s easy to waste time and resources on fly by night marketing efforts, but launching a long-term marketing strategy is one of the smartest investments you can make in your business.
Carter Lavin is Solar Marketing Group’s business development manager and helps renewable energy companies analyze the market, articulate their messages and connect with their targeted audiences to achieve their marketing and communications goals.
Want more? Try these articles:
No Solar Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Join SEIA
For Crying Out Loud, We Must Stop Preaching To The (Solar) Choir
5 Free Ways To Market Your Message
Sun Powered says
Great ideas! Great Read!
Marvin R Hamon, P.E. says
Pay per click (PPC) advertising is basically automated lead generation, so in buying PPC you are buying leads from a lead generator. People should apply the same due diligence to PPC as they would in buying leads from anyone. As you pointed out in Part 1 of this series paying for leads can have a few pitfalls. Paying for PPC can have even more.
Are you paying for good leads? Poorly crafted PPC advertising may bring people to your website but they will not be the people who are likely to convert to a sale. It’s extremely difficult to craft good, targeted, and economical PPC for a company with a limited product range, low margin, and restricted service area; and that’s the description for a lot of solar companies. It’s really easy to craft bad PPC that you think looks great. Even professionals who put together PPC marketing campaigns are challenged to pull this off.
The leads you are buying through PPC are also probably being sold to your competitors too. The chances that only your company will show up in the ad panel are low. You might be #1 but your competitor is probably right next to you at #2. PPC will not give you exclusive leads.
People interested in PPC should do a lot of research to determine if their specific business can benefit without having to assume that you will have to craft an impossibly perfect PPC campaign. The lead quality verses acquisition cost also needs to be compared to other marketing possibilities. While it sounds like a dream to type in a few words and have customers flooding your website the reality is not as rosy.
Pamela Cargill says
I’ve seen SEM leads in the past were much lower quality and less likely to close. I’d probably swap out a robust SEM program for a PR program focusing on content marketing – OpEds in local papers, promoting local installs, and I’d built our referral marketing with group events connecting current customer with a bring-a-friend solar mixer. This is a trade-based, word-of-mouth business in the end. People may start their searches online, but they’ll most likely hire someone referred to them by a trusted friend.
jimjenal says
Carter – these are good ideas, but the third one is of diminishing value to smaller installers who simply cannot afford “a few thousand” dollars per month. Small installers are probably going to be better served by improving how their websites talk to prospective clients (e.g., video testimonials can help and they can be created for very little money) and encouraging referrals – though not necessarily via paid referrals.
For those of us with a limited marketing budget, we are still in search of the true path…