Solar Lead Generation is one of the most crucial aspects of a solar business. 🚀
In simple words, “Solar Lead Generation is the process of finding and attracting potential solar customers interested in a product or service, often through marketing efforts designed to gather contact information or prompt inquiries.”
It’s crucial because it brings users to your platform, which eventually converts into customers and drives revenue for the business. There could be various ways to generate solar leads for your company, but the key is to find ways of solar lead generation that can be sustained for a long time and effectively.
Now, when it comes to solar lead generation, there are various ways to get good solar leads; but not all of them are best practices. Some methods can work well in the short term but collapse after a while, while others can give you a steady start and accelerate as the company develops.
We’ve curated 4 proven methods of solar lead generation and how they benefit your solar business in the long run.
Before we dig in, here’s everything you must know about solar leads – Solar Leads Decoded: In 2 Steps, Convert Website Visitors to Qualified Solar Leads
Dissecting Solar Lead Generation for Residential Solar Companies
What lead generation for residential solar companies is like? The problems faced the proven solutions, what industry experts have to say, and more. Here’s everything you need to know about residential solar companies and their lead generation modules.
Challenges Solar Companies Face in Solar Lead Generation
High competition: The growing solar industry produces stiff competition among companies for potential solar leads. There are thousands of solar companies in the United States and the potential market is expected to grow. Hence, while the market gives enough opportunity for solar companies to pave the ground, the pressure to stand out is still real.
Customer misinformation: As the industry is relatively new, misconceptions about solar energy’s cost and benefits deter potential customers. Surveys indicate that up to 60% of homeowners believe that solar panels are too expensive, despite various financing options available.
Complexity of the sales cycle: The decision-making process for solar installations can be lengthy and complex. The sales system plays a huge role in complexity. Buying solar leads is a different ballgame, which comes with a huge cost for companies. We have written a separate piece detailing buying solar leads for solar residential companies and their consequences.
High Cost of Acquisition: Marketing and solar lead generation can be expensive, impacting ROI. The average cost of acquiring a solar lead ranges from $200 to $300, with conversion rates around 2-5%, making the cost of customer acquisition substantial. While the number varies depending on various factors, the high COA remains one of the top problems to be solved.
Regulatory Challenges: Varying state and local regulations complicate the sales process. Each state has its own set of regulations and incentives, resulting in complications in the sales process which directly affect lead generation.
👉Know about the best and worst places for solar energy in the USA here.
4 Proven Methods to Generate Solar Leads For Residential Solar Companies
Enough about the problems; let’s now talk solutions. Let’s dig into the proven methods of solar lead generation for residential solar companies. Methods explored here are:
→ Content Marketing for lead generation → Paid Search (PPC) for lead generation
→ Search Engine Optimization for lead generation
→ Referral Programs for lead generation
→ Tools and Resources to accelerate lead generation
1. a) Leverage Content Marketing
Content Marketing is a large and well-known segment in organic marketing to create a reliable source for your product. Explore all the various kinds of platforms that the internet offers in today’s age to figure out where your target audience is, When that’s sorted out, leverage content marketing to establish yourself as an audio source of content in the industry.
Content marketing includes Blogs, Social Media posts, audio and video content, illustrations, etc. Leverage these platforms and establish your company as a thought leader in the solar residential industry.
It builds trust and brings credibility to the platform, which eventually reaches the right audience and that audience will seamlessly convert into leads. These leads will be earned not bought and will last you in the long run.
A quick case study on how the method worked out for solar lead generation:
As part of their blog series on “going solar for homeowners in Florida,” SunPower, a company known for its high-efficiency panels, provided information such as “cost savings with solar” and “solar panel maintenance guide.” As a result of this organic content, qualified leads increased by 20% through contact form submissions and newsletter subscriptions.
b) Invest in PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
The PPC campaign for solar lead generation applies if you have a budget to allocate to your lead generation campaigns. People are searching for solar panels in your area and one of the proven methods to gauge these audiences is to run a targeted ad. They will see your targeted ads on search engines like Google, where they are most likely to click and convert.
This kind of traffic is most likely to convert into a customer as they reach the product by searching for it themselves, naturally eliminating dead leads.
The pre-requisite of running a PPC campaign is having a well-maintained website or sales process to cater to the leads generated by the campaign for solar lead generation.
A quick case study on how the method worked out for solar lead generation:
PPC worked amazing for Sunrun, one of the best-known names in the residential solar industry. They ran the PPC campaign on targeted keywords like ‘home solar installation cost California’ and ‘solar panels for my house’, etc. This led to three times more potential customers within 3 months, and 15% of these leads became actual customers.
2. Optimize Your Website with SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
The results of applying SEO for solar lead generation are not the quickest but once optimized correctly, it can serve as the most reliable organic lead generation method for your solar company.
SEO is largely about optimizing your solar website to best cater to search engine results of certain queries. By optimizing various aspects of a website, businesses can gauge the audience searching for the targeted keywords and convert that traffic into leads.
It’s a relatively long process of optimizing your website as per the required rules of SEO. The goal here is to make the website experience smooth and hassle-free in terms of technical experience and make the content of the website relevant to the keywords that rank higher in the search results.
Users searching for similar services will find your product organically and this pipeline will keep bringing you your targeted customers, who are highly likely to convert without spending a cent on it.
A quick case study on how the method worked out for solar lead generation:
Tesla Solar, a known company for its sleek solar roof tiles, leveraged SEO and had a 25% increase in organic website traffic. They focused their content marketing on being SEO optimized and included keywords like “residential solar panel benefits Texas,” etc.
This approach not only generated traffic but also helped with an increase of 5% in the conversion rate.
💡 Did you know that businesses focusing on SEO see 14.6% conversion rates on organic traffic, compared to just 1.7% for traditional outbound methods like cold-calling?
Why not get solar leads for free? Learn how to generate free solar leads here!
3. Use Referral Programs to Build Trust:
Referral programs for solar lead generation have been used in various industries as one of the best-known methods of bringing high-quality traffic to your website.
The process is quite simple but effective. The customers you have already converted and who are satisfied with your products and services refer your products/services to their friends, family, and social circle who are looking for similar services by offering discounts or rewards.
As these leads are coming from trusted sources, they are of high quality and will likely get converted.
A quick case study on how the method worked out for solar lead generation: Blue Raven Solar leveraged referrals as their prominent method of solar lead generation and saw a 10% increase in qualified leads each month. Their program offered $250 cashback for every successful referral, which worked well for solar lead generation, resulting in increased traffic with an 18% conversion rate.
The future of lead generation in solar lies in leveraging data to create highly personalized and compelling offers, says Dan Yates, CEO of Opower
Are you into commercial solar lead generation? Learn the best methods of generating commercial solar leads here!
4. Email Campaigns for Solar Lead Generation
Solar email marketing is an affordable method of staying in touch with the audience. You can use it to continue prospects’ engagement and assist them in moving towards the end of the buying process through sending newsletters regularly as well as targeted email campaigns.
Establishing an Email List
Opt-In Forms: Place opt-in forms on your site that record electronic mail addresses.
Lead Magnets: Offer resources such as e-books or white papers that have value to people in return for their email addresses.
Social Media: Publish your newsletter for subscribers on social media platforms.
Creating Effective Email Campaigns
Personalization: Personalize emails by addressing them to individuals, using their names and tailored content.
Segmentation: Divide the email list based on where they come from, what they like, and where they are within the sales funnel.
Compelling Subject Lines: Create mind-blowing headlines to improve open rates.
Valuable Content: Provide educational and interesting materials that you know are related to what your target group wants most.
Strong CTAs: These should contain clear and compelling calls to action aimed at moving recipients towards a specific goal they need to achieve.
Types of Email Campaigns
Welcome Series: Introduce new subscribers to your brand and offerings.
Educational Series: Educate generally about solar power and how you can help.
Promotional Campaigns: Advertise any current discount offers available.
Retention Campaigns: Get back into contact with disinterested subscribers who may be interested again later.
👉Learn three proven strategies for getting aged solar leads here!
Leveraging the Right Tools and Resources for Solar Lead Generation
The 4 methods we discussed above have proven to generate leads for the solar industry. However, one of the most important assets every company must have is the knowledge of the right tools to use to accelerate their marketing campaigns and sales pipeline.
For solar lead generation in particular, one of the tools that has worked amazingly for most of the leading solar companies is using a white-labeled quotation tool to generate solar leads.
These quotation tools will provide users with all the information they need before booking a sales call. This not only generates leads but also eliminates dead leads, resulting in saving time and effort for the sales teams.
Once implemented, it will keep generating leads, which are highly likely to convert and accelerate your campaign and the traffic driven by it.
“Automation tools for lead generation enable solar companies to scale their outreach efficiently, ensuring no potential customer is left behind.” Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun"
White-labeled Quotation Tools: Benefits
Client satisfaction:
We all head over online to do some research before we get on the phone. The solar industry is no different in that regard, with modern customers preferring to look up stuff rather than talk to a salesperson right away.
A white-label online quoting tool does this by providing fast and personalized information that helps them make informed decisions by prospecting clients, allowing them to explore multiple configurations and understand associated costs.
Thus, instead of struggling through it and confusing oneself, a customer can have all the necessary information they need for decision-making in one click. This saves time and improves user experience, which highly influences their choice-making.
Filter qualified leads:
These tools eliminate qualified leads from the others by ensuring that users have all the available information.
These filtered leads will save you time and resources that can be used to send personalized follow-ups to these leads based on what has been learned from this tool, thus increasing the likelihood of conversion.
Increased engagement:
Customers who use these online quotation systems spend more time on your website than ever before. By engaging users in this manner, such tools diminish bounce rates while escalating lead conversion prospects at the same time.
Information gathering and analysis:
Data collected from the quote tool provides valuable insights about customer preferences as well as activities done by them; this data can be utilized for refining selling strategies and product portfolio marketing plans.
Brand uniformity:
This guarantees a seamless user experience since it respects existing company branding as a white-label product. As part of the business website theme, this makes it easier for customers to trust and recognize its brand identity.
Choose Your Quotation Tool Wisely for Solar Lead Generation
Always consider multiple options in terms of services offered and at what rate. There are several quotation tools available in the market but a few are to be trusted.
SunLead has proven to be an authentic white-label quotation tool for residential solar companies.
Businesses using SunLead can easily plug a personalized quote system into their website. Here are a few benefits of SunLead’s tool, which can enhance your lead generation:
Easy integration: A unique link that you could insert on your website is available from SunLead. This link will take users to the quotation tool, which is entirely branded and tailored to suit your company’s needs.
Customizable options: The custom option could be based on the kind of solar panels they have. For example, the EPC price list and other influencing factors. As such, customization ensures that all quotes produced are accurate and valid.
Instant pricing: Visitors receive instant quotes based on the information they provide. This quick response arouses their interest and moves them closer to making a purchase.
Collecting leads: It collects essential details like contact information for follow-up mailings with concentration.
User-friendly layout: Every visitor will enjoy using this quote generator because its design is simple and understandable.
Learn about the new feature of SunLead Rooftop Visualization Feature. Show solar rooftop previews to your customers before installation!
Take Time With Your Organic Solar Lead Generation
Whatever method you apply for solar lead generation on your product, always remember that it takes time for organic marketing to work, as it is supposed to cater to you in the long run. Having a well-maintained content library, an SEO-optimised off-page website, and trying various campaigns to figure out the method that works the best for your business is a game in the long run.
But once you figure out the methods and tools that work for your business, it works seamlessly thereafter. Hence, invest time, resources, and budget in the right tools and solar marketing strategies to see your product thrive in the long run.
And always remember:
Lead generation in the solar industry isn’t just about quantity; it’s about the quality of solar leads and building lasting relationships.
Jigar Shah, President of Generate Capital
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FAQs on Solar Lead Generation
What is the solar lead generation process?
Solar lead generation is the process of attracting prospective solar customers and converting them into solar leads. It can be done using many methods like creating a solar website, writing SEO-optimized content, running online ads, and social media campaigns. You can also take the help of lead generation forms or solar quotation tools like SunLead where customers can fill in their basic information like location, budget, etc to request a quote. Then, you can nurture these leads using email campaigns, meetings, calls, etc to move them closer to the buying process.How to generate solar leads?
There are many ways to generate solar leads:
Content marketing: You can write SEO-optimized blogs and guides on your website with relevant keywords like ” solar panel installation” and answers to FAQs.
Partnering with Locals: You can partner with real estate agents, local businesses, or communities to reach homeowners who are interested in solar power.
Running Paid Ads: You can run ads on famous platforms like Google Ads or Facebook to target prospective customers who search for solar panels online or who live in an area where electricity rates are high. Additionally, you can start a referral program by offering cashback/bonus to existing customers for referring your services to others.How much do solar leads cost?
Solar leads cost between $20 to $300 per lead. Their costs depend on factors like their source, type, and quality. Shared solar leads are sold to multiple companies. Hence, they cost less, around $20–$50. While exclusive leads are sold only to your company, they cost between $100–$300 and have higher conversation rates.How to find solar leads?
You can find solar leads in local events, solar webinars, social media groups, communities, etc. Additionally, you can reach them through cold outreach like cold calling, emails, public data, purchased lists, etc. You can also use lead-generation platforms like SolarReviews and EnergySage to connect you with potential customers.What is B2B lead generation?
B2B lead generation is the process of attracting businesses who are interested in your company’s services. For example, local contractors, architects, and commercial property owners. You can find this kind of leads through networking at business events or on platforms like Linkedin etc.
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