If you put yourself in the shoes of a homeowner who’s looking into solar panels for the first time, the amount of information can be overwhelming and trying to find a provider to help you isn’t any easier. To find and choose a provider, a homeowner might ask for recommendations, search on Google, or use a three quote service.

But at the end of it all, everything looks the same to them, and they’ll simplify their choice by focusing on just one thing – which is often who gave the cheapest quote.

To avoid competing on price and stand out when the homeowner is doing their research, there’s three easy tweaks to make to your website and marketing to stand out.

1. Highlight what you do best

This sounds simple, but it’s not just about installing the solar panels. Use this matrix to mark how much emphasis you place on the following areas of your business:

The last one is to ask yourself if you want to focus on lower price points, or if you want to charge for more luxury prices.

“Low” and “high” on the matrix doesn’t equal “good” and “bad”. In this case, it’ll help you decide what you want to highlight in your marketing (and what you want to leave out.)

Not everyone can have “Number one solar installer” as their catch phrase, but you can use this matrix to stand out with “fastest solar installer”, “best quality install”, or have your customers advocate for you in reviews with comments like “they helped me understand so much more and their communication was great.”

Once you have your unique combination of highs and lows, you can use this to attract the customers who value those same things. This will give everyone a feeling of having met just the right person for the job.

2. Partner with local real estate agents

No one really likes real estate agents, but they do talk to a lot of homeowners! It might be worthwhile asking real estate agents in the suburbs you work in if they’d be willing to provide referrals (for a kickback, of course.)

When they sell a house, they can ask the new homeowner if they’re thinking of installing solar, and then refer you as the provider.

Make sure you cover in your agreement at what point the kickback would actually come into effect, for example is it only if the homeowner actually buys? Or is it for leads that are then your job to chase up?

Other ways to take advantage of the access real estate agents have to homeowners include:

• Leaving some brochures on their reception desk
• Asking to be included as a “preferred supplier” in any email newsletters they send out
• Contributing a blog to their website

3. Make the most of Google My Business

Google My Business is a free tool that pops up whenever you search for a business or click a business on Google Maps. Google often creates these listings to make sure Maps is up to date. If you haven’t already, you need to claim the business so you can gain access to the listing and optimise it.

Google will rank your business higher, just for having completed your listing and filling out all the details. This includes uploading pictures – you can post pictures of your completed installations once every now and then to get a consistent boost in your rankings.

The other biggest reason to use Google My Business is to manage your customer reviews. Trust is a huge reason homeowners will pick one solar installer over another, and a good way to build that trust is through customer reviews.

Reviews are easiest to get when your customer is at their happiest point – often when the install is complete. Include a link to leave a review for your Google Business page in emails to your customer when you let them know the install is complete or when you send them the final invoice. For a low-tech version of this, ask your installers to mention it to the homeowner when they wrap up on site.

It might be uncomfortable to do this at first, but you’ll soon find people are usually quite agreeable when they’re asked!

Read more in this series

Running a solar installation business isn’t easy. We’ve written a marketing guide to accompany our solar design and CRM software. Check out our other topics:

• Sell more solar: Use value selling to get more customers
• Setting up marketing for Solar businesses