Setting up marketing for Solar businesses
When it comes to marketing trade businesses, there’s some tried and tested classics like putting your phone number on your work vehicles, the old magnet in the letterbox, and everyone’s favourite: putting an ad in the local newspaper.
While these still stand up as methods to get your name out there, the way your customers find you has evolved.
We’ll break this into free and paid marketing, so you can be sure to tick off the essentials and then choose which extras make the most sense for you.
First off, a bit of vocabulary that can be confusing when you’re not from a marketing background. A “channel” is the method that you deliver your marketing through. Newspaper ads are “print”, your car decals are “out of home”, and online or digital has many channels such as email, SEO, and Facebook. Digital channels can be further broken down into “paid” and “organic”, i.e. free or paid.
Organic marketing channels for solar businesses
1. Social media
It’s easy to set up social media accounts across Facebook, Instagram, or even TikTok, and then feel overwhelmed by needing to update them.
Instead of using them as social media, try thinking about them as free websites. You can set them up to have all your information that doesn’t change, and then let them stay that way.
Include the basics:
- Your services (and prices if you put that out there publicly)
- How to contact you
- Sample pictures of your work
- Customer reviews
You don’t need to do too much more than that. If you don’t have the time to be constantly updating a Facebook page, just don’t worry about it!
2. Google My Business and Google Maps
A lot of customers find tradespeople through searching for “solar installer near me” (or replace solar installer with any other trade), so it’s really important you have your Google Maps listing completed and accurate to your current information.
We gave some tips on how to stand out using Google My Business, and it all boils down to:
- Make sure you claim ownership over your listing
- Make sure your listing is completed and up to date
- Post pictures when you set it up, a few completed jobs are more than enough
3. Organic SEO
There’s two types of SEO. The first is content, like blogs, and the second is technical, as in the way your website or social media accounts are set up.
Some homeowners will be interested in self-educating themselves about home solar power systems, and will do this through reading blogs. If you have the capacity for it, content strategies can work great to set you apart, attract more customers, and position you as an industry leader.
Content can be a very time consuming strategy if you’re the one writing it, or it can be expensive if you’re outsourcing it. It’s also a long-term strategy that you might not see results from straight away, but if done right it will continue to bring you results for a long time at no extra cost. These are just a few things you need to weigh up before deciding to use content as a marketing strategy.
As for technical SEO, you might need to get some help with this. Depending on what your website is built with, there will be different ways to manage your technical SEO. The easiest thing to check which you can do yourself is the “meta” tags:
- Meta title
- Meta description
- Keywords
Some website systems, like WordPress, have really easy ways to manage these.
Some good keywords to use for a solar installation business are:
- “Solar installation” (obviously)
- The suburbs or regions you service
- The name of rebates that might be available to your customers
4. Google Analytics
If you have a website, then you should set up Google Analytics. It’s really more of a “turn on” than “set up” as it’s really quick and easy to do.
Once you’ve got it, you don’t need to worry too much about it for a simple marketing setup. Check it once a month for basic numbers like:
- How many people are visiting your site
- Where they’re coming from
- How they’re finding you
This will give you an indicator of which areas of marketing you can invest more into, and which ones you can reduce focus on.
5. PR and the news
This one isn’t so much about you getting press coverage about your business, but keeping up with the news cycle so you can see when solar as a topic is gaining attention.
During this time, if you act quickly enough (through boosting your existing marketing for a limited time, either increasing paid budgets or simply posting more frequently in free channels), you can capture more leads who are becoming active as a reaction to the news.
You can use Google Alerts to send you news stories when they’re spiking without any extra effort on your part!
Paid marketing channels for solar businesses
Paid is exactly what it sounds like. You’ll need to put a budget together and decide how much you’re willing to spend (and how much you’re willing to lose before trying something else!)
If you’ve never used paid channels, or your experience is limited to putting ads in the local paper, here’s a few things to know:
- It’s better to spend a little bit at a time over a long period than spend a lot in a short period
- This can be the opposite for sales or promotional periods!
- Try lots of different channels to see what works
- Double down on the channels that are bringing you customers, and cut off the ones that aren’t
- You need to track where your sales are coming from, otherwise you won’t know which channel to cut or double down on (Google Analytics will help with this)
So let’s dive into it.
1. Google
Google has Search Engine Marketing (SEM, your basic Google Search ads), display ads (banner ads on other people’s websites), and video ads on YouTube. The first two are also known as Pay Per Click (PPC), because you only pay if someone actually clicks on them. For YouTube, you will pay every time it is shown to someone, whether they click it or not.
2. Meta (Facebook and Instagram)
There’s lots of different ads types to choose from, including videos, single images, carousels of images, and stories.
Meta is great for lifestyle products, and would be worth testing out. The good news is you don’t need to keep an active profile on them for the ads to be delivered. Like YouTube, you’ll pay for these based on how many people have viewed them.
3. Three quote style services
Paying for a lead service where homeowners can request quotes from service providers can be a good way to easily get new customers. You’ll have less control and ownership over this type of service, so make sure you’re doing more than just waiting for customers to fall in your lap.
4. Print, Out of Home, and events
These can be great for targeting a specific location, because people see the ads based on where they physically are, and not what they’re looking at on their phones. These channels are usually where you can negotiate a fixed price, because you’ll work with a human to organise them, rather than setting them up online.
Depending on your budget, this channel could include:
- Printed flyers you leave at local cafes, real estate agents’ offices, and so on
- Car decals with your business information on it
- Expos, conferences, or smaller events aimed at homeowners
5. Sponsorships and partnerships
If you’re operating a larger solar installation business where you can service a bigger area, partnering with a local influencer or brand might bring you some decent sales. Think a little outside the box:
- A local hardware store where people pick up supplies for DIYs
- A DIY or home improvement influencer
- Businesses related to home ownership like real estate agents or mortgage brokers
Partnerships can take some time to cultivate, but when you get them up and running they can be long-term, reliable marketing channels.
Keep your marketing sustainable
Marketing can quickly become overwhelming if you bite off more than you can chew. Definitely work through the essentials like Google My Business, and then try a few things out and see what works for you.
Read more in our series on marketing for solar businesses: