Most Solar Panel Installation companies are already using cold marketing, such as door knocking, cold calling and leaflet drops etc. However many Solar Panel Installation companies are failing when it comes to online marketing.
We’ll cover the top 7 reasons many companies (including probably yours and your competitors) are losing out. So get each of these mistakes sorted and beat your competition.
Table of Contents
Losing 95% of your website visitors
Generally at most, 5% of website visitors convert into customers on the first visit.
The problem is most people who visit your website will forget about it and never return again.
Using ‘retargeting’ which is also known as ‘remarketing’ you can track each and every visitor to your website and show them ads.
So this is how it works. Visitor comes to your website, your website tracks that user’s web browser, whenever that user visits Facebook or 100 other websites, that user will now see ads for your website. This reminds them about your website. It keeps you top of mind. You can give them special offers, or useful information and bring them back.
Now instead of getting at most 5% of visitors converting you can double that number. Imagine getting double the amount of website visitors converting into customers and how much of a difference that will make.
Setup Time : 8+ Hours
Maintenance Time : Some on-going monthly management
Failing to secure profitable advertising
There are many forms of pay per click advertising but one of the most common is when someone types in “solar panels” or “buy solar panels” etc into Google, they could see an ad for your solar installation company.
You can also advertise on social media and on 1000’s of other sites around the internet.
Without using pay per click advertising you’re losing out on hundreds of visitors and possibly dozens of leads each month.
Setup Time : 20+ hours
Maintenance: On-going monthly management
Customers can't find you via Google search
Someone in your area searches for ‘buy solar panels online’ and you don’t come up in Google. Why is that and how many customers area you losing?
The best way to convince Google to rank you highly for online searches, is to have a ‘Content Silo’ added to your website.
Content Silos increase your Google rankings and reduce the amount of money you need to spend on SEO in order to rank higher.
For example someone searches for ‘buy solar panels online’ and you have a content silo setup for that, you’ll most likely beat all your competitors.
Without a content silo it’s going to be much harder to rank higher in Google than your competitors.
Setup Time : 8+ Hours
Maintenance Time : Adding new content each month. A few hours to several hours each month to write or record content for your website.
Having less positive reviews than your competitors
How many 5 star reviews do you have compared to your competitors? Do you have lots of reviews on your Google Business page, your Facebook Business page? What about Yelp and Trust Pilot?
People (at least 88% of them ) read reviews before they make a decision to purchase anything. It’s the pivotal step of the modern customer journey, and without a positive online reputation, people just won’t trust you enough to buy from you.
Businesses can live and die by online reviews. Not asking for positive reviews from happy clients is costing you in converted leads.
Setup Time : 8+ Hours
Maintenance : Asking clients for reviews or having and automated system send out emails to them.
No attracting leads via simple quizzes
Harvard researchers found that thinking or talking about ourselves releases endorphins in our brains, triggering positive emotional feelings.
The average human attention span is now less that of a gold fish (8 second). Quizzes allow people to quickly get personalized feedback, creating a positive reward system for their investment of time.
By setting up a quiz we can answer customers questions about solar, plus give them personalised feedback based on their questions and answers. We can also capture their details and then contact them as an already warmed up lead who trusts us based on the fact we’ve answered their questions.
Setup Time : A few hours
Maintenance : Very little monthly management
Failing to answer customers queries instantly
Chatbots are like 24/7 sales people who capture your website visitors by answering their questions and getting their contacts details so one of your sales staff can follow up with more in depth information.
Chatbots are programmed to talk to visitors as if the Chatbot was a real person. If the Chatbot gets any questions they’re not sure of, they ask for the persons contact info so they can get back to them with that information.
Not using Chatbots is essentially like not hiring an extra sales staff member who doesn’t require a salary at all.
Setup Time : A few hours
Maintenance Time : Some on-going monthly management
Not knowing what advertising is working
A famous quote on marketing I love is “Half the money I spend on marketing is a waste. The problem is, I don’t know which half.”
“Key Performance Indicators” or KPIs track the most important information about your business, beyond just ‘revenue’ and ‘expenses’.
Some examples of KPIs would be
- Number of visitors to your site
- Number of visitors that convert to leads
- Number of leads that convert to solar installers
- Average revenue per solar install
If you track, and work on increasing, each of those KPIs then your business will grow, as will your standard of living.
Two easy ways to setup analytics would be
- https://www.indicative.com/
- https://oribi.io/
The two ‘easy to setup’ analytics options above cost a monthly fee, however there is a free option called Google Analytics. The problem with Google Analytics is it’s so powerful it’s too complicated for many businesses requirements.
By not tracking KPIs certainly you’re losing money in multiple ways. Spending too much on advertising or not enough, or spending money on the wrong kinds, or not realising a big problem is happening with your online marketing before it’s too late.
Setup Time : A few hours
Maintenance Time : Some on-going monthly management
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