Solar and Roofing Leads: How to Get More Customers
Things are even more difficult in the solar industry. While the increasing affordability of solar has been great for installers, vendors, and customers, it’s also meant that everyone is trying to get in on the game.
As a result, solar leads across the country have been bombarded with more marketing than they’re interested in hearing — making them less responsive to traditional methods like door knocking, television advertising, and telemarketing.
So, how are you supposed to find solar and roofing leads in 2022? What’s the trick to reliable, long-term lead generation?
In practice, there are a few things you can do to make sure you’re still getting more customers than the competition. And we’ll walk you through these methods right here!
Unique Approach To Qualified Leads
As in most marketing and sales efforts, the key to getting more roofing and solar appointments is messaging.
What this means is that you need to find a way to stand out from the competition. Chances are that there are plenty of other roofers or solar companies in your area — and they’re looking to cater to the same homeowners that your company is after.
You can do this by finding a single key differentiation; for many roofing companies, this is actually offering solar. Or, on the other hand, you could try multiple small ones — like storm damage services, a wider range of products, being family-owned or local, etc.
Generally, streamlining this into one or two crucial ways in which your company differs from the rest is ideal. That way, you’ll be able to clearly articulate this in your lead generation and marketing efforts.
And it’s not just about getting any kind of contractor leads either — many roofers and solar installers run into the problem of low-quality leads. You may think your marketing is killing it, as you keep getting a bunch of leads consistently.
However, once you actually meet with them, it turns out that the homeowners aren’t really looking for the specific services that you provide. If most leads are turning out to be dead ends, you need to qualify them better.
A great way to do this is to ensure your exact services are clearly stated on your website. Also, a submission form that includes certain qualifiers is always a good idea. For instance, you could have potential customers fill out their location, home size, and budget — and give them a way to explicitly state the services they need.
That way, you’ll waste a lot less time on leads that don’t end up panning out — while spending more energy on those that are worth your time and energy.
List Your Company On Directories
These days, most people find all the products and services they need online. And that’s why you need to ensure that they can easily come across your business while searching for “roofers near me” or “best solar companies in ____”.
Of course, this is tough — the competition for the first Google results page is enormous, and being on the second one practically means you don’t exist. So, you need to ensure Google “likes” you. And its search algorithm generally favors websites with tons of traffic and continuous posting of relevant content.
Among other things, this means listing your company on the right directories. Here are some examples:
Customers also trust industry associations as sources of information — so being listed in their directories is important as well.
Build A Social Media Presence
Regardless of how much time you prefer spending on social media personally — you’ll need to harness the full power of these platforms to get more customers as a roofing or solar business.
Social media has become so ubiquitous that people instinctively distrust companies without a rudimentary presence at the very least. Among the sea of reputable companies that maintain active business accounts on various social media platforms, your business will seem sketchy in comparison.
And if you’re unsure of where to start when it comes to social media, Instagram is probably a good place. It’s become the go-to place for companies that are trying to engage with their leads on a more personal and — more importantly — visual level.
When people can actually see the results of your work, they will instantly perceive you as a more trustworthy company. So, post as much content as you can to attract followers through Instagram’s algorithm — start with once a week at first, and gradually ramp up the pace to about three times per week.
Here are some content ideas for Instagram and other social networks that focus on visual content:
- Videos and photos of in-progress projects;
- Before and after videos and photos;
- Company event photos;
- Visual testimonials;
- Roofing and solar memes and graphics;
Incentivizing Referrals
As with any other client-based business, your existing customers are your most powerful engine for lead generation. Even in the age of the Internet, word-of-mouth is a tremendously effective avenue for new leads. And referral-based prospects are generally better informed, more inclined to trust you, and more ready to convert compared to most other leads.
Remember, they’ve learned a lot of positive stuff about your company before you’ve even made contact — so they’re already inclined to make a purchase. And that’s important when it comes to expensive investments like solar panels or services like roofing.
Luckily, existing happy clients are typically quite motivated to refer — especially if you throw in even the smallest incentive for them to do so. Even with all the government rebates and various financing options, going solar is still a sizable investment for the average homeowner. So, they’ll try to knock off a bit of that price any way they can.
If you make a few referrals worth their while, you’ll quickly make that money back and then some. Cash rewards and discounts are excellent motivators, and you can make them even more enticing through tiered rewards for multiple leads.
Use Google Ads
One of the best ways to reach highly qualified leads that are practically ready to purchase is to run targeted online ads, specifically designed to reach them.
One of the best methods of doing this is by running Google Ads, which allow you to target the right people with the following methods:
- In-market targeting — allowing you to show your ads to people that have already been searching for similar or identical products and services;
- Remarketing — targeting people that have already had interactions with your website or ads in the past;
- Keyword targeting — allowing you to reach users that are specifically searching for relevant phrases or keywords on Google;
- Placement — showing your ads on the exact websites that your prospects are routinely visiting (such as solar company directories).
Buying Solar And Roofing Leads
Bear in mind that all of the strategies we’ve mentioned above take time and money. And a small installer or roofer can’t afford to spend as much on online marketing and original content as a bigger competitor can.
These days, even the biggest solar installation companies don’t get most of their leads from their own inbound marketing efforts. Instead, they simply buy solar leads from other companies that specifically focus on solar lead generation.
Mind you, this doesn’t mean you should forgo every effort to generate some leads on your own. You just need to realize that even if you start today, it will take you literally years of publishing original content on your blog and social media to start ranking higher on Google organically.
And while having a clean, functional website will definitely help you convert prospective leads — you still need a way of generating those leads in the shorter term as well. You can and should invest in long-term lead generation strategies, but only while recognizing that a huge chunk of your contractor appointments will always come from buying solar and roofing leads from others.
If you’re interested in quickly scaling your business with highly-qualified leads you won’t find anywhere else — contact us today and we’ll help you grow your solar or roofing company.
