Lead Generation

for Solar Projects

Best practices & tips
Content
1. Introduction

2. Online channels

3. Offline channels

4. Buying leads

5. Summary

Created by -

FUZEN.io
Connected
Business
Solutions
 1. Introduction
Decades of fossil fuel burning has resulted in global warming. People are now coming to terms with

solar energy being the solution for the climate change problem. A survey done by World Economic

Forum (WEF) noted that solar PV power is now even more cost effective than conventional fossil

fueled energy.

Many entrepreneurs have entered the

residential rooftop solar business where
Correspondingly, solar EPC market has risks and capital requirements are lower

been rapidly growing. The global Solar

EPC market has exceeded USD 130 billion

in 2018 and is expected to surpass an

annual installation of 100GW by 2025.

But that has resulted

in high competition
The growing Solar EPC industry has

attracted many companies and

entrepreneurs. Lower barriers to entry in

the rooftop solar market has given way

to intense competition. As a result, the

market economics has put a lot of Profit margins decline in a

highly competitive market
pressure on the profit margins of these

solar installers.

Everything else being the same,...

... businesses need to differentiate

themselves with lower cost of
marketing and operations to win
over the competition

As a solar entrepreneur what do you do for early lead

generation in a competitive landscape?

Let’s look at different lead gen channels, their pros & cons.
2. Online Channels
For many strong reasons, online marketing proves to be very cost effective compared to other

traditional lead generation channels. As a residential solar installer you can count on following

channels to keep on providing you leads at very low cost –

1. Business Directories

2. Email Marketing

3. Social Media

4. Online Ads

5. Educational Content

6. Search Engine Optimization

(SEO)

These online marketing channels provide a lot of variety in terms of required budget, lead generation

costs, target audience (individuals or businesses?) and scalability.

Next, let's look at - lead gen costs, suitable audience,

scalability and sustainability of these channels.

Depending on the maturity, scale and nature of your

business, you can then identify the most suitable channels.
2.1 Business Directories

Most of your lead generation is going to come from Google searches. Once someone decides to have

a solar PV installation on their roof, first thing they will do is a Google search for solar installers in their

area. That’s why it is very important that you get seen in the search results.

Update your business details on all important business directories including your local listings, Google

Maps and Google My Business. Once you update those details, they become more visible and

accessible to anyone who is looking for your products and services.

Important listings

1. Google Maps

2. Google My Business

3. Other local directories

such as - Indiamart,

JustDial, Craigslist etc.

Referrals and testimonials will help you get seen in certain business networks. But to get more visibility,

it is absolutely necessary to have a rich presence on Google search and maps.

This is quite important for targeting small businesses and even residential property owners, who might

not be on your radar otherwise. Whenever they decide to go for a solar PV installation, they are going

to start with a Google search.

Make sure that you have updated your profile on these

platforms with accurate contact details, photos of your
projects, photos of your office, team, complete address
and testimonials from customers.
2.2 Email Marketing

Many solar installers (specially the

smaller businesses) don't utilize the

power of email marketing. But it can Is Email Marketing

be a very powerful and cost effective
useful for your solar EPC business?
lead generation channel when used

correctly.

B2B - Cold Email Automation

Target businesses with a sequence of

cold emails. Don’t cram everything into

Industrial Residential /
one single email. A series of emails
Rooftop Commercial
talking about different things. Keep Projects Rooftop

each email under 10 lines. Almost no

one reads lengthy, article like emails.

Keep them simple, most people would

B2B approach
just spend a few seconds looking at
Create mailing lists of
your email. They should get the gist of
local businesses
it, at the first glance. Send a series of cold
emails
Educate about value of
Measure engagement, follow up with
solar PV for their specific
interested people to book meetings. business
B2C approach
Ask website visitors to
sign up for newsletters
Send monthly, bi-weekly
newsletters with to
educate consumers
Generic educational
content about solar PV

B2C - Marketing Newsletters

On the other hand, if you are going after Get RFQs Build a following

residential rooftop installation projects,

you are targeting the house owners and building societies. These are smaller projects compared

to the industrial rooftop installations. So your approach needs to be more of B2C marketing and

newsletters are known to be quite effective for B2C marketing.

You should ask your website visitors to sign up for your newsletters. You can give them incentive

that they can expect discounts, offers, technical articles, updates about new products etc. in

your newsletters.

Depending on your target audience, use different kind of

emails to establish a connection. Over time, this can
become the least expensive lead generation channel.
2.3 Social Media

Facebook - well suited for residential rooftop installers

Facebook is a good channel for promoting the content that you have already generated – blog posts,

infographics, videos, interviews etc. But, you can go one step further and share content from other

people as well, as long as they are not competitors operating in your own area. This will help you in

building a following of people genuinely interested in solar PV energy.

LinkedIn - better suited for commercial / industrial projects

Regularly post updates of your projects, customer testimonials and announcements, from your company

page. Use the company page to interact with local businesses. Remember you are building a

relationship between your business brand and the prospects.

Cold Messages & In-mail

Similar to cold emails, you can use

social media platforms to actively

reach out to your target

audience in your market

or area. There are certain

automation tools available which can help in effortlessly scaling up this type of cold outreach. On the

other hand you can also use the premium 'in-mail' option on LinkedIn.

Other platforms - Youtube, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter

Other social media platforms can be used depending on whether or not your target audience is

present on those platforms.

Social media platforms will need some initial investments

to get early traction. But in the long run they can provide
you a sustainable stream of leads.
2.4 Online Ads

Google Ads

Target search keywords

Target people in your area

Get warm leads who are already

searching for a solar PV solution
Use remarketing ads to increase

conversion

Facebook Ads

Target people based on their interest

Target people in specific areas

Better, more focused demographic

targeting

Use remarketing ads to increase

conversion by targeting your website

or page visitors more vigorously

LinkedIn Ads

Better suited for B2B lead generation

Reach out specifically to decision makers and influencers in target companies

More expensive compared to Facebook, Google Search Ads

Paid ads on Google, Facebook and LinkedIn are very useful

in the early days of a business. Since other channels like SEO
or content marketing take a long time for results to show up.
2.5 Educational Content

Use educational content such as informational videos, blog posts, infographics etc. to establish your

authority and expertise about solar PV projects, build trust with your audience and give them a reason

to interact with you online till they are ready to buy.

Videos & Case Studies

Interview your happy customers. Ask them about their experience / feedback. Share these video

interviews on social media and tag your customers, so that you can also reach people in their

network. They will be the best prospective customers for you.

Analyze the local rules and regulations about renewable energy on video. For example, if you make

a video about the local Government’s net metering policy and associated pros and cons, you can

reach many people who are interested in the subject.

DIY (Do It Yourself) videos of how how to install a PV panel or how to clean it up are also going to

be interesting for your prospective customers. Even if they install or clean a panel by themselves,

they will still come to you for buying those panels

Educational content will help you a long way to -

Establish your expertise
Increase online followers
Build trust with the audience
2.5 Search Engine Optimization

When you set up a new website for your business, initially it doesn’t show up in the Google search

results. As time passes, the visibility improves, but it still gets shown at the bottom of the search results

pages.

The reason for this is low domain

authority score. The only way to improve

your domain authority score is with

Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The

best and most widely used method for

SEO, is writing a ton of content – blogs,

case studies, whitepapers etc. on your

website.

For your localized residential solar lead

generation, first analyze what keywords

you want to target for SEO.

Then ask your sales and marketing team to start writing blogs about those keywords. Over a period of

time (4-6 months) you will see improvement in your standings in the search results.

OR you can hire interns, freelancers for writing the content. You can hire freelance content writers

from fiverr or upwork.

SEO is potentially the least expensive online lead generation

channel in the long run. But early on, it needs significant
efforts and patience.
3. Offline Channels
These days a lot of the communication happens online, even in local communities. For example,

instead of community or society meetings, people rely more and more on WhatsApp or Facebook

groups. That’s why the effectiveness of offline channels is very limited for solar lead generation. But

still, here are a couple of things that you can consider doing.

For B2B Leads

Referrals from existing customers is the best

way to get new leads which will convert.

Trade shows and conferences are great

places to meet and interact with business

owners, decision makers from your target

industry.

Tie up with other contractors in your area

who provide complimentary services like –

construction, waterproofing, electrical works

etc.

For B2C Leads

Print flyers an distribute them in

your local neighborhoods to let them

know of your new business. It’s an

inexpensive way to get attention in

the initial days, when Google searches

are unlikely to give you any exposure.

If you have a bigger marketing

budget, then you can make a bigger

announcement with ads in the local

newspaper.

Despite the heavy focus on online marketing channels

these days, some offline channels can also be helpful -
specially in the early days when online content marketing
needs more time to materialize.
4. Buying Leads
Solar lead generation does not happen instantaneously. It takes considerable time, especially in the

beginning when online marketing channels are still premature. In such cases you can consider directly

buying leads from a 3rd party seller.

Solar Lead Sellers

Here are a few sellers of solar leads.

Solar Reviews - https://www.solarreviews.com/

Modernize Home Services - https://modernize.com/pros/solar-leads

RGR Marketing - https://www.rgrmarketing.com/buy-solar-leads/

You can also find many other solar leads

sellers in your area / country. But the

quality of these leads can be

questionable since we never know how

many of those leads are going to be

genuine before making the first call.

Often there is also a risk of these leads

being outdated and hence useless.

Therefore it is recommended that you

request for some kind of random sample

or trial before making the purchase.

Buying leads can be a useful alternative in the early days of

a business when your marketing channels haven't been
streamlined.

But caution is advised when buying from unknown seller.

5. Summary
In the highly competitive solar installation market, costs of lead generation and customer acquisition

can be the difference between success or failure. High sales & marketing costs will end up eating into

your profit margin, hurting the overall viability and competitive edge of your business.

Therefore it is very important to carefully consider all available lead generation channels and then

decide a marketing strategy for most efficient lead generation in the long term. Sometimes it may

mean increased expenses and investments in the short term. But we hope this e-book has presented

you an objective overview of all available lead generation channels to help you wisely decide a

strategy.

Efficient lead generation is the first part.

Your sales process can be further optimized with efficient management of leads using a CRM

software. At fuzen.io, we have developed a CRM solution dedicated to solar project sales. It is a
100% customizable, lightweight CRM developed within Google Drive.

You can preview and take a free trial from here - https://www.fuzen.io/solar-crm/

That said, all the very best for your solar business !!

We hope this ebook has presented you an objective

overview of all available lead generation channels to help
you wisely decide a strategy.

Wish you all the best!