Ready To Get Real Time Qualified Solar Leads? Get Started
Everybody knows that having good leads is the lifeblood of any solar company. Knocking on doors and relying on referrals has its place in getting qualified solar leads.
Did you know - Only around 2% of all door-to-door sales knocks will generate a conversion
However, the bulk of solar installs come from leads generated online. There are really only two options with online leads. One is creating them yourself with an in-house lead program. The other is to purchase solar leads from a reputable leadgen agency.
If you choose to purchase leads, having an organized lead generation strategy is important for today's solar company.
First, you need to answer the question-should you create an in-house lead generation program, or does buying solar leads from a leadgen agency give you a better ROI.
Things have changed considerably in the last 13 years since Facebook started allowing advertisements on their platform. Consumers are much savvier and online advertising technology has become considerably more complex. Today’s consumers have many more options to research than they did just a decade ago and they are much warier of advertising techniques.
Programs that used to work well a short while ago, are now not so effective. Online marketing is a constantly changing landscape.
When you find a homeowner who has been looking into getting solar on their house, you can be assured that they already have seen at least a dozen of your competitors. These homeowners are much more likely to do extensive research before they decide on which solar company to use. This is exactly what presents you with the ideal situation for generating your own leads.
If you create your own web property with a strong lead funnel and landing page, and then strategically drive interested homeowners to it. You can become one of the resources homeowners discover in their online searching.
In the marketing industry, this is called organic lead generation and represents the most effective and least expensive option for companies wanting to generate their own leads.
Success in this type of marketing takes two things: 1. an extensive network of Google savvy web properties with updated, helpful solar content. 2: A method to capture the interest of pertinent homeowners and drive them to your web properties.
This type of inbound marketing is actually the least expensive form of lead generation. In fact, it is the cheapest way to get a high ROI. If your inbound marketing is up to par, you will see an average of 54% more leads than traditional paid marketing and saves businesses $20,000 on average per year compared to paid marketing. This is because most inbound marketing strategies are low-cost and yield a lot of leads.
The second way to get quality leads is through paid advertising primarily through Google products.
The challenge with this marketing approach is It hard to start and is hard to maintain because web advertising is a rapidly moving target. It takes a lot of effort to persuade Google to send visitors your direction. The learning curve is steep, and it can take a long time before this approach starts paying dividends. In the beginning, it is expensive - especially at the start and it needs to be maintained consistently.
If you can pull this off, the leads will be high-converting and the lead flow consistent.
Most solar companies do not have this skill set onboard and would need to build an extensive program from the ground up. Even some of the nation's largest solar companies purchased leads from leadgen agencies who are dedicated to this task.
However, some of the largest solar companies in the states and around the world have their own in-house marketing agency dedicated to the production of high-quality leads.
If you go this route, you need to be ready to make a significant investment and to be patient.
The other option to getting leads in-house is to purchase them from leadgen agencies. This route is fraught with potholes and bad actors but most leads in the solar industry are produced this way. If you are going to purchase leads from an outside agency, it's a good idea to have an effective, well-thought-out purchase strategy.
Here are a few things that you should have on that list to save yourself the frustration of getting leads that don't convert or that have been sold to three or four of your competitors.
SOMETIMES CHEAPER IS MORE EXPENSIVE
Don't be shy about a higher cost per lead (CPL) if those leads convert at a higher rate. When measuring the cost of leads, you need to compare the cost per sale instead of just the cost per lead. Important: The most expensive lead is the one that never converts.
LEAD DELIVERY
Choose a leadgen company that can provide you with solar leads that your call center or sales reps can easily accept. Depending on the size of your sales team and whether you have an in-house call center, the actual delivery of the leads can be a big factor.
VARIOUS LEAD FORMATS
Retainer agency, Pay-Per-Lead, Pay-Per-Sale, Aged Leads, Home Advisor Lead are just a few types of solar leads and they each come with their own… personality.
Retainer Model
The industry started out with retainer models when Facebook started selling ad space 13 years ago. Retainer agencies work for you for a set price per month (e.g. $2k - $3k/month) and you get whatever leads they produced. Solar companies take on all the risk and are obligated to pay the retainer even if the leads are non-existent or garbage. There are still plenty of retainer agencies around that usually work for smaller solar companies.
Pay-Per-Lead Model
Currently, PPL is the most popular model in solar leadgen - especially for the larger solar companies who need 100+ leads per week. With PPL, you order and pay for the leads you need and they are delivered over the next week or so. If this is a good idea depends on your volume whether there is adspend required.
Aged Leads
There are “aged leads” around and they are usually very inexpensive but also very low converting. It’s not unusual to only be able to talk to 1 out of 100 of these leads. They have probably been called several times. And these leads can be dangerous. Aged Leads lists have been known to be seeded with“do not call” telephone numbers by unscrupulous lawyers waiting to sue.
Pay-Per-Sale
These programs are becoming increasingly popular. With PPS leads, you only pay for the leads that close, but you are required to pay the adspend. These leads are popular with the smaller solar companies with 10 or so reps.
Exclusive And Qualified
Leads that you purchase should be exclusive to you and need to have been through some sort of qualification process. The most common qualification process is a quiz or survey with multiple data points that the homeowner completes. These data points include things like homeownership, roof shade, credit score, and other things that can give you a picture of what you are heading into when you call them.
Finally, find out how quickly is the lead will be delivered to your appointment setters.
Studies have shown that calling a lead within the first five minutes after they finished the survey has a conversion rate 21 times higher than if you call after 30 minutes have passed. Having the lead automatically delivered to your appointment setters so that they can immediately get on the phone with the homeowner is critical. Five minutes is the key.
EXPERIENCED LEADGEN
Choosing a vendor with experience in solar is another important item to have on your checklist. As you know, solar has its own challenges and requirements. Unlike leads for insurance, legal services, or automobiles, minimum requirements and technical knowledge are required for solar.
Using an agency that is dedicated to solar can save you headaches and money.
Facebook Is No Longer Number One
Find out the source of the leads from your vendor. Just a couple of years ago, Facebook was the number one source for solar leads with high ROI and a low cost per acquisition. Since Facebook has made changes to their ad manager and their tracking that is no longer the case. Now solar companies and small businesses are getting better quality leads and seeing higher ROI when using other platforms such as YouTube. Leads generated through YouTube or Google also have a higher buying intent because they are actively searching and learning about solar panels.
Here at LeadsForSolar. we would be happy to help you with your need for solar leads. We are a major lead supplier with customers in the United States and Australia. We produce exclusively solar leads (obvious from our name) and currently generate thousands of leads per week.
Kevin Corrigan LinkedIn Profile LeadsForSolar.com (863) 354-1637
