How to Generate Leads for Solar Sales
Published on May 18, 2023by Botster
Have you tried everything under the sun to boost your solar panel sales but they still won’t boost? General recommendations like “SEO-optimize your site” and “be active on social networks” are too general (which I hate)! As opposed to that, today I’ll give you some easy-to-follow practical tips on how to generate solar leads online.
Read this step-by-step guide and learn:
- How to generate residential solar leads
- How to generate commercial solar leads
- Which automation tools can help you speed up these tasks
So, you're a marketer for a solar installation business aiming to generate leads. Or an owner of this business. Bookmark this article and follow the solar lead generator campaign outlined below - this way your solar panels are guaranteed to get a place in the sun!
How to generate residential solar leads
Solar panels are becoming increasingly popular with homeowners. Yet how do you know who actually needs them and who doesn’t? And - which is even more important - how can you find them and make them want to buy your product? 🤔
My experience shows that people who need solar panels do the following:
- Search for them on Google;
- Read blogs about solar panels;
- Order the panels in different online shops including Amazon.
So let’s begin with targeting these client groups to get qualified solar leads; and then we’ll move on from residential to commercial use.
Getting solar homeowner leads with Google Ads
Are you annoyed by Google’s targeted ads? Don’t be! Use it to your advantage. Let people who have searched for solar panels on Google see your ads.
To maximize the chances of your ads being shown to your potential solar panel leads (i.e. people), you need to create proper ad texts. Get some inspiration to write high-quality ad texts by analyzing those of your competitors!
Here is where our first automation tool comes into play. To export your competitors’ currently running paid adverts from the first page of Google Search, use the Google Ads Extractor. Launching this solar lead generation script is super easy: all you need to do is enter your keywords (e.g. solar panels) and specify your location (the sunny Florida is a fine example!).
Before you start using this solar leads generator, you’ll need to create a free account on Botster (no credit card is required):
Now that you’ve got a Botster account, follow these simple steps:
- Open the Google Ads Extractor’s start page:
- Name your job (e.g. ‘Residential Solar Lead Generation Campaign’):
- Enter your keywords relating to solar panels.
⚠️ Each query must go on a new line:
- Select your location on the map:
- Select the language that your competitors’ solar panel ads should be written in:
- Specify the target device (desktop or mobile):
- Select the operating system (Windows or MacOS):
- Select how you’d like the bot to notify you once the job is done:
- …and start the bot!
Video tutorial on how to get leads for solar companies
Watch me demonstrate how to get solar leads online using the Google Ads Extractor:
Results
The Google Ads Extractor has exported the following paid solar panel ads currently running in Florida:
Using this bot is probably the best way to get solar leads by analyzing your competitors' ads!
Tips for solar energy lead generation
To get high-quality solar leads, do the following:
- Read your competitors’ ads and analyze them carefully.
- Imagine that you are a customer who needs to install solar panels. Which of these ads would most likely inspire you to make a phone call?
- Write your own advertising texts based on 2-3 best examples provided by your competitors.
- Your ads must contain the users’ search keywords related to solar panels. Use Botster as a cheaper alternative to Ahrefs to extract tons of relevant keywords automatically.
Getting leads for residential solar panels by blogging
Now that you’ve launched your Google Ads, it’s time to start a blog. This is a perfect way to attract organic solar leads from customers searching for answers to their questions around solar panels. You are an expert in this topic, and you can (and should!) provide all answers to your clients’ questions on your blog!
I have plenty of bots that can be useful for blogging but when it comes to scraping users’ questions, there is no better alternative than the Google People Also Ask and Related Searches Exporter. This powerful solar lead machine exports phrases from Google’s People Also Ask and Related Searches blocks that are invaluable sources of blog post ideas.
Here is what I mean:
and
Here is a short guide on how to use the Google People Also Ask and Related Searches Exporter:
- Open the Google People Also Ask and Suggested Searches Exporter’s start page.
- Enter your keywords.
⚠️ Each keyword must go on a new line:
- Select the Google blocks to scrape:
- Specify the operating system.
The available options include Windows and MacOS:
- Select the target device - desktop or mobile:
- Specify the language:
- Select your location:
- Launch the bot.
Video tutorial
Watch me show how to launch this tool in real time:
Results
The Google People Also Ask and Related Searches Exporter has retrieved the following questions from the People Also Ask block:
…and the following keywords from the Related Searches block:
Tips
To get the best solar leads for your blog using the extracted keywords, do the following:
- Turn the People Also Ask blocks into your blog topics and answer them in an expert manner.
- Use keywords from the Related Searches blocks when writing your blog posts.
- Use one of my sales lead generation techniques to find out which of the exported questions and keywords are the most frequent ones (and, hence, have the highest solar panel lead generation potential).
Getting home solar leads on Amazon
On Amazon, you can buy virtually anything, including solar panels! This huge online shop is not only your competitor but also a source of valuable information for solar leads generation, including product names, descriptions, prices, ratings and many more.
The tool that is capable of exporting this valuable information is called the Amazon Search Extractor. It will extract a list of solar panels (or any other products) available on Amazon based on your search keywords, which makes it the best solar lead generation script for Amazon.
Here is a comprehensive guide on how to use this bot:
- Open the Amazon Search Extractor’s start page.
- Enter your keywords:
- Select your location.
This bot works with countries only, so let’s enter United States instead of Florida:
- Specify your language:
- Start the bot.
Video tutorial
I’ve also prepared a short video walkthrough that will help you understand how to find solar leads online using the Amazon Search Extractor:
Results
The Amazon Search Extractor has retrieved the following details:
The full list of the retrieved data includes:
- Product title
- Product URL
- Price
- Currency
- ASIN
- Rating value
- Votes count
- Bestseller? (true / false)
- Amazon choice? (true / false)
- Rank in product group
- Absolute rank
Tips
Here are some ideas on how to get solar sales leads using this data:
- Check your competitors’ solar panel prices in the like-named column. Are your prices competitive enough?
- If you are a dealer of multiple solar panel manufacturers and have difficulty deciding which of them will sell better on Amazon, check out my tips on how to choose a product to sell on Amazon.
How to generate commercial solar leads
You can use the three solar lead gen tools described above not only for residential but also for commercial sales. However, the commercial branch allows for additional solar sales lead generation opportunities - that’s because companies’ contacts are much easier to find than people’s contacts.
Getting solar commercial leads on Google Maps
To quickly find tons of companies that may be interested in installing your magnificent solar panels, use the Google Maps Scraper. This bot extracts company data from Google Maps based on a keyword and location. The extracted data includes company names, their websites and phone numbers, which makes the Google Maps Scraper a valuable tool for generating exclusive solar leads!
Before I teach you how to use the Google Maps Scraper, let’s decide which companies you can target. Who may need solar panels? The Internet suggests that warehouses are a good example because they have vast flat roofs that are ideal for installing solar panels. So let’s find some warehouses in Orlando, Florida.
Here’s how to use the Google Maps Scraper for generating solar energy leads:
- Open the Google Maps Scraper’s start page.
- Enter your keyword with location ('warehouse in Orlando'):
- Select how many warehouses you would like to scrape.
My common recommendation is to scrape as many results as possible because this increases your chances of getting qualified solar installation leads:
- Launch the bot.
Video tutorial
Watch me demonstrate how to scrape company data from Google Maps in bulk in this short video:
Results
The Google Maps Scraper has exported several hundreds (!) of your potential solar appointment leads. As promised, this includes company names, websites and phone numbers (but not only - see the example results to learn what else the bot exports):
Tips
Here are some ideas on how to make up a decent solar leads list using this information:
- Sort the extracted data in alphabetical order by ‘Title’. This simple measure always facilitates further analysis.
- Validate the extracted phone numbers using the Phone Number Validator. Learn which other data validation tools you can use to polish your solar lead lists before actually starting your marketing campaign.
- Use the extracted company websites to scrape emails from them as described in the next paragraph.
Bulk mailing as a means of commercial solar lead generation
Now that you’ve got Orlando warehouses’ websites, there is nothing easier than to scrape business emails from them!
One of my most demanded solar lead generaton bots is the Phone, Email and Contact Scraper. It exports emails, phones, as well as links to social networks and messengers from company websites. Lead generation for solar companies can’t do without this tool!
So let’s scrape all these warehouses’ emails:
- Copy the websites extracted by the Google Maps Scraper:
- Open the Phone, Email and Contact Scraper’s start page.
- Paste the websites copied into the ‘Website list’ field.
⚠️ Each query must go on a new line:
- Tick ‘Email’.
- Specify how many pages of each site the bot should check for emails.
The more pages you tick - the more likely the bot is to find the desired emails:
- Start the bot.
Video tutorial
Watch me walk you through the email and phone number crawler bot's setup:
Results
The Phone, Email and Contact Scraper has exported emails for each of the websites. For example, here’s what it has found for http://www.smartwarehousing.com (I’ve hidden the actual emails for privacy reasons):
Tips
- Sort the results by ‘Input URL’. This will bring all emails from the same domain together.
- Validate the extracted emails using the Email Validator. This way, your online solar leads generation campaign will be 100% effective.
-
Select one email for each site. Remember that it should be a decision maker’s email, not a junior coworker’s one. My business email lookup tips will help you select the emails of the right people.
How much do solar leads cost?
You are eager to get solar leads for free, aren’t you? 😉 Good news: the tools described above are very cost-effective and allow you to get virtually free solar leads! For example:
- Exporting your competitors’ currently running paid ads with the help of the Google Ads Extractor will cost you only 5 cents for 1 keyword;
- Extracting People Also Ask and Related Searches blocks using the Google People Also Ask and Suggested Searches Exporter will cost you 10 cents for 1 keyword (2 keywords - 20 cents, 3 keywords - 30 cents, etc.);
- Scraping solar panel data from Amazon with the help of the Amazon Search Extractor will cost you only 5 cents for 1 keyword;
- Exporting 50 companies using the Google Maps Scraper will cost you 40 cents per keyword (100 companies - 60 cents, 200 companies - 80 cents, etc.).
- Scraping emails from 1 website using the Phone, Email and Contact Scraper will cost you 5 cents for 10 adjacent pages (25 cents for 100 adjacent pages).
As you can see, lead generation - solar or any other! - doesn't have to be expensive at all!
What is more, if you decide to use these bots to generate solar leads, free trial is guaranteed to you as a new Botster user! You will be able to try each of the bots for free before starting a full-scale marketing campaign. No credit card is required for registration.
I believe that this new knowledge will stand you in good stead. Now that you know how to generate your own solar leads, I hope you’re going to get tons of new solar-minded customers soon!
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