Building a content marketing plan for solar installers

By Hannah Kilpatrick, Director of Marketing, STG Solar

Surviving 2022 was not an easy feat for solar companies. The combination of material delays and supply chain issues paired with solar tariffs affected everyone from EPCs to residential installers. With rumors of a recession and economic distress, marketing teams for solar businesses faced a difficult uncertainty. How do you market your product when the marketplace is so uncertain?

Later in the year, the marketplace pivoted upon the announcement of the Inflation Reduction Act, therefore resulting in a positive market environment for marketing teams. 

Is your marketing team prepared for these types of drastic shifts in the marketplace? How are you prepared to market your product or service even when times are tough? Does your marketing department consist of one person or a large team?

Regardless of the marketplace and your team’s size, here are several tried and true content marketing strategies to boost traffic to your website and generate more sales leads:

Content marketing strategies for increasing sales leads

Digital marketing heavily relies on the results of search engines which help users find relevant information to what they are searching for. These search engines regularly crawl, or “scan,” your website for the keywords consumers are typing into the search bar. 

When these keywords are located on your website, you will be ranked in the search results depending on how well your website content matches the search. Ultimately, your goal is to rank your website as highly as possible on the search engine results page. This process is called search engine optimization, or SEO. 

Improve your SEO

In order to direct traffic to your website and increase sales leads you will need an SEO strategy. There are several types of solar companies with different services, so your SEO strategy needs to be unique to your specific target market. 

Begin by creating solar-specific content for your website that speaks directly to your niche. A solar company primarily focused on commercial and industrial rooftops should be creating content about rooftop solar. 

The easiest way to start creating SEO content for your website is by writing blog posts. By writing these blog posts for your website you are able to research the keywords searched by your target audience and incorporate them into the content, therefore, increasing the number of keywords on your website and ranking higher in search results. 

Another way that solar companies can increase their SEO is by adding a geographic landing page to their site. This will pair keywords about your services to the location that you can perform your services which, again, increases the probability of your website ranking higher. A common consumer search for solar could be “residential solar near me” or “residential solar Dallas, Texas””. By creating content with these terms you are increasing your SEO.

Get active on social media

Social media is one of the fabrics of today’s society. It’s where people get their news, their entertainment and can connect with their interests. By creating a presence on social media with your solar company, you are able to speak to your target audience directly and create conversations surrounding your product or service. 

However, it’s not always helpful to be on every single social media platform. This is where it’s extremely important to begin thinking of who your target audience is. Are you trying to speak to homeowners, business owners, or decision makers for Fortune 500 companies? Think of where these people spend their time scrolling online and create your platform there. For example, TikTok may not be the best platform if you are a utility-scale electrical subcontractor, but LinkedIn could be a great platform.

Watch social media carefully for solar power news. If there is a conversation surrounding solar energy, you’ll want to be a part of it. 

Learning your platform and its trends are essential to creating quality content. For example, Instagram’s algorithm tends to favor videos, or “reels,” while LinkedIn really favors good conversations. With consistent social media posts you can not only connect with your audience, but you can direct traffic back to your website, encourage people to sign up for email newsletters and start industry conversations. 

Claim your Google Business Profile

If you haven’t yet, make sure you have claimed your Google Business Profile. The Google Business Profile is a free online listing that appears directly on Google Maps and the Google search results page when a consumer is searching for a specific product or service. By claiming your profile you are able to update and manage information for your business listing.

This information includes:

Location
Business Hours
Reviews
Photos
Phone Numbers

By placing this information directly onto Google yourself, you are able to ensure that the information is correct and is being pushed to consumers adequately. The Google Business Profile not only is the gateway to running Google Ads, but it also functions like a social media platform in the sense that you are able to post to it as the business. This can include offers and news while allowing you to embed links to direct web traffic.

Stay consistent

Creating content is no easy job, but it’s essential for solar companies to create solar power content that relates to your business in order to increase your SEO and promote your product or service. Generally speaking, it takes six to nine months to begin seeing results from SEO based content marketing. The reward is worth the time investment and consistency will lead to organic growth over time. 

Hannah Kilpatrick is the director of marketing at STG Solar, an electrical subcontractor based out of Asheville, North Carolina. She received a bachelor’s degree in Communications and Marketing from Western Carolina University in May 2021. Her SEO-based content marketing strategies have increased website traffic for STG Solar by over 200% in less than one year and has organically doubled its social media presence. With an increased focus on generating leads, Hannah has helped STG Solar expand its current market and break into new markets of O&M and C&I rooftop.