6 Solar Marketing Strategies You Can Implement With SMS

By now, most consumers are aware that solar power represents a giant leap forward in sustainable energy. But do they know about all the advantages of working with your solar panel company? Unless you’re taking advantage of all available solar marketing ideas, the answer is probably “kind of.”

If you’re already using traditional solar marketing strategies like search engine optimization (SEO) or paid advertising, you’re on the right track. However, if you’re looking to connect with more leads than ever before—and stay connected to them—you need to meet them where 85% of them already are: on their smartphones.

In this short guide, we’ll look at how you can leverage SMS and MMS to grow your solar business.

Solar Marketing Strategies to Attract and Nurture Leads

First, keep in mind that SMS marketing is only part of a thorough marketing plan. Even after developing a texting-oriented marketing strategy, you still need to continue with other forms of paid and organic lead generation.

Some tried-and-true ways to increase your reach and attract leads outside of SMS include:

• SEO – Search engine optimization involves using keywords and linking to reputable sites to ensure your website ranks higher in search results. For example, if someone searches for “best solar companies” on Google, you want your business to be among the top hits. SEO helps you achieve that.
• Social media – Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are the best forms of free marketing available. By posting frequently and using the appropriate hashtags, you can trigger the algorithm correctly and reach thousands of new people—all for free.
• Paid ads – Paying for ads on social media, search engines and even billboards can drastically increase your reach. Digital advertising is particularly powerful since you can concentrate on specific demographics (i.e., those likely to need solar installers). 
• Content marketing – Content marketing is an indirect way of advertising. Instead of speaking explicitly about your products and services, you can post enticing or educational videos, photos or blogs to create a more personal connection with your audience. Content marketing exists across all of the channels listed above.

If you’re already employing one or more of these digital marketing strategies, that’s terrific. But there’s a more effective channel you can capitalize on, and all of your potential customers are already using it.

You guessed it: texting.

6 Solar Marketing Ideas You Can Tackle With SMS

Thanks to the rise of eCommerce and omnichannel customer service, most consumers are used to communicating with businesses via text message. Make use of this familiarity with these six SMS-focused ideas.

1. Use Infographics to Your Advantage

When you think of texting with current or potential customers, you may think only of written words. However, you can also send and receive MMS messages (multimedia messages). These messages can contain videos, photos and more.

One way the solar industry can leverage MMS is through sending infographics. With so much conclusive data around green energy, solar businesses can provide concrete, easy-to-follow reasons for switching to solar.

Consider sending colorful diagrams that explain or expand on:

• The benefits of solar panels
• The impact of non-renewable energy sources
• The installation process
• How solar panels work
• Frequently asked questions

Because people remember four times more of what they see than what they read, these infographics give you a better chance of making an impact.

Plenty of free tools are available online to help you make eye-catching diagrams and infographics for MMS, like Canva and Piktochart, to name a few.

2. Education Over Advertising

Forming a relationship with your customers is much more important than upselling them. One way to make a lasting connection is through thoughtful education. Texting allows you to do that.

With MMS, you can send educational links—either to your website’s blog section or to other helpful tools. For example, you might fire off a link to an online calculator that helps customers determine how many watts it takes to power their homes. After filling out the calculator, they’ll know how many solar panels they need. (This tactic also saves you time on calculations).

What’s more, with texting, the conversation goes both ways. You can send informative links or videos, and customers can respond with questions that you can quickly answer. Suddenly, you have a personal and personable connection to your audience.

Even if you’re not a professional writer, you can still communicate confidently with your target market. There are countless professional text messaging templates available for every application.

3. Communicate Special Incentives

Some cities or states offer incentives for going solar. SMS is a terrific way to communicate these special incentives to your leads.

You can even use this idea to grow your subscriber list. Customers who live in locations that don’t currently incentivize solar installation could input their name, phone number and city or state into a form on your website. Once solar incentives become available in their area, you can send them a reminder text.

Of course, you can send texts about your company’s promotions and incentives, too. Messages that create a sense of urgency, such as flash sales or limited-time offers, perform well via SMS.

4. Ask For Reviews and Testimonials

Many of your customers will already be ready to install solar panels, but some may need some convincing. For that, there’s social proof.

Social proof like reviews and testimonials gives the “on the fence” customers a reason to trust you. They can see that past clients have already had a positive experience with your company. Considering that 92% of consumers read online reviews, you're missing out if your site doesn’t have any.

Try sending a mass text to previous customers to drum up more reviews for your business. Make it as easy as possible by linking directly to the review page or a survey. To sweeten the deal, consider offering a discount code for those who write a testimonial.

5. Follow-up with SMS Reminders

Text message reminders are more than a helpful service for your customer—they’re also a marketing tool. Reminders keep you top of mind in between meetings and appointments.

There are countless scenarios in which you can use reminders, including:

• After the first consultation
• When a payment deadline is coming up
• After a meeting at a convention or trade show

Plus, once a customer locks in an appointment, you can continue to update them. For example, you may want to send an appointment reminder to customers one to three days before the installation.

Even after the initial setup, you can stay in touch via SMS. A quick text to confirm that everything is working goes a long way to promote customer loyalty and satisfaction.

6. Team Communication

As a business owner, you need a way to communicate with more than your customers. SMS also offers a seamless way to update all of your team members. With 90% of texts opened within three minutes, you can reach your employees quickly and efficiently—no more “Oops, I didn’t see that email.”

Best of all, depending on your needs, you can choose to send one-to-one texts or mass messages.

Move Ahead of the Solar Competition With Textedly

As the solar industry continues to expand, more and more solar companies will pop up every day. How is yours going to stand out? 

Through SMS marketing and communication.

With Textedly, you can draft and send messages in seconds—whether to ten recipients or 10,000. Setup is quick and simple, and you can even integrate the service into your favorite web app.

Start your Textedly free trial today to see how SMS marketing can help your solar business grow.

Sources:

Pew Research Center. Mobile Fact Sheet. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/ 

MarketingProfs. Five Reasons People Are Wired for Visual Marketing [Infographic]. https://www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2018/33632/five-reasons-people-are-wired-for-visual-marketing-infographic 

Trustpilot. Social proof: What is it, and why is it important for eCommerce? https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/what-is-social-proof-and-why-is-it-important-for-marketing