Expert Tips on Where to Buy Solar Leads and How to Find Reliable Providers
Buying solar leads can help your company get started more quickly, whether you install or repair solar panels. If you search online for “buy solar leads” it will return an overwhelming number of results. How do you know which company to use?
Check Each Company’s Reputation
Some companies sell the same leads repeatedly. They may not truthfully represent their information, meaning that they don’t double check the lead to ensure it remains valid. You can check for these types of practices by visiting the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and searching its database for the company. Also, check Yelp for reviews and ratings. Once a bastion of information on retail businesses, many service companies now also collect reviews there.
Types of Companies Selling Solar Leads
Now that you know what to check for and where to check out these companies, let’s cover where you can obtain these solar leads. You’ve got more than one type of business to choose from in this purchase.
Lead Generation Companies
Lead generation companies handle acquiring the leads. They typically do the work themselves, either through online marketing or conducting surveys. Many lead generation companies collect leads for a variety of industries, so the lead may come from a survey-style call or form. This means that the individual who completed it and shared their information may have checked off 10 or 20 boxes of interests. Other reputable lead generation companies specialize in the solar industry.
Lead Resellers
A reseller of leads purchases leads from lead generation companies, businesses, non-government organizations (NGOs), and nonprofits. The reseller creates a database of these leads to sell to businesses. They may sell hundreds or thousands of leads from a single database.
The leads that resellers provide rarely stem from a single source. They can’t provide defined organic source leads. The companies may collect and repackage data from phone calls, surveys, postcards, and email lists. These leads usually come the cheapest, but are often sold non-exclusively and there will be competitors calling on the leads.
Marketing Agencies
Marketing agencies also sell solar leads. Larger marketing agencies help their clients in many ways, and lead generation tops the list of the latest services offered. These agencies might create an online form, squeeze page, or landing page for the client or collect the leads for their own use, selling them to solar installer clients. As marketing develops and hones its niches, agencies offering solar leads increase in commonality.
Social Media Platforms
Does Facebook sell solar leads? Sort of. A company can use Facebook Lead Ads to create pop-up forms with custom questions. Like a Facebook advertisement, the method lets a business reach customers directly to generate exclusive leads.
Who Sells Solar Leads?
Many US companies offer solar leads, but not all of the top companies use the same methods as Clean Energy Experts (CEE). CEE follows legal best practices with respect to lead gathering and customer contact.
To collect addresses, some businesses use robo-dialing or cold calling. Others simply buy old lists and resell them as is, or refresh them by calling the number associated with each address to update the lead. The latter means you could purchase an ancient lead that no longer has an interest in what you offer.
While buying existing lists isn’t illegal, simply reselling what you’ve purchased isn’t ethical. Always find out how a company builds its lead database. Opt for a company that obtains current leads using ethical and legal methods.
A company’s prices typically reveal how they’re building their database. Those with really cheap lead prices offer generic leads often generated from cold calling. The costlier leads typically come from companies that offer “hot leads,” meaning homeowners with a strong, current interest in solar energy. They price their leads higher, especially in competitive markets.
You have many lead generation choices, and choosing takes time. It makes sense to buy solar leads though, especially when starting your business.
Creating Your Own Leads
You could put in the time and effort to learn how to generate solar leads yourself, but do you want to learn marketing or install solar panels? Self-generated solar leads require you to know both the marketing industry and the solar industry. How could you do this? To quickly get started with a solar installer or repair business, you would need to use a method for creating your own leads.
Your options for developing high-quality solar leads include direct email marketing, cold calling, door-to-door sales, and search engine optimization. These methods imply that you must perform all of the work of solar lead generation companies as well as the work of a solar installer. Let’s look at the work needed if you do it yourself to generate leads.
Direct Email Marketing
With this type of outreach method, you send unsolicited emails to numerous people. With the right pitch, you can sell an installation, but many companies come off as spammers by doing this. Also, you still need to buy a contact list, so you’re still purchasing leads—just not as high-quality leads.
Direct Mail Marketing
You could generate leads by mailing the residents of your community a postcard or letter that pitches your services and explains how solar can save them money. You’ll need a mailing list and a mailer that comply with the US Postal Service’s bulk mailing requirements. Both this and direct email marketing require professionally written sales copy to perform well in generating solar leads.
Cold-Calling Potential Customers
When you cold call a customer, you call an individual whom you don’t know and who doesn’t know your company. You read from a script to sell your solar installation. You’ll become a telemarketer for your own business though. That means you’ll need to follow the Telemarketing Industry Standard rules or get in trouble with the FTC.
Door-to-Door Sales
Door-to-door sales make you about as popular as a telemarketer. While you can develop some leads this way, do the math on the number of doors you’d need to knock on before finding an interested homeowner. If it cost you about $250 to $350 or more, you expended more effort than purchasing one marketing lead would have cost you. Although time-consuming, this method allows you to connect with your community.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Your website should use SEO. Hire a professional to write your SEO web copy so it avoids inappropriate mechanisms, such as keyword stuffing and off-topic keywords. Having professional SEO generates inbound leads for you, but it takes time for it to start working. Expect it to take four to six months to see the first effects of SEO, but about a year to start experiencing the full effect. Working with a pro means you’ll locate the right phrases to target in your local and regional market. It also means you’ll spend $50,000–$100,000 with no guarantee of lead volumes.
Buying Makes Good Sense
When you consider how much solar leads cost, consider the costs of doing it yourself, too. If you don’t want to become a marketer too, you should buy your solar leads. By buying solar leads you don’t need to reinvent the wheel, and you can choose from reputable solar lead generation companies that specialize in solar leads. You can focus on installing and repairing solar arrays instead of trying to perfect your sales pitch and phone voice.
We do recommend that you use appropriate SEO tactics on your website to improve your organic solar lead generation. SEO takes time to develop though, and purchasing your first leads helps you land the clients you need now.
Why Clean Energy Experts?
Clean Energy Experts knows you need the highest quality leads. Our solar lead generation company values your investment in making your solar installer business succeed. At Clean Energy Experts, we 100% phone verify each lead, placing the quality of our leads above our competition.
Our organization grew out of a partnership with the US government, which originally funded our work. The goal of that initial project was to make solar energy more affordable. Although we no longer use that funding source, we remain committed to the goal of making solar more affordable and accessible. Clean Energy Experts does not charge upfront fees, require contracts, or a minimum purchase. Every customer gets a dedicated account manager.
At Clean Energy Experts, we know the solar industry and we know marketing. Our solar lead generation company makes a good-faith effort to ensure that you obtain the best leads possible. Contact us today to find out your company’s options for solar leads. Let us help you land the business to get your solar installation and repair company started with high-quality, current solar leads.