No matter what sort of company you run, developing a productive marketing strategy is never an easy process. When you’re in the solar energy business, marketing is made even more complicated by the fact that you have a very specific target audience. People who live in apartments or other rental properties may not be able to take advantage of the products and services you offer, so how can you focus your marketing on interested homeowners and business owners? Consider a handful of tips that may help you to make some useful modifications to your digital marketing approach.
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1. Create a User-Friendly Website
One of the most important ways you can interact with your customers virtually is through your own website. If you don’t have a brick-and-mortar shop, your site may be the only way interested parties can develop an understanding of who you are and what you have to offer.
As you go about designing your site, remember that fancier isn’t always better. Be sure to prioritize providing thorough, clear and easily accessible information. For example, you may wish to create a navigation bar that divides information about your company and the solar energy products you offer into intuitive categories that customers can browse through. If you want to go above and beyond, you could even post blogs that help your patrons with common questions or technological issues that they may come across while implementing your product or service.
In addition to sharing information with your customers, be sure to create spaces where your customers can communicate back to you. This may involve offering them digital forms to fill out, places to provide feedback or ways to address questions.
2. Utilize Search Engine Optimization
Having a well-designed website is only effective if people can easily locate it. This is where SEO comes is. SEO serves an important role in making your site more visible by improving its rankings on search engines. This way, if someone is searching for solar companies near me, she will see your site as one of the top results.
There are different ways to go about SEO. For one, you can use keywords throughout your different pages that may help search engines to determine whether your site is relevant to a specific search term. For example, solar companies may wish to use keywords and phrases such as “solar panels,” “solar energy,” or “switching to solar.” In addition to using keywords, your site may be able to become more visible by including more internal and external links.
3. Take Advantage of Social Media
The growing popularity of social media presents solar companies with marketing opportunities that are often free or very affordable. By creating a profile for your company, you can begin connecting with both large and small audiences.
As you form your company’s social media posts, be sure to add a lot of variety. For example, you could send out a brief blurb about a promotion you have going on one week, but include a video displaying someone benefiting from solar energy the next week. Because social networking sites allow you to use text, pictures, graphics and videos, there are practically endless ways in which you can promote your company.
A smart way to use social media as a data-collecting tool is split testing. Also known as A/B testing, this strategy allows you to create multiple ads and then observe the results in order to determine which one is most effective.
4. Invest in Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Another great way to draw attention to your products and services is to use pay-per-click advertising. Search engines like Google offer these types of ads and allow businesses to bid for prices. The highest bidders can post banners and other clickable ads on these search engines. A big perk of this form of advertising is that you only have to pay in accordance with the number of people who click on your ad.
Another benefit of using pay-per-click advertising is that it is highly visible to a large number of people. If you spend much time on the internet, you know how hard it can be to not look at the banners on the side of your screen. By sharing an ad about your solar panels or other goods, you may be able to get the attention of people you may not normally be able to interact with. In addition, you may be able to gain valuable information about the demographics of the consumers who click on your ad.
5. Communicate Over Email
One final marketing approach that may be advantageous for your solar company is email marketing. While it may seem like this strategy is outdated, it is actually a great way to directly interact with a very specific group of people. You may be able to gain peoples’ email addresses through your site or after they make a purchase so that you can continue interacting with those you know for certain are interested in what you have to offer.
Another benefit of using email marketing is that it can be easily customized to different consumers’ interests. While you may only be able to create one or two ads to post on search engines, emails can be made to showcase the products and services that specific people are likely to want to invest in. You can even continue collecting information about who buys your products and which messages are most effective as you monitor responses to these emails.
Your solar company has something to offer homeowners and business owners that may not only benefit them but also the wider environment around them. All that’s left to do is get the word out. By combining several different strategies to form your company’s digital marketing approach, you can increase the number of places in which you can interact with interested parties. Consider beefing up your website, utilizing SEO and sharing advertisements through social media, email and other sites. With this diverse marketing approach, you are sure to connect with the consumers you’re looking for.