5 Ways a Solar Calculator Can Increase Your Sales Leads

In a competitive market, you need every advantage to stand out to customers and differentiate yourself from competitors. One of the best ways to attract new customers and convert them into qualified leads is by adding a solar calculator to your website. In fact, one of Rocket Media’s solar clients, Photon Brothers, saw an increase of more than 300 qualified leads — and upwards of $4,750,000 in sales! — within the first 6 months of implementing our custom solar calculator on their website.

If you’re not yet familiar, a solar calculator is an interactive online tool that gives prospective customers a general estimate of the cost of installing solar panels in their home or business. Additionally, the calculator can show the potential monthly or lifetime cost savings that solar panels provide based on user-specific information. This is a huge selling point for solar customers who may be concerned about the financial investment.

To further explain, let’s review how adding a solar calculator to your website can:

• Improve consumer trust
• Provide an opportunity for education
• Reinforce your company’s unique value propositions
• Boost your website’s SEO efforts
• Give you qualified leads

We’ll explain these benefits in more detail to show how a solar calculator can increase your sales leads.

As a leading digital marketing agency for solar companies across the U.S., we know how to boost your solar marketing efforts and improve your bottom line. Our full-service team can build a custom solar calculator that fits your business model, using tried-and-true best practices to drive leads. Learn more about the solar-specific digital marketing services we offer. Or click below to schedule a free consultation. We’d be happy to answer any questions you have about solar calculators or other digital marketing solutions.

The biggest obstacle preventing customers from switching to solar energy is cost. While it might seem counterintuitive to tackle that obstacle head-on by adding a cost calculator to your site, doing so actually increases customers’ trust in your company.

Here’s why:

Openly addressing the “elephant in the room” (i.e., the cost of installing solar panels) shows transparency, which builds trust. And customer trust is more important than ever: A recent study by Edelman shows that consumers are 88% more likely to buy from a brand they trust.

Obviously, it’s impossible to give customers a 100% accurate installation quote without seeing their home or business and accounting for their unique energy needs. But a solar calculator can still provide your customers with a helpful cost estimate that will establish trust by showing that your company is willing to talk about price in the open.

By openly discussing cost—your customers’ number one concern—you already gained their trust. But talking about cost also means you control the conversation around solar panel installation, which presents an opportunity to educate your consumers.

While it’s true that installing solar panels requires a significant upfront investment, many consumers don’t know about the potential energy savings solar panels provide. Your calculator can feature estimates that show how much a homeowner or business owner can save long-term by switching to solar panels. Suddenly, after a customer sees those high savings, the installation cost won’t seem as bad because they understand the ROI provided by solar panels.

Additionally, you can use your solar calculator to educate customers on rebates, promotions, and local solar incentives that reduce the upfront installation cost. Armed with that education, your customers will feel more confident in taking the next step, moving a little closer to that “ready-to-buy” mentality.

Your website is the “face” of your company. It’s often your customers’ first impression of your business, so it’s the perfect place to display your competitive differentiators and value propositions.

As your customer inputs their information into the solar calculator, you can include key messaging that gives your customers a better idea of what makes your company unique.

For example, let’s say one of your unique value propositions is that you install the highest-quality solar equipment in your area. Your calculator could include language like: “We install premium REC solar panels, which produce 60% more energy than conventional panels, increasing your long-term savings.”

Chances are, your customers are also researching other solar installation companies in your area. Sprinkling these value propositions throughout the solar calculator will help your company stand out from the competition and reinforce your company’s strengths in your customers’ minds.

Since cost is one of your customers' biggest concerns about installing solar panels, it’s no surprise that the phrase “solar calculator” gets a lot of online searches. In fact, that phrase gets nearly 10K monthly searches on Google.

Adding a solar calculator helps you attract visitors to your site who are searching for that phrase and other cost-related queries. You can also link to your solar calculator in other content on your website, such as blogs or product/service pages, to increase your site’s rankability and overall SEO performance.

Most solar calculators include some type of lead-capturing component, where users input their contact information before seeing the final installation estimate.

With this information, your sales team can directly reach out to customers to answer questions and educate them on the next steps. You can add customers who don’t take immediate action to a lead-nurturing campaign, such as an email remarketing sequence. In the lead-nurturing campaign, you can share additional educational and promotional content to persuade them to take the next step (e.g., schedule a consultation).

The best part? People who use your solar calculator will generally be further down the marketing funnel, meaning they have (or are close to having) a purchase mindset. These highly qualified leads provide your sales team with new customer opportunities, resulting in more business for your company.

Contact Rocket Media today. We’ve helped solar companies and other businesses improve their digital marketing efforts for nearly two decades. Our team of digital marketing experts can build a custom solar calculator for your website, bringing you quality, conversion-ready leads. Learn more about the solar-specific digital marketing services we offer.