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 Customer 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.

Improve Customer Trust

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.

Provide an Oppor­tunity for Education

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.

Reinforce Your Company’s Unique Value Propositions

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.

Boost Your Website’s SEO Efforts

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.

Give You Qualified Leads

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.