What are you doing on Inauguration Day?
Curling up into a fetal position?
Watching wall-to-wall coverage?
Binging on all six seasons of Game of Thrones?
For solar marketing professionals, today might feel like Ground Zero of the energy revolution. But there’s never been a better time to launch a new plan of attack. Here are six ideas to get your new year’s marketing strategy off to a great start:
- Think like a campaign manager. Marketing solar is like boiling the ocean. So many prospects, so little time. Organize your marketing into bite-sized, integrated campaigns – and target each one to a customer persona. Not sure what your customer personas are? See #2.
- Talk to three happy customers. Have a conversation with just one satisfied customer and your mood will vastly improve, but talk to three and you’ll start to see a pattern of purchase motivators, demographics and psychographics. From there you can start to build your customer personas – and voila! Your campaign strategy will start to emerge.
- Write up three case studies. Turn these customer conversations into case studies. They don’t have to be long but they do need to include facts (money saved, energy offset) and at least one customer quote. Optimize them like crazy with keywords you’re working on building for your web site. Then use them as assets in the persona-driven campaigns noted above.
- Stop lurking on Social Media. Don’t meander through Twitter like Trump. If you spend more than 20 minutes a day on social media, your strategy is too random. Take a few hours at the beginning of each month to map out an editorial calendar that’s tied to your campaigns, your customer successes and your company’s strategic announcements.
- Automate your content marketing. Like many aspects of marketing, even content can be automated. It doesn’t mean a robot will do your writing. But even small businesses can take advantage of content marketing platforms that now include actual content for vertical industries like home improvement, commercial contracting, etc. My favorite lately is Austin-based Outbound Engine. Simply augment their Home Services campaign with solar content and you’ll have a robust calendar of email marketing and social media posts. No time to augment? Contact us for help.
- Install a CRM system. Yes, it’s tedious. But it has to be done. No marketing effort is worth doing without tying it into your sales system. Take the time to close the loop between marketing and sales. Talk to your sales team to find out where leads get stuck in the process and see if patterns emerge for a nurture campaign.
There you have it. Six reasons not to jump off a cliff this Inauguration Day. There is too much to do! Now get busy. And give us a shout if you feel paralyzed. Your first consultation call is free!
