Solar marketing: 20 ideas for local installers without the hard sell

We ranked these for solar installers by what a booked job usually costs through each one: channels you own first, rented ones last. There are no invented percentages here, so test the order with your own numbers in the cost per lead calculator.

What you own keeps paying back; what you rent stops when the bill does. For solar installers, past customers sit near the top because a yearly system check and panel cleaning brings people back without new ad spend.

Most solar demand follows the calendar: busiest around spring and summer and quietest in winter. The months below are a starting point; shift them a few weeks for your climate.

The "get ready" months matter most. A reminder that lands two or three weeks before spring and summer books work for the rush; the same reminder sent during the rush only adds to a phone you already cannot answer.

You can run all twenty yourself. Where Koira does one for you, the feature is named and linked.

Get found

• 1. Build a town page for each place you serve. People search "solar installer near me" and the town name, and a page about your work there matches that search. Koira writes a page for each town and service from your business (contractor SEO).
• 2. A page for each service: panel cleaning and maintenance, system repairs and the rest. Each service is its own search for solar customers. One page that lists everything, from residential solar installs to EV charger add-ons, matches none of them well. Your Koira site gets a page per service from your price list, with Book online on every page.
• 3. Post a finished job every month. Before and after photos of your EV charger add-ons, the town and what you did give search engines something new and give the next buyer proof. A post a month goes up on your Koira site, written from your job photos.
• 4. Fix listings that disagree with your site. A wrong number or old hours on a listing costs you the call from someone ready to book a panel cleaning and system check. Koira listings keep name, hours and services matching everywhere.
• 5. Let people price a panel cleaning and system check without calling. Most people want a number before they call, and a panel cleaning and system check is simple enough to price without a visit. Instant quotes answer from your price list and book the job on the same page.
• 6. Check your listing against the competition. Search "solar installer near me" the way a customer would, from a phone, in a town two over. Koira's free AI report shows your search results, listings, reviews and site next to shops near you.

Win the call and the bid

• 7. Reply to every new request before the buyer moves on. Your customers are homeowners who research for months, compare quotes and worry about pushy sales. The first clear reply often wins. On Grow, the AI receptionist picks up or texts back with three times from your day, in English or Spanish.
• 8. Book panel cleaning and maintenance by text instead of phone tag. Phone tag is where solar jobs go quiet. With booking by text, the customer replies with a time and the visit lands on your day.
• 9. Follow up every estimate for a rooftop solar system with a battery on day two and day four. Big tickets like a rooftop solar system with a battery take time to decide, and a quiet solar estimate is usually a forgotten one, not a no. Koira nudges every open estimate twice, then stops, and shows you who opened it (bid follow-ups).
• 10. Send good, better and best on every quote for battery storage. Choices make it easier to say yes on battery storage, and many buyers pick the middle. Koira builds the three options from your price list (estimates).

Bring them back

• 11. Ask for the review an hour after the invoice is paid. Customers who just paid for a panel cleaning and system check or a rooftop solar system with a battery are as happy as they will ever be. The ask goes out on its own after each paid invoice with Koira reviews, never with a reward attached.
• 12. Reply to every review and name the job and the town. A reply that mentions battery storage and the town reads well to the next person comparing solar installers. Koira drafts each reply for you to tap and send; the free review reply generator writes one from a template if you want to do it by hand.
• 13. Send a card to the neighbors of each job. Panels on a neighbor's roof that start every conversation on the street. The homes nearby already noticed your truck. Neighbor postcards do it for you: no list to buy, no design, no printer.
• 14. Write to past customers ahead of spring and summer. People who hired you for residential solar installs once are the easiest booking you will get, if they hear from you before they start looking. On Grow, campaigns go out in your name to customers who opted in; a YES books the job.
• 15. Offer a yearly system check and panel cleaning before you leave. A plan turns one visit into steady work and makes you the first call when a rooftop solar system with a battery comes up. With maintenance plans on Front Office, customers join with one tap and Koira books each visit.
• 16. Ask happy customers to send a neighbor. Word of mouth works better when someone asks, right after the battery storage went well and the invoice is paid. Koira's referral link knows who shared it, so both sides get the thank-you you set.

Grow past one-off jobs

• 17. Build a referral swap with roofers. They meet people who need solar before you do, and you meet people who need them. Keep a short list of who sends what; Koira shows referred jobs in what it brought in (reporting).
• 18. Write to small business owners near you. Small business owners, farms and property managers hire again and again, so one yes is worth many one-time jobs. Commercial outreach on Front Office writes a short three-email sequence and passes replies to you.
• 19. Set up the quiet season early. The quiet stretch is when small business owners and old quotes for a rooftop solar system with a battery finally get your attention, so set it up ahead of time. Queue a campaign and outreach now, so they go out when the phone goes quiet.
• 20. Count which channel paid for itself. Busy is not the same as profitable. A solar company needs to know what each booked job cost to win. Use the free marketing budget planner, then check it against Koira's reporting.

There is no right percentage for every solar business, and we will not invent one. Start from the jobs you want: how many residential solar installs a month, what each is worth to you, and how many leads it takes to win one. The free marketing budget planner turns those into a monthly budget, and the cost per lead calculator shows what a booked job really costs from each source.

Each month, write down where each lead came from, which ones booked and what each source cost. A channel that brings plenty of calls about a panel cleaning and system check but few booked jobs like a rooftop solar system with a battery may look busy and still lose money. Count slow replies too: the free missed call calculator shows what calls that never got answered are worth with your own numbers.

Owned leads come from things you built: reviews, your site, past customers, the street around each job and roofers who refer you. Rented leads come from platforms and ads, and stop when the payments do.

Angi's 2025 annual report describes its lead revenue as fees paid by pros for consumer matches, regardless of whether the pro ultimately provides the requested service. Google counts a missed call during your business hours as a charged lead if the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds. Neither is a reason to avoid paid leads, but both are reasons to build the owned channels first. See solar leads: where to buy them and how to need fewer for each platform's own rules.

Everything above can be done by hand. Koira does the repeating parts for a solar company. On the free Office plan: a site with Book online and Get a price, Google and Bing listings kept matching, a review ask after every paid job, estimates and invoices. Neighbor postcards are one flat price per card on every plan.

Koira Grow is $249 a month plus usage at cost: texts, call minutes and emails with nothing added. Grow adds the receptionist and text-back on a Koira number, campaigns, referrals and bid follow-ups. Koira Front Office is $499 a month flat, with usage included. It adds commercial outreach and maintenance plans. Adding a helper never adds a seat fee; the price is the same with one person or fifteen. See pricing, or how a solar company runs on Koira.