Why Solar Needs SEO

Leveraging The Internet

Leveraging The Internet

Online Marketing is Full of Options

When we first start to discover the different ways that we can market our products and services online, it can be overwhelming. Each advert or email opt-in can lead to a new voyage of discovery.

Slick sales techniques convince us that Facebook marketing is the future. Or Twitter adverts? A specialist youtube channel? Perhaps your site needs to be SEO’d right to page one? 

There are so many ways to do business online, with sales pages full of words like guarantee, autopilot, turnkey, automatic, hands-free, oh, and the bonuses! Bonuses worth thousands if you buy their software now before the countdown timer runs out!

How do we leverage the power of the internet to create revenue?

This is one of the top questions that all entrepreneurs ask when starting a website. The path can be overwhelming; in fact, it usually is! Creating an online presence is simple, getting traffic is also fairly easy. Leveraging the internet to generate leads and sales is a much tougher challenge.

You may be trying to market your goods or services online, or might be simply experimenting with different ways to increase your online exposure.

Perhaps you found this page in the search engines, and want to join the ‘make money online’ bandwagon? It’s possible that you have a real business, and you want to increase the revenue that gets attributed to online efforts.

We certainly hope that you already have a business.

The reason is that there are hundreds if not thousands of ways to ‘make money online’, but if that’s your goal and you’re looking for a strategy, then we can’t help you much. For every shiny sales page pushing the latest revolutionary course or software, there’ll be a case study to show you how easy it is. We expect that the individual case studies are mostly accurate.

The power of leverage only matters when you have an offer that converts

It’s likely though that the successes are down to the core business that has been helped by the software or the course. It’s all about the value behind any offer.

If you’re not sure how to make money online, then perhaps you’re not ready to. The Internet can help you scale, or reach people that you otherwise wouldn’t. But you need a product or service that people want to buy. Leveraging the internet doesn’t work without something worth scaling in the first place.

Do you have that?

No?

Then perhaps you should start by selling someone else’s product or service as an affiliate? At OOTBI, we work with unique businesses, but affiliate marketing works for many people.

Yes? Great, we might be able to work together.

If you’re clear about who you are, and what you can offer to other people by way of a value proposition, then that’s great. That usually means that you’re already in business and making money. You need some ideas and direction regarding how to increase or maximise your online revenue.

There are plenty of starter sites where you can learn about internet marketing step by step, but this isn’t one of them.

If you make contact and present your business model, it’s likely that we can give you some ideas about actionable steps to get leverage online. We might be able to assist or take care of them for you. We’ll only agree to this if we feel inspired by your business and can think of a few innovative ideas. There’s likely to be some ‘out of the box’ thinking that hadn’t occurred to you and where you’d happily pay us.

Leveraging the internet works best when you have an excellent product or service

We’ll only take on new business if we feel that we can make a massive difference to your business.

Otherwise, retainer or no retainer, things are going to get awkward, really quickly. Frankly, this is negativity that we don’t need. We prefer to spend available time on our other businesses where we learn and experiment for ourselves. We’d also prefer to expand our passive income-producing legacy websites that got created during one niche related project or another.

You see, we’ve been there, we’ve bought the software, taken the courses and applied the so-called ‘turnkey automated’ systems. Most of these early ventures were failures. A small percentage were successful and continue to be successful to this day.

Which was the best avenue? Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, MySpace, Amazon, eBay….? Companies and individual people are making six, seven and even eight figures in revenue per month in almost every significant space online, but it’s not the tool – its the underlying business itself. Do you want to market your companies incontinence pants on Instagram? Your no-win-no-fee ambulance-chasing legal service onto Facebook?

Good Luck.

Start with a focus on the business or service that you offer. The type that people want to pay a profitable price for. Then, we can help you leverage the internet and find the best online avenues to invest in and the best software to make the process easier.

So, what do we do? Do we offer SEO services? Social Media Marketing? Product sourcing consultation? Web design?

Of course.

But we would much prefer that you tell us a bit about yourself and your business and let’s see if we get excited about it. Let’s see if you get our creative juices flowing and if we can think of any out of the box innovations to your great idea. If that happens, then we’ll tell you all about them.

The Transition to Solar Marketing: Present and Future

The Transition to Solar Marketing: Present and Future

The Green Box

Out of the Box Innovations decided to offer marketing for solar companies way back in the spring of 2017.

While we originally developed through servicing the digital marketing needs of oil and gas companies, as the global energy mix is gradually changing, so too is OOTBI.

Now that solar energy is cost-effective without subsidy, it’ll continue to gain market share. For companies involved in the industry, a robust solar energy marketing strategy is crucial, and we’re very excited to be involved in helping such forward-thinking business-owners realize their vision and expand their audiences.

We like to think of our green-coloured branding and logo as reflective of our green principles as we move out of the ‘box’ of traditional gas and oil towards a more innovative and sustainable set of niches!

In this article, we’ve encapsulated some of our knowledge and thoughts about solar and packed in some useful insights about how to approach solar marketing. Read on to find out how you should tackle this unique area.

So Is Solar Superior?

We don’t believe that one energy source is necessarily better than any other when viewed through a moral lens. Ultimately, it is down to each household, company, and culture to weight up at the pros, cons, and practicalities of the choices currently available and come to a decision on their energy generation themselves.

The economics, practicalities, and benefits of each energy source need to stack up. The cost-efficiency in solar energy was tenuous for a while, but solar technology is now at the stage where the numbers make sense, even without government subsidies.

Even in an ideal world, we couldn’t completely switch to renewable energy in one immediate fell swoop. Regardless of whether we’re capable of supporting such a transition at the minute or not, it’s a switch that will take many years.

No matter what one’s opinion is on the ethics and obligations of technologies like solar and alternatives, we all know that it’s a fast-evolving area, and it needs agile marketing strategies to keep up with it!

Why Solar is One of the Best Industries to Be In

Fulfilling lives happen when we live in such a way that our values and opinions match our actions. This congruence leads to satisfaction and a sense of happiness. As part of the solar energy industry, you’re likely to understand this fundamental truth.

People often choose professions that seemingly make sense for them (at least when viewed on a practical level, thinking about wage and location) but then end up in an industry that they hate doing work that gives them no satisfaction, and when you think about how much time the average person is spending at work (the majority of their waking hours!), this can have a serious effect on their overall quality of life and mental health.

But it’s easy to see the meaning in jobs that revolve around solar and renewables. Why? Well, being part of the solar industry is something to be truly proud of – it makes you a pioneer of a better future, a flag holder for a peaceful, non-polluted, more abundant world for humanity.

As a solar industry manager or executive, you needn’t be agonizing over whether your job makes any difference and whether you’re wasting your life pushing paper around.

You know the environmental and financial benefits not only for the end consumer, but for broader society and the world at large. You’re also probably up to date on the science behind the recent technological improvements and cost reductions that are being made.

You feel good about what you’re doing, where your company is heading, and the possible future for humanity – you just need to transmit this enthusiasm and knowledge to your customers.

Should You Focus on PR and Sales to Capture the Solar Market?

It’s likely that you have mostly focused on PR and sales in your previous outbound campaigns. Why? Because solar companies are popular in the media, both local and national, so a slew of government incentives and advertising campaigns have already helped to do the marketing for you.

All of this media attention and the government-backed subsidies have done much of the hard work of getting you in the minds of consumers, so perhaps you thought that all you needed were telesales and direct salespeople to attract customers to your company over the competition and close deals.

That may or may not have been working for you, but now that the solar industry is maturing, solar’s marketing needs are diversifying as well. As the economics of switching to solar make sense more than ever before, and customers are well aware of the potential benefits of doing so, your marketing model needs to evolve to address other issues and approach from other angles.

How You Can Stand Out From The Crowd

For any company to grow, it’s vital that it differentiates itself from others and stands out from the crowd in order to attract customers. Differentiation never really happens through telesales, foot canvassers, or general newspaper adverts.

And why not? Because these methods don’t offer real branding or create a sense of identity for the company – they’re just trying to push sales.

These strategies can absolutely be part of an effective marketing mix, but if that’s all you rely on, you can count on being generic if not outright annoying (few people enjoy getting cold calls in their downtime!).

On top of that, we believe that in our bright future, powered ever more by solar energy; end consumers will be savvy. We’re all exposed to more marketing than ever before, and we’re starting to tune out certain tactics or grow suspicious of them. Certain discount offers and freebies can be seen as deceptive or crass, the mark of a bargain-bin service, if not done properly.

The best solar marketing companies of the future will be able to work with their clients to convey a common vision that we touched on earlier:

• We’ll display integrity in our actions, matching espoused opinions and values as companies of the future.
• Be forward-thinking and ethical, but show wisdom and practicality in performing work based on real numbers and best practices

Customers who feel attracted by these principles will become brand evangelists, customers for life.

The section of your competition who are still promoting the fake scarcity stories of a ‘special offer that ends soon’ will gradually be seen with increasing scepticism. They’ll rely more and more on outdated methods to drum up business because their branding is withering.

Meanwhile, your company will be receiving a higher share of inbound emails and phone calls. It’s likely that many of the people who seek you out will have been recommended to you by an existing customer.

Others will have been aware of your brand for a while, based on the manicured image that you have created over the years and the social proof offered by positive testimonials and strong business growth. These people waited until they were ready, but in the back of their minds, they always knew who they’d be going to.

The Potential Utopian Future of Solar: Innovation Meets Storytelling

Don’t you think the possibilities of future technology are incredibly exciting?

We do.

The idea of a world in which robots with artificial intelligence not only exist but replicate themselves is something straight out of recent science fiction.

Such self-replicating autonomous robots that could mine the materials needed for the manufacturing of solar panels sound far-fetched, but something like that could well be just around the corner. If this technology really came to pass, then the future solar panels that could be created would be enough to produce electricity to meet global demands.

We’d be in a world with no more pollution from the energy industry, and possibly not even any need to work (for the sake of working).

Are you in favour of the potential of quantum computing, synthetic laboratory-produced meat, personalised medicine, organ bioprinting, space-based solar power, nanorobotics and programmable matter?

Or would you prefer to keep clinging on to the past with your head in the sand? Whether we quite reach this ideal world or not, progress will keep happening with or without us. The best thing that we can do for ourselves and each other is to not only keep up but contribute to the movement.

You are in a unique position with the potential to become a guide for a better future, translating advances in solar technology into concepts that your customers understand.

People don’t buy volts, amps, and watts, and they don’t care about BTU’s. They buy stories, life improvements, dreams of a better world. We don’t think that they will care for pressure sales tactics or fake promotions for much longer. You need to market yourself as a vision and an ideal, not an impersonal mass of figures and discounts.

With the next generations growing up and becoming homeowners, your future customers – who were practically born with a smartphone in their hand – will be more internet savvy. They’ll see whether you’re in touch with the latest technology and whether you’re competitive. You need to make sure that your online presence demonstrates this.

We tell a story to our customers about how we have our minds set on the future and how we are harnessing the best technologies available. Through the demonstration of authentic passion and integrity that has always shone through our specialized marketing plans, we paint a picture of how clients and end-users can trust us and the services that we provide, and this is exactly how we intend to continue into the future with our solar clients too.