Understanding the conversion path your customers take prior to making a purchase provides insight into where your solar digital marketing efforts need to be targeted.

Marketing attribution is where you assign credit to a marketing channel when a lead coverts to a customer. It can be classified as:

• First Touch Attribution
• Last Touch Attribution
• Multi Touch Attribution

Invariably in today's modern world, there can be multiple channels and devices used prior to purchase. The scenario below outlines what attribution looks like for one of your solar leads.

Consider this:

• Jane is a 44-year old female homeowner who has likes the idea of solar but thinks it's too expensive for her.
• Jane runs into her neighbour, Jim, who tells her how pleased he is about his recent electricity bill since installing solar last quarter.
• Jane then goes to work, and using her desktop computer she starts researching solar benefits and clicks on ads that answer her search query.
• Jane then starts to see solar ads on her Facebook feed and feels like the universe is trying to tell her something.
• Jane talks to her partner, Rob, who then starts reviewing local installers on his iPhone.
• While scrolling through Facebook later that evening, Rob see's a sponsored ad for a local installer in his area. Rob clicks and downloads the solar guide that tells him the benefits of solar.
• Rob starts to receive an email every week from a local solar dealer, who answers frequently asked questions about solar. Rob is interested but does not contact the solar dealer.
• A few months pass and Rob and Jane speak to another friend who is happy about their solar installation. Rob remembers his emails and looks back at them.
• Rob then goes to the dealers website and takes a look around. In that time a pop up form appears asking if he would like an immediate quote. Rob fills in his details and clicks submit.
• The dealer receives notification of Rob's interest and calls him to book an onsite visit.
• After the visit Rob books and install and the sale is secured.

This is a pretty common scenario that has many touch points.

Marketing attribution can work on different levels. In the above scenario you could say:

• Last click attribution would be credited to the website form submit.
• First click attribution would be credited to word of mouth / referral.

But you can see there are multiple connection pathways in between. Let's review the scenarios above with all of the attributions listed:

• Jane is a 44-year old female homeowner who has likes the idea of solar but thinks it's too expensive for her.
• Jane runs into her neighbour, Jim, who tells her how pleased he is about his recent electricity bill since installing solar last quarter. [Word of Mouth]
• Jane then goes to work, and using her desktop computer she starts researching solar benefits and clicks on ads that answer her search query. [Organic Search and Google Ads]
• Jane then starts to see solar ads on her Facebook feed and feels like the universe is trying to tell her something. [Paid Social]
• Jane talks to her partner, Rob, who then starts reviewing local installers on his iPhone. [Organic Search and Google Ads]
• While scrolling through Facebook later that evening, Rob see's a sponsored ad for a local installer in his area. [Paid Social] Rob clicks and downloads the solar guide that tells him the benefits of solar.
• Rob starts to receive an email every week from a local solar dealer, [Email Marketing nurture] who answers frequently asked questions about solar. Rob is interested but isn't ready to purchase just yet so does not contact the solar dealer.
• A few months pass and Rob and Jane speak to another friend who is happy about their solar installation. [Word of Mouth]
• Rob remembers his emails and looks back at them. [Email Marketing]
• Rob then goes to the dealers website and takes a look around. [Website] While on the website, a pop up form appears asking if he would like an immediate quote or more information. [Website submit form submit] Rob fills in his details and clicks submit.
• The dealer receives notification of Rob's interest and calls him to book an onsite visit. [Phone Call]
• After the visit Rob books and install and the sale is secured.

You can count 12 touch points until the deal was closed. That's a lot of activities aligning to ensure a sale!

For a more in-depth look at marketing attribution you can read: Which Marketing Channel Attribution Model Is Right for Your Next Campaign?

Why Does It Matter?

This scenario above could have played out in many different ways, but the point is to get you thinking about what pathways your customers take before purchasing. Leads rarely wake up one day and decide to buy solar out of the blue. So when your customers tells you that they decided to call because they found your website then you know this is not necessarily the case!

Attribution may not matter to some solar dealers. A lead that converts to a customer is always a win, regardless of pathway. However, if you're investing in marketing activities to drive sales, then you will tend to want to dig a little deeper to see what is driving leads and ultimately converting them into customers.

Insights From Solar Dealers We Help

From our experience in helping solar dealers around the country, we have found that:

1. Not all customers follow the same conversion path
2. What works for one dealer's region doesn't not always work well for dealers in other regions
3. Typically there are a couple of stand-out wins to highlight:
• Facebook drives a lot of leads to your website who convert to customers
• Google Ads helps build brand awareness and relevancy in your area, and drives leads to your website
• Email marketing nurtures allow leads to feel less pressured on a sale where they can reach out in their own time
• Having a mobile responsive website, that contains relevant content in a well-organised way, allows users to feel comfortable with your business, build trust and makes you look professional
• Having a sales person who can alleviate any problems the lead has about solar helps conversions rates.

With all of these marketing activities working simultaneously, you have a much better chance of converting a lead over your competitor.

So what do we take from this?  From a marketing and sales perspective, it's important to:

• Educate leads
• Nurture leads
• Develop a relationship built on trust
• Take advantage of channels that help guide a lead to your solar dealership.