Solar Marketing Plan Template for Solar Companies (2026)
Stephen Burkhalter4 min read
Most solar companies do not have a marketing plan. They have a Facebook ad, a lead vendor, and a feeling about which one is working. This is a plan template you can fill in for your own company in about an hour. It is deliberately short: eight sections, each with the question to answer and an example answer for a mid-sized residential installer.
For the reasoning behind each section, read the full solar marketing guide. This page is the worksheet.
1. Goal
Answer: How many installs per month, by when, at what maximum cost per install?
A goal stated in leads is a vanity goal. State it in installs and a ceiling on acquisition cost, and every other section falls out of it.
Example: 20 residential installs per month by Q2, at no more than $2,500 marketing cost per install.
2. Territory
Answer: Which ZIP codes, ranked, and which ones are excluded?
Solar economics change at the ZIP-code level: utility rates, net-metering rules, incentives, roof stock and how many competitors are already advertising there. List the ZIP codes you can service, rank them by expected conversion, and cut the bottom of the list. A campaign that averages good and bad ZIP codes pays the bad ones' cost per lead.
Example: 38 ZIP codes across two counties; the 14 with the highest utility rates and lowest competitor density get 70% of spend.
3. Position
Answer: In one sentence, why should a homeowner in those ZIP codes choose you over the next three companies that call them?
If the sentence would be true of any competitor, it is not a position. Speed to install, a financing structure, a battery specialty, a local track record with a number attached, all work. "Quality and service" does not.
Example: "Installed in 21 days from signature, or your first year's monitoring is free."
4. Lead economics
Answer: Working back from the goal, what can you pay per lead?
Take the maximum cost per install from section 1 and divide by your close rate, show rate, appointment rate and contact rate. The result is the most you can pay for a lead in any channel. Our solar leads pricing page shows the arithmetic with worked numbers.
Example: $2,500 per install × 30% close × 70% show × 40% appointment × 80% contact = $168 maximum per lead.
5. Channel mix
Answer: Which channels, in what proportion, and who runs each one?
Split the budget across always-on demand capture, demand creation, and conversion, then assign an owner to each channel. A channel with no owner is a channel nobody optimises.
| Channel | Share | Owner | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid search | 25% | Agency or in-house | Highest-intent homeowners |
| Social lead campaigns or pay-per-lead partner | 35% | Partner | Volume at a fixed cost per lead |
| Google Business Profile and reviews | 5% | Office manager | Trust and local ranking |
| Referral program | 10% | Sales team | Cheapest, best leads |
| Website, CRM, follow-up automation | 15% | In-house | Conversion of everything above |
| Content and email | 10% | In-house or freelancer | Next quarter's pipeline |
Example: The installer above pays a pay-per-lead partner for exclusive homeowner leads in the top 14 ZIP codes and runs paid search in-house on the remaining budget.
6. Website and capture
Answer: When a homeowner lands on your site from any channel, what happens in the first 30 seconds?
Your website is the one salesperson who works every hour. It should state the position from section 3 above the fold, show one real local result, and put a short qualifying form (ownership, ZIP code, monthly bill) within one scroll. Every campaign landing page should ask the qualifying questions so the lead arrives with them attached.
A/B test one element at a time: the headline, the form length, the proof block. Small changes to the capture step move cost per lead more than any change to the ads.
Example: Homepage headline restated to the 21-day promise; quote form cut from nine fields to four; a second landing page built per top-5 ZIP cluster.
7. Calendar
Answer: What happens every week and every month, and who checks it?
A plan without a calendar is a wish. The minimum:
- Weekly: review cost per lead, contact rate and appointment rate by channel and ZIP code; pause the worst ZIP codes; ask every newly switched-on customer for a review and a referral.
- Monthly: re-rank ZIP codes; refresh one landing page; publish one piece of local content; audit the CRM for leads with no follow-up in seven days.
- Quarterly: re-run the lead economics in section 4 against actual close and show rates; renegotiate or replace any channel above the maximum cost per lead.
8. KPIs
Answer: Which six numbers go on the wall?
- Cost per lead, by channel and ZIP code
- Contact rate
- Appointment rate
- Show rate
- Close rate
- Cost per install
Track them in the CRM. If a vendor or agency cannot report the first two weekly, they are not managing the campaign; you are. Our appointment setting guide covers the two middle numbers in detail, and the solar sales process guide covers the last two.
Using the template
Copy the eight headings into a document, answer each question in a sentence or a table, and put the calendar in the team's shared calendar with owners' names on each entry. Revisit section 4 quarterly with real numbers. A plan that is reviewed is worth more than a plan that is perfect.
If the channel-mix section points at a pay-per-lead partner, Solcertain runs that part for one solar company per territory: exclusive, verified residential solar leads and commercial solar leads, delivered in real time and billed per lead or per qualified call. Book a demo to see what the top ZIP codes in your plan would cost.
Want leads like the ones in this guide?
Solcertain generates exclusive, verified residential solar leads for one company per territory, delivered in real time.
Want to do this yourself? Join the free Lead Lab, our community for generating your own leads.