invest in solar. “what we find is that a lot of the
market doesn’t want an environmental message
crammed down their throats,” shelton says.
“They’re interested in supporting solar for more
pragmatic reasons.”
is always more effective to use words that have a
positive connotation, for example, energy assess-
ment in place of audit, and energy improvement or
upgrade in place of retrofit.
select words that help personalize the mes-
sage: My product will increase your home’s prop-
erty value while helping to protect your local envi-
ronment. additionally, be aware that consumers
respond more to statements of loss than to
statements of gain — stating that new weather
stripping would prevent the loss of heating dol-
lars is more compelling than noting the gains in
energy efficiency.
marketing the right Kind of green
a major marketing obstacle is the public’s
perception that solar energy is expensive; the
shelton Group survey found that just one-third
of american consumers think solar energy is
affordable. among homeowners who say they
are not interested in installing solar systems, 70
percent cited cost as the overriding factor. of
course if financed up-front, a new pv system can
be expensive, depending on available incentives
where it is installed. a 2010 Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory study found an average net
installed cost of $4.10 per watt for residential
pv, which works out to $16,400 or $20,500 for
a 4-kilowatt (kw) or 5-kw system.
fortunately there are ways to avoid solar
sticker shock, even if you don’t offer leasing
programs similar to those promoted by sunrun
( sunrunhome.com), solarcity ( solarcity.com)
and solsource ( solsourceinc.com). inform your
prospective customers about third-party financ-
ing options and good places to look for conven-
tional loans. The database of state incentives for
renewables and efficiency ( dsireusa.org) details
incentives and programs that exclusively provide
solar loans.
as for your marketing message, remember
that the language of solar system economics is
just mumble-jumble to many consumers. when
marketing solar systems, keep the cost argu-
ments simple and direct: This product will cut
your electric bill by X percent and save you X dol-
lars per year. “even a savvy solar consumer who’s
done their homework about solar can start get-
ting confused pretty quickly if you start talking
in kilowatt-hours, as opposed to monthly utility
bills,” shelton says. “it’s not that you can’t talk
about these [technical details], but don’t pre-
sume that just because you know, they know.
you risk losing them by swimming them in jar-
gon and terminology.”
even your choice of a single word can make
a difference in a successful marketing campaign.
when hearing the word audit, as in home energy
audit, do you think of the internal revenue service? and does the prefix retro in retrofit bring up
images of some fad or fashion from the past? it
messaging in the right Places
even if you’re operating on a shoestring
budget, an expanding number of cheap media
are available to promote your company. That is
important because your advertising campaign
should be as broad-based as possible. “it’s not
about the door hanger, or the advertisement or
any other [individual] piece of marketing content,” says Gary mull, vice president of marketing at westinghouse solar (westinghousesolar.
com). for four years, mull headed consumer
marketing at akeena solar, then the nation’s largest installer. (westinghouse solar was formed
as a partnership of westinghouse and akeena.)
“it’s about the campaign — how do you touch
the market?” he says.
so what does a successful marketing campaign for a small to mid-sized solar integrator business look like? Let’s take a look at the
marketing efforts of sunergy systems (sunergy
systems.com), a seattle-based pv and solar thermal installer with 16 employees.
in addition to maintaining a professional,
user-friendly website, sunergy maintains pages
on facebook, twitter and Linkedin. sales and
marketing chief Jeremy harvey has made use
of Google adwords and familiarized himself
with techniques for search engine optimiza-
tion. Google search for “solar” and “seattle,”
and sunergy systems is the fourth item to come
up. search for “pv systems” and “seattle,”
and it is at the top of the page. The shelton
Group survey finds that solar purchasers spend
a lot of time researching online, which under-
lines the importance of maintaining an effective
web presence.
Bringing your campaign together
so what does all of this mean for the solar
marketer? try surveying your customers to dis-
cover how they communicate and which mes-
sages resonate with them. use words having a
positive connotation, personalize the message,
and take advantage of the influence of social mar-
keting by making it easy for customers to recom-
mend or comment on your products. and target
your advertising to the consumer groups most
likely to be receptive to your message.
touch the market through as many media
as possible, both online and through conventional advertising. and allow your product
to market itself by cultivating relationships
in neighborhoods where your company has
already made installations.
There are no guarantees of success, particularly in today’s brutal economy. But by understanding your customers’ needs and knowing how and
where to communicate your message, you will
have a big advantage in the solar marketplace.
“once the light bulb goes on for a consumer
and they start thinking about solar, they think
‘who do i know,’” says mull, from westinghouse
solar. “That’s when they go, ‘ah, akeena solar,
i remember seeing advertisements from them.’
That’s when the dots connect for people. a lot
of transactions take place that way. it’s about
building brand, establishing market position and
communicating value opportunity.” ST
