Develop the procurement, outreach, and loan support resources required to perform your financing activities.
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Develop workforce and contractor engagement procedures, forms, and materials
Solidify your program strategy and decide which customers you will focus on; what products, services, and support you will provide; and how you will partner with contractors and others to deliver services to your customers.
Establish relationships with organizations that can help deliver your program by enhancing your knowledge, resources, capabilities and access to customers and contractors.
Implement marketing and outreach activities in coordination with other program components to generate demand for your program's services.
Create your program's branding guidelines and materials to elevate program visibility and support your marketing and outreach efforts.
Decide on priority target audience segments, messages, and incentives that will motivate customers.
Identify and prioritize potential target audiences based on their likely receptivity to your program's services.
Learn about the capabilities and services of existing contractors and training providers working in your market.
Develop the necessary materials, tools, and staff capacity to effectively deliver and manage your program.
Ensure a positive customer experience with your program from launch through implementation over time.
To develop a successful business model, Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partners found it critical to have a strong understanding of the external environment within which they operated. This included who their customers were, who their competitors and partners were, what key policies governed...
Many home performance programs have confronted the challenge of how to reach out to more customers and to improve conversion rates of customer interest into completed upgrades. Realizing that the contractor is a primary face-to-face link between customers and the program, some Better Buildings...
Measuring performance at key points in the upgrade process (e.g., assessments, conversion rates, and financing applications) has helped programs understand where their processes are working smoothly and where they are not. This information has helped them continuously improve their program design...
Programs that have developed strong and lasting partnerships have done so by identifying shared goals and seeking ways in which programs and partners can mutually benefit by advancing each other's missions. Even if partners don’t have the same goals as your program, you can still try to find ways to...
Given all of the other things that compete for your audience’s attention, it is critical that program participation steps are straightforward and easy to understand. Many programs have found that complexity makes it harder for interested homeowners to complete upgrade projects. These programs have...
Many programs struggle with communicating the value of financing to homeowners. Financing can be a complicated topic, and ensuring that homeowners understand how their loans work and the benefits they will realize is important for converting interest into action. Many Better Buildings Neighborhood...
All residential energy efficiency programs have found that outreach needs to be repeated to connect with and remind potential participants about program offerings. As marketing gurus note, the majority of people need to be exposed to a product message at least three times (on separate occasions) to...
Many programs found that market research can help identify, segment, and characterize audiences to understand how to prioritize them. A comprehensive evaluation of over 140 programs across the United States found that programs had greater success when they identified specific target populations...
Programs that conducted one-on-one outreach found that community events provided good opportunities for the program and its partners to connect and build credibility with potential customers. Particularly successful events were ones that attracted the program’s target audience and aligned with their...
Words have power, so many programs decided to use language with positive associations. For example, the Better Buildings Neighborhood Program encouraged use of the term "assessment" instead of "audit" to avoid the negative connotation of a tax audit. "Home energy upgrade" sounds more positive than...
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This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on using tailored messaging and approaches to meet the unique needs of families. Building Doctors is the featured speaker.
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Organizations or Programs
Puget Sound Energy
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on developing messaging and branding strategies.
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This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on messaging strategies to capture the benefits of home upgrades and attract new customers to home performance.
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Organizations or Programs
CoMo Energy Challenge
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on the benefits, challenges, messaging and imagery of different social media campaigns.
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Organizations or Programs
Enhabit
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on effective messaging.
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This peer exchange call summary focused on messaging and delivery strategies of those messages to low-income program participants.
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The U.S. Department of Energy's Message Map and Value Proposition Worksheet is designed to help programs determine the key messages to best communicate to priority audiences.
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This publication draws on recent focus groups, polls, and other research to chart a path promoting energy efficiency through language and imagery in ways that tap public enthusiasm.
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This tip sheet from EPA's Climate Showcase Communities provides lessons from programs about strategies for effective messaging as well as recommended resources.
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This series of 19 tip sheets is based on the experience and expertise of EPA’s Climate Showcase Communities. The tip sheets cover a wide range of topics, such as marketing and communications (effective messaging, traditional media strategies, community-based social marketing, and testimonial videos) and working with specific types of stakeholders (institutional partners, contractors, experts, utilities, early adopters, volunteers).
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Organizations or Programs
Cambridge Energy Alliance,
Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance (GCEA),
Neighborhood Energy Action Partnership,
WeatherizeDC
This report shares strategies for marketing local energy efficiency programs, particularly through focused messaging, leveraging partnerships, and social media.
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Organizations or Programs
Energy Upgrade California
This Los Angeles County, California, presentation shares how to build broad, positive awareness of and support for programs; gain the tools and resources to align and coordinate marketing efforts; and increase flexibility and responsiveness in messaging and scope.
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Organizations or Programs
Denver Energy Challenge,
Efficiency Nova Scotia,
Energize Delaware,
Watt Watchers,
Empower Chattanooga,
Energy Upgrade California
This presentation includes examples of 16 programs' creative marketing materials. The Better Buildings Residential Network held a March Madness tournament to find the most creative residential energy efficiency messages during March Peer Exchange Calls. Sixteen marketing campaigns were featured in a bracket challenge on the calls, and participants made their picks. Residential Network member the Fuel Fund of Maryland was chosen as the winning message for its Watt Watchers campaign.
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Organizations or Programs
RePower Kitsap,
RePower Bainbridge,
RePower Bremerton
In this video interview segment, Yvonne Kraus of Conservation Services Group in Bainbridge Island, Washington, discusses why the RePower program created multiple branding and messaging themes.
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In this video interview segment, Yvonne Kraus of Conservation Services Group in Bainbridge Island, Washington, discusses why the RePower program created multiple branding and messaging themes.