Marketing Energy Efficiency

Building momentum for energy efficiency in your community requires raising consumer awareness about energy use and effectively marketing appropriate programs and services to prospective participants.

Reaching Target Audiences

The first step in any successful campaign is defining and understanding your target audience. Market research will help you determine who is most likely to be receptive to a given program, what they are motivated by, and the messages and marketing strategies that are likely to be the most effective in reaching them.

Marketing plans are often multi-pronged, including frequent and informative communications, both through media outlets and targeted advertising or collateral material. Many successful programs cite the importance of personal interaction with end users - whether at a community event, during an audit, or at the point of sale where trained contractors or retail sales people can be the most valuable marketing tool.

This topic crosses over with many others. For example, you may have to “market” programs internally first to get buy-in from management or other departments – see the Making a Business Case section for further guidance in this area. As suggested above Market Research is essential and resources in that section may help you plan your effort. And, finally part of Program Evaluation is measuring the effectiveness of your campaigns in reaching and motivating the target audience, and making adjustments as needed to improve program delivery.