Category: Case Study

How To Market Your Solar Case Study

Case StudySolar Marketing

Solar Case StudyCase studies are incredibly popular with marketers. The Content Marketing Institute noted in 2016 that: the top goals of B2B content marketing are lead generation and sales and that 82% of them use case studies to reach these goals, second only to social media channels.

Why? Because they’re terrific social proof that your product works. They validate your company and build serious amounts of trust with homeowners and businesses alike. Surprisingly, I have found that very few solar companies use them, or don’t have any residential stories beyond some photos. So to have compelling, well-written success stories that speak to both homeowners and business buyers would clearly separate you from your competitors.

And once you do have a solar case study, how do you use it? Here are strategies for marketing your case studies to prospects.

On your solar website

Have a separate case studies page. You can call it “Case Studies” or “Success Stories” (one solar company calls it “Our Work”). Make it easy to view them in this section with one or all of these tactics:

  • Include a quick summary overview of the solar case study with the option to click further to read the whole document. This summary can be like SunPower’s popup box with a short list and image or HubSpot’s short paragraph summary with image, key quote and stats
  • Allow them to either view all of them or to group them by type: residential or commercial, or by industry
  • Offer the option to actually download and print the study to retain your document design and branding (great for commercial buyers who want to pass it around the company)
  • Use the title and a short paragraph to compel the prospect to click further by highlighting key benefits or addressing  prospect concerns. Solar Design did when they titled their residential case study Protecting Your Home’s Roof When Installing Solar and a commercial case study titled Solar Reduces Operating Cost of a Retail Business, Increases Profitability
  • Include a mix of written and video case studies, giving your prospects as many options as possible to be engaged

Consider putting a solar case study directly on your home page, whether in video form, as a teaser paragraph and image with call-to-action (CTA) to view more, in a tasteful slide-in CTA  or as a customer testimonial. Keep reading

Analysis of a Solar Case Study: 9 Biggest Mistakes

Case StudySolar Marketing

As I take a look at solar cases studies out there I’m surprised to see that, more often than not, they’re missing important Case Study Mistakeelements that are the difference between a customer story that works and one that misses the mark. A solar case study
can be one of the strongest parts of your marketing toolbox, but only if it avoids some of these important errors.

No engaging lead

You want to grab the reader’s attention right at the top with a compelling first few sentences. Copyblogger describes it as, “Leave them begging to know the end in the very beginning.” It’s the difference between something dry lifted from your About page:

“Solar ABC is a leading provider of residential and commercial solar solutions, known for our efficiency and first-class customer service”

And something more bold or thought provoking:

“Few universities in the world are as passionate about environmental stewardship than University of SJ.

“How do you use your home to help secure your grandchildren’s future?”

“What can a retiree do to make her bills more predictable?”

No storytelling

Lift Communication reports that when a story “creates a meaningful emotional connection with your audience…the Case Study Storyperceived value of your products and services increases…[and] they’re often inspired to buy.” A solar case study is the perfect opportunity to use your non-sales type of voice to convey just how much value you bring to your customers. So there has to be a good story. With some drama.

That drama is found when the prospects feel and understand what your customer went through before finding your (utterly satisfying) solution. So they need to hear about the stress of the summer electric bill that capped $600 a month in your customer’s older, less energy efficient home or concerns that a partially shady roof or byzantine town ordinance would get
in the way. A good story doesn’t omit these kinds of details.

A solar case study is the perfect opportunity to use your non-sales type of voice to convey just how much value you bring to your customers.

Poor quality photos or none at all

At least one photo of the client and one of the installation go a long way. HubSpot states that when there is an image paired with content, a reader spends more time looking at it than the text, retains 55% more info three days later and is twice as likely to share it on social media. And ideally these photos should be quality enough to do the installation justice, particularly given that aesthetic is sometimes a concern for home and business owners. You could also include the logo of the company for a commercial installation to add another nice visual and some extra gravitas.

Not easy to scan

A strong solar case study is scannable, as in your busy reader can skim through the main ingredients and get a good picture of the power of this story. This means headline, photos, snapshot, subheads, and bullets. And a nice compliment to this is professional looking design. Whether one page or four the story should be laid out to showcase it in the best possible way, which can include nice quality images and font and sidebars with quotes and tech info. This way the content and design work together to create an easy to scan, sleek looking document.

No quotes Keep reading

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