Have the Right Partner for Your Solar Energy Marketing Efforts?
Solar energy marketing agencies and boutique marketing outfits are in the business of delivering measurable improvements for intrepid clients in pursuit of positive ROI.
In this post, I want to talk about how a lot of digital marketing people are being taught by industry gurus to sell simple marketing solutions to clients, and why this could be a red flag.
There are amazing products, exclusive one (more on that soon…), but there are just as many cookie-cutter products that get sold as “the only solution you’ll ever need!” in the pitch, but when boiled down over time, don’t deliver.
I want to take a little time here to explore what the motivations behind selling these types of packages might be, and if or how these products might benefit you.
The Business Model of Most Marketers
The idea behind this approach with regard to a solar energy marketing strategy is that the more narrow the focus, the better and more efficient the service will be.
In theory, if a marketer has a streamlined, one-size-fits-all product, they will be able to highly refine that offer and get the best possible results for their clients.
Pricing will be consistent, and systems will be in place to deliver results time after time at scale. The approach is a savvy one for a marketing business to effectively scale, but does it actually work?
What Do Results From a Single Marketing Method Look Like?
Unfortunately, the results of this kind of model work like a charm when growing a marketing business, it works like magic when selling to other marketers, but it doesn’t always work great for the customer. Why? Because the ecology of a business is much more complex than a cookie cutter solution can be responsive to.
Now, to acknowledge the many working parts and dynamic nature of a business does not suggest that a marketer who offers “everything but the kitchen sink” will have a fundamentally better service.
The truth is that a service business needs some level of specialization to ensure quality. Otherwise, the service ecosystem runs a risk of being watered down by its own good intentions.
The real problem with the single product model is that the focus is entirely on the efficiency of the agency and not of the unique qualities that each company or customer brings to the table.

Companies, Like Fingerprints, Are Unique
Now it’s pretty obvious to say that no two businesses are built in just the same way. Solar companies, just like companies in any other vertical come in many different shapes and sizes.
Along with that uniqueness, every company brings with it its own set of unique strengths and weaknesses.
I recently witnessed how the distinct properties of businesses (not the marketing) affected outcomes in the real world by looking at a side by side Facebook campaign comparison.
Though the campaigns weren’t truly identical, they were very similar in structure
They both ran video ads (ensures more engagement and a lower cost per click)
They both used the same targeting for Ad set #1 (interest-based)
They used the same demographics, including age range, income level and home ownership.
For audience #2, they both used an existing customer list to create a targeted lookalike campaign.
Both campaigns went through our same optimization process.
As for the second company, with the same conditions set inside Facebook, the results couldn’t have been more different. A big zero for conversions!
Contradictory results seem to defy logic but there’s a reason for it. It’s not just a random thing.
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The Levelheaded Marketer
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Tying It All Together
Tough love may be required.
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