We’ve been making a list of things they don’t teach you in school. It turns out that’s a really long list, especially when it comes to topics on energy; the good, the bad, the ugly, the carbon neutral. There’s a lot to know. The average person does not have access to information about the energy that powers their own home or business, except maybe who supplies local energy in their neighborhood and how to sign up for services. Building managers may have a bit more insight on the commercial end, yet they’re not expected to have an in-depth understanding of renewable energy either. In fact, the majority of people in residential, commercial, and government spaces who haven’t crossed the solar line in the sand, are the ones that need the most education and engagement – they need the list of things they aren’t taught in school about solar energy. This is why we’ve put together a list of bite-sized stats and facts to help educate and reeducate people on commercial and residential solar energy.
Below are 10 reasons why we’ve created stats and facts to help sell more solar:
1. Dispel myths about solar energy
When you know about the power of solar energy, it’s a bit of a no-brainer. BUT, when you don’t know much about the topic, it’s easy to absorb some myths along the way. It’s especially easy to understand when you remember that people’s perceptions are often wrapped around how a word or concept has been intentionally framed to benefit an industry’s marketing efforts. You can read more about framing, developing communication strategies for sustainable movements, brands, and policies here. We all have trigger words, phrases, or topics, and when we hear them, our brain jumps to simplify what we’ve listened to with what we already believe, our “frames of reference.” For instance, when you encounter a person influenced by pro-oil industry framing and hear the word solar attached to a negative myth, they could be more prone to accept that particular myth because of the original negative framing of solar. When industries have opposing views, marketing teams often work to market and advertise using frames they create which could be untrue, misconstrued, and detrimental to those companies doing great things to grow solar energy. The only way to bust through specific frames is to create new ones, and sharing facts are an important place to start. This is an efficient process of dispelling myths about solar.
For example, during the Texas Winterstorm Blackouts in 2021, myths flew across the media about how solar and wind energy were to blame. Yet, the real failure of systems was natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy. When it came to solar and wind, poor weatherization of equipment was the only culprit. Freezing temperatures in Canada and Sweden don’t stop their wind and solar farms from fully operating, and here’s a fact that shares this sentiment.
2. Build trust with potential customers and give them a sense of purpose
Trust building is wealth building. Top salespeople are the ones that people trust the most. They share the dirt, they share the facts, and they relate to customers well. One of the top ways to build trust with your audience is to share the truth.
Science-backed facts help customers know that you’re serious about them getting all the information they need to make the best decision. You’re helping to lay the solar energy cards on the table for your commercial and residential prospects. Sharing powerful, easy to understand facts that come directly from an academic study is a great, simple way to create that sense of trust and reliability every solar company needs. Once potential customers start to read the facts you share, they tend to feel a sense of urgency to more fully understand and adopt solar. This leads to the next important step…
3. Building a pro-solar sentiment
Most people love solar, and why wouldn’t they? It’s a truly renewable energy resource that’s helping the world turn the dial on destructive non-renewable sources of energy. Solar saves money, and in some cases, makes a ton of money. Building the future from old-fashioned crude oil days means nurturing pro-solar sentiment. We do that by sharing the truth about solar, solar outcomes, and what a world powered by solar energy looks like. We have to draw the images of the world we create, and by doing this, we can build a vision for people that is positive and based on truth. We need all hands on deck for building pro-solar sentiment and help make going solar a no-brainer.
4. A clever way to promote services without hard “selling”
Even when you know what you want, getting a hard sell is most often a deterrent. Today, customers want to be educated, informed, and know that they’re making the right decision. To support the way leads want to be sold to, sharing helpful, science-backed information helps them come to an obvious decision – YES to solar. More often than not, purchasing solar projects is a decision that must be mapped out, make sense to the buyer, and have definitive, reliable outcomes. Helping bridge knowledge gaps is a sure-fire way to dodge the hard sell and be the source of solar information prospects are seeking.
5. Educate local government representatives on the advantages of supporting solar
In the U.S., renewable energy consumption only just surpassed coal consumption for the first time in over 130 years. What does this mean for the government? It means that many lawmakers are more familiar with coal than they are solar. It has only now become a mainstream energy source, and there is still so much education needed with our lawmakers. In fact, the fossil fuel industry’s political funding outweighs the solar industry 13 times. More money means more influence and more “education.” Now, with climate change looming, more policymakers are being forced to address carbon reductions. Solar panels on a house or a solar farm aren’t the only way to reduce carbon footprint; many solar powered products and projects can crush our carbon footprint. Sharing facts and using them in outreach to government officials help to turn the tide and support various types of solar projects.
6. Add to videos and other content to drive impact
Telling stories around solar projects helps bring people in the retail and commercial space into the solar movement. Weaving interesting, relatable facts into solar stories via video helps drive the point home about the efficacy and impact of going solar. It’s one thing to see the shift of millions of homes and businesses; it’s another to share the data and facts, documentary style. Solar videos are a great way to move the needle on education. Our veteran filmmakers have even dedicated their careers to advancing sustainable missions, like solar energy adoption.
7. Create content around solar stats
Need help developing solar stories? No problem. You can use facts and stats as a starting point for developing a storyboard. Depending on the target people you’d like to connect with, choosing a fact or stat and researching the background to tell the stories behind it makes for rich, interesting content. Of course, those numbers are only a representation of the real life stories that created them.
8. Have your solar sales team use facts in their sales pitches and customer education
The best salespeople help customers make the best decisions that are true to the customer’s benefit. Arming your green and veteran solar salespeople with specialized insight on solar can help perfect their pitch and deliver impactful information. You can create a sales sheet of solar facts tailored to different personas that your sales team can pick and share according to the situation. You can add tailored facts and stats to sales brochures. Salespeople can share their favorite facts in their email signature to help drive a point home to email recipients. There are many clever, unassuming ways that salespeople can share solar facts. Ultimately, this move helps leads feel smarter and better informed by your solar staff.
9. Create quizzes as a fun way to test solar knowledge
People may think they know a lot about solar, but what if you helped them test their knowledge. Often when we take a quiz, we dive in with curiosity, bold confidence, or know we’ve got a lot to learn. Quizzes and self tests are a friendly way to help teach a subject and make your audience smarter than when they started the quiz. You can deliver outcomes with serious, silly, or just plain informative descriptions. Using stats and facts for quizzes also helps you collect lead information and get an understanding of their learning needs for future content. Whatever gaps in knowledge you discover can be a source of focused education and quiz building.
10. Position your solar company as a leader who only shares the facts
With more than 10,000 solar companies in every state of the U.S. alone, it’s easy to follow the crowd. A leader, however, is the first to try things and create models that everyone else will follow. What a neat model where you spread truth and knowledge as a marketing mechanism. In the case of stats and facts, what a great industry-solidifying model to take and make your own. Don’t be a solar follower, be a leader and show your company’s authority by simply adding stats and facts that help people understand, share, and adopt solar energy as the leading renewable source of the future.
