(c) Can Stock Photo Inc. / jirsak
Content marketing has become an important tool in business marketing efforts, and solar companies are embracing it with blog initiatives. REC Solar, Run on Sun and SolarCity each have popularized their blogs. And perhaps you’ve encountered The Energy Miser from Mark Durrenberger, president of Massachusetts-based solar installation company New England Clean Energy. We asked the company’s marketing director, Susan Boucher, to share some thoughts on the aim and production of The Energy Miser.
Solar Power World: Why do you think it’s important to blog?
New England Clean Energy: It’s important to blog simply for SEO. Relevant content brings people in and introduces them to our business. In the past 30 days, The Energy Miser has had nearly 1,000 hits. For a small, local installer, we see that as a huge success.
In addition, we’ve always been a company that focuses on education. An educated consumer is our best customer. The blog is a perfect forum for digging into solar issues and developments in more detail than Facebook, Twitter and our e-newsletter allow.
Site stats suggest people are reading full articles. They spend much more time on our blog pages than our website pages (or maybe they’re just going to get a cup of coffee while the blog is up on their monitor).
SPW: What are some of the key blog-writing guidelines you follow?
New England Clean Energy: We try to stick to 300 to 500 words and include at least one visual to spice it up. We love data and charts. Content-wise, we shoot for conversational and educational with a touch of humor.
SPW: How frequently do you blog?
New England Clean Energy: The goal is to blog at least monthly. It usually ends up being slightly less due to lack of time. Because our blog has in-depth articles rather than a daily diary approach, this frequency seems to work.
SPW: Do you talk generically about the industry or specifically about your business?
New England Clean Energy: The Energy Miser is not a stream of consciousness blog where Mark says what he had for breakfast or reports a funny comment he heard at the bank. We use Twitter and Facebook for brief observations or quips. While his personality comes through on The Energy Miser, it’s not about him. It’s about solar. We focus on in-depth analysis of solar industry issues seen through the lens of our own experience. Mark interprets issues, technologies or trends, and brings them to life with his own analysis or anecdotes.
SPW: How do you make sure people find your blog?
New England Clean Energy: We use our social media outlets—Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn—to drive people to The Energy Miser, and we often link to the blog in our e-newsletter. Recently, we added the blog URL to our business cards.
SPW: What’s been your most popular blog so far?
New England Clean Energy: Our most popular post is, “Tree Math: Solar Panels vs. Trees, What’s the Carbon Trade-off?” It was published two years ago and is still, consistently, our most popular post, even though some of the links have long since disappeared. Our readers find the content still relevant though. Plus, we actively refer people to that post who are debating taking down trees to make solar work.
SPW: Have you ever encountered challenges or complaints about your blog and how did you deal with it?
New England Clean Energy: One time a customer thought they were portrayed negatively in an example, though no name was given. We didn’t agree—we would never try to cast a customer in a negative light. We were happy to respond by simply removing that reference from the post. SPW