Energy Audit Marketing

Hi folks, hope your inspection schedules are full! My question is for those of you who have added energy auditing to your services or have experience with energy audits. What ways have been effective for marketing? Also, what marketing effort has had your highest ROI? I am getting prepared to start performing energy audits and advertising them in the late summer/fall, after some more proper training and curious which mediums of marketing have been sucessful as I would have to imagine they are much different then marketing home inspections. I was thinking the local paper and local home paper that is delivered to our area, but want to do some proper research before dumping dollars into it. Thanks gentleman and have a great memorial weekend!

Some Energy Auditors Are Working With Local Home Depot’s, That Help Promote Their Energy Audit Service… While The Auditor Sends Clients BackTo The Lumber Yard To Buy Products At A Discount. Everyone Wins…! Plus The Energy Auditor Can Offer His Energy Audits For Free, If theClient Agrees To Allow The Auditor To Help Perform The Upgrades ToThe House. The Client Gets A Free Energy Audit And the Auditor Makes Income On The Service End… Plus The Lumber Yards Advertises For The Auditor, Which Increases Their Sales. It Is So Simple And It Works.

Read more at…

Free Energy Audit Webinar Class - Every Month

I tried a Valpak campaign in the winter and it was a miserable FAILURE. I do get some energy audit type requests, but generally these people came looking for me and found me online or through referrals. I was really really surprised at the ack of response that I got from the Valpak campaign. I did not expect it to be huge but I thought it would pay for itself. It did not. There are many variables at play with such a campaign and I am unsure of which ones I did wrong.

I believe next time I will pick specific neighborhoods and try to get more hits on each person, rather than going for the scattershot approach that the Valpak offered. The Valpak campaign I did hit 100,000 homes twice. I have a single digit response in paying jobs and only slighly more in bites (not counting other advertisers that called trying to get my business.) I think it would be better to pick one or two developements of 1500 - 2000 homes and hit them with multiple mailings.

thankfully, business has picked back up and I am booked out further than I really like. So this campaign has been moved to the back burner for the time being.

Anyone else? Help please…any and all opinions are greatly appreciated.

Randy,

I work with tons of energy auditors, and I can give you some ideas on what they do, but it is just too much to list here or in an email. If you give me a call and about 30 minutes I can give you some ideas.

Jason Kaylor – JJ
VP of Specialty Products
877/207-1244
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Retrotec Duct & Blower Door

Left message with you on ph. indicated. Thanks Jason, look forward to speaking with you soon!

Hi Randy,

I’m in the first phase of a postcard mailing for Energy Audits. Response rate just under 1%. (4 audits from 500 pieces). It’s been 6 weeks so I’m planning a second mailing of 1000 (500 the original recipients and 500 first mailing. The assumption (hope) is a similar response rate or maybe a bit more. My plan has a 3rd mailing early August, a 4th in mid September and a 5th right before Halloween. All to essentially the same list as repetition is critical to making a mailing plan successful. With the onset of colder weather I am hoping my response rate goes up.

One challenge I find right now is overcoming the lack of urgency brought on from lower fuel costs. The recent uptick seems to be getting a little attention but frankly until it hurts to buy fuel again I suspect Energy Audits will remain a small part of business.

If you’re interested you can see my current postcard

The offers a bit stronger then I would like but as I mentioned there seems to be a great deal of apathy among consumers right now. Hate to say it but $4 per gallon heating oil would be good for my business (Come on cap and trade)

One avenue that has gotten me a few gigs (in a smaller town) was to print out a nice hard copy report and offer an energy efficiency audit at local silent auctions that raise money for various occassions and charities. It cost you a free audit, but it is a great way to educate the public about auditing and thermography and your company .

Tim

Sorry but i don’t see this as a good plan for any inspector. Rather one may do better if you just do Home inspection with add ons like an Energy audit… You will find buyer have you as some one they trust and will buy your Energy audits program. Work on your home inspection sales and the rest will fall into place.

Best

Ron

Though things are warming slightly (and I so mean slightly) just being focused on HI is not practical in less concentrated markets like central Vermont. Having something you can legitimately market to a broader range of folks is worthwhile. Even better if it could be something that is totally separated from the Re market.

I judge by the numbers. More invested in HI marketing right now would be very low return as the sales just aren’t there. But as the price of gas and heating oil goes up the interest/inquiries on energy have gone up.

Of course that’s what makes business fun. There’s never any one size-fits-all answer no matter how much we look for one.

What you are trying to do is make something out of nothing and thats very hard to do. Ive been doing this for 30 years now and have done just about everything under the sun… Not to say that this Can not work. but asking question on how to get something going and waiting on a message board for some kind of a plan to pop up is not a good way to run an operation. You need a model to run under and iN this economy there is not one to Be found… So if your HI Calender was full would be trying to do Energy Audit ? NO! I’m just trying to help not pull the carpet out from under you… And the best plan that is out there is REAL ESTATE AGENTS. like or not they Known a lot of people and thats something you can tap into… My advise is put your cads in your hand and get out and talk to the agent every day. be in some agents office every day for the next 30 days and you will get work. this works every time any place… If you want inspection and Energy Audit and all kinds of other IR work… 30 days marketing Real estate agents will do it.

I bet you have never done that :mrgreen: ? 30 days in a row ?

Best

Ron

You’d be right. But not because I don’t recognize the advantages of trolling for work like a lady of the evening. But because my business plan was and is premised on being an independent inspector who doesn’t put his business at the mercy of being liked by what has to be one of the least ethical group in the country.

Diversification is an excellent way to operate a business in general. I agree that anyone looking for a cookie cutter magic wand on a message board is wasting their time. But ideas can be gathered. And having multiple product/service lines so slack in one doesn’t kill you is also intelligent.

3/4 of my current business is other then HI. Because there is not the volume of houses being sold. No amount of kissing used house sales agents backsides will create sales that don’t exist.

Excellent reply Don!!!

PS I don’t market to Realtors either, but then again, I don’t have to.

I would have to agree with the later. I personally did not start this thread for a cookie cutter business plan, and as a matter of fact I am quite successful already in the home inspection game for a one man shop; performing market research and finding additional ways to diversify in my humble opinion is just plain smart. Furthermore, (at least in my market) anyone that claims you cannot make money but reaching the general public is purely incorrect. I think infared is the next wave for home inspectors and I plan on being on it for the ride, just performing some market research from those who are willing to provide some. Thanks in advance!

Randy, if you want to get into IR and diversify look into these areas, they do not have anything to do with home inspections, pay more, less liability and I think their more fun than a home inspection.
Commercial roof inspection
Before and after scans for insulation companies
Moisture intrution for…
Property management comp.
Condo Associations
Heat loss surveys, residential/commercial

None of the above involve marketing to a Realtor.

+1

Throw in:
insurance companies (market to)
Industry
Find companies that you know have a need for IR but won’t spend the bucks on it, they generally sub it out.
Trucking companies - No one goes after this one, they have several IR needs that they normally do not know about.
Search and Rescue
The forestry service and the likes
Ghost hunters - laugh all you want, we rent and sell cameras to these guys all the time. If we can rent to them, you can do the work for them.
Marine applications

There are a ton more if you just think out of the box a little.

Jason Kaylor – JJ
VP of Specialty Products
877/207-1244
AC Tool Supply](http://www.aikencolon.com/)
Fluke Thermal Imagers
Testo Infrared Cameras
HotShot Hi-Rez Infrared Cameras
Ideal 61-059 AFCI GFCI
Ideal 61-164 Circuit Tracer
Ideal 61-165 Circuit Tracer

Peter,

How are you marketing the above mentioned IR services? Are you doing it through direct contact, direct mail, flyers, etc? Would be interested in seeing some sample letters, flyers, etc.

I haven’t come up with a brochure yet. I’m working on that as well as a new web site. Presently my work comes from referals, web site and I have a huge customer base from 25 years as a contractor.
I’m also starting a free energy audit seminar. I will send out invitations to my clients through my data base and if it takes off I’ll advertise in the newspaper. This way I can potentialy speak to App. 15-20 clients at a time. I hope to have my first one by the end of June.

Also, everything I’m doing has the same theme. My web site, my invitation, my presentation. My gole is to create my own brand of energy audit/thermal imaging.

Great information! and thanks for contributing to the out of the box thinking! That is exactly what I was looking for…more ideas away from the RE market. :wink: