Informing is a distinct way of marketing

Bernard Faber

board member 033Energie

“As a foundation, we had managed to get a subsidy for our plans: developing and selling concepts to renovate existing homes to energy neutral. The concepts were developed by experienced construction companies and suppliers of appliances and installations. 033Energie would provide information as an independent counter and refer interested homeowners and housing associations to the construction companies. By charging a small fee on sales, our counter could support itself and continue to operate. So far so good.”

“The practice was more recalcitrant. It soon became clear that much more needed to be done to get homeowners moving. Much more than our counter could handle. We decided to hire a marketer for this need, because that was basically what was lacking. Nils Zelle presented good ideas and was available to work with us. Indeed: with us. A task in which much is still unknown and in which much needs to be developed requires commitment. That commitment was there!”

“Nils developed a Customer Journey which then served as a guideline for communication. One of the essences was to address homeowners as local residents, and to encourage them to take steps together with other local residents to make their homes more sustainable. After all, neighbourhoods tend to contain the same homes, all of which could use technically the same renovation concept. By giving a first resident in a neighbourhood a discount in exchange for ambassadorship, we also had model homes.”

“Some elements in our marketing and communication were really different and innovative. Of course: we had to translate the construction companies’ technical concepts into clear language that suits the average homeowner. So a lot of informing and educating. Explaining how it works and naming benefits.”

“That benefit was not only in energy savings. Via the model homes, we found out that living comfort improved by leaps and bounds after renovation, especially for older homes. And the indoor climate also improved greatly. So instead of just talking about return on investment, we also had a lot of focus on living comfort and health. And also safety. Nils coined the term ‘The New Living’ for this.”

“Another important insight we gained was family decision-making. Even when it came to our kind of technical services. Men are often the first to come into contact with this subject and ‘faithfully’ follow the steps of the customer journey. But the moment a decision really needs to be made, the woman of the house joins in. And women often have different ideas and different questions. Sometimes about the content of the renovation, but more often about practical matters. So the sales process actually started all over again. Nils suggested using ‘gender marketing’ and paying more attention to more female motives, such as living comfort and health. This way, women were involved earlier in the process and accelerated the process.”

“Despite all the digital capabilities, we really steered towards ‘hybrid marketing’. Besides website, email newsletter, social media, online advertising and SEO & SEA, we also chose to deploy many offline means, such as postal mailings, newspaper ads, bus shelters and neighbourhood meetings. In this way, we also managed to reach older homeowners. Important, because this group was often positive about the idea of being able to live at home for longer in a preserved and future-proof home.”

“We regularly shared our experiences by organising meetings for professionals, such as construction companies, installers, consultants and education. Results and insights were also shared with municipalities and the province. We were at the forefront of making the Netherlands more sustainable.”

“The marketing we developed together with Nils Zelle was a lot like educating, informing. We often couldn’t do otherwise; we had a new market to develop. Working on awareness. As a national pilot, we had to figure out how to be successful. And others build on that today. For example, developing building-related forms of financing. We had the room full of interested people every time, but for many, the step to sustainability was still too far financially at the time.”

“A task in which much is still unknown and in which much needs to be developed requires commitment.”

“Some elements in our marketing and communication were really different and innovative.”

“We were at the forefront of making the Netherlands more sustainable.”