And just like that, we’re past the July 4th OBB ITC deadline. Now it’s the rush to hit that December 31, 2027 mark. How is everyone feeling? How do you see the next couple of years shaping up?
I spoke with a colleague earlier last week who was concerned about the solar industry putting all their hopes in data center buildout. I have to agree. Relying too fully on any one source for growth seems like a recipe for trouble.
With that said, I do think this shift in the industry is a good time to spend some time on your brand strategy. And I’m not just saying that because that’s what I do. While many of you spent time addressing and adjusting your brand strategy earlier on when we first found out about the shortened ITC, some haven’t. Now’s the time.
- Who are your audience(s)?
- Are you shifting your offerings? Or packaging them in different ways?
- How has your value proposition and positioning changed?
- When was the last time you evaluated marketing and sales efforts in order to assess if you’re still reaching your intended audience(s)?
Now, I know RE+ is later this year than it has been in the past, but if you’ll have a booth there, it’s well past time for you to be planning for your booth and strategy.
For booth and event strategy and planning, I highly recommend reaching out to Susie Rivera.
And for presentation planning and preparation, reach out to Spenser Meeks.
In spite of, or perhaps because of, all of this shift and change in the industry, I hope you find the time to get outside and enjoy your summer!
Performing a clean energy brand audit
The clean energy industry is forward-looking. It’s part of our ethos to transition to more sustainable energy. It’s one of the things I love about this industry. And yet, sometimes it pays to spend some time looking back. An asset audit is one of those times.
Stepping back and auditing all company assets in order to get a solid, holistic picture of what’s actually available gives the opportunity to form a better picture of what the outside world sees when interacting with your organization, without the blinders of a single department’s silo. To be clear, by assets, I don’t mean financial assets, but documents, marketing, HR, engineering, content, sales, and other business assets.
Read on to understand why you should undertake an asset audit, why now is the time to perform one, and how to go about it.
Okay, it’s not exactly a summer beach read, but have you had the chance to buy and read my book?
Powerful Branding, A Guidebook for Clean Energy Companies to Build Thriving Brands, is available in eBook and hardback.
For those of you who have purchased, read, or otherwise supported this effort – thank you!
Monthly makeover
This month’s makeover isn’t a makeover, but comes from this recent article published on 404 Media about ChatGPT flyers.
The article talks about the indicators of troubling AI-made flyers and posters, along with the pushback many have when viewing the flyers. “Hey if this is your flyer, I’m not going, I’m not donating, I’m not sharing. Don’t ask me.”
Setting aside the argument to use AI or not to use AI when creating visual content, let’s take a minute to talk about a few design choices you should always consider, regardless of your style and audience.
Consider placement and size: Is it a flyer that needs to capture attention from 20 feet away? Or is it a social graphic likely viewed on a phone? Is it actually readable at that distance or size? While I don’t believe in unitaskers – use marketing material more than once – but also be aware of spatial use.
What is the ONE thing you want the viewer to read? What will either get them to read more and/or will they take away after reading the flyer? Yes, ONE. And only one. Is it large, clearly legible, and eye-catching without distraction?
Secondarily, what absolutely needs to be on the flyer? Get rid of anything that is “nice to have”. It adds noise.
Is your imagery helping promote your message or is it distracting from your message? How long does it take to cognitively parse any images? If it takes too long or have too many images competing for attention, you’ll lose your audience’s attention.
Remember that no-one cares as much as you do about the contents of your flyer. They won’t stop and spend minutes reading it like you might in proofing it. They’ll see too much text, too many or too hard to parse images, and no single, clear takeaway and move on.
If you’d like to learn more about best practices when it comes to design, flyers or other materials, I have a post for that.
And if you have a slide, chart, or graph you’d like to see made over, send it my way. I’d love to feature it!
Of note
Dispelling the farm myth
SEIA released a new, interactive map in June showing US land use. Broken down by state, it’s intended purpose is to show how little land solar is actually using in order to dispell the false narrative that solar is eating up farmland. The two stats that got me though are:
- In the US there are 43 acres of abandoned prime farmland for every acre of solar on prime farmland.
- Golf courses use 2.6x as much prime farmland than solar.
A perfect storm
The World Meteorological Organization noted the predicted conditions for a “super” El Nino event have formed in the Pacific, which will impact weather across the globe. Not what we want to hear when many are experiencing terrible heat waves. And here in the Pacific Northwest a major cross-country freeway was closed last night due to wildfires.
For those of you who don’t experience “fire season”, this fire season is early. Really early. It doesn’t bode well for the rest of the summer and autumn.
Meanwhile, soaring energy prices are impacting most people. I don’t see conditions impacting prices magically getting better over the next few months with supply, demand, and climate conditions what they are. In good news for clean energy, I’m hearing from colleagues that energy price volatility is making solar and energy storage much more appealing. So, yay?
July joke
How to seashells stay clean?
They wash up on the beach.