You've spent years learning to build quality, energy-efficient homes. Now how do you get people to buy them? Utility certification programs such as Good Cents and its cousin Super Good Cents are a good start. Certification helps differentiate your home from all the others. In addition, many mortgage lenders now offer incentives for energy-efficient home construction (See June 1996). But don't stop there. Your own marketing program should build on utility certification. One lesson from builders who have succeeded at the marketing game is that energy efficiency is most effective when used to reinforce an overall quality image. Another is that the benefits of being an energy-efficient builder are long-term. Here are two builders' experiences.

Bill Eich attaches the finishing touch to one of his custom homes; a brass kickplate on the front door with his company's name.

Bill Eich: Building Name Recognition

A builder who takes an active approach to getting clients is Bill Eich. The Spirit Lake, Iowa, builder builds six to 10 new homes a year. He has developed a comprehensive marketing strategy that keeps his company's name in front of potential customers.

Eich is no stranger to sustainable construction. He's a past president of the Energy Efficient Building Association and a nationally known speaker on energy-efficient construction. Despite these credentials Eich knows that efficiency alone doesn't sell homes. "The secret," he says, "is that you don't specifically market energy efficiency. You market yourself and your company." Energy can become part of a market niche as well as part of your identity as a builder. But he believes that you limit yourself by making it the focal point of your business. "Even though we're known as energy-efficient builders, our focus is service, design and creativity."

Eich organizes his marketing strategy around these three points. His goal is to tell potential customers that he's a builder with genuine concern for the quality of the homes he builds as well as for the people who will live in them. His commitment to energy efficiency is important, but its value in winning customers is that it reinforces his carefully crafted quality image.

One technique Eich uses to get publicity is a brass kickplate that he attaches to the front door of every home he builds. The kickplate is imprinted with his company name and logo, as well as with the date the house was completed. People can see it from the street when they drive by. The kickplate then becomes an integral part of the marketing campaign, as a sign that the home is something special, with good design, durability, energy efficiency and indoor air quality. "What we say is that 'the brass kickplate is your sign of quality and value,'" says Eich. It goes on the house after Eich completes his final inspection.

After coming up with the idea in 1990, Eich went back and put kickplates on every home he had built since 1984 "because that's when we went to energy efficiency and the building science approach." It wasn't long before word got around. "Two years after we started doing that, people were coming into the resale market looking for homes with the Bill Eich kickplate on them."

An advertisement featuring the kickplate runs once a year in a local travel guide that is distributed in northwest Iowa. During a recent Parade of Homes, nearly 2000 people marched through one of his houses in two days. His crew was still touching up the paint the morning of the tour, and didn't have time to attach the kickplate. "As a result, 100 to 200 people specifically asked 'where is the brass kickplate?'"

Another part of Eich's marketing strategy is what he calls his "Homeowner of the Month" program. About a month after a family moves into their new house, they get a customer survey. The survey asks them what they like and don't like about their home, as well as how Eich and his employees handled the construction process. This information is valuable feedback that helps prevent problems in the future. The survey also asks leading questions such as "What did you like best about dealing with our company?" It requests the name of someone who is thinking of building or remodeling, asks if Eich can use their statements for marketing purposes, and requests authorization to get copies of their monthly bills from the utility. If they complete the form, they get a $25.00 gift certificate to a local restaurant. So far, everyone has completed it.

"We get quality control feedback, the opportunity to monitor heating bills and the opportunity for referrals," he says. "It's just a good program."

At the end of the year, Eich and his crew host a formal dinner at a local restaurant for all of that year's clients. The clients' names go into a hat and one winner gets a $500 travel certificate at a local travel agency. A writer and photographer are then sent to the winner's house. The winner is interviewed, asked for permission to be quoted, and photographed in the new home. This information is used to develop a full-page advertorial for the local newspaper.

Eich takes the photo used in the advertorial, frames it with his company logo in one corner and a quote from the homeowner in the other. He then hangs it on a wall in his outer office. "We call it our Wall of Fame," he says. "Any time a new customer comes in, the receptionist stalls them in the outer office. They get 10 or 15 minutes to read nice things about Bill Eich Construction."

Eich's marketing strategy has brought his company the recognition it needs to successfully compete. Not long ago he got a call from someone in a town 30 miles away. "We didn't know anyone there, and we had never built there," he says. When the potential client was asked why he called, he said "we've heard a lot of nice things about your company."

Scott Cannon: Education for the Long Haul

Scott Cannon is President of SHC, Inc. in Boothwyn, Pennsylvania, a company that builds about 25 homes a year. He has been building energy-efficient homes since 1990. With his company's technical expertise firmly established, Cannon has spent the last two years concentrating on marketing. He recently gave a seminar on marketing the energy-efficient home at the annual National Association of Home Builders conference in Houston.

Cannon's main competitor is existing homes, and efficiency is something that differentiates his homes from those built in the 50s or even the 80s. "Anybody can do a fancy kitchen or a hardwood floor," he says, "but energy efficiency is something not every builder offers."

The problem is getting potential clients to realize that. Cannon says energy efficiency is one of the last things on people's minds because they don't understand how it adds value to a home. Because of this, he sees education as an important part of his marketing strategy. He has cut-aways in his office showing a wall section, as well as details of the HVAC system he uses (a York Triatholon heat pump). He also gives pamphlets and other handouts to potential clients, including a checklist of the efficient features included in his homes.

The real payoff is the referrals he gets. "People are usually amazed at their utility bills," he says. One client came from a 1400 sq.ft. home where they paid $200 per month in utility bills. The 2,500 sq.ft. home he built for them cost only $120 per month to run. "They called me to ask if there was something wrong with their house."