Your personal outreach is useful for target groups that value getting to know the person behind the project. Investing time to address them in person will help you to find enthusiastic and convinced members, investors or multipliers for your energy community.
Bring a folder with all your project material to all meetings, no matter how informal. See below for whom personal outreach could be useful.
Find our white label material for this action: flyer, factsheet, PowerPoint slides
1 Search for the target groups that might be relevant to your project
Municipalities: Find the person in charge of energy issues in your municipality or contact the mayor directly.
Local politicians: You could specifically look for local politicians in your region who are already involved with and supportive of the energy transition and renewable energy. This will make them more receptive to your project.
Associations: Search for relevant associations in your region. This may include the voluntary fire brigade, cultural associations, sports clubs, religious entities, environmental NGOs, hunting clubs and so on. Think of any association known for regional cohesion in your area that might be interested in your project.
Farmers: Find traditional or organic farmers in your region who have their own land or buildings.
SMEs: Look for SMEs in your region. This may include any SME, from the small bakery next door to the local plumber.
For different stakeholders, different benefits might be the most convincing. Make sure to highlight the actual benefits as mentioned in our typology of members and to have a look at the respective profiles to get to know the mind-set of your target group.
2 Contact them
Personal contact is a very individual matter. Different people may react differently to each contact method. While some may prefer to get the basic information beforehand (e.g. per email), others are more easily convinced by spontaneous conversations.
If you know your potential “target person” personally, choose the approach you think is the most suitable.
- Email, phone call: Reach out to potential members, multipliers or investors by writing an e-mail or making a phone call.
- Direct approach: If you already have personal contacts, go to individual farms, SMEs or associations in your area, put up your flyers and ask to speak with them.
- Events: Alternatively, you can also visit occasions like village fairs, farmer markets or other events that you think your target groups will attend to get in touch with them.
- Social media: In addition, think of other channels you could use to get in contact, e.g. via social media.
3Follow-up
If you receive positive feedback, make sure you agree on a meeting to explain your project in more detail.
Remember to prepare a folder with all your project material. It should contain your flyer, your completed factsheet and PowerPoint slides.