From invisible to Ontario’s #1 solar installer.
"Working with Gregory over the past five years has been fantastic. He supported our very strong growth trajectory and implemented creative ways to grow our brand." TYLER BLOWER: PRESIDENT
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The problem
(01)
Otter Energy was Ontario’s most experienced solar installer — and almost no one knew it.
I acted as Otter Energy’s fractional CMO and full-service marketing partner from 2020 to 2025. I owned brand development, marketing strategy, website design and optimization, Google Ads, paid social, sales materials, video production, and press relations across both commercial and residential divisions.
Over this period, the company saw its revenue grow 3x, ranked #1 in Ontario Solar searches, and achieved a 9:1 return on Google Ads spend over 24 months.
The challenge was not capability. Otter had completed more large-scale commercial installations than any competitor in the province. Documented client ROI on their systems regularly exceeded 500% over the 25-year system lifetime. The problem was that none of it was visible in the market. Website traffic was negligible. Brand recognition was near zero. Google Ads were running without a coherent account structure. And there were no case studies on the site, despite Otter having exceptional ones to document.
The broader obstacle was perception. Commercial solar in Ontario carried a reputation for complexity, long installation timelines, and uncertain returns — a legacy of the post-FIT market reset and the smaller installers who struggled to navigate it. To reach 2× or 3× growth, Otter needed a defined brand narrative and a measurable marketing strategy that repositioned documented execution as the primary competitive advantage.
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Solutions
(02)
Positioning Otter as Ontario’s performance-proven solar contractor.
I built the strategy around what Otter could prove and what competitors could not. Every campaign led with documented execution and hard numbers: completed project counts, on-time delivery records, client ROI figures exceeding 500% over system lifetime, and an in-house EPC model that eliminated the coordination failures plaguing smaller competitors.
The brand identity — indigo, white, and black with yellow accents — was built to read as institutional and professional, not residential-retail. The tagline “Solar Made Simple” captured Otter’s ability to execute complex commercial rooftop and ground-mount projects on schedule. Campaign themes, including “Experience Matters” and “We Know Solar,” reinforced the experience advantage against the generic environmental messaging every competitor was using.
Across hundreds of ads, social posts, landing pages, press releases, videos, and sales materials, I enforced a single discipline: every claim had a number behind it, and every installation told a commercial story. That discipline is what separated Otter from solar competitors running soft environmental messaging against commercial audiences who wanted IRR, payback periods, and proof of execution.
I also rebuilt the demand generation model around high-intent commercial buyers — facility managers, sustainability directors, and CFOs evaluating six- and seven-figure rooftop projects — rather than optimizing for residential traffic volume. That shift is where most of the compounding commercial pipeline came from.
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Results
(03)
From invisible to Ontario’s dominant solar contractor.
Strategic Google Ads and SEO secured the #1 Ontario solar search ranking from 2021 onward, and held it. The case study programme documented real projects with real numbers, giving the sales team proof assets that converted commercial buyers through the financial modelling and vendor selection stages of the buyer journey. National Post paid content, earned media placements, and a disciplined press relations programme built the third-party validation that institutional buyers required before signing on a multi-year solar commitment.
3× | Revenue growth over five years |
9,400% | Increase in website traffic, 2022 to 2025, from negligible monthly visits to a peak of ~14,000 monthly visitors in late 2025 |
560% | Increase in website conversions 2022-2025 — over 1,000 qualified leads generated |
9:1 | Return on Google Ads spend over 24 months |
9.5× | Social media follower growth across all channels |
39% | Year-over-year revenue growth, 2023 to 2024 |
#1 | Ontario solar search ranking, sustained from 2021 onward |
IF YOU RUN A SOLAR COMPANY: Here’s where I’d start.
Most solar marketing problems are structural, not creative. If your commercial pipeline is thinner than it should be, or your paid media is burning budget without producing qualified leads, the fastest path to recovery usually runs through the same diagnostic moves I ran at Otter.
• Audit your Google Ads account structure and kill the keywords spending without converting. Most solar ad accounts are burning 30 to 50 percent of spend on residential-intent keywords that generate volume but not commercial pipeline.
• Evaluate whether your commercial and residential messaging is actually distinct. If a CFO modelling a 500 kW rooftop project and a homeowner researching a 10 kW install land on the same page, you are losing both.
• Document your best installations with real ROI numbers, timelines, and system specifications. Most solar companies do not — and it is the single highest-leverage competitive asset you can build.
• Restructure your site around the commercial buyer journey — preliminary feasibility, financial modelling, vendor selection — rather than residential conversion patterns.
• Find where your sales and marketing handoff is losing qualified leads. In commercial solar, the cost of a lost lead is disproportionate to the cost of the install, and the handoff is where most loss happens.
This is the exact diagnostic I would run on your business in a marketing audit. If any of it sounds familiar, a scoping call is the fastest way to find out where the recoverable revenue sits.
If you run a solar business, let’s talk.
I work with B2B solar companies across Canada and North America. Audits and fractional CMO engagements both begin with the same free 30-minute scoping call — no commitment, no pitch. I’ll tell you whether I think an audit is the right fit right now. If it isn’t, I’ll tell you that too.
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