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Content marketing is a big idea for utility and energy marketers

Posted by Sheera Eby on March 4, 2014

Many utilities are faced with a number of challenges. How do we get more customers to use our online tools for managing their bills, account information or understanding their energy usage? How do we educate and engage our customers in energy management? How do we engage customers to provide email addresses if they aren’t engaged with an online tool? How can we leverage communications to solidify our position in the marketplace?

 

 

Content marketing may be the next biggest communications approach for utility and energy marketers. Content marketing comprises blog articles, ebooks, checklists and downloads as well as other web content that supports search engine optimization and being in the right place at the right time. Content marketing isn’t just putting content up on a web page or utilizing email newsletters. Strong content marketing creates engagement and initiates a meaningful dialogue with customers.

 

Here are 7 approaches and the reasons why utilities should consider leveraging content marketing.

 

1. Provide solid reasons to communicate via social media.
Many utilities grapple with which topics make sense to promote within their social media strategy. Several utilities are effectively leveraging social media to provide outage and customer information. A proactive content marketing strategy can provide more communications options that can support both residential and business social media communications.

Social media can also be an effective means for promoting content and engaging users. Social media is most effective when utilized as a teaser, leading users to a web page or additional source for more information. Content marketing is the perfect synergistic strategy to help social media have more depth and richness in building utility customer relationships.

The reality is that users need to have a compelling reason to follow or connect with a utility via social media. Content marketing can be that reason. Social media can provide users with a snippet and then allow the user to self-select content for additional engagement.

 

2. Utilize content marketing as a vehicle for utilities and energy marketers to collect email addresses.
Capturing email addresses and growing an email opt-in list are top goals for many utility and energy marketers. Many utilities have an online billing and account management tool that is growing their population of email addresses. However, those email addresses might not actually be decision makers among business customers (likely billing contacts). And on the residential side, it is unlikely complete email address coverage exists across the entire universe.

Content marketing can be an extremely effective mechanism for utilities to capture email addresses. The first step in building an email opt-in list is to promote content and get visitors to your website. Now that the user has clicked through to learn more, it’s essential to make an exchange. We’ll provide you with more information if you provide us with your email address.

Once you get a user to a data capture landing page, entice them with a great content offer that relates to other pages they have visited. It’s essential to leverage other web behavior to target relevant and meaningful offers. For utilities, topics can range from advice on new equipment for your home or business to helpful tips on energy management. Content can be tied directly to the top marketing priorities for a utility.

 

3. Content marketing can help provide education for energy efficiency and energy management solutions.
Many utility and energy marketers have activities aimed at educating both businesses and residential customers on energy management solutions. Content marketing can be the perfect channel to deliver energy efficiency information. When done correctly, content marketing can also provide leads for audits, rebates and other critical energy management objectives.

If lighting goals are running behind, an effort can be made to drive additional education and engagement on lighting-related topics. Most energy efficiency programs benefit from a combination of education and action communications. Content marketing can serve as the perfect technique to meet both objectives.

 

4. Content marketing can help bridge the gap between regulatory requirements and customer required actions.
Most utilities have responsibilities to communicate with customers on a number of regulatory and notification-oriented communications. Content marketing is an effective way to translate the whys and “what this means to me or my business.”

 

5. Content marketing can solidify a utility’s position as an industry thought leader.
Many utilities are focused on ways to increase customer satisfaction. And customers expect their utility to be an authority on topics related to energy. Utility and energy marketers can leverage and further their position in the marketplace through an effective content marketing strategy.

By nature, content marketing forces an organization to take an authoritative stand on a selected group of topics. In the past, content marketing might have been considered predominantly a branding strategy. But content marketing can work much harder and deliver on multiple purposes when done with deliberation and an action orientation. Leveraging downloads with email data collection and behavior-based email triggers with an aim at driving action can elevate content marketing from being only brand-oriented to response-oriented.

 

6. Content marketing can help fill voids with small and medium-sized businesses.
Many utilities and energy suppliers have fewer dedicated service and account management resources for small and medium-sized businesses than large businesses. Content marketing can play a vital role in providing educational resources and information for this critical group of customers. An underserved segment can now be empowered to have immediate access to consultative resources on topics such as energy management. And when done correctly, content marketing can serve as a lead generation channel for inside or outside sales follow-up.

 

7. Content marketing is a smart investment and can be repurposed.
Many utilities maintain a presence at local events. Content marketing can provide a strong foundation for presentations, email newsletters and a host of other purposes. Content marketing is an investment that can support a variety of initiatives and be repackaged for a number of different channels.

 

Content marketing is an effective strategy that utility and energy marketers should adopt to meet a number of different objectives.

Topics: Content Marketing, Utility Industry

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