Innovative Marketing For Utilities in 2019
WRITTEN BY ENERGYX SOLUTIONS’ WRITER ∙ TORONTO, ONTARIO
In an industry that traditionally hasn’t had to worry about customer churn, marketing can be an afterthought.
The narratives around this are changing fast, as the sector is in the midst of rapid disruption due to smart technology, but more importantly, more empowered customers. With these changes coming, how can the modern utility demonstrate that they understand their customer needs and align their messages and products accordingly?
Marketing is the key component to engaging your customers effectively, and there’s been a lot of talk about the newest, most innovative marketing channels. Gone are the days of solely relying on call centres - today, the modern utility must embrace modern tools such as programmatic advertising, chatbots and personal assistants to enhance marketing and communication efforts. Innovation is the new norm, but staying on top of the changes and ahead of the competition in a world of constant disruption is not easy.
Between social media advertising, email marketing, chatbot marketing and more - there are simply too many methods to choose from. Which of these will help utilities resonate with audience? In fact, who is their audience? And how can you make data-driven, high-impact decisions that deliver results for your programs?
The old narrative surrounding the utility-consumer relationship is marked by customer indifference, billing issues and antiquated marketing campaigns. However, is this really still the case?
In this study, we review three marketing initiatives and ideas that we love, and hope to see more of from gas and electric utilities in 2019.
