As we all know, the energy industry has seen a lot of unpredictability in recent years. The rise and fall of prices, legislation, a push for clean and renewable fuels, new technologies for equipment, staff shortages, unpredictable weather conditions, and global conflict are just a few of the many factors to consider when developing campaigns to market energy services. At Consumer Focus Marketing, we can help your company make the most of these tough situations through our thoughtful, strategic approach to marketing. Let’s take a closer look at the ways an integrated marketing strategy can help your company thrive through adversity.
How Can Integrated Marketing Help Your Energy Company?
Your marketing activities can help you develop better relationships with customers. As things change in the energy industry, your customers will be more likely to stick with you if your marketing speaks to their needs. The energy marketing experts at Consumer Focus have experience approaching a variety of topics from a marketing perspective, including but not limited to:
Volatile Prices
Fuel prices have been volatile over the past few years, skyrocketing one moment and then dropping the next. How can you navigate this type of situation with your marketing? When drastic changes to fuel prices occur, you need to communicate with your existing customers and explain what’s going on. A callout on your home page, email marketing, and social media posts are just some of the ways that Consumer Focus could help you build a sense of community with your customers by sympathizing with them while reminding them of the value your company provides.
Budget Plans
Speaking of rising prices, there’s something concrete you can do to alleviate the stress that customers feel when fuel prices go up. Budget plans are an effective tool to offset the sticker shock of an enormous fuel delivery bill. An integrated marketing strategy from Consumer Focus can communicate details about fuel budget plans, their benefits, and why your customers should want to sign up. Our team can create blog posts, pay-per-click (PPC) ads, or a new page on your website to show your customers why a budget plan is right for them.
Clean & Renewable Fuels
The energy industry has seen the rise of clean and renewable fuels, such as Bioheat® fuel or propane, and there’s a lot of new information out there for customers to wrap their heads around. You need to educate your customers on the benefits of these fuels and combat myths or misinformation from political pushes. Your website is an excellent tool to get the message out about clean and renewable fuels, and we’ve seen great success writing about clean and renewable fuels in emails, social media posts, print marketing, and anywhere else you advertise.
Ductless A/C & Heat Pumps
The rise of electrification means ductless air conditioning and heat pumps are a big opportunity for equipment sales, but customers need to learn more about this type of newer equipment before they’re willing to commit. If you want to increase your equipment sales for this type of product, you need to market them—whether it is the benefits of a mini-split or heat pump or the energy efficiency and cost savings. Your website should have pages for ductless A/C, heat pumps, and prominent home page information so that when people search for more information, they can find your company. You should write blog posts to educate your customers, capitalizing on relevant keywords for search engines. This equipment should be a big part of your email campaigns, social media posts, and PPC campaigns. Whatever marketing channels you use, Consumer Focus can help ensure your message is consistent everywhere.
Service Plans
Trying to promote service plans to your customers? With different types of equipment available, you will likely offer different bundles of coverage or tiers of protection. Whether it is a heating service plan, a cooling service plan, or a service plan for a specific type of equipment, such as a water heater or a generator, these should be a part of your marketing plan. Consumer Focus customers have seen success encouraging people to enroll in service plans on their websites by creating web pages for each service plan they offer, packed with relevant details like coverage components, benefits, and exclusions (often formatted in terms and conditions). We help make it easy for people to enroll on your website, and we can include promotion of your service plans in your emails, social media posts, print marketing, and any other advertising channels you’re using. You can create customized pay-per-click ads targeting “service plan” keywords, too!
Job Recruitment
It’s no secret that staffing has become a problem for the energy industry, and every company seems to be looking for employees to fill positions. How can marketing from Consumer Focus help with that? You can get the word out that you’re hiring with a Career Opportunities web page where you list your open positions and allow people to apply directly on your website. Then, you can promote your job openings through your other marketing, including callouts on your home page and mentions in your email marketing or social media posts. Targeted digital ads on social media and using pay-per-click will help get you additional applicants, as well as job posting websites such as GeneratioNext Propane Pros.
Changes in Weather
In our line of work, so much of the demand for services is tied to the weather, including fuel delivery and heating and cooling services. A mild winter might mean that customers don’t use as much fuel and don’t need as many service calls; a bitterly cold winter requires more energy, which means more deliveries and service calls. Be proactive by working with Consumer Focus to prepare marketing messages ahead of time that only go out when certain criteria are met. A little more work now means less stress about advertising and social media posts once the weather turns, plus all your channels will use a cohesive brand voice.
Educational Resources
There are a lot of changes happening in the energy industry, and we at Consumer Focus have helped companies allocate a section of their marketing strategy to educate their customers on how these changes affect them. Publishing informational blog posts or other educational content about the industry, with topics like electrification or clean and renewable fuels, helps you and the industry by showing off your company and the products you bring to the table. Additional resources like FAQ web pages, social media posts, email marketing, and print marketing give your customers access to the information if they want to reference it at any point in the future.
Related Post: 5 Steps to Help Align Your Employee and Marketing Messaging
Ready to Develop Your Marketing Strategy? Contact the Experts at Consumer Focus
If you want to develop an integrated marketing strategy that will work for your energy company in tough times, you should get in touch with the professionals at Consumer Focus Marketing. We are the energy industry marketing experts who specialize in creating digital marketing strategies that get results. We have years of experience building integrated digital marketing plans for energy clients, so we know the messaging and keywords that will get you results. Get in touch with us for search engine optimization, expert social media marketing, PPC advertising, website development, review management, design and print advertising, and much more. Contact us online to get started!