---
title: "Navigating the Energy Market Maze: Strategies for Effective Utility Marketing in a Consumer-Centric World"
id: "33211"
type: "post"
slug: "marketing-strategy-and-tactics-for-energy-utilities"
published_at: "2023-10-05T10:45:39+00:00"
modified_at: "2024-11-26T08:07:26+00:00"
url: "https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/marketing-strategy-and-tactics-for-energy-utilities/"
markdown_url: "https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/marketing-strategy-and-tactics-for-energy-utilities.md"
excerpt: "The main challenge for energy utility marketers is that consumers just don’t want to think about their gas and electricity supply that much. They just want it to work. And they probably only think about it when it doesn’t work,..."
taxonomy_category:
  - "Thought Leadership"
taxonomy_post_tag:
  - "Energy"
  - "marketing strategy"
  - "utilities"
taxonomy_translation_priority:
  - "Optional"
---

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# Navigating the Energy Market Maze: Strategies for Effective Utility Marketing in a Consumer-Centric World

Last Modified: 26/11/2024  
**11 min read**

[https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/author/peter-cunningham/](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/author/peter-cunningham/)

**Author:**  
[Peter Cunningham](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/author/peter-cunningham/)
- Marketing Director of Buyapowa

The main challenge for energy utility marketers is that consumers just don’t want to think about their gas and electricity supply that much. They just want it to work. And they probably only think about it when it doesn’t work, like when the boiler breaks down and their shower is cold, or when prices rise, especially if they get an unexpected and high bill.

Yes there’s a lot in the press about climate change, fuel poverty and the energy crisis caused by the Ukraine war etc. But do these issues really affect consumer behavior? Call me a sceptic, but there’s a reason why the grocery store row with the expensively priced organic fruits and vegetables is typically very small compared to the large section of non-organic but significantly cheaper offerings. That’s because what people say (especially in focus groups, surveys and opinion polls) is not always what they do in reality. As an example, one of the UK’s leading, but sadly now defunct, energy suppliers admitted in a conference in 2019 that, while they made a lot of their green credentials, the overwhelming reason why their customers chose them was that they were the cheapest in the market, not because they were the greenest. Although their sustainability angle seemed to work better for loyalty and encouraging customers to feel good about their purchase after the event.

So how do energy utility marketers stand out from the crowd? Well the first question to ask is whether there actually is a crowd! That’s because in many markets, energy supply is still a monopoly (such as in Latin America), whereas in others, like the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Poland and parts of the United States, [liberalization](https://www.brusselstimes.com/407606/eu-energy-market-becoming-less-monopolistic)
 has created competition (often fierce competition) among energy suppliers, leading to a proliferation of different market entrants offering different pricing and service packages and often with green energy commitments. While this has typically seen lower prices for consumers, competition has tended to increase the marketing spend needed by energy brands considerably, as they need to fight for attention and consumer loyalty.

For the purpose of this article, in looking at marketing strategies and tactics, we’re going to assume that we’re in a liberalized market where consumers have a choice of energy supplier.

## Customer Acquisition

The first challenge for a marketer is to acquire a new customer in the first place. Tactics can include:

**Above the line: brand building**

Here energy suppliers can create a brand image and aim to get across shared values with customers, such as a commitment to sustainable energy, charitable giving and being low priced and transparent. The goal being to remain at the front of mind with potential customers when it comes to thinking of a new energy provider (no doubt it helps with customer retention as well) and recent examples of television commercials and messaging include:

1. 
  1. 
    - PECO’s [Spirit of Giving](https://www.ispot.tv/ad/2uDw/peco-holidays-the-spirit-of-giving) commercial about its charitable donations
    - SDG&E’s [Bring the Energy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=8tzKDWY6KFc) ad about how their energy powers your energy
    - British Gas’ [Money Saving Engineers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=gKx2XR68gRM)
    - EDF UK’s [Helping Britain achieve net zero](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pjmcxRRp5A)
    - E.On Next’s [100% renewable energy at no extra cost](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGz_QodPvWg)

However, due to the production and media costs, only the largest brands can hope to maintain commercials on national television over long periods of time, with [a 30 second prime time ad in the United States reportedly costing up to US$100k](https://adsbypopcorntrailer.com/tv-advertising-cost/)
.

**Sponsorship of Sports and Events**

Another strategy, is to create awareness and build an image and reputation is to sponsor high profile events and sports. Current examples include [Total Energies sponsoring the 2023 Rugby World Cup](https://totalenergies.com/our-company/our-strength/totalenergies-and-sport)
 in France, the Africa Cup of Nations in football and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Also in France, [EDF was a Premium Partner of the Paris 2024 Olympics](https://www.paris2024.org/en/partners/)
 whereas Enedis was also an Official Supporter.

In the UK, [Octopus Energy famously partnered with Arsenal Football Club](https://octopus.energy/arsenal/)
, helping the club to install solar panels all around the stadium and plant 500 trees around the Colney training ground. Enel, the Italian energy supplier, is also an [official MotoGP Supplier](https://www.motogp.com/en/sponsors)
.

While the costs of sponsoring these international and national events mean that these options are often only available for the largest brands, smaller companies can look to sponsor local events and sports teams, particularly where they serve a particular geographic area and the event is relevant to that place. An example of a more unusual sponsorship strategy was [OVO Energy sponsoring the EXTREME hangout at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26)](https://company.ovo.com/ovo-energy-announced-as-headline-sponsor-of-the-extreme-hangout-at-cop26-glasgow/)
 in Glasgow in 2021 to emphasize their net zero commitments.

Energy companies’ sponsorship of sports and art events has led to some criticism from environmentalists of [greenwashing or sportswashing](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/22/major-climate-polluters-accused-of-greenwashing-with-sports-sponsorship)
 whereby brands responsible for pollution seek to associate themselves with healthy activities like sports. Although this should be less of a concern where the energy utility does actually have a commitment to sustainable energy.

One obvious criticism of sports sponsorship is that it’s too often seen as pure brand building and there’s little direct connection with the fans, which is where a [smart use of reward marketing](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/sports-sponsorship-activations/)
 can turn that investment into more of a direct customer acquisition channel.

**Social**

Of course, no examination of energy utilities marketing options would be complete without a consideration of the role social media can play in reinforcing the branding messaging created by advertising and sponsorship, but also by acting as a means to create a dialogue with customers. [Dominion Energy](https://www.facebook.com/dominionenergy/?locale=es_ES)
 in the United States uses its Facebook page, which has 173k followers to communicate about the impact of storms on energy supply and the efforts they’re undertaking to restore power. In the United Kingdom, [British Gas](https://www.facebook.com/britishgas)
 has 141k followers and at the time of writing is focusing on how customers can save money with smart use of their electricity and gas.

As well as reinforcing the branding of the energy utility, social is a great channel for customer support and to [publish messages about promotions and referral programs](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/promote-your-referral-program/)
.

**SEO and Paid Search**

Of course, as well as looking to ATL and sponsorship strategies to remain in the consumer’s mind when they think of which energy provider to choose, the brands can hope to be found by potential customers looking for a new supplier in search engines by investing in SEO and paid search.

They can do this by writing keyword rich content that answers the questions potential customers have when looking for a new energy provider. For example: ‘how to choose the right energy supplier for your home?’, ‘how much money can you save with a smart meter?’, ‘how efficient are solar panels?’ etc. Particularly, if the brand already has a high Page Rank, the content is well written and attracts valuable backlinks, the search engines may show this content as the answer to searchers queries. This can also be particularly successful when targeting niche searches like ‘best solar companies in Philadelphia.’

However, a quick search in Google for Electricity Supplier brought up 427m results, and as you’d expect, many of the top positions are dominated by established brands that have already produced lots of good content and optimized their sites for SEO. Also in many countries, price comparison engines often dominate the top spots in natural search, due to their effective SEO and websites with lots of keyword rich content and advice. All this can make it hard for a new brand to break through.

Where there’s too much competition to get at the top of natural search results, a brand can look to tap into these searches with paid ads on Google or Bing where you ‘pay to play’. The main issue being that you have to pay for every click and many of these clicks are expensive and bite into the provider’s margins.

**Price Comparison Sites**

The ability of price comparison sites like [Uswitch](https://www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/)
, [MoneySupermarket](https://www.moneysupermarket.com/gas-and-electricity/)
, [Powerswitch](https://www.powerswitch.com/usa-energy-quotes)
, [Choose Energy](https://www.chooseenergy.com/)
, [Selectra](https://selectra.info/)
 and [SiCompare](https://www.sicompare.com/)
 to dominate the top positions in natural search, due to the fact that they have lots of keyword rich and valuable content (listings, reviews, customer forums and advice articles), and because they often have prominent paid search ads (as they can often monetize each click more effectively than one energy brand with only one product), means that energy brands can piggyback on their reach to get in front of potential new customers. Many of the price comparison sites also have extensive brand building budgets and invest in tv and radio commercials to generate awareness and drive traffic to the brand.

On a positive note, these sites can help challenger brands with competitive pricing and good reviews reach new customers. The downside is that they encourage customers to become more price sensitive and to regularly look to switch for cheaper deals. So expensively acquired customers may be tempted to leave for a better deal next year before the investment is fully amortized and like paid search, the brand has to pay for every click or lead. And finally, a brand that pays for leads from a price comparison engine is feeding its competitor who can invest more in marketing to capture more of the available search traffic to the detriment of the brands own marketing efforts.

**Affiliates**

Similar to price comparison sites, another tactic to capture search traffic from people looking for a new energy supplier is to work with third party sites that already have that traffic and/or know how to get it. Many of the advantages and disadvantages of working with affiliates are the same as those listed for price comparison sites, except that often the relationship is managed via an affiliate network, like Awin or CJ, rather than directly as in the case of price comparison sites.

**Ratings and Reviews**

One of the key issues facing energy companies is that they are utilities where it’s very difficult for a potential customer to know the difference between one supplier and another. That’s because, at least in the developed world, when you change energy suppliers, you don’t notice any change in the quality of the gas and electricity you receive. You get the same ions and molecules you got from the previous supplier.

Which is why testimonials from existing and past customers are important to differentiate one supplier from another. For example, confirming that the customer service is good, that the smart meter does save money etc. These ratings and reviews can also help all of the brand’s other customer acquisition efforts, with testimonials and ratings on landing pages and check outs, stars on Google Ads and reviews directly on price comparison sites.

**Referrals**

One of the most powerful and cost effective means of getting new customer acquisition is by tapping into the networks of satisfied customers, employees and partners to get new customers through [referrals](https://www.buyapowa.com/customers/energy-utilities/)
. This is because, as mentioned above, potential customers often have difficulty telling one energy supplier from another and the most credible source is the advocacy of an existing or past customer, who can vouch for the fact that the customer service is good, with low waiting times and helpful staff and that bills tend to be reasonable. The extent to [which leading utilities are now implementing energy referral programs](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/utilities-referral-programs/)
 shows just how effective this strategy can be.

Internal Buyapowa research shows that energy customers acquired from referrals can convert at a rate 5.2x higher than from other channels and 59% less likely to churn and stay up to twice as long as other customers. And recent research from [Rachel Gershon of UC San Diego and Zhenling Jiang of the University of Pennsylvania](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/referral-contagion/)
 found that referred-in customers were 32% more valuable based on their increased spending alone. However, by failing to take into account that referred-in customers are themselves more likely to refer in new customers, we risk underestimating their value by a third.

And [Buyapowa’s Referral Codebreakers report](https://labs.buyapowa.com/referral-codebreakers-report)
 found that eight out of ten people expect to be able to refer their favorite brands and almost two thirds of all respondents said they’d view a brand positively or slightly positively if they knew it had a referral program. That research also asked participants, in the context of a utility, what were the best channels to promote a utility referral program and the top answers were on bills or via email, notifications, app messages and texts, which makes sense when you consider that the average customer probably has little reason to visit a utility brand’s website and most communication is around bills, customer support. Interestingly, the research also found that across all ages, one of the times a customer was most likely to refer a friend was after a successful interaction with customer support!

## Customer Retention

Once a new energy customer has been acquired, unfortunately, that is not the end of the story, particularly given the preponderance of price comparison sites and the ease of switching energy suppliers. So an energy marketer needs to be concerned with customer retention to make sure that the ARPU and CLV are as high as possible, and that means trying to counter the forces that can lead a customer to consider switching suppliers before they lead to defections.

In 2021, [Which? Magazine identified 6 reasons why consumers change energy supplier](https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/six-reasons-to-switch-energy-supplier-axVdG6w63Neb)
 including:

- Higher energy prices and/or increasing energy use leading to higher bills;
- The expiry of a fixed tariff period;
- Poor customer service;
- Finding a better deal often via a telesales operation or a price comparison site;
- Wanting a more sustainable energy supplier;
- Problems with billing and overcharging.

We can add to that, the natural break point for considering a change of energy supplier is when a consumer moves home.

While many of the key factors in customer retention are outside the direct control of marketing such as energy prices and customer service quality, marketing can play a role in accentuating the positives created by the customer experience or the customer support team by reminding customers of service levels and customer satisfaction. This is particularly the case where the brand has won awards for customer service or has high rankings in ratings and reviews.

Of course, marketing can help communicate the values of the brand to existing customers in newsletters and on social media, such as showing how their green power initiatives are combating climate change. This can be particularly effective when communication uses metaphors that customers understand, such as explaining how the energy saved is the equivalent of planting X trees.

And while marketers have little direct control over the full customer experience, its importance means that, as stated by [Rebecca Dibb-Simkin of Octopus Energy in Marketing Week](https://www.marketingweek.com/octopus-cx-marketing/)
, ‘everyone in a business should be thinking about customer experience (CX), not just those in marketing or customer-facing roles’. So marketers can help by promoting transparency by encouraging consumers to use apps where they can get warnings of price increases and higher energy usage, so brands can hope to avoid the shock of unexpected high bills leading to customer defections.

Strategies to help retain customers can include [providing recognition and rewards](https://www.buyapowa.com/solutions/digital-rewards/)
 at key moments in the journey, such as on renewal or anniversaries. And, in keeping with green manifestos, those rewards need not only be cash or cash equivalents but could be [planting trees on behalf of a customer](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/sustainability-in-reward-strategy/)
.

## What next?

If you’re looking at refreshing your marketing strategy for your energy utility brand then [why not reach out](https://www.buyapowa.com/book-a-demo/)
. We’d be happy to show how Reward Marketing can drive new customers and help retention and provide you with case studies of how Reward Marketing and Referrals have helped dozens of other energy utilities achieve their marketing goals.

## Free eBook

Referral Codebreakers

Fill in the form & Unlock the science behind the world’s most successful & influential referral marketing programs

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