Digital Marketing Archives - Page 12 of 13

Digital Marketing Performance Metrics: What You Need to Know

Digital marketing performance metrics are vital to understanding the success of any email or social media campaign, especially for energy utilities. Metrics like click-through rate, reach and time on page can help energy utility marketers understand what content is resonating with customers and what actions customers take as a result.

In order to analyze the data, however, you first must understand the terminology. With a variety of metrics across different digital channels, there’s a lot to keep track of. That’s why it’s important to start at the beginning.

Email campaign performance metrics

When it comes to analyzing the performance of email campaigns, understanding the basic terms will set you up for success. Here are the most common performance metrics used in email marketing:

Delivered emails are all sent emails minus any emails that bounce. A delivered email is one that has been successfully handed off to the recipient’s mail server.
Delivery rate is the number of delivered messages divided by the number of sends.
An open occurs when all the images are downloaded in an HTML email.
Open rate is the ratio of unique opens out of the total delivered.
Unique Opens refers to distinct subscribers who open an email.
Unique Clicks refers to distinct subscribers who click an email.
A click happens when an email recipient clicks on any link in an email.
The click-through rate (CTR) measures unique clicks on any link in an email.
Click-to-open rate (CTOR) differs from CTR by comparing the number of unique clicks to unique opens.

Email list performance metrics

Digging deeper into understanding the performance of emails, these metrics help marketers measure the growth and health of their email subscriber lists over time:

Open reach is the percentage of subscribers that have opened at least one message sent in the past year. It shows how much of your list is engaging with emails over time.
Click-to-open reach (CTO reach) is the percentage of subscribers clicked on any link after opening a message in the past year.
Opt-out rate measures individuals who opt-out by using an unsubscribe link in an email.
A complaint occurs when a recipient classifies the email message as unwanted. This is more commonly known as marking the email as “spam.”
Complaint rate calculates the total number of complaints in relation to messages delivered.
List growth is the rate the subscriber list grew in the past year. It’s calculated by taking all subscribers in the list over the course of a year and dividing it by the total size of the previous year’s list.

Content performance metrics

Apart from the email clicks and opens that drive customers to your energy utility content, these metrics will help you evaluate the performance of that content:

Pageviews are the total number of times a website page was viewed. This metric is a great way to gauge which piece of content is most popular with customers.
Unique pageviews combine the number of pageviews generated by the same user during the same session. This metric allows you to estimate the overall percent of your audience that is interested in the content, and how many of them are repeat visitors.
Average time on page is the amount of time users spend on a single content page. If your average time per page is relatively high, then you’re doing well, particularly if the pageviews are also relatively high. However, if the average time per page is low, it means your visitors are simply skimming the content, probably because it is not very engaging.

Social media performance metrics

On social media, performance metrics go beyond clicks and views to measure engagement activity such as shares and comments:

Engagement rates track how involved consumers are with your content based on likes, shares and comments.
Impressions are how many times a post shows in someone’s timeline.
Followers are the number of people who follow your particular social media page.
Likes are the number of times someone likes either a post or your page in general.
Shares and retweets measure how many times your post has been recommended to others from someone’s personal page.
Reach is the potential number of unique viewers were exposed to a post.
Response rate and time measures how quickly and when someone responds to a direct message or comment on your social media page.
Web traffic is the amount of users who visited your website from your social media pages.
Share of voice is how users are talking about your business compared to others.
Sentiment connects to share of voice by taking what customers are saying about your brand and putting them into negative or positive context.

Put digital marketing performance metrics to work for you

Understanding performance metrics — for email campaigns, content and social media — is critical for your energy utility to measure the success of marketing campaigns and improve future efforts. Devote time to these metrics and you will see customer engagement and satisfaction increase as your marketing becomes more effective.

Creating a campaign is only one step on the way to success — analyzing its success is the next big step.

See how your digital marketing performance metrics compare to the rest of the industry with Questline Digital’s Energy Utility Benchmarks report.

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Demand Response: Key Benefits for Business Customers

Infographic listing ways to get business customers to participate in demand response programs

As demand on the U.S. power grid continues to grow, energy utility demand response programs are gaining traction. These beneficial programs compensate participants for temporarily reducing their energy usage during periods of peak demand.

Many business customers are hesitant about the program and its impact on operations. For example, will reducing energy use during a demand response event significantly impede workflow? With this concern top of mind, it can be a challenge to encourage business customers to join your energy utility’s program.

Through our experience working with energy utilities on their demand response campaigns, we’ve identified four key value propositions to increase participation.

Demand response is a partnership

The program is a mutual solution for both energy utilities and local businesses. By joining forces with their energy utility and other area businesses, energy utility customers can help reduce the risk of grid overload, preventing mandatory blackout or brownouts.

When promoting the program, emphasize how enrolling in a demand response program is an opportunity to make a difference for the local community. By working together with their energy utility, business customers can help ensure grid reliability for everyone.

Demand response is easy to use

Many business customers are hesitant to participate in a program they view as complicated and time-consuming. In reality, the program is very simple and straightforward for participants. All they have to do is reduce their energy use during peak energy events (typically 2 to 4 hours) a few times a year. Advance notice typically ranges from 12 hours to two days.

In your program promotions, reinforce how customers have the flexibility to reduce energy usage in the ways that work best for their specific industry. For example, a manufacturing facility can reduce certain equipment usage or delay heating/cooling processes. An office building, in comparison, can shut off lights in rooms with ample daylight or where no employees are working. There are many options to reduce energy usage during peak demand, no matter the industry.

Make sure your business customers know your energy utility is there to suggest opportunities for their particular business to lower energy usage if they are unsure where to begin.

Demand response is cost-effective

Participating can be a smart financial decision for businesses. Be sure to highlight the cost savings for business customers and how this program can benefit their bottom line.

It is also an opportunity for business customers to decrease their year-over-year energy spending. With the extra cost savings from reducing their energy use, they can put that money back into their business operations. In addition, many demand response programs compensate participants even when no events occur.

Demand response helps the planet

The environment is a hot topic right now, especially as energy utilities plan for their midcentury clean energy goals. Demand response programs are just one element to help reduce energy consumption and demand on the grid.

While environmental benefits are less effective as the main value proposition in your campaign, it is still important to educate customers about the greater purpose behind the program. For eco-conscious business customers, the opportunity to make a difference for the environment may be a deciding factor to enroll.

Demand response is essential to the reliability and stability of the grid. That’s why you need a marketing campaign that drives participation among your business customers. These value propositions can help take your campaign to the next level — and help customers see the valuable benefits of joining this vital program.

Learn how the experts at Questline Digital can drive participation in your demand response program.

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Game On! Energy Utility Marketing Wins with Gamification

Gamification — the application of game-design elements in non-gaming contexts — is a great opportunity for energy utilities to engage customers. Games facilitate our natural desire for socializing, learning, competition and achievement, not to mention fun and play. The latter may sound frivolous but serves as a powerful engagement tool.

In 2010, Google released their first-ever gamified Doodle (a temporary alteration of the company’s logo) to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man. In the following two days, consumers spent more than 4.82 million hours playing with Google’s Pac-Man logo.

This is not the only time Google has gamified its applications. On April Fool’s Day in 2015 and 2017, the search giant overlaid playable Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man maps over Google Maps. These events generated countless news articles, tutorials and hours of customer engagement.

How does gamification work?

By adding interactive elements to marketing messages, educational resources or other content, gamification makes that information more appealing and more memorable.

How does it work? Gamification leverages three elements to achieve high levels of engagement:

Mechanics: Most games are built around a core mechanic that must be performed to progress. In other words, the mechanic is the set of rules. The mechanic does not have to be complicated to make the game entertaining.

Dynamics: This is essentially the game play, whether building a contraption, smashing moles or collecting widgets. Game dynamics act as the vehicle to progress and receive a reward.

Reward: This is achieved by the payoff. This could be a high score, medal or new piece of information. An engaging experience provides some measurement of progression for consumers as they try to reach their reward.

Fun and games with energy content

There are many types of games to engage and entertain your audience, including classic crossword puzzles, old-school video games and trivia. These interactive content pieces can be used in an eNewsletter, on your energy utility’s website or social media sites to drive engagement. You can also leverage continuity by turning your gamified content into a series to boost engagement.

These Questline Digital interactive games are great examples of how you can gamify energy-related content:

POWER PLAY: Energy Crossword Puzzle: This is a crossword puzzle with energy-inspired themes. In this case, the rules are the same as any crossword puzzle with the player working toward completion.

Who Wants to Be an Energy Expert?: This series of multiple-choice quizzes is presented like a TV gameshow. There are simple rules to follow with additional elements such as a “phone an expert” option that provides additional educational touchpoints.

Hazard Hunt: Home Electrical Safety: This game lets the player search for common hazards found in everyday life. The player navigates each room and hovers over the potential hazard to reveal a useful tip.

Gamification is an increasingly popular tactic to drive engagement and educate customers about energy topics and technology. In the age of “infotainment,” creating a truly engaging customer experience requires great content and a stimulating way to consume it.

Learn how interactive games from Questline Digital’s Content Catalog can power-up your marketing strategy.

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Energy Efficiency Investments: The Cost of Doing Nothing

Time is money, as they say. Even time spent doing nothing can add up. The time spent procrastinating on a project instead of focusing to get it done? That adds up to a late assignment and possibly an upset manager.

In the energy utility industry, consider the time customers spend contemplating the purchase of energy efficient products and the money wasted on inefficient items. Everything has a cost. Read on to learn about the cost of doing nothing and how you can help your utility’s business customers improve their bottom line with energy efficiency investments.

Customers lose money by not making energy efficiency investments

Putting off an investment in energy efficiency introduces two types of risk: price volatility and lost opportunity. Prices generally rise over time — energy costs increase when supply tightens and demand escalates. The price of HVAC equipment, lighting systems, motors, drives, boilers and unit heaters fluctuate with the season and increase over time. In addition, labor costs almost never decrease. An energy efficiency investment two years from now may cost a lot more than an investment would today.

More so, federal, state and utility incentive programs may not be available two years from now. Possibly, tax credits may not be renewed by a new administration or the credits themselves may be phased out. In general, the loss of programs or opportunities for incentives and tax credits may disappear in the near future, which will make the investment cost grow exponentially. In the long run, business customers will lose money by doing nothing.

Take a look at the graph below. Consider the annual energy use of a current appliance compared to a more energy efficient alternative. Whether business customers do nothing or make an investment in the alternative, they are still committed to use the lower level of energy (illustrated on the right).

Chart showing energy savings for upgrading to an efficient appliance

If your customers do nothing, they will continue to consume the extra amount of energy above the energy efficiency investment result (shown by the green bar below). Whether or not customers make an investment in energy efficiency, they are still either paying for the wasted energy or paying for the investment in efficiency.

Chart showing energy and cost savings for investing in efficient appliances

Help customers save with your incentives and programs

As you can see, there is a cost for doing nothing — which ultimately leads to higher overall payments for your business customers. That’s why it’s important for your energy utility to continue promoting the importance of energy efficient products.

Your energy utility needs to showcase itself as a trusted source of information for customers who are looking to make big-ticket item decisions. Connect business customers to your marketplace and promote your energy efficiency incentives and programs. Also, let customers know you are there to support them on their efficiency journey. In the long run, your energy utility will build lasting relationships with your customers, while also helping them to increase energy efficiency and reduce costs.

Learn how to boost participation in your energy efficiency initiatives with a Program Promotions strategy.

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Make Them Laugh: Engage Utility Customers With Humor

Using humor as part of a marketing campaign is a tried-and-true way to make a memorable connection with your audience.

The Super Bowl is one of the most expensive and high-profile marketing events of the year. (It’s also a football game.) USA Today estimates that “one-quarter of Americans watch the Super Bowl for commercials alone” and that these commercials are largely made up of two main emotions: sentimental or silly. Inevitably the big game is followed by days of conversations and video sharing — not about exciting touchdowns or missed passes, but about hilarious ads.

Why is this such a universal phenomenon? Simply put, humor works. We remember the Super Bowl commercials that make us laugh, and we want to talk about them with our friends.

Energy utilities can benefit from this same appeal. While an outrageous Super Bowl ad might be off-brand for most utilities, a little laughter can still be effective — and appropriate — for making energy content more engaging and memorable.

Learn the main reasons why humor is an effective marketing strategy to increase brand awareness and customer engagement.

Humor creates rapport with your audience

Non-offensive jokes can easily establish likeability and trust. Most great speeches often begin with a joke. Humor not only humanizes your energy utility, but also creates a connection with your customers. Humor works best when it is based upon shared experiences. For example, Questline Digital’s article “Go Green, Save Energy and Feel Smug” establishes a universal emotion of pride and triumph while also highlighting energy efficiency in an unexpected way.

Humor helps trigger memory

Scene from humorous video series Dont Do It Dave

A goal of content marketing is to create brand recognition in customers’ minds. Studies show that consumers are most likely to remember information (and where they received it) that they perceive as humorous. For example, Questline Digital’s video series “Don’t Do It Dave!” demonstrates the importance of household safety in a way that is fun and memorable. It’s far more likely to prompt corrective customer behavior than dry, serious content.

There are pitfalls, of course, with this approach. In fact, several well-known marketing campaigns have experienced backlash over a poorly executed punchline or pun. By taking advantage of content that has been previously shared and well-received you can avoid this danger.

Remember, when done well, humorous content is a fun and unique way to engage with customers. Make sure your energy utility is using humor in a way that fits your brand and customers’ interests, and you will surely see customer satisfaction increase.

Power your content strategy with the entertaining videos and social posts in Questline Digital’s Content Catalog.

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