Digital Marketing Archives - Page 9 of 13

Energy Spotlight: Hanna Balla

From the airline industry to healthcare, Hanna Balla has seen it all. Currently the Director of Customer Experience & Insights for NiSource, Balla looks to her past industries with gratitude for helping her get to where she is today.

Working with utility digital experiences, Balla has seen the energy industry go through a major transformation. Long gone are the days of “ratepayers,” making way for opportunities to engage and listen to customers. Her passion for the environment ties in perfectly with the growing role that utilities play in energy efficiency and sustainability. “The industry is fun to be in right now,” she notes.

Balla grew up in New York but has lived in Columbus, Ohio, since college. Beyond her work with NiSource, Balla loves hiking, surfing and traveling. Although international travel had to be put on hold due to COVID-19, Balla said that the remote year actually helped her team, which is scattered throughout the Midwest, become more efficient, effective and closer. “In the past, Columbus colleagues would meet in the office,” she said. “With everyone now over Zoom, the opportunities to engage as a full team have been equalized.”

Balla is also a strong advocate for minorities in the energy industry. “I’m Korean-American and I don’t see a lot of Asian-Americans in the energy industry, at least from where I sit. Since I don’t see it, I’ve become an advocate for minorities in energy and leadership in general. It’s been really fun to be a part of that and to pave a path for others.”

Focusing on customer experience is also important to her work. “The voice of the customer has gotten louder and we’re responding to it,” Balla said. “Previously, old systems and processes hadn’t been touched, but now we’re focused on making things easier for customers and catching up to their expectations. There is a lot of energy and acceleration to help customers do more online than they could before.

“Things are changing, and utilities are excited to get fun and creative now,” she added. “The moment we look at things as a customer, the narrative changes.”

Questline Digital spoke with Balla to get her thoughts on changes in the utility industry, thought-provoking marketing campaigns and the evolution of energy.

How did you get started in the energy utility industry?

It was actually by accident! I had a couple of good friends/former colleagues in the healthcare industry who were working for NiSource. At the time the company was hiring a marketing manager for one of its states, Columbia Gas of Ohio. Given my experience, my former colleagues reached out about the opportunity.

I didn’t have any sort of background in the energy industry. Most of my experience was in the airline, healthcare, retail and QSR (quick-service restaurant) industries, but a lot of those skills were transferrable to the role at Columbia Gas of Ohio. I applied — and I’ve been on the energy industry learning curve ever since.

What has changed the most about working in the utility industry over the course of your career?

I’ve actually held four roles in the five years I’ve been with the company. I started in energy efficiency marketing for Columbia Gas of Ohio and now I’m leading customer experience and insights across the enterprise (six operating companies). It’s been exciting because things have constantly been in flux. The energy industry has seen a major shift in customer-focused modernization and transformation in the last few years. Sitting on the customer-focused side, that’s the biggest shift I’ve seen.

What excites you the most about the energy utility space?

The opportunity. We’re in an industry that experiences a lot of change and innovation, from digital transformation to a focus on renewable energy, and we’re giving our customers more control, transparency, and options. The industry is ripe for change, and the pace of the change has been rapid, which has been very exciting.

Tell me about the campaign or initiative you’re most proud of.

When I first joined Columbia Gas of Ohio, we did a full marketing audit and a rebrand to ensure that our messaging was consistent and impactful. Also to ensure it resonated with our customers in order to improve awareness, recall, and action for energy efficiency programs and initiatives. It was exciting to see the impact that strategic marketing can have on not only customer awareness and participation of our programs, but the positive impact those actions were having in communities and on our environment.

What is the hardest part of an energy marketer’s job today?

I think it’s keeping things simple. Our industry is large and complex, but at the end of the day, our customers care about having reliable service and interactions being simple. One of our challenges is making sure we constantly see and solve for things through the customer’s lens — not our own as people who are close to the industry.

How do you anticipate the world of energy evolving in the coming years? What are you looking forward to?

We often say that our customers don’t have a choice to be our customers, and though that may not change in the near future, I do think that how they get energy from us will change and the options they have for energy sources will grow. With that, customer choice becomes greater and being able to meet customer needs and keep things radically simple and transparent will become more and more important. I think the opportunities with renewable energy is incredibly exciting!

What advice would you give to those entering the utility space?

Stay curious. This is a large, complex industry with a lot of moving pieces and parts, and a lot of history with dependencies in many areas. In order to do good work, it’s critical to understand the industry itself and all the levers that influence the work we do. That means there’s a lot to learn, there are a lot of existing systems in place, and sometimes, it takes some creative problem solving to get things done.

Five years in, I feel like I just scratched the surface. I think it’s a balance of understanding the industry and also bringing fresh ideas to the table to really make an impact for our customers.

Participation in Questline Digital’s Energy Spotlight series does not indicate an endorsement from utility partners.

Master Guide: How to Market Your Energy Utility Marketplace

As energy providers look to strengthen relationships with their customers, many are launching utility marketplace websites to sell energy-related products and services.

Energy utility marketplaces are appearing in two distinct categories:

Project marketplaces connect customers interested in energy efficiency and home improvement solutions with certified professionals. These marketplaces include installation services for EV charging stations, solar panels and even home security and smart home hubs.
Product marketplaces are e-commerce-style websites where customers can purchase smart thermostats, ENERGY STAR^® appliances, LED lighting, advanced power strips and other efficiency-related products directly from their energy utility.

Energy utilities face an uphill battle to break through the crowded field of marketplaces dominated by titans like Amazon and Walmart. This competition, coupled with the fact that the average e-commerce site conversion rate is between 2% and 3%, reinforces how energy utilities are fighting for a slim share of a very crowded market.

How can energy utilities break through the noise?

A Trusted Marketplace For Energy Products

Though challenging, energy utilities actually have a few competitive advantages over established e-commerce players.

If you search on Amazon for LED lightbulbs, you’ll find more than 10,000 results. However, there are few recognizable brands to choose from and it’s hard to compare the many features and prices.

Your customers are busy and don’t have the time or patience to wade through the overwhelming number of options.

In comparison, your utility marketplace offers fewer products that have been vetted by your energy utility, ensuring authenticity and reliability.

Customers want a simple recommendation they can trust, and your energy utility can provide that.

What’s Missing From Today’s Energy Utility Online Shops?

Currently, most utility online shops aren’t built to match the e-commerce shopping experience customers have come to expect. Shoppers are used to having an easy-to-use search tool, personalized recommendations, product reviews, linked tutorials, and more. Without these features, online shoppers are apt to jump over to more user-friendly sites.

Most utility marketplaces also lack search engine optimization (SEO). Product listings are not discoverable to consumers and remain reliant on marketing promotions. Yet, promotions have historically been limited to occasional bill inserts and mass messages to all customers.

In order to be successful in today’s crowded smart tech market, energy utilities will need to embrace the advanced marketing tactics used by e-commerce brands.

“Energy marketplaces are really an e-commerce business, and they need to be treated as such,” explains Mark Wilkinson, SVP Products at ibex Digital. “Utilities should really embrace the e-commerce philosophy. It comes down to personalized, timely and relevant marketing. Something that direct-to-consumer brands do very well.”

Driving repeat and regular traffic to utility online shops is now essential.

How to Market Your Energy Utility Marketplace

In order to fully realize the potential of marketplaces, energy utilities should implement a multifaceted marketing strategy to drive awareness, traffic and conversions.

Here are a few impactful ways to better market your utility marketplace:

Content marketing: Before making a purchase, customers need to learn about the energy efficient or smart home products in your marketplace. Why do they need them? How do they use them? What are the benefits?

Content is great for boosting awareness and developing interest. Use blog posts, videos, social media and infographics to educate customers on utility marketplace products and how they fit in their daily lives. Share content across eNewsletters, social media and on your marketplace itself.

Incorporate links to related products and calls-to-action within your content to create an organic buying experience. For example, include a CTA to your marketplace in an article about smart home technology or an infographic featuring energy-savings tips. Content marketing leads your customers to the next step naturally.

Be relevant and timely: Purchases are also tied to triggers and events, making relevancy and timeliness key for e-commerce marketing. Get in front of customers when they are making buying decisions.

Capitalize on seasonal changes and holidays; put rebates and product promotions in front of customers when they are most likely to make a purchase.

Behavioral emails: Use scheduled email cadences to encourage action and build a positive customer experience. Build timelines that match customer behaviors.

Let’s say someone bought a new smart thermostat. Send them an instructional email after their shipment is delivered with tips on how to install. Then send an email three or four days later that helps them learn how to take the next steps with program enrollment. If they don’t enroll or open that email, have a reminder sent a few days later. Then in a month, follow up with suggested products that complement their previous purchase.

“We always recommend tackling behavioral promotions in small chunks,” explains Wilkinson. “Offer recommendations and cross-promotions (people who bought this also liked…) and follow-up emails related to customer’s purchases to really help the experience. It doesn’t have to be overly complicated and can lead to immediate results.”

Abandoned cart emails: Emailing customers who have abandoned shopping carts is a successful strategy for driving incremental conversions. By sending an automated message, you can offer additional incentives such as a coupon to complete the sale at a lower cost. These easy-to-implement emails achieve success rates between 27% and 30%.

Audience segmentation: Energy utility customers encompass a vast set of demographics. Understanding the wants and needs of different groups is monumental for utility marketplace promotions.

Let’s say you identify a segment of empty nesters who also have pets. This audience is primed for streaming cameras or security systems that allow owners to check in on their animals.

“Segmentation can really benefit topic and tone for utility marketplace promotions,” explains Wilkinson. “Customers get interested in the same product in very different ways, so understanding the customer personas really helps develop traffic and ultimately sales on a utility marketplace.”

Tie in program promotions: The biggest win for utilities may be tying marketplace sales to program enrollments. For example, when customers are checking out for their smart thermostat, utilities can incorporate prompts to sign up for time-of-use (TOU) rate programs.

Program prompts can be built into the marketplace itself, or they can function more like a follow-up email. Today, consumers expect an effortless shopping experience. Take the extra step to make the connections between products and programs.

Examples of Great Utility Marketplace Promotions

The energy utilities finding success with energy marketplaces are those who actively promote and follow e-commerce standards. Check out these examples:

First Energy Home

Experimentation with social media, display ads, content, email promotions and search engine marketing (SEM) has allowed First Energy to build brand recognition for their utility marketplace.

Holiday Promotions

In an effort to be timely and relevant, this Questline Digital client has seen success with promoting its marketplace and product rebates around holidays.

Examples of email marketing promotions for energy utility marketplace

Examples of Great e-Commerce Content

Still not sure how to promote your utility’s marketplace? Pull inspiration from brands that have mastered e-commerce.

Williams Sonoma is great at using content to sell. Their emails often include how-to cooking videos with links to products used during tutorials. Plus, emails are sent to customers based on previous shopping and site visitation behaviors.

Were you looking at their bread mixes? Then you might receive an email in a few days that highlights their baking and pastry tools, bakeware and easy-to-prepare croissants. It will likely be paired with a supplementary video that provides a few baking tips or links to fan-favorite bread recipes – all the things you might need next after your initial purchase.

Example of digital marketing for Williams Sonoma ecommerce site — *Click to view full image.*

Williams Sonoma understands their customers and their buyer journey. The retailer knows that basic purchases tend to lead toward future specialty products.

Similarly, smart thermostats are often the first smart tech product purchased. After an initial trial period, customers who found value in the product tend to expand their smart tech collection.

Take inspiration from brands like Williams Sonoma and build content strategies that ensure your utility is present when customers are ready for the next step. Offer help and guidance.

Be the Trusted Expert for Energy Products

While it can seem like an uphill battle to compete with colossal retailers, energy utilities should use their industry expertise to their advantage.

Your customers trust your energy utility and the products you recommend — and that’s a great place to start when promoting your marketplace.

Complement your competitive advantage with helpful content and timely promotions, and your energy utility will see results.

Learn how to boost engagement and grow sales with an Energy Marketplace Content strategy from Questline Digital.

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Creative Inspiration for Energy Utility Promotions

When it comes to promotional emails, there is a fine line between selling your product or service and creating a narrative that resonates with customers. For energy utilities, this is not always an easy task. The reality is, utility products and services can be technical, complicated and not always on customers’ radars. More so, energy utility emails are competing in inboxes brimming with promotional messages from Amazon, Netflix, Starbucks and other popular brands. However, with the right messaging, your energy utility promotions can cut through the clutter and make an impression with the right customers.

Ready to take your emails to the next level? For a dose of inspiration, check out these creative ideas for your energy utility’s product and program promotions.

Powerful Promotions: Storytelling vs. Selling

Storytelling is a powerful way to showcase the benefits of a particular product to customers. Rather than overtly selling to customers, guide them through a story that shows your product can add value to their lives. This leads them to make a purchase on their own accord.

For a major IOU in the Southeast, Questline Digital created a promotional email campaign to help increase awareness and sales of their security lighting product. For the residential email, the message centered around the main benefit for customers: greater security.

Example of creative program promotions email for energy utility lighting

To reach business customers, we created segmented emails for six industry segments: apartment complexes, warehousing and storage, auto sales and services, religious organizations, educational facilities and general commercial. The message focused on how each business sets the stage for important milestones for both employees and customers.

For example, the email targeted to educational facilities focuses on a new student moving into her college dorm. The email to apartment complexes showcases a new couple enjoying their first night together in their new home. The utility’s security lighting can provide a “safety spotlight” for these special moments.

Example of creative promotions email for energy utility business lighting program

Key takeaway for energy utilities: Instead of only listing the selling points of the product, craft a story about how it will benefit customers in their daily lives. In this example, customers want to feel safe and secure at their home or business so they can focus on the important things in life. By speaking to customers’ unique needs and interests, your energy utility promotions are more likely to capture their attention and connect with them emotionally.

Program Conversions: Incentives for the Win

When promoting various energy utility programs, such as paperless billing, outage alerts or My Account enrollment, an incentive is sometimes all you need. According to Questline Digital’s performance metrics, paperless billing promotional emails with incentives have a 17% higher open rate and 28% higher CTR than messages without incentives.

Beyond engaging customers, incentives have the power to drive conversions, too. For a Pennsylvania-based IOU, Questline Digital created a promotional email, sent around Earth Day, with an eco-conscious incentive to encourage customers to sign up for e-Bill. Customers could win one of 10 smart thermostats to help save energy in their home.

Example of e-bill campaign email with Earth Day theme for energy utility

Key takeaway for energy utilities: Incentives are often the extra push your customers need to take action, whether to enroll in paperless billing, sign up for My Account, take a survey or participate in other programs. Be creative with your incentive and tie it to a particular theme. A smart thermostat is a great giveaway around Earth Day, while a gift card might be better suited for a holiday season promotion.

Encouraging Customers to Go Electric

With growing consumer interest in renewable energy, energy utilities are increasingly promoting rebates and incentives for electric vehicles, EV smart chargers and electric warehouse equipment. When promoting these rebates, a focus on getting or saving money is typically the best approach to reach customers. Whether residential or business customers, everyone is motivated by the chance to either save or receive money.

For a large IOU in the Northeast, Questline Digital created a fun campaign to promote their EV smart charger rebate program to residential customers. The email featured a brightly colored animated GIF of a woman throwing money into the air with “$500 Smart Charger Rebate” front and center. Not only was the campaign eye-catching to customers, but it effectively highlighted the main benefit of the rebate while providing straightforward instructions on how to activate the smart charger and submit the rebate.

Example of creative promotions email for energy utility EV smart charger program

For another campaign, a Southeast energy utility wanted to encourage business customers to make the switch to electric equipment. With this goal in mind, we created a campaign that focused on the cash incentives for purchasing various equipment for their facility, including forklifts, man lifts, commercial level 2 EV chargers and golf carts. Through the use of an easy-to-read table and iconography, the email made it easy to see the benefits of going electric and taking advantage of the rebates.

Example of email marketing for energy utility electrification program

Key takeaway for energy utilities: When promoting rebates and incentives, focus on what your customers care most about: saving money. Remember, sometimes less is more when explaining technical products, such as EV smart chargers and electric equipment. The goal is to get customers intrigued by the offer so they visit your website for more details. In other words, you don’t need “everything but the kitchen sink” in the email.

No One-Size-Fits-All Answer to Energy Utility Promotions

As you can see from the above examples, successful energy utility promotions start by paying attention to what is most important to your target audience. For some campaigns, you might need to tell a story to showcase a particular product’s benefit and pull at the heartstrings of your customers. With other campaigns, an incentive or laser-focus on one specific benefit (like extra cash) is all you need to motivate customers to take action. Listen to your customers and their needs to develop creative campaigns specifically for them.

Learn more about the engagement strategy behind Questline Digital’s program promotions campaigns for energy utilities.

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Data Security: Critical Trends for Energy Utilities

Few industries reach as wide and varied an audience as energy utilities. In fact, just about everyone is an energy utility customer — which means, when it comes to the growing challenges around data and email security, energy utilities have a lot more customer information to protect compared to other companies.

It is a critical responsibility to protect private data on behalf of our customers and communities. And yet, just like all other companies, utilities are often at risk for malicious attacks. As such, it’s imperative for energy utilities to stay informed of the latest trends in data security and compliance.

Understand how the risks of data management are assessed

Depending on the particular use case, your energy utility may need to comply with one or a variety of types of data management standards, whether directly through your utility or third-party vendors. These could include:

PCI DSS: Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard applies to any company that stores, processes or transmits cardholder data or sensitive authentication data
SOC 2: Auditing procedure that ensures data is securely managed and protects the privacy of customers
FedRAMP: Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program is a federal initiative that provides a standardized approach to cloud security
NIST 800-53: Provides a catalog of security and privacy controls for all U.S. federal information systems and are continuously updated for federal agencies
NERC CIP: North American Electric Reliability Corporation distributes standards of security for all North American bulk electric system providers

If you work with third-party vendors, you need to understand what standards they follow. For example, Questline Digital is SOC 2 certified and rigorously undergoes a yearly audit to ensure conpliance. This means that we are verified in complying with the trust principles of SOC 2, including security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy.

Data security in the cloud

According to GreatHorn’s 2021 Email Security Benchmark Report, “Organizations are continuing their migration from on-premise email solutions to cloud native solutions. While 24% of organizations are still running on-premise email solutions, 77% have plans to move to cloud native email solutions.”

The cloud has the potential for quicker customer responses, increased reliability and lower costs. However, it needs a strategic approach to security. By using cloud servers over the internet, your energy utility would no longer need to manage physical servers or manually run software applications.

Although there are many benefits to cloud computing, there are security risks. If moving to the cloud, your energy utility needs to ensure plans are in place to maintain security and privacy.

Data security is a concern for IT pros and customers

Your customers’ privacy is of utmost importance. Energy utilities are already a target for malicious users. Phishing schemes are one of the most common tactics used by hackers to attempt to obtain sensitive information. They pretend to be a utility employee and threaten power shutoffs if the customer doesn’t pay. In fact, the GreatHorn Email Security Benchmark Report says the top threat that concerns most IT professionals are “people impersonations” followed by “payload attacks.”

The report also says that daily phishing attacks have decreased from 35% to 25% from 2020 to 2021. In contrast, weekly and monthly attacks have increased from 28% to 42% and 11% to 17% respectively, “supporting evidence that cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated and targeted in their attacks.”

If IT professionals are most concerned with these cyberattacks, then it can be said that your customers are as well. No one likes to be misled, especially when it comes to finances. Your energy utility needs to make sure it is listening to your customers’ concerns about their privacy and security, while highlighting how your energy utility is working to alleviate those concerns. To gain greater trust with your customers, continue to warn and educate them about the possibilities of these attacks and what to do when one happens.

What energy utilities should know about data security

In today’s digital age, security and privacy are always top-of-mind concerns for consumers. Transparency and education about how companies use this information is important to share with customers, no matter the industry. For energy utilities, in particular, it’s vital to ensure you’re achieving security and compliance best practices and shedding light on these initiatives. Your energy utility will be better protected, and your customers will thank you for it.

Questline Digital’s experts understand the unique regulatory and data security needs of energy utilities.

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Dark Mode Email Best Practices for Energy Utilities

Americans are spending more time than ever looking at screens. Nielsen Company data shows that screen time for adults in the U.S. has increased to 13.5 hours per day, up from 10 hours per day in 2019.

Our eyes are tired from constantly staring at computer screens, tablets, smartphones and TVs. Dark mode emails can help with the visual strain by lessening the brightness.

There’s also an undeniable “cool factor” of dark mode. Hitting on minimalistic design, many people simply prefer the user experience. Multiple surveys show that over 80% of consumers use dark mode on one or more applications.

So, yes. Your energy utility should be sending dark mode emails.

What is dark mode email?

Dark mode email refers to a setting that shifts the color palette of emails to display content in high contrast using dark background colors and a light foreground. Your user interface (UI) inverts light colors to dark and dark colors to light.

The benefits of dark mode email for customers include:

Less visual strain
Reduced screen glare
Aesthetically pleasing
Lower battery use

The benefits of dark mode email for energy utilities include:

Meets customer preferences
Increased deliverability

How does dark mode email work?

To excel with dark mode email, you need to employ a team with both a skilled designer and a developer. You need properly formatted image files and snippets of code to turn on dark mode.

Why? Because dark mode operates differently for every email client. What you see in Gmail is different than Outlook or iOS Mail. Unique code is needed to activate with each client.

This is where things can get tricky. The inbox may automatically adjust your email to be compatible with dark mode. This is great if your emails are properly coded. If not, non-optimized elements may become unviewable for customers.

Some email clients change nothing, while others will render your email in its original light colors, even to users who have opted for dark mode. This means an overly bright interruption in their email experience.

Developers should be knowledgeable of the functionality of each email client and can help ensure your emails are built correctly and include necessary coding.

How to optimize dark mode email

You should be preparing all emails for light and dark mode. Without that extra thought, you could be sending unreadable communications to your customers.

Here are steps you can take to avoid common mistakes made with dark mode emails and ensure accessibility:

Use transparent images.

This goes for all images. Logos, social icons, section dividers, etc. Use PNG files with transparent backgrounds to prevent a white box from appearing that interrupts the design experience.

Add a white stroke.

If you have dark text or a dark icon, you can add a white or light outline to make it pop in dark mode.

Make a dark-mode-friendly logo.

Make a reverse version of your energy utility’s logo. This could mean just adding the white stroke mentioned above or creating a reversed color version. Sharing dark-mode-specific design files with your email developers helps them ensure your emails are readable in all formats.

Test for all email clients.

Since not all email clients handle dark mode the same, you should use a tool such as Litmus or work with an email deployment partner to do quality assurance testing. Just because your design looks great in Outlook doesn’t mean it will look right in Gmail. Never send without testing.

Example of dark mode email testing for different clients

Why dark mode email is a must for marketers

Optimization (or lack thereof) affects the way customers engage with your emails, making dark mode impactful to your user experience and deliverability rates. When customers can’t read or see your content, they won’t engage with it, and your deliverability score can decrease.

And by giving subscribers what they want, you show you are listening to their needs. It’s important to provide customers with communications in the formats they prefer.

Without optimization for dark mode emails, you could be sending unreadable messages or frustrating your customers. Take the extra steps to show you care.

Learn more about Questline Digital’s email design and deployment expertise.

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