When Business Priorities Collide

Don’t ignore the power of targeted marketing to help your company implement its long-term growth strategies.

One secret no one talks about is that business owners – even the most successful – spend much of their time deciding where to invest in their future. If profits are funneled in one direction, there is less available for the others.

One recent study compared it to a choice between efficiency and effectiveness: doing things right – faster, more cheaply, and with less waste – vs. doing things the right way – deeply, thoughtfully, and with meaningful impact. In real world terms: do you outsource calls to a service or AI agent that may cost less than a staffer but cannot go beyond a script you provide, or do you invest in customer-facing and internal data integration portals and training for your customer service representatives so they can actually help customers and build relationships. One is “doing things right” according to business protocols, by reducing costs, the other is “doing things the right way,” by focusing on personal attention and long term goals.

But for an energy marketer, the decision is quite nuanced:

• Invest in new trucks to reduce maintenance and fuel costs; or
• Invest in an aggressive marketing campaign, to increase market share; or
• Invest in enhanced software and digital operations to reduce overhead; or
• Invest in acquisitions to grow the business.

Sometimes, the decision is not where to spend profits, but how to manage and grow through business downturns.

Each of these options is valid and important for the overall health of the business. However, investing in vehicles, equipment, and operations without considering market share growth could leave a business without enough customers to support the upgrades. Alternatively, investing in a marketing campaign and acquisitions without considering the state of the company’s infrastructure and capabilities could lead to a growing base of customers … who are not receiving the level of service and care they expected.

As a business owner myself, I know the challenges involved in making these decisions, and that marketing for energy companies incorporates much more than ad spend. Let me share some ideas as to how you can use it to support your company through all its priorities.

“Profits are down. I can’t spend on marketing.”

I have heard this refrain more times than I can count. There are many reasons profits drop: price volatility, warm winters, encroaching competitors, even global pandemics. There is one sure-fire way to turn things around: get more customers. And the way to get more customers: advertise.

This does not mean a struggling company should throw away boatloads on a 30-second Super Bowl commercial. It does mean that the company should look at the reason they have lost customers, and develop a smart, targeted, and cost-effective marketing campaign to reverse it.

• Pricing and general economic downturns: promote budget plans, discount options, and value-added services, such as free tune-ups with service agreements, or the additives in every gallon that reduce the chance of breakdowns.
• Aggressive competitors: keep your company top of mind with social media marketing, and enhance your search game so your company is found when customers are looking for providers.
• Customer dissatisfaction: consider how much each lost customer costs you, and then invest in staff training and online integrations that can increase satisfaction and retention metrics.
• Global crises: use email marketing, text messaging, and your company assets to let customers know you are part of their community. From polar vortices to the pandemic, we have seen time and again that the companies who found ways to stay in touch were stronger when the crisis passed.

Remember, it costs five times more to get new customers than it does to keep current ones. In times of crisis, it may not be feasible to invest in aggressive new customer marketing, but it could be vital to invest in retention strategies.

“We’re going through a period of expansion (or diversification), and don’t have any discretionary funds for marketing.”

With this, my first thought is, “Congratulations!” The second is, “How are you planning to tell your customers about your new services, or introduce yourself to newly acquired accounts?”

Sure, nothing makes a splash like a full page color ad in your local newspaper announcing your new division – especially if you run it repeatedly. However, this solution could be almost as unrealistic as the Super Bowl commercial!

Here are some ways an intelligent marketing strategy can help support the company’s expansion:

• Branding: How are you going to present the new division or acquired company to the public?
• Announcements: A new division will need to be added to your website, and a pop-up announcement will let everyone who visits your site know about it. With an acquisition, the company’s customers need to be welcomed into your fold, via announcements on their website, your website, direct mail letters, personalized emails – or any combination of the above.
• Promotional offers: As your services expand, how will you persuade your heating customers to give you a chance in other parts of their homes? Some clients have offered a discount on the new services to current customers, or bundled service or maintenance agreement options. You will need a partner to help draft these and get the word out – via social media, email marketing, text messaging, and targeted ad campaigns (see next bullet!).
• Targeted ad campaigns: While you will, of course, be looking to introduce your new service beyond your existing customer base, these individuals already know and trust your company, and are the most likely to give you a chance, especially in the early days. Support this “soft launch” of your new business line with targeted ad campaigns. Your first-party customer data can be used to identify targets, and your announcement – with any discounts – may be served as display, search, social media, or programmatic ad content to your customers. The same strategy can be used to reach accountholders who had been affiliated with any company you purchase.

“We just started with a new back end account management provider – we don’t have time to deal with a marketing campaign!”

Should your digital services and CRM be considered part of your marketing campaigns? As far as PriMedia is concerned, the answer is a resounding, “Yes!”

If your CRM is not helping you communicate better with your customers, then it is only doing half its job! Software as a Service (SaaS) systems for energy marketers put your data to work with modules that truly enable your staff to “work smarter, not harder.”

With integrated modules, you can:

• Give customers what they want from a business website – a way to manage their accounts, orders, billing, and service questions from the convenience of their smartphone.
• Reduce overhead costs by automating repetitive tasks and manual entries, thereby reducing human error.
• Promote customer loyalty and future sales with a robust, sales-based loyalty program.
• Close more sales with online order platforms, internal lead management, and user-initiated account creation.
• Provide personalized marketing experiences by displaying account-specific marketing messages, reminders, and promotions on your account portal and via email or text messaging.

Personalized messaging, increased customer satisfaction, higher sales numbers, and lower overhead? These sound like marketing goals that should be considered as you implement, change, or expand your enterprise software.

“This all sounds great – but where is the money supposed to come from?”

And now we have come full circle – there are a wealth of business strategies and goals, and just as many marketing strategies to support them, but we are back to the question of allocation of funds.

There are ways to make it work. While the following are being presented as individual options, they are often combined within a marketing plan.

• Seasonal marketing: When working with a digital (or print) ad campaign, email marketing calendar, or other ongoing strategy, it does not always make sense to maintain a consistent level of execution month after month. Especially in a seasonal industry such as home energy services, it can be more effective to have a more aggressive schedule during some time periods, and to dial it back to a “maintenance” level in others.
• Phased strategies: Whether a business is looking at the many steps to integrate a new acquisition and its customers into the fold, or aiming to grow a new division from a soft current-customer launch, or is eyeing the multitude of SaaS modules available to enhance their operations (like the proverbial kid in a candy store), the number of options can be overwhelming. These big ideas require a strategic phased approach, which will not only provide incremental advances but also provide everyone with more control over the rate of expenditure.
• Budget billing: The same way you offer budget plans, your marketing partner can often provide the same consideration. And just as with your budget plans, even though some months may have more activity than others, your monthly payment remains static. This can work with a short-term campaign where creative services are rolled into the length of the execution plan, phased development or marketing strategies that are amortized over a specific period of time, or with annual marketing plans that include seasonal fluctuations.

Energy retailers – and wholesalers – are used to working with their customers to manage market volatility and seasonal spikes. Their marketing partner should be willing and able to do the same!

Some final thoughts on targeting and tracking

A large concern for many businesses is that their marketing budgets will, to a certain extent, be spent on consumers who are not likely to purchase from them. A targeted campaign can mitigate those concerns, and tracking mechanisms can provide quantifiable results.

When targeting, the more information you provide your marketing partner, the better. If you are looking to reach your current customer base, you need to be willing to share your customer list. That data will be used for email and direct mail campaigns, but it can also be anonymized and then used to direct digital ad placements. Further, that list can be used to reach “similar” individuals, a tactic that utilizes the advertising platform’s data to identify targets with comparable demographics, incomes, and interests.

If you are looking beyond your base, will your campaign be focused on consumers in certain neighborhoods within your service area, are high earners, or own homes at a certain minimum value? Going deeper, perhaps you want to tie a promotion to a special event, something in the neighborhood or sports related, and you want to target people whose interests align with this event – or even those who attend it. If you are targeting a comparatively younger audience, do you want to focus on apps and games or capture those who visit the “hottest” restaurants in the area? In other words, you want to target your marketing to your audience, not paint everything with a broad brush and hope you find the right audience. Creating a target that is too narrow could be as limiting as one that is too large; but the trick is to find the “just right” combination to make the most of your marketing funds.

This needs to be followed up with tracking – digital codes, landing pages, and response mechanisms that help you identify how the new business arrived at your door – or on your website. Years ago, ads and direct mail campaigns would tell the recipient to “call and ask for Jane to learn more.” There was no one in the office named Jane, but that let the business know their ad was working. Today, podcasters say “use code ABC to get this special offer” and their listeners happily punch in the code to get the same offer as everyone else ... but now the marketing team and the business know which podcaster sent them. Similarly, tracking codes in marketing links or customer phone numbers can help identify the specific asset that drove traffic.

There will always be competing priorities for businesses. The most successful companies do not let them collide. They blend them together.

Richard Rutigliano is President of PriMedia, Inc., an integrated marketing and communications firm specializing in the home energy sector and offering a wide array of SaaS products nationwide. He can be reached at 516-222-2041 or rrutigliano@primediany.com.

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