Case Study.

A leading supplier of gas and electricity to householders was about to embark on a major restructure of both brand messaging and customer targeting. They needed a website that was communicating to their chosen market segments and selling efficiently without overburdening telephone sales.

Internally there was a belief that the current website lacked focus and was not as effective as other energy suppliers at influencing householders to choose them as a supplier.

The digital marketing team wanted to use the rebranding as an opportunity to make structural, design and content changes that would drive new conversions and reduce cost per acquisition. However, before presenting the business case the Head of Digital recognised that the company lacked vital intelligence and metrics on:

• The role of the website in acquiring consumers (who have traditionally purchased electricity and gas services via other sales channels)
• How were consumers researching and selecting energy services online?
• What specific changes to their online strategy and website design were most likely to increase sales to target consumers?
• Which energy supplier websites were most effective at helping consumers research and choose a provider?
• Why were target consumers visiting their website, getting quotes but not then choosing them as a provider?

Up until this point there had been no clear evidence that could be presented to the Board on the changing research and buying behaviour of their target consumers. This had led to delays in decision making and investment that could potentially mean a loss of market share.

Global Reviews was engaged by the Head of Digital to provide clarity and define the changes that would yield greatest return on their investment. The client subscribed to the Global Reviews Digital Marketing Effectiveness module to complement their existing Digital Sales Effectiveness program. 

This unique program combines behavioural tasking of target consumers in their natural buying environment, with attitudinal surveying and a best practice assessment. In consultation with our client we recruited over 300 consumers across five distinct customer profiles. 

Before conducting the buying task, consumers were asked a series of questions about what factors influence their decision-making behaviour and the process they'd typically use to research and select an energy supplier. Each consumer was then tasked to research energy providers online and then choose one provider as their preferred supplier.

We identified that the provider had some work to do in establishing a more cohesive cross-channel strategy that facilitated the consumer researching solutions online but then buying via another channel (i.e. telephone). An approach that was too web-centric in the latter stages of the conversion funnel would in fact lead to our client losing a significant percentage of consumers who had shortlisted them earlier as a provider.

We produced metrics that gave substance to the fact that the client had issues converting brand awareness and marketing spend into website visits. More importantly, this was not common amongst their competitors which suggested specific issues relating to their SEO and PPC strategies.

Global Reviews’ analysts were able to identify through VOC feedback and funnel ratios at each stage of the consumer selection process (visited, shortlisted, preferred provider) where the client’s critical issues lay. A major reason why this provider was dropping conversion after shorlisting was because there were no clear links from the home page for new users to get a quote. The quote process also failed to convince users that they were getting a personalised price based on their details.

Based on the objective data recieved, our Advisor made recommendations in the following areas:

• Marketing tactics that would help engage more traffic across target profiles to the client website.
• Areas of focus for the new website to increase shortlisting rates.
• Tactics to win business away from providers that were also appearing on a target consumer’s shortlist.
• Tactics to retain consumers post shortlisting to preference and purchase.

Our insights clearly demonstrated the signficant revenue being lost due to poor retention of potential customers through the purchasing funnel. Investment in the new website was subsequently made a high priority by the Board. A new website is now currently being created with a strong customer focus, in particular, aligned to how consumers select an energy provider.