Focus on Energy: Delighting Customers and Driving Energy Savings with AI
+9,000%
in annual reach and engagement
1.5M eMWh
in energy savings
$94M
saved from traditional marketing efforts
TL;DR
Using Brillion’s virtual home energy assessments, Focus on Energy provided over 240,000 energy profiles with tailored, actionable recommendations for customers.
Before
- Traditional marketing efforts
- Inefficient, in-person home energy audits
- Participation barriers
After
- Increased reach and engagement
- Personalized education
- Significant energy savings
The Challenge
The Focus on Energy team is always looking for innovative ways to educate, engage, and help Wisconsin residents save energy. This time, the team was taking on a massive opportunity targeting 245,000 of their 1 million residential customers.
How could they share personalized, cost-saving actions with 245,000 residential customers and encourage them to enroll in the efficiency rebate programs right for them? To make it even more challenging, could they make this campaign free to Wisconsin residents and require minimal input from the end customers?
As the team faced these questions, they knew that traditional utility marketing methods and in-person home audits weren’t going to cut it. The tried-and-true methods were too costly, required a heavy time investment from their customer, and ultimately provided broad information that was unhelpful or unactionable.
It was time to ditch “the way we’ve always done it,” and approach this idea from another angle. They need to enter uncharted territory and explore the very latest artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation, and data science tools and technology.
THE SOLUTION
With the help of Brillion’s virtual home energy assessments, the Focus on Energy team leveraged AI to personalize and deliver emails directing residential customers to their very own, free home energy profile. By aggregating publicly available data, the statewide program delivered over 240,000 energy profiles to customers with actionable recommendations based on their actual homes.
To remove barriers to participation, the team created a 3-step process that was “easy, simple, and fast.” First, customers receive an email to view their prepopulated, evaluation-grade home energy report online. Next, customers quickly review and verify or update the details about their residence. This includes their home type, water heating system, home size and age, renovations, insulations, windows and doors, and more.
Pictured is the module customers can use to identify a trusted trade ally contractor in their area based on the type of service they need.
Based on their responses, customers are taken to a landing page where they can immediately take action to make their homes more energy efficient. These include educational materials, finding a trade ally, and instant discounts, as well as rebate applications and even income qualification resources.
To ensure their new campaign and resources reached as many Wisconsin residents as possible, the Focus on Energy team also used advanced digital marketing engagement strategies. The team used marketing automation to send the right report to the right resident at the right time. To further break down barriers and establish trust, they also recorded a quick video walkthrough that explained the 3-step process to homeowners.
Finally, they created supporting Facebook posts, email referrals, and a modest Google Ad campaign to increase awareness and drive their message home. The Google Ads strategically focused on their territories as well as search keywords that signaled intent. For example, phrases like “save on energy,” “insulation rebates,” and “home energy.”
“Leveraging machine learning and AI technologies to generate home energy savings recommendations has become a very efficient and cost-effective way to engage audiences. Combining this with advancements in email marketing automations, has made an engagement tool that helps create a complete profile of each residential customer’s energy efficiency roadmap.”
JOHN LANDOWSKI, DIGITAL DIRECTOR, FOCUS ON ENERGY
The Results
The online home energy assessment’s cutting-edge experience has been delighting residents and driving results. Overall, the campaign has expanded Focus on Energy’s reach to and engagement with residential customers by 9,900%
The team is seeing record high interactions, with a 51% average email open rate and a 12% average click-through rate (CTR). The Google Ads have a 42% click-through rate and 12% monthly conversion rate while the Facebook posts have garnered a 10% CTR. All in all, these combined efforts have led to roughly 80% of active tool users completing their assessments.
The program and partnership with Brillion has maximized cost savings, helping Focus on Energy invest in more programs and campaigns that deliver real, measurable energy and financial savings for Wisconsin’s residents and businesses. At a higher level, the campaign increased overall customer engagement, satisfaction, and trust with Focus on Energy and their participating utility.