How utilities can use content marketing to engage customers

Powering Engagement: PG&E’s Content Strategy for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses

Utilities face a common problem: most people only think about them when something goes wrong. For Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), a major electric and natural gas provider, this lack of engagement was a significant challenge, particularly with their small and mid-sized business customers. To change this dynamic and move beyond transactional relationships, PG&E needed a new approach. Their goal was to use modern digital channels to power engagement and position the utility not just as a service provider but as a trusted partner in energy management.

The Challenge

The low-involvement nature of the utility industry makes it difficult to proactively engage customers. PG&E faced the challenge of sparking interest and building a connection with small and mid-sized businesses who typically only interact with the utility for billing or service issues. They needed a way to proactively drive engagement, reaching business decision-makers with helpful, educational content before they encountered a problem or sought out a sales pitch. The goal was to build a content program that would intercept customers during their research process, positioning PG&E not just as a service provider, but as a trusted partner.

The Solution: An SEO-Driven Content Program

To achieve this, we developed a multi-phase digital content program centered on search engine optimization (SEO). The program was designed to capture incremental website traffic and generate leads by providing valuable, top-of-the-funnel information. This strategy was crucial for reaching businesses that were not actively looking for energy efficiency solutions, but rather were searching for answers to everyday operational questions.

Phase 1: Foundational Content

The first step was to create a Business Resource Center filled with SEO-optimized blog articles. This content was a “back-door” approach, focusing on answering customer questions rather than promoting specific products. By creating helpful, objective information, we could intercept users when they were actively searching for solutions—even if they didn’t realize there were more energy-efficient options or incentives available to them. For example, if a retailer searched for information on how lighting can impact their store’s appearance, they would find a relevant PG&E article that also subtly introduced the benefits of energy-efficient lighting. This approach allowed businesses to engage with the utility on their own terms, at the very beginning of their research journey.

Phase 2: Lead Conversion

Once users landed on the site, the next goal was to convert them into leads. Each blog article included a call-to-action (CTA) to download deeper content, such as an ebook or a white paper. These content offers were hosted on dedicated landing pages where users could provide their information in exchange for the download. This step was crucial for capturing data and moving prospects down the funnel.

Phase 3: Behavioral Nurturing

After a user downloaded an ebook and became a lead, their data triggered a series of tailored email communications. These emails were customized based on their previous web behavior, such as the specific articles or content they viewed. This behavioral marketing approach ensured that follow-up communications were highly relevant, highlighting other topics and solutions aligned with the user’s interests. The primary goal was funnel optimization, but the program also demonstrated PG&E’s expertise and reinforced its customer-centric brand.

Goals and Results

The program’s goals were to:

• Intercept decision-makers with relevant content and energy-saving ideas.
• Position PG&E as a trusted advisor in energy management.
• Build demand by providing resources that help businesses save money and become more sustainable.
• Engage customers and generate handraisers through an education-based content marketing program.
• Leverage behavioral marketing to deliver tailored email communications.

The program also included additional behavioral marketing tactics like retargeting ads for users who left the site and content promotion via paid search and services like Outbrain.

Prior to this effort, engaging the small business segment was a significant challenge. This new approach delivered:

• Delivered double-digit engagement and became a consistent source of qualified leads for energy efficiency products and solutions.
• Exceeded its initial benchmarks for:
  • search ranking
  • landing page conversions
  • blog page views
  • email nurture rates