Digital marketing for energy consulting companies: 7 pillars

Rethinking the relationship with customers is one of the key points for successful entrepreneurship, therefore, digital marketing for energy consulting companies can be vital to foster new business and increase financial earnings.

By the way, such strategies can be decisive in an increasingly competitive market, because according to the Energy Trading Chamber (CCEE), in 2019, the agent base grew 18.3%, going from 7,619 to 9,010.

In fact, the big promise for the coming years is the expansion of the Free Energy Market, with the possibility of even reaching residences, just as it happens in several other countries. And, with this growing demand, more energy consultancies and traders also emerge, so now is the time to differentiate yourself among the competition and achieve an efficient digital presence, which requires planning and value generation.

Well, if you have reached this article, you are already starting off very well: your company needs to be online to grow even further! Bearing this in mind, we will explain the seven essential pillars of digital marketing for consulting companies, remembering that the first step is to understand the needs of potential clients to offer solutions that make their lives easier.

But first... why should energy consulting companies invest in digital marketing?

How about starting to receive new business contacts in your inbox, coming from clients who find you on the internet? Regardless of your consultancy's budget or size, it is indeed possible to "move the market" in a popular and democratic way. This ranges from creating personas to effectively dialogue with target audiences to understanding the consumer journey and the stages of the sales funnel.

Furthermore, compared to traditional marketing, digital marketing for consulting companies is undoubtedly more accessible and also greatly increases the return on investment (ROI). Thus, you have more control over the strategy, and consequently, over the results!  

In practice, digital marketing for consulting companies can demonstrate technical knowledge and commitment to clean energy. To exemplify, when someone has a search intent related to the term "how to make a company sustainable", one of the main contents shown by Google may be the one created by your team.

It is about gaining authority and becoming a reference in certain subjects. In other words, increasing website traffic and generating qualified leads are tactics that provide more visibility and reinforce your credibility. But after all, where to start? We will show you the essential pillars of marketing and, next, some of the tools to enhance your digital presence.

The 7 pillars of digital strategies

The versatility of digital marketing encompasses a set of strategies, which we will divide into different stages of the funnel.

To attract new consumers:

Content marketing

Inbound marketing is a technique for telling stories through content that is both valuable and attractive. It aims to engage, grab attention, and ultimately, direct actions to obtain profitable returns.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Related to "organic search", search engine optimization aims to improve the positioning of websites in search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) to give preference to your pages instead of similar content.  

SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

Search engine marketing focuses on buying digital media that generate more access to websites, combining paid efforts (sponsored links) and non-paid efforts (SEO).

PPC (Pay Per Click)

These are paid ads in a pay-per-click format, meaning the advertiser themselves pays whenever someone clicks on their ad, which diversifies access and broadens the reach of campaigns.

Affiliate marketing

Widely used through digital influencer recommendations (but not limited to them), affiliate marketing consists of commissions for promoting products from other companies and people.

To convert into prospects:

Social media

The interactivity of social media represents fundamental support to enable the other strategies, as it distributes content on a large scale, along with other client prospecting and loyalty initiatives.

Email marketing

The conscious use of email marketing makes it possible to segment an email list to converse with clients, effectively and privately, remembering that there are differences between cold mailing and spam.

Plus: more ways to generate sales

• Rich materials (e-books, interactive spreadsheets, videos, podcasts, and other audiovisual content) also contribute to converting visitors into leads;

• Success stories help engage email contact when activating a sale, as they serve as social proof attesting to quality;

• Diagnostics and demonstrations are ways to offer "pills" of the service, allowing them to know more about the consultancy and want to hire it.

10 digital marketing tools for consulting companies

Now that you have learned the main strategies to have a digital presence and start generating new contacts, we have listed ten tool options to help you put these actions into practice:

To plan the digital strategy:

SEMRush

With a free and paid version, SEMRush delivers consolidated data on user searches, demonstrating the organic keywords where competitors are well-positioned.

Google Keyword Planner

The keyword planner selects the most appropriate terms regarding products and services, showing the frequency of searches over time. This helps to delimit the advertising budget and plan campaigns.

Google Trends

Basically, Google Trends demonstrates global trends in searches for subjects and keywords. Thus, the results indicate what is trending in real-time or in specific periods.

To execute the strategy and monitor performance:

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is used to monitor the performance of websites and blogs, observing visitor actions, what the access sources were, how long they stayed on the pages, etc.

WordPress

The WordPress platform is essential for writing search engine-friendly articles. This is because quality content attracts more traffic to these pages.

Google Search Console

With Google Search Console, you can track the website's positioning in Google results, understand which keywords bring the most traffic, and identify areas for improvement.  

To enhance the relationship:

MailChimp

As one of the world's largest email marketing providers, MailChimp has a free version for those with a mailing list of up to 2,000 subscribers, considering the limit of 12,000 monthly sends.

RD Station

The RD Station automation platform has its own methodology, focused on attraction, conversion, and relationship, enabling the analysis of results in unified reports.

Hootsuite

Ideal for managing the company's profiles on different social media, Hootsuite streamlines post scheduling and facilitates responses to respective interactions.

Lahar

A national automation software, Lahar aims to simplify the strategy to generate sales. By the way, this podcast talks precisely about how digital marketing for consulting companies can help overcome the coronavirus crisis.

So, did you like the digital marketing tips for energy consulting companies? At Serena Talks you will find more content to improve your services and inspire more and more clients to migrate to the Free Energy Market.