Boost Your Marketing ROI with Hero’s Journey Storytelling

When developing content to market customer programs, there are several options for energy company marketers and communicators. One approach is straightforward, fact-based and quantitative: “You will save about $250 per year if you enroll in this program.” Another is the lifestyle pitch: “You can shift your energy use to off-peak periods of the day and […]

Getting Outside Yourself: Customer Communications

Maybe you’ve heard the phrase, “Get over yourself” sometime in your life. Today I’m going to adapt that and say, when writing for customers or other external stakeholders, “Get outside yourself.” Years ago, when I was a communicator at an electric company, a communications consultant would pop in now and then to help us sharpen […]

Writing Better Content: Three Tools to Help

Ever hear the phrase, “right tool for the right job”? Today we’re going to discuss how three free tools embedded in Microsoft Word can help you improve your writing. How? By making your sentences and paragraphs easier to read and understand, which should lead to a higher impact among your intended audience. They may or […]

Marketing Electric TOU Prices: The Time is Right

The proliferation of electric vehicles, rooftop solar and other strategic forces afoot in the industry are driving a growing number of electricity providers to implement, or investigate, time of use (TOU) pricing. For some, this is a big step. Many utilities have long offered only one price option: a flat per-kilowatt-hour price. Leaders considering offering […]

How to Write a Press Release: Tips from Both Sides of the Laptop

Millennials are not easily frightened. When stumped by a question or assigned a task they don’t know how to perform, they Google it. I am sure members of the Boomer, Gen X or Gen Y generations would have done the same thing, had Google existed in those far-off days. Members of those generations tended to […]

PowerPoint & Video Conference Calls: The Rules Haven’t Changed

Someday (hopefully soon) life under COVID-19 will end. When that day comes, many of us will be able to leave our home offices and return to our company’s corporate offices. We will swap video conference calls for real face-to-face interaction. Maybe we’ll even once again attend in-person industry conferences. But since that day is not […]

Customer Satisfaction: Fixing Small Problems Before They Become Big Ones

Denial, the old saying goes, ain’t just a river in Egypt. That rattling sound you hear when you drive your car? Ignore it — maybe it will go away. That pain in your back? Probably caused by sleeping in an awkward position last night. Feeling sluggish? Grab another cup of coffee. Sometimes it’s nothing, but […]

Easing Anxieties and Meeting Needs: Communications Tips During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended life across our society and economy. Energy-company communicators are scrambling to keep up with the changes that are roiling our lives each day. Doubtless some communicators are dismayed when they can’t find their crisis communications plan. Even worse would be a plan document that is outdated, filled with names of […]

Public Speaking: How Would Lincoln Tell That Story?

Recently I had the pleasure of listening to world-renowned presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin (left) discuss her book, Leadership: In Turbulent Times at a sold-out event at the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus. Her talk was especially riveting because she shared numerous stories from her decades of research into four U.S. presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Teddy […]

Stakeholder Engagement: Build Bridges Before You Hit Walls

Stakeholder engagement is a mindset as well as a specific business practice. Energy companies are gradually accepting that their ability to conduct business requires the consent of critical constituencies, including customers, investors, employees, communities, regulators, strategic partners and others. The term “social license to operate” includes, but is not limited to, stakeholder engagement. Over the […]