electricitybilling saas marketing teardown - maerketing.com
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ElectricityBillingMarketing TeardownElectricityBilling.com
A marketing analysis by Maerketing.com
1. ElectricityBilling is a huge company with years in business
2. They grow without needing a good website, SEO, or even PR
Contents of this analysis
About this analysisWe are in no way affiliated with the company. All information we gathered are freely available on the web and accessible for anyone. This is solely for educational purpose. We don’t make money as an affiliate with the analysed company. Questions: email us at [email protected]
What is ElectricityBilling
About ElectricityBilling.com● Company behind is Utilibill, from Australia● Offices in multiple global locations, development on the Philippines● In business since 2009 (or longer)
Target customer● Energy companies (Gas, water, electricity) who want to do cloud-based
billing. It costs from 1 USD per customer.
This YouTube video from their managing director explains everything the company does and sells.
I highly recommend watching that video: that person totally understands the customer and develops only what they need.
What makes them special?ElectricityBilling has a great user interface, and a competitive pricing. It has not been done in that form before.
ElectricityBilling raises the standard. Other software is just incredibly ugly.
Overview: Marketing Channels
What is the one that’s working?- PR
- Unconventional PR
- SEM
- Social and Display Ads
- Offline Ads
- SEO
- Content Marketing ✅
- Viral Marketing
- Email Marketing ❌
- Engineering as Marketing ❌
- Targeting Blogs
- Business Development ✅
- Sales ✅
- Affiliate Programs ✅
- Existing Platforms
- Trade Shows ✅
- Offline Events
- Speaking Engagements
- Community Building
Website Conversion
It looks like they changed from the old name Utilibill (company name with an old page) to a new product name. Still, it’s confusing.
Company name, product name…
That’s all there is. The forum and knowledge base are close to not existent
and a bug on the next page
A broken support system and forum
The facebook page has still the old name
Pictures from meetings and celebrations. Facebook looks like it’s more for internal use than marketing. With 407 friends it’s not taken seriously for marketing anyway.
407 fans - that’s not a marketing channel, but it’s not supposed to be.
Pictures from meetings and celebrations. Facebook looks like it’s more for internal use than marketing.
Other social mediaPictures from awards and celebration on the corporate flickr account… but no followers there. Interesting decision to publish these.
Twitter: not even set up properly.
But… why put social media into the main navigation?
Nothing here● No downloadable press kit, no press room● Just few articles about customers adopting ElectricityBilling
Can we assume that customers don’t research online at all before purchasing Utilibill? If so, then PR is not important. A few articles about them would not hurt, though.
SEO
I don’t believe their particular target customer search for a solution online. However, let’s look at it!
Searching for Utilibill
SEO is so underused that job offers show up on the first page
The new brand ranks for “electricity billing software”. How relevant is this keyword?
Content Marketing
The YouTube Channel is underused… however, see this:
Videos
Walkthrough demo - by a 9-year-old. Interesting take, and great quality.
“I’m Jack and I’m 9. If I can do this, you can, too!”
Blog is not SEO ready
Blog posts are not scannable? Google does not like that.
Urls like http://www.electricitybilling.com/blog/97 are not good, either. (Maybe switch from Drupal to Wordpress?)
Bug: share links do not work.
And lacks strategy
I see the intention behind a blog post like this - but how does it help the customer?
Marketing Ideas
Case studies● Document customers’ experiences in case studies on the website.● Ask for concrete example of how much ElectricityBilling has helped them
reduce the influx of the call centers at the end of the month (or other success metrics)
White papers● Use the case studies and compile them into a downloadable document
(PDF)● Give away the download after asking for an email address● Contents:
○ How fast the adoption of the software was for existing customers○ Reasons to join / not to join○ How to go around pitfalls
○ Alternatives to a software approach (how long can a Utility not buy a software until they run into problems)?
Get SEO right● Redo the technology of the blog (fix URLs and formatting)● Start publishing 1 article per month about problems Utilities have.● Idea: also write for the end customer. Give them some infos and guides
(although he will have no choice if their Utility adapts the software).● Start building backlinks: ask customers to link to them, give interviews, write
guest blog posts for new technology blogs● Submit to all software lists, like capterra, getapp etc.
Do some PR● Connect to journalists writing about energy efficiency, clean tech, etc.● Try to give them insights into the real world of energy and what can be
done to help make the world a better place● Add a press section with a downloadable press kit on the website
This is a quick win (20% effort, 80% impact!)
More Marketing Teardowns!(why not your product?)
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