Not all utility customers are alike — let’s market to them like the individuals they are

Somewhere, right now, a utility marketer is approving an ad that says something like: “Save money. Save energy. Sign up today.” 

It is not a bad message. It is direct, to the point and every bit of it is true. Utilities have a unique challenge with respect to how to communicate to their customers. Because they are often public or there is no choice of provider, and because frankly, every home absolutely must buy their services. So, understandably, customers are sensitive to messaging from the utility. Almost everyone is bill-sensitive to some extent, and every message they see is paid for by the customer through their monthly bill. I don’t envy utility marketers having to walk that line every day. So, “Save money. Save energy. Sign up today.” is a perfectly understandable message. It is just a message built for a person who does not exist. 

“Utility customer” is not a persona, it is a billing relationship. It tells us almost nothing about whether someone rents an apartment, owns a 1987 heat-pump holdout, drives a new EV, has no driveway, worries about winter bills, distrusts “smart” technology or simply has 47 other things to do before thinking about a rebate. 

And yet utility programs, from EV adoption and charging to demand response, electrification and income-qualified energy efficiency, are often marketed as though every customer enters the journey with the same motivation, knowledge, access and appetite for paperwork. Then we wonder why the results look less like a Taylor Swift concert and more like a struggling state fair cover band. 

The opportunity is not merely better advertising. It is persona-led, full-funnel marketing that meets different people with the right value proposition, proof, channel and next step — in the right language, and at the moment they are most likely to act. 

A program is not a reason. The program itself is important to the utility, not the ratepayer. 

Utilities have compelling offers: rebates, lower bills, home upgrades, vehicle incentives, charging programs and opportunities to help maintain grid reliability. But a program’s existence is not, by itself, persuasive. 

Take demand response. In a recent study, just 13% of U.S. households participated in a demand-response program, while another 12% participated and then left. Among nonparticipants, 54% either had not heard of a program or did not believe their utility offered one. The barriers were not only awareness: 34% worried about comfort or convenience, 29% were concerned that someone else would control their thermostat, and 17% said they lacked the necessary thermostat. 

That is a marketing brief disguised as a research finding. 

One customer needs to hear, “You stay in control and can override at any time.” Another needs to know what an event actually looks like, how long it lasts and whether it will turn their living room into a slow-roast oven. Another needs a simple path to obtain a compatible device. Another has never heard of demand response in the first place. And the last person can’t even read the ad, because English isn’t their first language.  

Those are not variations on the same message. They are different jobs for marketing to do. 

The same is true for EVs. Home charging matters enormously: The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimates that Level 1 and Level 2 charging handle 80% of all EV-charging activity, with 64% taking place at single-family homes. Yet the experience — and the value proposition — changes dramatically for a homeowner with a garage, an apartment resident without dedicated parking, a prospective EV buyer, a current EV owner and a driver who already charges but has no idea that off-peak or managed charging is available.  

If we market to all of them as “EV customers,” we are not simplifying the work. We are simplifying away the thing that makes the work effective. 

My hot take: Personas are more useful than demographics 

A useful persona does not merely label a customer by age, ZIP code, household income or vehicle ownership. It explains the decision. 

It captures what is getting in the way, what is at stake, who the customer trusts, what they need to believe and what action feels realistic now — not in a beautifully designed campaign deck, but on a Tuesday night between dinner and the dog needing a walk. 

Consider a few illustrative personas: 

Personas should not become cardboard cutouts like “Patricia, 43, enjoys yoga and energy savings.” Nobody needs that. The point is to create a practical shared understanding of why people act, hesitate, enroll, abandon or opt out. 

For income-qualified energy-efficiency programs, this is especially important. Low-income households have historically had less access to energy-efficiency services than wealthier households, despite often facing a disproportionate energy burden. The answer is not to turn up the volume on generic program promotion. It is to make the offer more relevant, accessible, credible and usable.  

That can mean communications in the right languages and channels. It can mean partnerships with community-based organizations. It can mean leading with comfort, health, home resilience or immediate bill relief — not abstract kilowatt hours. And it can certainly mean designing enrollment so that a customer does not need a graduate degree in incentive administration to determine whether help is available. 

Full funnel, not one-and-done

Once you have personas, the next trap is treating marketing as a single moment: launch campaign, buy media, send customers to landing page, await applause. 

Programs do not work that way because people do not work that way. 

A full-funnel approach recognizes that different customers need different things at different stages: 

 

This is not theoretical. Research on industrial energy programs found that participation is shaped by timing, trust, organizational dynamics and strategic goals — not simply by financial incentives. The researchers specifically concluded that more nuanced profiling is needed, and that one-size-fits-all, cost-only outreach is insufficient. 

Residential programs may involve different decisions, but the principle holds: the incentive matters, yet the context matters more. 

For demand response, that could look like awareness messaging that makes the concept understandable; consideration content that tackles comfort and control head-on; an enrollment flow that recognizes device compatibility; and ongoing communications that make customers feel informed rather than ambushed. 

For EV adoption and charging, it could mean reaching prospective buyers before the purchase, helping new owners understand home-charging options, and then inviting eligible drivers into managed-charging or time-of-use programs at precisely the moment their new routine is forming. According to the Alliance for Transportation Electrification, in 2024, only 24% of EVs in the U.S. were enrolled in a managed-charging program, leaving 76% unmanaged. That gap is not just an infrastructure or rate-design issue. It is a customer engagement opportunity with headlights on.  

Better marketing starts with better questions 

Before creating the next campaign, ask: 

• Which customers are eligible but absent from the program? 
• What specific belief, barrier or practical obstacle is preventing action? 
• What would each priority persona need to see, hear, calculate or experience before enrolling? 
• Are we showing up at the moments that matter — vehicle purchase, equipment failure, moving day, bill shock, seasonal peaks or property renovation? 
• Is our landing page designed for a customer, or for the people who already understand the program? 
• What happens after someone clicks “learn more”? 

The best utility marketing is not louder. It is more observant. 

It sees the customer behind the account number. It recognizes that EV charging, energy efficiency, electrification, income-qualified assistance and demand response are not simply program categories. They are decisions people make amid financial constraints, time pressure, competing priorities, trust questions and very real concerns about comfort and control. 

That is why personas matter. And that is why full-funnel marketing matters. 

Because “Save money. Save energy. Sign up today.” may be a perfectly fine message. 

It is just rarely enough to move a real person.  

Ready to make programs matter? 

ERM Marketing & Communications Agency helps organizations turn complex sustainability, energy and customer programs into marketing that people can understand, trust and act on. If your program needs more than a one-size-fits-all campaign, contact our team to start a conversation.