The digital performance of utilities companies: who has the power?
A fluid customer base, increased media coverage of costs and shifting customer preferences have made digital more important than ever before for utilities companies. With competition high, which of the UK’s Big Six, gas, electricity and water companies have the strongest digital profiles? A new white paper titled Utilities & Power: Digital Marketing Review 2018 by digital marketing agency Mediaworks has found out. Through analysing a series of key metrics over a six month period, including search visibility, domain authority and more, the agency has created a league table of digital performance. You can download the white paper for free from the Mediaworks site, or check out our highlights below: Big Six The Big Six dominate the UK’s energy market but recently, have come under threat from a growing number of smaller companies entering the market. Which Big Six company is dominating digitally? Our analysis places British Gas as the Big Six leader in terms of digital performance. The brand exceeds the category average across all of the metrics analysed—scoring a SEO visibility score of 22,078, almost three times the category average. However, digital performance is strong across all of the companies analysed, with similar scores across metrics. This shows how fiercely competitive the market is. Gas With wholesale gas prices on the up, could digital help more gas providers regain control of an increasingly fluid customer base? Interestingly, no company outside of the Big Six had a search visibility score that exceeded the category average (3,359). The best performing non-Big Six company was National Grid, which had an SEO visibility score of 2,391. The brand also had above average domain authority, page authority, trust flow and citation flow scores. Digital performance varies widely in the sector, with three companies sharing a visibility score of zero. While some have small improvements to make to remain competitive, others have a long way to go. Electricity As switches rise, one in five customers are choosing small- and medium-sized electricity suppliers. Faced with a significant area of opportunity to capture a new customer base, which company has the strongest digital profile to achieve success? Outside of the Big Six, UK Power Networks has the strongest SEO visibility score at 1,443. While they lead the competition, their performance is still just over half the category average (3,600). However, UK Power Network’s online performance could be hindered by their low trust flow score. With areas of improvement across companies, there’s plenty of room for digital growth. Water Regulation changes in April 2017 gave non-household customers greater flexibility with regards to choosing their water and wastewater providers. Perhaps this high level of competition is why so many water supply companies have a strong digital presence. Overall, four water supply companies have a search visibility score that is higher than the category average (1,632). Leading the way, is Thames Water with a score of 3,813, which also has the highest domain authority (68) and page authority (68) of all the suppliers analysed. To view the league tables for each of the utilities companies in full, download the white paper Utilities & Power: Digital Marketing Review 2018 today. Related articles: Clarion Energy and VDE Sign a Global Partnership for Energy Events MyEnergiLTD Winter Warning
Back to school – Pupils pose the questions in new NICEIC advert
NICEIC have launched a second TV commercial promoting the use of registered electricians. Kids Questions features NICEIC’s Senior Technical Presenter Darren Staniforth giving a talk about electricity to a group of schoolchildren. The children put Darren under pressure with a series of curious questions about electricity before the tagline ‘With Electrics we are all children – always use a registered electrician’ appears at the end. Darren commented: “It was a real fun advert to make as the kids’ questions were all unscripted. “That made it difficult for me as I just had to react and provide an answer as best I could. “And that is the message we want to get across. When it comes to dealing with electrics some people might think they know a little bit, but in reality they don’t have all the answers. That is why it is always best left to the professionals.” The 30 second advert is set to feature on a number of online sites throughout September and October including: ITV’s Video on Demand Sky Go YouTube Pre-roll With more and more people now choosing to watch TV online at a time and date of their own choosing the clip is expected to be seen by more than 10 million viewers. Darren added: “We are committed to promoting our contractors in new and innovative ways and this commercial is just the next step “The advantage of this platform is that viewers are obliged to watch the commercial for the full 30 seconds before they can watch their favourite programme, so we felt it was a great platform on which to promote our registered contractors. “We want to promote the benefits of using an NICEIC registered electrician to homeowners and help our contractors win more work.” You can view a copy of the commercial here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw31haNcmWo The film is the second TV commercial produced by NICEIC. The first The Cage, appeared on prime TV in 2016 and was viewed by more than 13 Million people.
Innovations that have changed electrical safety for the better
Electricity is something that we may not even think about, it’s become so ingrained into our daily lives, we barely stop to think that just 100 years ago this LED invention didn’t even exist. So how has the electrical trade developed over this time, and what innovations within the industry have been implemented in electrical safety in order to protect workers in the electrical sector? The electrical trade is now part of an environmental context that supports one another and reports back to policy makers whenever they feel a change needs to come. The way in which the electrical trade works together to ensure maximum safety and security is pretty revolutionary, some technologies seem far off in terms of their development and maintenance, and the lack of communication between workers could be the reason why. Innovations implemented in electrical safety in order to protect workers Electrical workers have displayed an innate ability to anticipate and respond appropriately to changing circumstances, which is particularly important in a world where the landscape in which electricity sits and is used, is constantly evolving. New technology is coming into the trade at a rapid rate, and with it comes changes for the workers themselves. With the introduction of said developing products, often means a prior product or practise that could now be deemed as unsafe, can be phased out. LED lighting, for example, is a more recent innovation that could be described as a game changer. The way in which LED is being used is more prevalent than ever, and this couldn’t have come at a better time, due to the decision by the electrical trade to ban all halogen lighting by September 2018. Halogen lighting, in all forms, has been assessed as unsafe, due to their blowing nature. The use of LED innovations means that these dangerous products can be removed, and new safer measures can be put in place. With new technologies in the industry, electricians are advised to embrace the change, and develop their skill set even further. These changes make electricity safer, on the whole, however, how does this change, amongst others, affect the safety of electrical workers? New techniques and products mean new safety measures, and with health and safety at an all-time high, the safety of workers in the electrical trade is stronger than ever. Whenever new developments are put in place, new strict safety procedures are also implemented. And as the electrical community are one of the highest rated when it comes to internal support and reporting back to officials, each change brings around new measures across the board. For more information on electrical safety measures visit www.reecesafety.co.uk
