Five marketing best practices that can boost sign ups in your Bring Your Own Thermostat® (BYOT) demand response program

More than 30 utilities use EnergyHub’s platform and services to manage demand response programs.

Our team of experts have experience in every step of the process when it comes to running demand response programs, and that includes customer acquisition marketing.

One important tool for many of our utility clients is EnergyHub’s Enroll My Thermostat website, which serves as a marketing and recruiting hub for BYOT demand response programs.

Here are five best practices we use when recruiting customers:

1. Clearly state what the customer is getting in return for signing up

This is a fundamental tenet of good marketing.

You want the customer to know right away they’re getting something of value in return for their time and money when signing up for your BYOT program.

When looking at the screenshot below from our NYSEG BYOT program landing page, there’s a good chance the first thing you notice is the “Get $85” bubble in the top-left of the page.

There are a few factors here:

• People usually look near the top-middle or top-left of a page because that’s the logical place for text to start
• The green bubble starkly contrasts from the white background
• There’s a dollar sign, and that is a natural attention-grabber

2. Tell the customer exactly how the program works

Customers typically don’t like surprises, so it’s best to simply lay out the steps they are going to take to confirm their eligibility, select a thermostat, enroll in the program and collect their incentive.

It’s best to do this in as few words as possible, and using the format of a list makes it digestible for the customer.

3. Use one call to action (CTA)

In our NYSEG BYOT landing page example, the phrase “Sign Up Now!” in the CTA at the top of the page is very straightforward, and that’s exactly what you want.

It’s a good practice to the make the CTA a color that stands out from the rest of the content on the page. You also want a clear, short phrase that can really only have one meaning to the customer on the button.

4. Show the device options to your customers

Part of a BYOT program’s appeal is that the customer has options when it comes to their connected thermostat.

Consumers have many different tastes when it comes to electronics in general, but a connected thermostat is also going to become a small extension of their home decor. Simply put: They need to know what the devices look like.

Our landing pages provide a high-resolution image on top of a product description.

5. ABO: Always Be Optimizing

Our utility customers have seen great results using these best practices and relying on our expertise to market their BYOT programs, but it’s important to remember that marketing is an ongoing process.

EnergyHub continuously analyzes program results while looking for ways to increase enrollment for our customers’ BYOT programs.

That means we’re A/B testing, collecting user feedback and constantly brainstorming new and innovative ways for utilities to engage customers and keep them active in BYOT demand response programs.

So, don’t be afraid to tweak your messaging, CTAs, page layout, offers or anything else that you believe can be improved.

If your utility is planning to implement a BYOT demand response program, schedule a demo with one of our experts to see our DRMS platform and hear about our program services