Genesis focuses its energy on optimisation

Genesis Energy Ltd. is New Zealand’s largest energy retailer. We sell electricity, natural gas, and liquefied petroleum gas through our retail brands—Genesis and Energy Online—to more than 650,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers across the country. With the convergence of digital applications, low-cost solar, and advancements in battery storage in the last year, we’ve been focused on reimagining energy and giving our customers more choice, convenience and control.

We teamed up with Catchi, Australasia’s leading digital conversion agency, to launch an in-depth testing campaign using Analytics 360¹ and Google Optimize 360 designed to improve our mobile site experience to both acquire and retain customers.

Examining mobile from the consumer perspective

New Zealand’s energy market is highly competitive. Price is also highly elastic, which results in a high customer switch rate and frequent churn between providers. This means optimisation is key in retaining current customers and acquiring new ones. Because our subscribers are largely interacting with the brand on mobile, our first step in the optimisation process was to look at our mobile site experience from the perspective of both a current and a prospective customer.

After some preliminary testing we realised that our consumers and prospects had to navigate through multiple pages before getting to the content or information they were looking for. We thought  that more relevant content and a linear, convenient user journey would result in an increased conversion rate.

In-depth testing powered by specific variables

Our first step was using Analytics 360 to measure actions like sign-ups, My Account registrations, and My Account log-ins for our existing customers. This gave us a good starting point to compare with our final results. We also ran a series of experiments on Optimize 360 to determine relevant content areas for specific audiences. The seamless integration of all the measurement and testing tools we used and the ability to tap into Audiences made a huge difference.

Our optimisation testing centered on six core variables: more relevant content, more direct copy, clearer calls to action (CTAs), shorter pages, fewer visual distractions, and a new look and feel.

To learn how different copy options and CTAs would affect our conversion rate, we ran a series of experiments on Optimize 360, specifically targeting mobile users. We landed on very specific and descriptive language, like, “find a plan that suits you,” “view our prices,” and “log into My Account” in place of “current offers,” “prices & plans,” and “My Account,” respectively. We also analysed user behaviour in Analytics 360 to determine relevant content areas for specific audiences.

A mega-watt response to personalised, easy-to-navigate content

Adding clear, actionable, and relevant CTAs led to an unbelievable 6.4X uplift in conversion rate. The campaign also resulted in a 2.5X registration uplift to the My Account self-service portal.

We plan to continue experimenting and optimising our customer experiences even further with variations across devices, regions, and audience segments. Geotags across our platforms will allow us to identify even more specific customer segments and customise their experience according to their needs—applying cross-promotional offers specific to each target, for instance.

The ultimate goal is to serve different, highly personalised experiences to customers depending on where they are on the path to purchase. Eventually, every experience within the Genesis site will be built around the information we have about our audience and customised based on what they need and the reason they are visiting the site.