Fuel Oil News February 2019 | Page 22

1 . Commit to e-commerce . Work with a skilled marketing company and establish an effective website . 2 . Be competitive . But be aware that you don ’ t have to be the lowest price . 3 . Make it convenient . Your web site must do everything .

A confusing e-commerce site will drive customers away . 4 . Communicate with your customers . Automation is simply the tool . It is not the communication method . 5 . Connect . Make connections with customers by explaining what makes you their ideal partner .

interactions and communications beyond bills and reminders . Fuel marketers need to communicate and build relationships .

“ Consumers don ’ t see anything special about what we are doing — they see it as just a fuel service ,” Stillman says . “ That ’ s important because if you continue to think that fuel is special and unique , and therefore immune to consumer forces , that can be a mistake in your position and your business .”

Evaluate marketing techniques , Stillman advises . If a fuel marketer is going to be in the e-commerce business , and the plan includes attracting and engaging customers in the COD and will-call business then the company needs to rethink marketing techniques .

“ Marketing is still a weakness of this industry ,” Stillman says . “ It ’ s not a criticism because for a long time you could get away with being ‘ okay ’ at marketing . But in today ’ s world you have to be extremely good at it .”

This means building awareness , telling your story , and getting people to buy from you , Stillman says . Marketing used to be fairly simple for a fuel dealer . It focused on the full-service value proposition and what that meant . Now , a dealer ’ s first challenge in marketing is not to think about “ how to get a customer to buy from them ,” but to establish a story long before the customer is thinking about buying . It involves establishing micro-moments whereby a customer learns answers to the question “ why should they change fuel companies .” That is followed by learning who is out there and then making the decision based on why a company is different , and finally , making the decision to buy .

“ Consumers still want help when they are buying ,” Stillman says . “ Learning about the customer journey is a science unto itself .”

Marketing today requires new tools to acquire , nurture and keep loyal customers . Some ways to do this include : Automated behavioral marketing : Consumer is being rewarded or acknowledged for certain behaviors .

Targeted promotions , incentives and email broadcasts : A company knows who a customer is , how they behaved , how many times they ’ ve hit your site before they ’ ve purchased from you Social media linking : this includes all the popular platforms E-list Gold : Automated e-list capture . Adopt the theory of ‘ give-get .’ Have consumers give email addresses to get information that they want . It allows companies to do the targeting and the marketing that is very specific to the consumers interest in products and services .

In addition , fuel companies need to learn about : Search Engine Optimization : SEO Hyper SEO : Community-specific pages PPC : Pay Per Click Geotargeting Retargeting Manners Marketing : Repeatedly thank customers for their business which helps build loyalty “ Bulls — t Radar ”: Consumers are smart . Be honest about what your company is and the services it provides .

To capitalize on the power of e-commerce requires that fuel companies assemble all key engagement tools in one system . Operational , delivery , payment and marketing engagement tools need to be in one place . For will-call and COD , a company needs to be touchless and automated .

So why embrace online transactions and interaction for willcall and COD ? E-commerce can drive down costs across an organization and drive on-demand customers to an online site , Stillman says , adding that there are also much lower acquisition costs via e-commerce .

“ It is also important to cross-sell whenever possible ,” Stillman says . “ Full-service customers don ’ t convert to COD that easily . Some are moving now but not in droves . Rather , companies that offer COD are doing backwards cross selling by talking about the unique attributes of full service .”

So how can fuel companies compete against the low-margin COD companies that can and do pose a real challenge to others in the industry ?

“ We have a lot of customers who compete very well against these low-margin ‘ rusty truckers ,’” Stillman says . “ First of all , it is not about the price . It can be that your experience , your brand and your online site can get you the business . What ’ s more , your fulfillment costs are conservatively twelve cents less per gallon when you are using e-commerce from order to cash .”

Remember : Aggregation sites are tempting but they are margin killers Do you really want to be in the reverse auction business ? You lose control of the customer relationship “ Get educated about what true e-commerce is ,” Stillman says . “ And embrace the idea that full service and will-call and COD can coexist . Don ’ t ignore a large demographic and market opportunity as will-call comprises almost fifty percent of demand in some areas . Also , be sure to audit your digital marketing capabilities . And stop believing that will-call is junk business . It ’ s not what it used to be .” l FON

22 FEBRUARY 2019 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www . fueloilnews . com