You don’t need us to tell you that electric vehicle charging is rapidly becoming a more competitive market in the UK. As electric cars go from being a nice novelty to the inevitable future of driving, dedicated charging stations are eventually going to overtake petrol stations as a necessity on our roads.
While we’re still at the beginning of the electric vehicle (EV) boom, there’s no better time to position yourself as an industry leader—and that means getting your EV charging business in front of as many eyes as possible.
If you want to dominate this area of the electric vehicle market, you need a solid marketing strategy. Here, we’re sharing all the steps you’ll need to take to build a scalable, effective digital marketing plan to take advantage of emerging trends and promote your EV charging services.
1. Start By Defining Your Customer
Before you start looking at how to market your business, you need to know who you’re marketing to.
Any successful business owner will tell you to niche down. The reality is that if you try to speak to everyone, you’ll most likely end up connecting with no one.
In most cases, when you’re drawing up your business model, you’ll want to target a maximum of two or three different audiences with your EV charging network, which could include:
- Fleet operators looking for chargers for their depot
- Property developers who want to add EV charging stations to new builds
- Small business owners planning to install charging infrastructure at their premises
- EV drivers looking for their own EV charging solutions for use at home
Different audiences care about different things, so once you know who you’re targeting, you’ll be better informed to build messaging that lands with the right people. For example, if you’re targeting eco-conscious customers, think about how your services could support people who care about integrating renewable energy sources, like solar panels, into their lives.
2. Build A Website That Acts As Your Online Salesperson
Once you know who you’re targeting, your next step is to build a website that does a lot of the legwork when it comes to selling the benefits of your service.
Your website should clearly explain what you offer and guide your target audience towards taking action (requesting a quote, purchasing charging stations, and so on), such as with a booking or quote form.
If you offer an EV charger installation service aimed at different audiences, make sure you have service pages for each. And if you serve a specific region, state this across all your web content, including your titles and meta descriptions—this is important for your local SEO.
Finally, you want to show your customers that you’re an expert they can rely on in the EV charging industry, and the easiest way to do this is with a blog. Aim to share at least one clear, practical article per week. The more specific and helpful your articles, the better, so avoid vague or generic content here.
If you’ve already built a website, could it be better? Check this section again and make sure you’re covering everything we suggest.
3. Prioritize Search Engine Optimisation
When you’re first getting your business online, it’s so easy to get overwhelmed by just how many opportunities you have to promote it: Google, social media, ads on Google and social media, email marketing, online directories, review sites, influencer marketing, strategic partnerships with other companies, community groups…
Some marketing experts will tell you to do it all, and obviously, in an ideal situation, you would. But when you’re just dipping your toe into online marketing and don’t want to stretch your operational costs too far, we recommend starting with SEO, or search engine optimisation.
This fancy term actually has a pretty simple meaning: optimising your website for clicks on Google. The reason why we recommend starting here is that you’re able to target people who are ready to buy (like EV owners searching for quotes for charging stations), rather than people who might have some interest in EVs but might not even own one yet.
There are two areas of SEO that you’ll primarily want to focus on to begin with:
- Local SEO, which involves everything you can do to make your website searchable to local EV users.
- Google Ads, which is a great way to get an initial batch of visitors to your website while it’s still new and not yet ranking (on average, it takes new websites 3-6 months to start getting organic traffic).
Optimising your website for search engines is something that you can do yourself, but it’s best done by an expert who really knows their stuff when it comes to SEO.
If you’re looking to hand over your EV charging business’s marketing plan, drop us a message. We provide SEO and marketing services specifically for businesses in the EV market and know exactly what it takes to get your website to page 1.
4. Use Content to Build Trust at Scale
Pitching to every customer manually might have worked before the world went online, when there were only one or two local businesses serving every town. But with EV adoption being widespread across the UK, and technological advancements (namely the internet) making it possible to reach more customers than ever, the manual approach is going to drain a lot of your time.
Instead, you want to create a foundation of good content that boosts your brand visibility and tells your visitors everything they need to know, before they even speak to you.
There are a few different ways that you can achieve this:
Create Product and Service Explainers
What’s the best way to attract EV owners who are considering installing a dedicated charging station in their homes? Well, it starts by helping them to understand exactly what you offer, and what this aspect of EV ownership looks like.
That’s where it can be helpful to write explainer articles discussing EV charging infrastructure and exactly what your business offers, as well as other things your customers will care about, like government incentives, charging speed, and equipment costs. Once your target audience knows exactly what solutions you provide, they’re more likely to be swayed towards a purchase.
Share Case Studies
When you’re gearing your EV charging solutions to bigger businesses, you’ll be able to build trust by showing examples of similar installations you’ve completed in advance.
Case studies are a great way to do this, with costs, timelines, and before-and-after photos that emphasize your unique selling points and show exactly how you gave your customers the electric vehicle charging infrastructure they were looking for.
Encourage Customer Feedback
Given that up to 98% of consumers read reviews before they make a purchase, you absolutely want to be encouraging customers to leave a review (on Google or a popular site like Trustpilot) after receiving your service.
Businesses are always going to say what their customers want to hear, while reviews are a lot more authentic (even if some reviewers can be a bit unfair sometimes). Having no or very few reviews looks suspicious and may deter people from choosing your business, so make it your priority to encourage reviews, perhaps with a follow-up text or email.
5. Track Your Data And Amend Your Strategy When Necessary
Once you’ve built a digital presence and got a few different strategies in place, you should already be attracting EV drivers and businesses looking for your products or services.
But don’t stop there! There’s always room for improvement, and you won’t know where you’re falling behind without tracking metrics like:
- Your cost per lead from Google Ads
- The traffic you’re getting to key service pages
- The volume of quote requests by channel
- Your close rate from different lead sources
If we may as well be speaking in another language right now, don’t panic. You can find detailed explanations of these with a quick Google search, but if you don’t want to learn, you might prefer to outsource your marketing to an expert.
Running a business puts enough on your plate without having to learn a whole new skill. When you work with us, we’ll build repeatable systems for your EV charging business that regularly bring in new leads, keep up with market trends, and work while you sleep.
That means, with the strategy we implement, your content will attract the right traffic and bring in new prospects consistently. It’s the method that makes sense—we’ll review and make changes where necessary, but rather than starting from scratch every month, we’re improving what already works.
Ready to make waves in the EV market? Contact us to book a strategy call here.
More on Building a Scalable Digital Marketing Plan For Your EV Charging Business: FAQ
Still got room to learn more about marketing your EV charging services online? We’ve answered a few common questions here.
Can I Do Digital Marketing For My Own Electric Vehicle Charging Business?
Yes, you can in theory handle all the online marketing needed to promote your EV charging stations, but most EV manufacturers and charging companies outsource their marketing to an expert simply because they don’t have the time or expertise to handle it themselves.
How Much Does Digital Marketing Cost for an EV Charging Business?
It’s difficult to provide a one-size-fits-all quote for marketing services for electric vehicle charging businesses. Why? Because the cost of these services will depend on exactly how comprehensive you want them to be. We recommend contacting us to discuss your needs and receive a tailored quote for your business.
What’s The Best Marketing Strategy For EV Charging Services?
The best marketing approach to start with for your electric vehicle charging business is search engine optimisation (SEO), especially when it comes to local SEO. From there, you can broaden your reach with paid ads, a social media presence, content marketing, and possibly also influencer partnerships.
