Working so closely with energy and utilities businesses and their marketing teams, as we do at Pod, you get a good sense of what’s keeping them on their toes.
As you can imagine, energy and utilities is an industry where the next challenge is never far away, but at a moment of such major transformation for the sector, the simultaneous and equally rapid changes in marketing are creating something of a perfect storm.
Customer expectations are rising, regulations and obligations are becoming more complex, businesses are being asked to prepare for major shifts like demand side response (DSR) and market-wide half hourly settlement (MHHS); all while teams are under pressure to deliver faster, more personalised engagement.
And across the industry, data is often still sitting in disconnected systems that don’t speak to one another properly.
We’re supporting clients of varying sizes through these changes, and find the organisations responding best to the challenges all have one thing in common: they’re starting to treat CRM as a strategic business platform, not just somewhere to store contacts.
Attendees at our upcoming London breakfast event will be able to hear some of the case studies: Transforming energy and utilities through the power of your CRM
Here are three things every energy and utilities business needs to know about CRM marketing:
One of the biggest challenges facing energy and utilities organisations today is disconnected data. This might sound familiar to you: customer information sits in one platform, campaign reporting sits somewhere else, operational data lives in another system entirely. Meanwhile, spreadsheets are still being passed between teams to bridge the gaps.
The result is slow reporting, poor visibility and, ultimately, missed opportunities. This is where tools like HubSpot Data Studio change things dramatically. Rather than manually stitching together exports from multiple systems, businesses can now connect CRM data, campaign performance, operational information, social engagement and even external data sources like weather patterns into unified datasets. It means businesses can start asking far more valuable questions, and getting fast answers.
Which regions are responding best to our campaign? Is positive social sentiment linked to our campaign? Teams can visualise this information clearly through dashboards, map-based reporting and live datasets that update automatically.
And the reality is, many businesses still don’t realise these capabilities exist. At our London event, I’ll be exploring how energy businesses can begin connecting fragmented data without needing perfect systems or massive transformation projects first.
Most CRM personalisation still looks something like this: “Hi [First Name]”. That’s no longer enough.
Customers now expect communications that reflect their behaviour, interests, location, engagement history and specific needs, especially in sectors like energy and utilities - where communications often relate directly to service, cost and operational impact. Modern CRMs are rapidly moving towards hyper-personalised engagement powered by behavioural triggers, AI and live customer data.
That means communications can now adapt automatically based on things like website activity, service interactions, customer engagement and more.
For energy businesses, the opportunities here are huge. Think about your DSR campaigns, for example. Instead of sending generic communications to entire databases, businesses can identify the right audiences, trigger messaging based on customer actions, monitor engagement in real time and adjust campaigns dynamically.
Whether you’re communicating with local communities about infrastructure projects or managing customer sentiment during operational disruption, CRMs can help businesses monitor engagement, automate responses and create more meaningful communication journeys.
At our event, my colleague Adam Leach will look at practical ways to power these approaches inside your CRM.
You won’t be surprised to hear AI being mentioned. It’s EVERYWHERE right? But perhaps unlike some other use-cases, AI in CRM platforms isn’t a ‘nice to have’ or a novelty; it’s genuinely useful.
HubSpot’s AI suite, Breeze, is a good example of where things are heading. Across marketing, sales and service teams, AI tools are now helping businesses with everything from campaign content generation, prospecting automation and lead prioritisation improvement, to resolving customer queries effectively and summarising customer interactions.
In other words, removing operational friction. Teams are still spending too much time on manual admin, disconnected reporting and repetitive communication tasks. AI-powered CRM tools are beginning to change that by allowing businesses to do more. And because AI is only as good as the data behind it (sorry, cliche I know), connected systems, clean datasets and strong CRM foundations matter more than ever.
At our London event, Richard Holland from HubSpot will share insight into how AI is shaping the future of CRM, what businesses should prioritise next and why the right partner support is becoming increasingly important.
Hear what he has to say on June 23rd.
That’s exactly what our upcoming event is designed to explore:
Transforming energy and utilities through the power of your CRM
📆 Tuesday 23 June 2026
📍 30 Euston Square, London
🕘 Breakfast event | 8:45am–11:30am
Join energy and utilities professionals for a practical morning of insight, discussion and real-world examples focused on how CRM is helping businesses tackle some of the sector’s biggest challenges. You’ll hear from CRM specialists, HubSpot experts and real energy businesses already putting these approaches into practice.
You can secure your place today, by registering here.