Atlas / Primary & Industrial
Industry profile
Energy: Retail & Solar marketing benchmarks
Strongest on Digital Maturity, weakest on Retention & Loyalty. Energy: Retail & Solar sits below the national average, and that tension shapes how the whole industry markets.
Score signature
Bars are this industry. Ticks are the national average.
Biggest strength
Digital Maturity
66 out of 100. The engine carrying the whole score.
Biggest gap
Retention & Loyalty
57 out of 100. The dimension dragging the industry down.
Where to start
Retention & Loyalty
The most upside per point of effort: 15% of the score and 6 points below the field.
The map
Where this industry sits
Every dot is an industry we measure. Choose any two dimensions for the axes. Energy: Retail & Solar is the red mark.
Acquisition Performance →
Energy: Retail & Solar sits below average on Retention & Loyalty and above average on Acquisition Performance. That tension defines the industry.
The spread inside the industry
Every number is a Marketing Score out of 100. It rolls six dimensions into one figure, so 52 is a business doing the basics and 75 is one that markets like a business twice its size.
The distance between the strongest and weakest performer here is wide. A small cluster is genuinely good. A long tail sits well behind. The bar to lead this industry is lower than the reputation suggests. So where would you land?
The breakdown
How far above or below the field
Each row plots this industry against the whole field. The dot is where Energy sits, the line is the national average and the faint marks are every other industry. Tap a row for what the dimension means.
How modern and capable is the digital setup?
How well does the industry win new demand?
How well does it turn interest into customers?
How well does it keep and grow customers?
How clear and distinct is the brand?
Can any of this actually be measured?
The read
What the numbers say about Energy
On the whole, Energy: Retail & Solar is a below-average industry. It leads on digital maturity and trails on retention & loyalty, and the fastest gains sit in retention & loyalty.
Digital Maturity
Sits around the middle of the pack of every industry we measure. This is the engine carrying the score.
Retention & Loyalty
Sits near the back of the field. The soft spot that drags the whole number down.
Retention & Loyalty
Carries the most weight in the score and sits below the field. Move this and the whole number moves with it.
A digital maturity-led industry with a retention & loyalty problem. The reputation says one thing. The pipeline says another.
Go deeper
Marketing in a market the government designed to be disloyal+
Australian retail energy is a unique marketing environment. Government policy actively encourages switching through comparison mandates, default market offers and price transparency requirements. The result is a market where customer loyalty is structurally undermined, and marketing is a treadmill.
The composite reflects this reality. Acquisition with 30% weight is the engine that keeps the business running. But the cost of acquisition in energy is rising as comparison sites take larger margins and digital advertising becomes more competitive.
Retention is the most telling score. It is one of the lowest retention scores across all industries, beaten only by categories like CFD brokers. The structural explanation is real: when Energy Made Easy and comparison sites make switching trivial, loyalty requires active cultivation rather than passive inertia.
Solar sits differently within this category. The acquisition challenge is intense (30%+ of the composite weight), but the sale is project-based. Solar companies that score well on acquisition have mastered the local lead generation game: Google Ads on "[suburb] solar installation", comparison site leads, and referral incentives. The ones building long-term businesses are adding battery storage, maintenance contracts and energy monitoring to create recurring revenue.
Brand signals a trust problem the entire sector shares. Years of confusing pricing, aggressive door-to-door sales and high-profile billing complaints have eroded consumer trust in energy brands. The companies investing in transparency, simple pricing and genuine customer service are rebuilding trust, but it is slow work.
Acquisition-heavy in a high-churn market+
Acquisition carries 30%, the largest weight. In retail energy, customer switching has been structurally encouraged by government policy and comparison sites. Every customer lost is a customer that needs replacing. For solar installers, every job is essentially a new customer.
Conversion efficiency takes 25%. The energy purchase decision involves comparison, contract review and often a site assessment (for solar). The companies that simplify this process, clear pricing, instant quotes, digital sign-up, convert more of their pipeline.
Retention at just 15% weight and 56.8 score reflects high structural churn. Retail energy customers switch providers at rates of 15-25% annually. Solar is project-based with limited repeat business. The retention opportunity is in add-on services: batteries, maintenance, monitoring.
Where energy companies should invest+
Retention is the weakest dimension and the biggest value creation opportunity. Retail energy companies that reduce churn by 5 percentage points can double profitability. Solar companies that add battery, maintenance and monitoring services create recurring revenue from one-time installations.
Brand needs work. Energy companies face a trust deficit. The comparison site culture has commoditised the category. The brands that differentiate on transparency, Australian ownership and customer service quality (not just price) build loyalty that reduces churn.
Data and tracking with 5% weight is adequate but underleveraged. Energy companies sit on rich usage data. The ones using it for personalised offers, usage insights and proactive retention outperform those who wait for the cancellation call.
Highlighted terms link through to the marketing dictionary.
In context
Where it sits in Primary & Industrial
Frequently asked
Common questions about Energy
How do Australian energy companies perform on marketing?+
What marketing works for solar companies in Australia?+
Why is customer retention so low in energy?+
How important is brand for energy companies?+
Keep exploring
Where to go from here
Pull any thread.