Tag: Customer Engagement

Illustration of enewsletter ideas for business customers

4 eNewsletter Content Ideas for Utility Business Customers

For energy utilities, eNewsletters are a vital tool to connect with hard-to-reach business customers. Whether you’re trying to reach large commercial and industrial (C&I) customers or small business owners on Main Street, eNewsletters are a consistent source of valuable information and a regular touchpoint in the digital customer relationship. But what type of eNewsletter content resonates most with business customers?

Read on to learn what topics are trending and learn simple strategies to maximize engagement with this important audience.

What eNewsletter Content Do Business Customers Want?

Businesses in your energy utility’s service territory have varying needs. For example, a hospital has very different energy needs than a manufacturing facility. The size of a business also has an impact on their familiarity and comfort level with energy efficiency. A large corporation likely has an energy manager on staff, but a small business with 50 or fewer employees may not.

The truth is there is no one-size-fits-all business customer — that’s why segmentation is an important strategy to reach different industries or types of businesses.

Segmentation is a best-practice solution to maximize the impact of your eNewsletters. Your energy utility can achieve greater customer engagement by tailoring content based on a particular audience’s needs and interests. For example, segment your eNewsletters based on the size of the business (such as C&I customers) or create eNewsletters focused around the top industries in your region.

Industry-Segmented eNewsletters Reach More Business Customers

AEP Ohio, an energy utility that serves 1.5 million customers in the state, experienced a dramatic increase in customer engagement with a segmented eNewsletter strategy. The energy utility partnered with Questline Digital to segment their business eNewsletter by multiple industries, including healthcare, education and manufacturing.

Each eNewsletter features industry-specific educational content, such as HVAC considerations, workplace safety, seasonal efficiency, electrification and building comfort. Compared to the non-segmented eNewsletter, the industry-specific eNewsletters achieved outstanding customer engagement (based on click-through rate).

  • 84% higher engagement for the healthcare segment
  • 54% higher engagement for the education segment
  • 43% higher engagement for the manufacturing segment

Trending eNewsletter Topics for Utility Business Customers

Once you’ve segmented your eNewsletter, the next step is deciding what topics to share with each group of business customers. These are some of the trending topics we’re seeing in energy utility eNewsletters in 2021:

1. Simple ways to save energy

Businesses of all shapes and sizes are looking for easy ways to save energy and improve their bottom line. In the past year, the top business content centered around simple energy-saving upgrades, how to save energy during business downtime, LED lighting upgrades and other quick fixes. The infographic “Low-Hanging Fruit: 5 Simple Energy-Saving Upgrades” was a popular piece in this category.

Example of enewsletter content for business customers about energy efficiency

Your SMB business customers are looking for simple solutions they can do themselves to improve energy efficiency, such as installing occupancy sensors, smart plugs or unplugging unnecessary “energy-guzzling” equipment. Larger business customers may be interested in upgrading their HVAC system or installing LED lighting throughout their facility (or multiple facilities). However, these projects are a major investment. Your eNewsletter content should focus on the benefits of these upgrades, such as long-term financial gain, a healthier work environment and more productive employees.

2. Renewable energy

Large corporations like Amazon, Starbucks and Walmart are making headlines for their commitment to renewable energy, reduced carbon emissions and other sustainability initiatives. Your business customers are also looking for opportunities to reduce their carbon footprint without breaking the bank. An article like “Solar Energy Can Power Savings at Your Facility” is an effective introduction to the topic.

Example of enewsletter content for business customers about solar energy

To help business customers invest in renewables, consider content that explores their renewable energy options. Popular topics for business customers include renewable energy credits, solar power, wind energy, geothermal systems and energy storage. Consider sharing news about your energy utility’s renewable energy offerings and initiatives, such as a new solar farm in operation or available renewable energy tariffs for easier access to clean power.

3. Smart technology

Your residential customers aren’t the only ones interested in smart technology. Business customers want to know about the latest technology available to them and how these gadgets can help them increase energy efficiency. Many business customers simply don’t understand the impact of smart technology when it comes to saving money and improving productivity. Questline Digital’s popular video “5 Ways to Save With Smart Technology” is a quick and engaging overview of the topic for business customers.

Example of enewsletter content for business customers about smart technology

We recommend sharing content about the advantages of smart thermostats to automate energy use in an office environment or the benefits of connected security cameras, smart locks and alarm systems to keep customers’ facilities safe. In addition to smart technology, keep your customers informed on hot topics in the industry like beneficial electrification, demand response and smart grid technology.

4. Electric vehicles and equipment

Both large and small business customers are thinking about electrifying their fleets and warehouse equipment. The benefits abound, from less maintenance to reduced noise levels. To meet the demand of employees and customers who are investing in electric vehicles, many companies are considering installing EV chargers at their facilities. Not only does an investment in electric vehicles and equipment save money long-term, but it also shows that your company is taking steps to reduce its carbon footprint. An infographic like “Electric Vehicle Charging at Businesses” is effective at illustrating these benefits and providing lots of information in a quick, digestible format.

Example of enewsletter content for business customers about electric vehicles

We recommend sharing educational, action-oriented EV content to help businesses in their decision-making process. For example, why should they consider EV workplace charging? What are the benefits of converting to electric warehouse equipment? Is an electric fleet the right fit for their business? Your business customers rely on your energy utility’s advice and resources to help them make the right decision.

Build Engagement With Business Customers Through eNewsletter Content

To maximize eNewsletter engagement, utilize segmentation strategies and share topics that will help businesses improve their operations. With the right content, your energy utility can help your business customers make smart investments in energy efficiency.

With Questline Digital’s eNewsletters for Business Customers, you can build more effective digital relationships and maintain long-term satisfaction.

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Illustration of disengaged customers

What Disengaged Customers are Costing Your Energy Utility

Imagine being unable to reach your energy utility customers with important service updates and program promotions. That’s the reality for disengaged customers — they are essentially unreachable.

Customer disengagement can be described as the buyer’s perception that a brand can’t meet their rational or emotional needs. Once they feel this way, people stop listening to the brand, act as passive participants and sometimes even leave.

So, what causes customer disengagement and what does it cost your energy utility?

Common Causes of Disengaged Customers

New customers don’t start disengaged. They become that way over time when your energy utility fails to meet their expectations.

Here are common reasons why you may have disengaged customers:

  • They receive irrelevant information
  • Or too much information
  • Or too little information
  • They receive messages in unwanted formats
  • They feel bombarded by transactional messages that don’t provide value
  • They only hear from their utility when you want something, not when they want something

Tom Collinger of Northwestern University explains it well, saying, “No longer can companies risk annoying their customers by contacting them with too many emails, too many sales pitches, too much promotion…creates a fatigue effect that leads to disengagement. The time has come for a coordinated contact strategy. The old blanket approach doesn’t work anymore.”

To keep customers engaged, you must provide consistent value.

Graphic with text Energy utilities can earn up to $60 more per engaged household

Why Disengaged Customers Cost More

Disengaged customers aren’t reading your emails. They are not aware of program promotions and unlikely to stumble across the messages you want them to see. While they may remain a customer, they are passive participants at best.

These customers can clog call center lines with questions, and they are unlikely to be enrolled in paperless billing or energy efficiency programs. This means higher costs to serve, potentially missed payments and higher energy expenses.

Worse, disengaged customers can leave. And attracting a new customer costs five times as much as retaining one.

Disengagement is a problem whichever way you look at it. So, on the flip side, what’s the monetary return of building true customer engagement?

The Monetary Value of Engaged Customers

Energy utilities that foster engagement find that consumers are more loyal, more open to low-cost digital channels, more responsive to marketing and more willing to shift their time of use or adopt energy-efficient behaviors.

Each engaged household can add an incremental $18 to $60 annually to an energy provider’s bottom line, according to calculations from Opower.

Let’s say your energy utility has 75,000 residential customers. That’s an additional $4.5 million of potential revenue if all those households are engaged.

This added revenue comes from the cumulation of lowered service costs, reduced churn, behavioral efficiencies, increased cross-sell opportunities and program participation.

Preventing Disengaged Customers

Customer engagement carries a true return on investment. Luckily, there are many things you can do to prevent customer disengagement. A thoughtful communications strategy that includes personalized and resourceful content can help your energy utility rise above expectations and build loyal customers.

Learn how a content marketing strategy from Questline Digital can build long-term engagement with your customers.

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Illustration of energy utilities offer guidance to customers based on research

New Research: Energy Customers in Search of Guidance

How do your customers feel about new energy technologies? Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative’s 2021 State of the Consumer Report offers important insight into the attitudes, concerns and motivations driving adoption. Among the results in this year’s report, SECC found that:

  1. Consumers are making the connection between smart energy and slowing climate change.
  2. Consumers across all segments are interested in smart energy-enabled products.
  3. Lower-income consumers are keenly interested in smart energy and the environment.
  4. Consumers need more education on how to assess a program or technology.
  5. Consumers look to their energy providers for support as they deal with the impact of COVID-19.
  6. Consumer education and engagement are essential to realizing the promise of beneficial electrification and advanced technologies such as AMI.

Smart energy and climate change

SECC reports that each of their identified customer segments — Green Innovators, Tech-Savvy Protégés and Movable Middle — agree that “electricity is becoming cleaner and more renewable every day.” The research shows that customers “might participate more in energy efficiency and conservation efforts if they were more aware of programs offered by their electricity providers.”

In particular, consumers from the Movable Middle and Tech-Savvy Protégé groups felt that there hadn’t been enough promotion of anything new from their energy utility. They wish their utility was more transparent in their communications of their billing process and how to lower bills.

No matter what level of engagement they had with energy, consumers agreed that they want political and community leaders to prioritize climate change concerns. Specifically for the electrification of transportation, consumers want investments made in infrastructures that would allow for more electric vehicles, electric charging stations and electric public transportation.

Industry stakeholders believed that customers would more fully appreciate beneficial electrification if they understood how it works and could affect their lives.

The main takeaway for utilities: Consumers may be more interested in adopting beneficial electrification for environmental reasons, but it’s up to the energy industry to better educate and promote the benefits.

Customer interest in smart energy products

SECC found increased interest in smart home technologies across all customer segments. In particular, Google Nest was mentioned most frequently in interviews, with Alexa and Google Home being referenced less often. Research shows that “smart energy product purchases tended to be driven by a desire to own the latest ‘cool’ technology.”

Products such as smart thermostats are seen as “gateways” for future smart home technology purchases. SECC says that consumers are also more likely to make smart home upgrades when they move and reevaluate their current devices.

Cost and functionality were the top two customer concerns when looking to purchase new smart home technology. When it comes to high-end products like electric vehicles, 51% of Green Innovators would make the switch if the cost was the same as a conventional vehicle. Consumers with less income are also interested in switching to smart home products, but they want to ensure these upgrades will save them money over time. SECC suggests communicating with this target audience in a way that highlights “the benefits most meaningful to these consumers.”

The main takeaway for utilities: Understanding the barriers to smart home adoption is essential for promoting use across all customer segments and income levels.

Lower-income consumers interested in smart energy

SECC begins this theme of the report by explicitly stating, “When it comes to engaging with energy, the values, interests and motivations of lower-income consumers are as varied as those of consumers with more disposable income.” SECC says there are distinct personas to understand when trying to relate to this segment:

  • Environmentally driven consumers, who value air quality and environmental protections.
  • Smart energy receptive consumers, who would like to use smart energy technologies but believe the cost puts them out of reach.
  • Smart energy decliners, who do not see the value of smart energy technologies for “people like me.”
  • Climate change skeptics, who believe concerns about climate change are exaggerated.

Although all consumers are influenced by cost, the lower-income segment is most sensitive to it, with about 47% of SECC respondents saying “the money I can save” influences their buying decisions. However, comfort, ease of use and interest in protecting the environment are all of varying interest to consumers when considering energy investments.

SECC’s research sheds light on lower-income consumers:

  • 81% implicitly or explicitly expressed concern for the environment.
  • 35% would be very interested in rooftop solar panels with help from their provider.
  • 33% were very interested in community solar generation.

According to SECC, the main difference between lower-income consumers and other consumers is access. “Consumers with greater means are better able to avail themselves of the full range of smart energy products and programs, while lower-income consumers face more barriers.” If energy utilities want to be successful at converting these customers, they need to understand their needs, remove or reduce barriers and leverage community partnerships.

The main takeaway for utilities: The energy industry has to include under-resourced communities in infrastructure planning to ensure these consumers can share in the lower costs and other benefits of clean transportation.

Utility customers need more education

Consumers understand the impact of energy efficiency, but they don’t know how to determine if energy products or programs will impact their usage. “While consumers are increasingly interested in smart energy, they are more likely to engage with energy-enabled smart products than with programs offered by their electricity providers,” SECC research finds.

More to the point, consumers say they are happy with their smart products, but they don’t know if it’s making a difference on their bills. While consumers are motivated to purchase the latest smart technology, they don’t have adequate tools to support their decision-making process or gauge whether a product or program will save them energy or money.

In response to this, energy utilities need to offer incentives and tools such as bill impact estimates or calculators to help consumers understand potential savings. In addition, energy utilities need to provide rate plan analyses, shadow billing, bill guarantees and other tools that help quantify savings.

They also need to personalize these items to specific consumer segments. SECC data shows that 69% of lower-income consumers “definitely would or would consider sharing their data in exchange for information on how to save money while maintaining comfort or a monthly report showing their energy usage data with personalized tips on how to save.”

In addition to cost, other consumers cite functionality as an adoption barrier. To reach these customers, energy utilities should provide education, testimonials and hands-on demonstrations. Lower-income customers, in particular, need more personalized data from their utilities that clearly showcases product or program benefits.

The main takeaway for utilities: Energy utilities need to put ample investment in personalized education and communications with their customers if they want them to convert.

Customers look to energy providers for COVID-19 support

The coronavirus pandemic has led consumers to pay close attention to how their energy providers react and support them. Many consumers say the pandemic prompted them to be more aware of their energy use. For lower-income customers, the pandemic has added to the burdens they already face, including increased concern over paying their utility bills.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, SECC research shows that about 90% or more of lower-income customers were satisfied with their energy utility. However, after the pandemic, these same consumers were decidedly less satisfied with only 70% satisfaction rates.

SECC’s research on lower-income customers shows that other concerns related to the pandemic, including general stress, were more important than worrying about bills. “That means electricity providers are in a unique position to increase satisfaction among these customers by finding creative new ways to support them through this difficult time.” As the pandemic continues, many energy utilities should reassess financial assistance programs and policies to continue helping these customers.

The main takeaway for utilities: Taking steps to support customers now will lead to more trust and greater engagement in the future.

Education is needed for new energy technologies

When it comes to promoting beneficial electrification or implementing new technologies like AMI, energy providers need to learn to talk about energy in a way that speaks to the values of the consumer and to not assume what consumers know or want.

To hit home on this point, SECC notes: “Research into the needs and behaviors of the modern smart energy consumer shows that, once consumers acquire a ‘gateway’ product, they have an appetite for more, but whether they are likely to follow through depends a great deal on their motivations for engaging with energy in the first place, and this varies greatly depending on their values. Even the most disengaged consumers, the Energy Indifferent segment, can be moved to act when the moment and the message align with their primary motivators.”

In particular, AMI deployment has reinforced the importance of the value of relationships between energy providers and customers. “Today’s consumers have more choices than ever before, and across segments and income levels, they value control over their environment. They expect proof of value and want unbiased, personalized information” SECC says.

AMI has the opportunity to create more active and engaged customers by providing valuable data on how consumers can integrate products and services.

The main takeaway for utilities: Energy providers need to listen to their customers and use their input when planning for programs. When there is collaboration between community partners and consumers, success follows.

As the smart energy industry continues to advance, it’s important for energy utilities to progress with it. SECC offers invaluable research and data to help guide energy utilities on this journey.

How does your energy utility educate customers about new technology? Learn how a content strategy from Questline Digital can help.

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Illustration of marketers using welcome series to build engagement with new customers

Webinar: How to Build Engagement with New Customers

As the old adage goes, “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.” This is especially true of the first interactions between energy utilities and engagement with their new customers.

In Questline Digital’s Plugged In webinar, “How to Build Lasting Engagement with New Customers,” Questline Digital’s Josh Hanna and Sigma Computing’s Danny Codella provide insights on the value of implementing a Welcome Series to create a positive first impression and how this best-practice solution can transform digital customer relationships.

Make a great first impression with utility customers

A welcome email is the first impression your energy utility has with a customer after they sign up for service. According to Hanna, this is a great opportunity to acknowledge customers and educate them about your energy utility’s offerings. With digital engagement expectations already set by retail brands and other industries, your customers expect to hear from their energy utility. In fact, 74% of email subscribers expect to receive a welcome email from a company.

“Imagine yourself shopping at an online retailer where you get 20% off your next purchase if you join a loyalty program or submit your email address,” Hanna says. “As a customer, you already know that within minutes you’ll receive a thank-you email with the promo code. It’s a norm, not an anomaly, that customers want to hear from you.”

For energy utilities, a Welcome Series of three to five automated emails is a best-practice solution that creates multiple touchpoints and engages customers with valuable information. This is an opportunity for energy utilities to continue the dialogue with new or moving customers, become a proactive advisor and answer questions your customers don’t even know they have yet.

Each Welcome Series email should touch on a different topic:

  • Welcome message
  • Billing and payments
  • Outage resources
  • Community involvement
  • Safety or energy savings

The top-performing Welcome Series topics are billing and payments. Your customers are looking for information on when they can expect their first bill, how to understand their bill and information on available payment options. This message is also an ideal time to encourage customers to sign up for paperless billing.

In the energy savings message, Hanna recommends incentivizing customers to shop at your energy utility’s marketplace. In a study of energy utility customers, 56% didn’t know their energy utility offered a marketplace to purchase energy-efficient products. Keep in mind, the most important information should be included in the beginning and middle of the series.

Key benefits of Welcome Series:

  • Increases credibility of your energy utility
  • Potential for increasing program conversions (i.e. paperless billing and outage text alerts)
  • Incentivizes customers to shop at your energy marketplace
  • Provides background on your energy utility
  • Introduces customers to other programs/services offered by your energy utility

Exceed expectations with new customers

According to Hanna, 8 out of 10 customers expect to receive welcome emails after they sign up for a mailing list, such as joining a loyalty program. This expectation is happening outside the energy utility industry and is important for energy utility marketers to be aware of. In fact, 51% of all Welcome Series messages are opened and achieve high customer engagement (21.9% CTOR), according to Questline Digital performance metrics.

Codella shares that welcome messages will typically have the highest open and click-through rates of any communication you send. In fact, welcome messages have five times the number of click-throughs as standard marketing emails. “A welcome email series is absolutely critical for establishing customer relationships,” Codella says. “It’s a huge opportunity — the momentum is high and your brand is top-of-mind to customers.”

Welcome Series also has a profound impact on customer engagement with future marketing communications sent by your energy utility. Questline Digital’s performance data finds that Welcome Series graduates — customers who engaged with at least one Welcome Series email — engage with future utility emails at a 30% higher rate.

Codella adds that to be successful in building engagement with new customers, there are six components that your welcome emails should have.

Six components of an effective Welcome Series:

  1. Have a clear sender name and email address, subject line and preheader text
  2. Make the email personalized
  3. Say thank you
  4. Set expectations
  5. Give rewards
  6. Tell customers what you want them to do next

Beyond educating customers about your energy utility’s resources, each Welcome Series message should communicate next steps for customers. For example, do you want your customers to enroll in a program, download an app or click on a link to learn more information? A clear call-to-action is essential to increase program conversions.

Game plan for personalization

According to Codella and Hanna, segmentation and personalization are key to a successful Welcome Series. Welcome emails with personalization have six times higher transaction rates. However, before personalizing your messages, you need to understand who your customers are.

For example, are they residential or business customers? Renters or homeowners? Are they new customers or existing customers moving within your service area? Your energy utility can personalize emails by a customer’s geography, job title, purchase behavior, interests, anniversaries and more. Personalization is also beneficial in subject lines, helping to increase open rates by 26%.

“In the old days, you put a customer’s name on their email and that was considered personalization,” Hanna says. “Today, it’s about understanding the individual and who they are. From a customer experience standpoint, what information do they want or need to know?”

An investment in long-term engagement with new customers

To emphasize the importance of welcome emails, Codella notes that it takes 12 positive impressions to make up for one bad impression. First impressions are essential, as 51% of customers will never do business with a company again after a bad experience.

“A well-planned Welcome Series builds trust, gives customers valuable information, helps with upselling and sets the tone of your energy utility’s customer relationships,” Codella says. “First impressions are hard to shake — that’s why an investment in a Welcome Series is a must for energy utilities.”

Welcome new customers to your energy utility with an automated Welcome Series campaign from Questline Digital.

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Graphic with text that reads Digital Engagement By The Numbers

How to Accelerate Digital Customer Relationships

Our world revolves around relationships — from romantic love to rapport with coworkers. For energy utilities, digital customer relationships are vital to grow customer engagement, increase program conversions and improve customer satisfaction scores. In fact, brands that lead in great digital customer experiences outperform the competition by nearly 80%.

How does your energy utility build stronger digital customer relationships?

Just like you need to join a club to make new friends or download a dating app to meet someone special, your energy utility needs the right tools to connect with customers. Questline Digital’s 2021 Energy Utility Benchmarks Report provides industry trends, insights and data to help energy utilities build digital relationships through consistent customer touchpoints. Read on for key takeaways from this year’s report.

Infographic showing how energy utilities accelerate digital customer relationships with performance metrics

Digital engagement is booming

The coronavirus pandemic has forever changed consumer behavior — and customers in 2021 expect to have a digital relationship with their energy utility.

This relationship goes beyond transactional messages like billing notices, outage alerts and other generic emails. Your customers are looking for ongoing touchpoints that address their unique needs and interests, such as relevant program promotions, educational eNewsletter content and behavioral emails based on their actions. 

With record-high email open and engagement rates last year, it was clear that customers wanted to hear from their energy provider during the pandemic. In fact, the average open rate of 40.4% in March 2020 was 49% higher than Questline Digital’s previous benchmark rate. Even customers who are less digitally savvy opted for the convenience of digital communications. For example, paperless billing promotions experienced a 7.5% CTOR in 2020, more than 53% higher than the previous year.

In 2021, as life begins to return to normal, maintaining strong digital customer relationships will continue to be a driving force of energy utility communications.

Personalization is powerful

Today’s consumers are accustomed to a world of personalization and expect a similar experience from their energy provider. Personalization is a must-have marketing strategy to drive customer engagement and build stronger digital relationships.

The latest research finds that personalized emails deliver six times higher transaction rates, and targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue for marketers.In 2020, energy utilities took advantage of personalization in virtually every touchpoint, including Welcome Series, eNewsletters, program promotions and ancillary messages. For example, many energy utilities now use abandoned cart emails, popular in the retail industry, to boost traffic to their marketplaces.

Segmentation is a popular tactic in the “personalization” bucket, especially when looking to capture attention with program promotions and eNewsletters. Instead of sending a generic message to an entire email list, many energy utilities are now sending relevant messages to a targeted segment. Whether creating marketing personas for paperless billing campaigns or industry-specific eNewsletters to reach business customers, energy utilities have successfully utilized segmentation to increase conversions and engagement.

Digital engagement: The gift that keeps on giving

Digital engagement with one customer touchpoint offers far-reaching benefits and extends to other types of energy utility communications.

For example, Welcome Series graduates — customers who have opened at least one Welcome Series email — engage with future email communications from their energy utility at a 29.8% higher rate compared to non-graduates. The higher engagement from relevant, consistent eNewsletters is another benefit of ongoing customer touchpoints. Our Benchmarks data finds residential eNewsletter readers open promotional emails at a 16.1% higher rate.

In 2020, energy utilities discovered the true value of digital customer relationships, in good times and in bad. Engaged customers with an established digital relationship with their energy utility were much easier to reach than unengaged customers. That’s why it’s essential for energy utilities to start building stronger digital relationships now, so they can easily connect with customers when the unexpected happens.

Accelerate your digital customer relationships

Two-way communication is key for any successful relationship, and this is especially true between energy utilities and their customers. It’s all too easy for customers to lose interest in their energy utility’s marketing messages if they aren’t relevant or don’t provide some benefit to their daily lives. To accelerate your utility’s digital customer relationships, start planning your engagement strategy for every touchpoint throughout the customer journey.

Download the Energy Utility Benchmarks Report to discover more industry trends, data and insights to build stronger digital customer relationships.

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