SWEPCO Increases Energy Efficiency Program Participation with Monthly Newsletter

Challenge

Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) needed to build awareness for its energy efficiency programs. The utility is required to reach specific participation and energy savings goals as set by the regulatory commissions in each of the states it serves. Meeting these goals ensures the programs remain cost-effective and can continue being offered to customers.

With one marketing team member serving three states — Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas — the utility needed a scalable and cost-effective way to teach customers how to use less energy. 

Solution

Questline Digital worked with the utility to set up a monthly residential newsletter program. SWEPCO utilizes Questline Digital’s Engage™ platform to plan, build and manage newsletters about energy efficiency for audiences in each state it serves. 

Newsletters are populated with content from Questline Digital’s Content Catalog, which includes 4,500+ articles, infographics, videos and interactive quizzes that cover a wide range of energy topics. SWEPCO also incorporates promotions for its important energy efficiency programs, driving customers to state-specific enrollment information. 

Results

SWEPCO established a monthly touchpoint with customers, going beyond bill notices and outage alerts. Pulling from Questline Digital’s library of ready-to-use content, the utility is able to share energy efficiency education and program promotions without exhausting internal resources. The utility has seen an influx in program participation and tracked an increase in activity on its website each time the utility deploys a newsletter. 

Additionally, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Questline Digital content and newsletters helped SWEPCO meet its program goals, alleviating uncertainty among customers and catering to an increased need for energy efficiency measures.

Since 2019, SWEPCO has seen an increase in J.D. Power scores for customer satisfaction, in part due to customer awareness of energy efficiency programs through newsletter content. 

About SWEPCO 

Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) serves 547,800 customers in northwestern and central Louisiana, western Arkansas, East Texas and the Panhandle area of North Texas. Its headquarters are in Shreveport, La. SWEPCO is a subsidiary of American Electric Power (AEP).

New energy efficiency newsletters led to an uptick in customer satisfaction scores.