Email Marketing Archives - Questline Digital

Promoting Smart Water Meters to Your Customers

Transitioning customers to smart water meters is a major step forward in modernizing utility operations. Smart meters empower customers with real-time usage data, leak detection capabilities and water conservation tools. This technology has many benefits, including more accurate billing, reduced costs and the ability to quickly address leaks before they cause expensive damage. For your utility, smart meters unlock granular usage analytics to inform strategic initiatives while driving substantial operational efficiencies and cost savings.

With so much to gain, it’s no surprise that more and more water utilities are advocating for the switch to smart meters. However, realizing this technology’s full transformative potential requires an effective marketing strategy to drive widespread customer adoption. To successfully promote smart water meters, you must employ proven tactics that resonate with your customer base.

Benefits of Smart Water Meters

By helping your utility’s customers understand the following benefits, you can encourage them to switch to smart water meters.

Accurate Billing

Smart meters employ advanced technology to deliver accurate water usage data. Unlike traditional meters, which often rely on estimated readings or periodic manual checks, this modern technology continuously monitors consumption. Real-time data ensures customers are billed for the exact amount of water they use, enhancing trust and satisfaction — no more estimated bills or surprises when the final bill arrives. In the current economic state, accurate billing will be a strong selling point for many customers.

Leak Detection

Smart meters can identify unusual or irregular patterns that may indicate a leak. Early detection allows for prompt repairs, preventing water waste and potential property damage. This proactive approach not only conserves water but also helps customers avoid unexpected repair costs and inflated bills.

Water Conservation

Smart meters provide customers with unprecedented visibility into their water usage habits. By delivering detailed consumption data and analytics, smart meters enable customers to pinpoint areas where they can reduce waste and adopt water-efficient behaviors. For example, residents might discover they use more water than necessary in their primary bathroom, leading them to install low-flow showerheads and faucets.

Remote Access and Control

Smart meters allow customers to monitor their water usage remotely and receive alerts through your utility’s online portals and mobile apps. This enhanced visibility and control supports more informed water management decisions and helps customers address problems before they become costly or disruptive. Additionally, the convenience of remote monitoring aligns with customers’ expectations for digital access and self-service options.

Communicating these primary benefits to customers in an easy-to-understand way will help encourage the adoption of smart water meters.

Driving the Adoption of Smart Water Meters

A comprehensive marketing strategy is essential to successfully introduce this technology to your customers. Communications should educate customers about the technology’s benefits and simplify the adoption process. Some key tactics to consider include:

Digital Marketing

Use targeted online ads, search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns to reach customers seeking details on water conservation and utility services. Highlight the benefits of smart meters and provide clear calls to action, whether it’s signing up for more information or scheduling an installation.

Content Marketing

Create valuable content, such as blog posts, videos, infographics and downloadable guides, that educates customers about smart meters and their advantages. Harris County Municipal Utility District 433, for example, shares a smart water meter video series on its website, covering account creation, leak alerts, reviewing water usage and more.

Focus on making your content engaging and easy to understand, answering common questions and concerns in a straightforward manner. Also, consider collaborating with industry experts or influencers to expand your reach, add credibility to your content and position your utility as a trusted partner in water management.

Social Media Marketing

Engage with customers on social media platforms they regularly use by sharing your informative content, success stories and smart meter program updates. Make interactive posts that encourage feedback and address common concerns. Leverage user-generated content and testimonials to build credibility and trust. With the right strategy, your social media presence can foster a sense of community around water conservation and smart meter adoption.

Email Marketing

Send personalized customer emails that emphasize smart meter benefits, deliver installation information and lay out the next steps. Include links to resources, FAQs and sign-up forms to streamline the process for customers interested in making the switch. For example, San Jose Water has an FAQ landing page that answers questions like “Will my account information be secure?” and “How will I be able to check my water use data?”. Also, regularly update your subscribers with e-newsletters that incorporate engaging content.

Community Engagement

Host informational workshops, webinars or community events to promote smart meters and answer questions. In-person engagement is a powerful way to foster personal connections with customers and create opportunities for one-on-one interactions. These events also allow you to gather valuable feedback and better understand your customers’ needs and pain points. This insight can then refine your smart water meter marketing and adoption strategies.

Incentive Programs

Offer incentives or rewards for early adopters of smart water meters. This could mean discounts on their water bill, additional rebates or an entry into a prize drawing. Incentives can motivate customers to make the switch and help build momentum. Incentive programs also generate excitement and exclusivity around the technology, which can inspire fear of missing out (FOMO) and encourage more people to participate. As early adopters spread the word about their positive experiences, it can create a snowball effect that accelerates smart meter acceptance throughout the community.

The Path Forward: Bridging the Gap

Smart water meters offer a win-win solution for both utilities and customers. By implementing a well-rounded marketing strategy that highlights the benefits of smart meters, you can effectively bridge the gap between customers, leading to increased satisfaction, operational efficiencies and water conservation.

Communicate the facts about smart water meters to your utility’s customers with an engagement solution from Questline Digital.

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Effective Marketing Strategies for Budget-Conscious Utilities

Marketers across all industries face the ongoing challenge of managing marketing initiatives with a conscious budget. For utilities, this challenge often means a lack of time and bandwidth, technology restraints, competing priorities and more.

However, utilities can still make a significant marketing impact by strategically addressing these challenges. With careful planning and innovative approaches, utilities can achieve substantial marketing results, even with a conscious budget.

Understand Your Audience

Before you can effectively market to customers, you first need to understand them. Knowing your customers’ needs, interests and how your utility can provide value to them is the first step in creating an impactful marketing strategy.

Identify what your team wants to accomplish with your marketing efforts and make sure it aligns with your customers and the utility’s overarching goals. Whether the focus is on increasing customer engagement, promoting conservation or driving program participation, clear objectives will guide your strategy and help decide where you allocate your budget.

Leverage Different Marketing Initiatives

While it may seem that marketing always requires a large budget and an expansive team of experts, the reality is that not every company has that luxury. There are many cost-efficient ways to reach customers and affordable marketing solutions that can showcase your utility’s offerings, including through:

Digital
Social Media
Email
Content
Community Engagement

Example of affordable marketing solutions for conscious-budget utilities.

Digital Marketing

There are many inexpensive digital marketing strategies for utilities with a conscious budget. To start, ensure that your website is professional and up to date to maintain relevance. Platforms like WordPress, Wix and Squarespace offer user-friendly templates compatible with mobile and desktop at an affordable cost.

Your utility can also take advantage of search engine optimization (SEO) to bring people to your website and other pages. While SEO can be expensive, tools like Google Ads Keyword Planner or Yoast SEO are affordable ways to drive organic traffic. By optimizing your website and content for search engines, your utility can improve your visibility in search results, driving organic traffic to your site without the need for additional advertising costs.

Social Media Marketing

Social media is a powerful marketing tool for your utility to leverage. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and X are free and widely used, providing an effective way to reach customers with a conscious budget.

While your utility can opt for paid ads, organic social media marketing offers an affordable marketing solution while still achieving a significant impact. Remember, consistency is key to maximizing your social media presence. Regularly sharing important, timely and valuable information with customers shows you care about them and helps enhance customer engagement in the long run.

When it comes to creating design images on social media, your utility can take advantage of free tools such as Canva and Adobe Express. These tools include ready-to-use templates for various social media platforms, and both have free and paid versions.

Email Marketing

Email is one of the primary affordable marketing solutions to use to your utility’s advantage. With email marketing, your utility can reach a wide audience while on a conscious budget. Connect with customers via email and share important information, such as educational content, recommendations for programs and services and timely updates.

Your utility can use targeting capabilities to segment your audience based on specific criteria, and then tailor messages to meet their needs and interests. Additionally, email marketing platforms often come with built-in analytics, so your utility can track the performance of your campaigns and make data-driven decisions.

While many email marketing programs offer free versions of their services, this is something your utility will want to invest in if it’s looking to make an impact with customers. It’s important to understand which platforms will be most valuable for them and subsidize your budget accordingly.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is an impactful way to position your utility as a thought leader and trusted resource to customers. Develop valuable and informative content to educate and engage your audience. Consider various formats, such as blogs, infographics, videos and more to engage with your customers.

For utilities on a conscious budget, utilize cost-effective content creation strategies, like repurposing existing content or reusing successful materials year-over-year. These methods allow you to amplify your outreach and engagement without requiring significant additional investment.

Additionally, partner with service vendors like Questline Digital, who offer content credits, allowing your utility to set its own budget and purchase content when it would be most helpful.

Community Engagement

Community engagement offers a unique opportunity to extend your utility’s reach and impact while on a budget. Collaborating with community partners like the local government, schools or non-profit organizations can be a cost-efficient way to spread the message about your utility’s programs and services.

Your utility can also make an impact by hosting community events and webinars. These events allow customers to learn about important utility topics, available programs and services and get their questions answered. Events don’t have to cost an arm and a leg, either. Utilize the resources and partners you already have to make budget-conscious decisions that can make a big impact.

For example, Elk River Municipal Utilities (ERMU) collaborated with its community partners City of Elk River Housing and Redevelopment Authority and the Tri-County Action Program (Tri-CAP) to increase awareness and program enrollments for residents facing financial hardship.

Community engagement is a budget-conscious way to increase visibility and foster strong relationships, reinforcing your utility’s commitment to serving its residents.

Consider Cost-Effective Advertising

Advertising doesn’t always have to be expensive. Look out for resources and leverage free and low-cost advertising to further extend your marketing efforts without significant additional cost. One approach to use to your utility’s advantage is pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. PPC is highly efficient, allowing you to set spending limits and only pay when users click on your ads. Your utility can always start small with paid advertising and build upon those efforts.

Don’t forget to explore local media and sponsorships. Partnering with local newspapers, TV and radio stations, community events or sponsorship opportunities can increase your reach and impact. There are many affordable marketing solutions for utilities looking to maximize value while maintaining a conscious budget.

Measure and Optimize Your Strategies

Continuously track the performance of your utility’s marketing efforts to ensure you’re on track to meet your goals and objectives. For utilities with a conscious budget, consider using free tools such as Google Analytics to your advantage and monitor website performance and user behavior.

By analyzing key performance metrics such as website traffic, open rates, click-through rates, engagement rates and more, your utility can gain valuable insights into campaign effectiveness, further helping your utility to decide where to spend its budget.

Implement A/B testing for continuous improvement, comparing different strategies to identify the most effective approaches. Use these insights to adjust your marketing strategy and optimize effectiveness for future marketing efforts.

Maximizing Impact with Minimal Spend

Marketing with a conscious budget presents challenges, but it doesn’t mean your utility can’t achieve great results. By developing an understanding of your audience, adopting a multifaceted marketing approach and leveraging innovative tools and resources, your utility can drive impact, boost customer satisfaction and build strong customer relationships – all within a cost-effective framework.

Learn how Questline Digital’s marketing services can help your utility maximize its marketing impact even with a limited budget.

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SMS Marketing vs. Email Marketing: Which Is Most Effective for Utilities?

Staying connected with energy utility customers is more important than ever. Utility marketers are constantly looking for effective ways to engage with their audience and deliver timely information about programs, services and energy-saving tips — all while cutting through the digital clutter that make it hard to attract customers’ attention.

Two popular marketing channels have emerged as top contenders in this space: SMS (Short Message Service) marketing vs. email marketing. While both channels share an ability to connect with customers efficiently, they differ in terms of reach, immediacy and user preferences.

The Differences Between SMS Marketing vs. Email Marketing

It’s essential for utilities to employ effective marketing strategies to reach their target audiences. While SMS marketing vs. email marketing have their own strengths and weaknesses, which one is more effective for utilities?

SMS marketing involves sending promotional messages directly to customers’ mobile phones. Research shows that the average SMS marketing campaign has a high open rate of 98%, making it an effective way to grab people’s attention quickly. Additionally, we know that 95% of text messages are read and responded to within three minutes of being received. SMS messages can also be tailored to specific audiences, allowing utilities to send personalized messages that are more likely to convert.

On the other hand, email marketing involves sending promotional emails directly to customers’ inboxes. It has a lower average open rate than SMS at only 20%, but offers more customization options such as dynamic information about customers, images and videos. Your utility is also more likely to have a greater number of customer emails than phone numbers.

When comparing SMS marketing vs. email marketing, it’s important to consider:

Customer preferences
Campaign data
Communication circumstances

Customer preferences

While the 98% open rate achieved by SMS marketing is impressive, it doesn’t tell a full story. In fact, according to Statista, between 2020 and 2021 almost 50% of survey respondents preferred receiving business communications through email, while only 25% of respondents preferred SMS.

When compared to email, one study says that 2023 will be the year we reach 4.37 billion email users worldwide — more than half of the global population. In 2023 alone, the number of emails sent and received is 347 billion, and that number is expected to reach 393 billion by 2026.

All of this data makes one thing clear: customer preferences are fluid.

There will always be customers who prefer email over SMS and vice versa. Choosing to use just one of these communication mediums isn’t recommended. Your customers want the option to choose which is best for them.

Campaign data

SMS marketing campaigns and email marketing campaigns differ in the types of performance metrics that are available for evaluation.

SMS marketing campaigns typically yield information such as delivery rates, open rates, click-through rates (if using short links) and opt-out rates. Additionally, utilities can track the time it takes for customers to open and engage with messages, enabling them to optimize future campaigns based on user behavior patterns.

However, due to the character limitations of SMS messages and the absence of visual elements, the data collected through this channel may be less comprehensive compared to email marketing. Still, the high open rates and immediacy of SMS marketing make it an effective tool for utilities to communicate time-sensitive information and gauge customer responsiveness.

On the other hand, email marketing offers utilities a more extensive range of data points to analyze, thanks to its versatile format and richer content options. Besides open rates, click-through rates and conversion rates, email marketing allows utilities to track user engagement with specific elements within the email, such as images, videos and call-to-action buttons. This granular data helps utilities better understand their audience’s interests and preferences, allowing for more targeted and personalized communication.

Additionally, utilities can gather demographic information through email sign-up forms, enabling them to segment their audience and tailor content accordingly. While email marketing may not boast the immediacy of SMS, its ability to collect in-depth engagement data makes it an invaluable tool for fostering long-term customer relationships.

Communication circumstances

One element that you must consider in the SMS marketing vs. email marketing conversation is their different use cases. For example, email marketing can provide more personalization and creativity in its messages, connecting with customers not only through written text, but with design, too.

SMS marketing campaigns, on the other hand, focus on brevity and immediate impact. You must tell a customer exactly what they need to know in a matter of a few characters, using only text and short links.

When considering which circumstances to use SMS marketing vs. email marketing, one thing is important to maintain across both sectors: ask for permission.

Your utility wants to communicate essential information to customers, not annoy them. Therefore, it’s important to ask for permission from your customers before messaging them, especially when it comes to SMS marketing. Text messages are considered more personal, and sometimes more invasive, than emails, so getting permission is critical.

In fact, it’s not just a best practice — it’s the law. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is the federal legislation that governs telemarketing, text messaging and the Do-Not-Call List. One of the rules of this legislation is that companies must receive prior written consent ahead of contacting customers with commercial or marketing offers.

Other elements to consider between SMS marketing vs. email marketing include:

Timing: Maintain a regular cadence with email marketing so customers know when they can expect communications from you. But only send SMS messages to customers on a limited basis — they don’t want to hear from you every day.
Content length: Share long-form content and messages via email. With SMS, brevity is critical; only send brief updates about programs or services.
Personalization: Input dynamic customer data into emails to deliver a truly personalized message. Realize that texts come across more personal no matter what, as they are in a more intimate setting.
Content types: Share general updates about programs or marketplace products via email. But share time-sensitive offers and updates via text, such as an exclusive coupon on an electric vehicle charger or a last-minute chance to register for an e-bill giveaway.

Example of mobile solutions text alerts for energy utility

Which Communications Channel is Best for Utility Customers?

While it’s great to understand the differences between SMS marketing vs. email marketing, it’s important to understand which ones are right for your utility and, more importantly, your utility’s customers.

SMS marketing campaign use cases:

Outage notifications: SMS marketing campaigns are ideal for sending real-time power outage alerts, ensuring customers receive crucial information promptly, even when they don’t have internet access.
Billing reminders: Utilities can send timely SMS reminders for upcoming bill payments, helping customers avoid late fees and keep track of their monthly payments.
Emergency alerts: In case of urgent situations, such as gas leaks or severe weather warnings, SMS messages can quickly inform customers about the issue and any necessary actions to take.
Energy-saving tips: Short, actionable tips can be sent via SMS to encourage customers to reduce their energy consumption, especially timely messages during seasonal high-bill situations.

Email marketing campaign use cases:

Newsletters: Email marketing is perfect for distributing utility newsletters that contain detailed information about new programs, services, industry updates and energy-saving initiatives.
Personalized recommendations: Based on customer data, utilities can send personalized emails suggesting relevant energy efficiency programs, rebate offers, or home improvement tips tailored to individual needs.
Educational content: Utilities can leverage email marketing to share in-depth educational resources, such as energy efficiency advice, infographics and videos, helping customers make informed decisions about their energy usage.

BONUS: Customer surveys and feedback. Both SMS and email are effective channels for inviting customers to participate in surveys or provide feedback on your utility’s services to gather insights for continuous improvement. The type of service provided and the length of the survey will be deciding factors in which channel your utility should use to promote surveys.

When to Use Both SMS Marketing and Email Marketing

Although the impending death of email has been predicted for decades, and text messaging was once seen as an ephemeral chat tool for teens, the truth is that these two marketing capabilities are valuable and dependable ways to connect with customers. The best marketing strategy isn’t comparing SMS marketing vs. email marketing and picking one or the other, but rather determining how to best combine both marketing channels to improve customer communications.

Incorporating both an SMS marketing and email marketing strategy is critical to connecting with all customers. In doing so, your utility will maximize its ability to communicate about programs and services on the platforms that customers prefer.

Learn more about how Questline Digital can help your utility develop an engagement strategy to connect with customers on all channels.

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7 Essential Copywriting Tips for Energy Utility Marketers

To capture the attention of energy utility customers, the copy in your marketing campaigns is just as important as the design. As an energy copywriter, you have the power to increase customer engagement and participation in your energy utility’s programs and services. For example, a strong subject line will encourage email opens, while a successful call-to-action will motivate customers to take the next steps.

With 15 years of writing and marketing experience in a wide variety of industries, Questline Digital’s Senior Energy Copywriter, Breanne George, shares copywriting best practices to transform your utility’s marketing promotions.

Chart listing the best practices for an energy copywriter

Tip 1: Tell a story

When you think of storytelling, you probably think of your favorite book or magazine article. However, your marketing campaigns can tell a story too. As an energy copywriter, you should create a theme around a specific benefit or motivation that resonates with your target audience.

Example of utility email campaign for paperless billing created by an energy copywriter

For example, we focused the above ebill message around the benefit of “anytime, anywhere bill access” for a major Northeast utility’s paperless billing campaign. Since a majority of the utility’s customers were commuters who used public transportation, the copy and imagery aligned to tell a story about easy bill payments that resonated with this audience.

In another email campaign to promote a Southeast energy utility’s security lighting program, Questline Digital created a story about the importance of security all year round. Through creative copywriting, the email campaign expressed how security lighting gives customers more time to enjoy summer fun, whether at a barbecue or basketball game. They don’t have to worry about their safety when the sun goes down.

Example of a program promotions email written by an energy copywriter

Tip 2: Get Personal with Segmentation

Whether your energy utility is targeting electric vehicle owners or low-income customers, narrowing down your audience to a smaller segment will improve email engagement. In fact, 74% of customers feel frustrated when content is not relevant to their interests. In today’s age of personalized digital communications, segmentation is an essential tactic for energy copywriters.

Your campaign should draw in customers by appealing to their needs, interests and lifestyles. To achieve this, you need to think about your audience:

What would make their life easier?
How does your program or service benefit customers?
Does the copy motivate them to keep reading?

To connect with customers who would benefit from a Time of Use (TOU) rate plan, PSEG Long Island utilized segmentation to send personalized emails to distinct groups of customers. For example, one email targeted electric vehicle owners and another email targeted customers who would benefit most based on their energy usage behaviors.

Instead of sending one mass message to all eligible customers, the emails were tailored to each individual and how much they could save based on their energy usage. The utility leveraged smart meter data to create these targeted messages.

Examples of segmented emails written by an energy copywriter

For segmentation success, energy copywriters need demographic information, marketing personas and any other research that breaks down your audience and what matters most to them. The more insights you have on your audience, the more the copy will reflect customers’ unique needs and interests.

Tip 3: Avoid Energy Industry Jargon

For energy copywriters, it can be all too easy to forget that most utility customers aren’t experts in renewable energy, rate plans and other popular industry topics. Your readers may not understand complex terminology or programs that are common knowledge in the energy industry. That’s why writing copy that’s easy for customers to understand is essential for your email campaigns.

When you’re promoting a complex topic, such as an energy efficiency rebate or financial assistance program, put yourself in your customers’ shoes. They want to know what the program entails, key benefits and how to apply. They don’t need to know “everything but the kitchen sink.”

As an energy copywriter, you should avoid using industry jargon or technical language that your customers may not understand. To help customers learn more about a particular topic, try linking to educational articles, videos or infographics to provide extra assistance.

Examples of educational emails written by an energy copywriter

To help increase participation for a Midwest energy utility’s complex demand response program, Questline Digital created a segmented email campaign. The goal was to encourage participation among two groups of commercial and industrial (C&I) customers: prospective participants and past program participants. The emails were clear and concise, highlighting the benefits of participation and providing a helpful video testimonial from a local business.

Tip 4: Keep it Short and Sweet

In today’s fast-paced world, your customers don’t have time to read a long, text-heavy email. That’s why it’s best to write short and succinct copy.

Energy copywriters should be clear and concise, making the utility program as easy to understand as possible. This is where bulleted lists, headers, pull quotes and other call-outs help to break up the copy and make the information more digestible. Remember, your customers will get the full details when they click on your call-to-action.

It’s not always easy to write short and sweet when describing complicated utility programs. By using the copywriting tactics mentioned above, energy copywriters can avoid massive blocks of text. Use simple words and short sentences, focusing on the value propositions that resonate most with your customers.

Example of My Account email written by an energy copywriter

In this example, part of a welcome series for a West Coast energy utility, the email copy is easy to read with bullets and iconography. This email makes it easy for new customers to find important information, including payment options, billing alerts as well as energy-saving tips and tools.

Tip 5: Craft an Impactful Subject Line

Before your customers can engage with your marketing campaign, they first have to click into the email. A great subject line makes all the difference for energy copywriters. According to Questline Digital performance metrics, the sweet spot for subject lines is 50 characters or fewer. Your subject line should make it clear what customers will learn in as few words as possible.

We recommend using power words that encourage customers to take action. Consider the following subject lines about outage text alerts:

Subject line #1: Text alerts to stay informed during an outage
Subject line #2: Stay informed! Sign up for outage text alerts

While both subject lines have a similar message, the second option is actionable and encourages the reader to click into the email to sign up. For this example, you could also use a lightning bolt emoji to help the subject line stand out in customers’ inboxes. When it comes to subject lines, energy copywriters should try A/B testing to see what engages your utility’s audience.

Tip 6: Choose a Powerful Headline

Your headline captures attention and encourages customers to keep reading your message. As the first piece of copy your customers will see after clicking into your email, it’s vital to get your promotional message across in a simple, direct and engaging way. No pressure, right?

Energy copywriters should follow these helpful tips for writing an effective and engaging headline:

Be clear and concise: Your headline should be simple and direct, while articulating what customers will be reading in the email.
Lead with key details: Think of the most important message from your email and write it in a fresh way so the message stands out. This could be the dollar amount of an EV rebate program or the main customer benefit in a paperless billing campaign.
Consider the imagery: Make sure the headline and visuals work together. For example, “Protect Your Palace” was a headline for a Southeast energy utility’s security lighting campaign featuring a royal guard in the hero image.
Generate curiosity: By giving away just enough information — but not too much — your headline should persuade your audience to read further for more details.
Get creative (within reason): Avoid copywriting that is too whimsical, cutesy or irrelevant. Think creatively but don’t stray from the ultimate goal of your campaign.

For this paperless billing campaign for a large Northeast energy utility, an entertaining headline paired well with the campaign theme, which showed humorous yet true reasons why customers should make the switch.

Example of an effective headline written by an energy copywriter

This headline for a Southeast energy utility’s charitable campaign helped to pull at readers’ heartstrings. The focus of the holiday-themed email was to encourage customers to round up their energy bill to give back to neighbors in need.

Example of community focused PR email written by an energy copywriter

Tip 7: Encourage Customers to Take Action

After engaging with your message, you want customers to take action, whether enrolling in paperless billing or taking advantage of a rebate program. As an energy copywriter, your call-to-action (CTA) is one of the most important elements of your marketing campaign.

Keep these best practices in mind to create a powerful CTA:

The shorter the better: Your audience will tune out an overly long and complicated CTA. Keep it short and simple so your customers understand what you want them to do.
Urgency is effective: Use time-sensitive language to help boost program conversions and create a sense of urgency. Some examples include “Time is running out,” “Don’t wait” or “Sign up today.”
Get creative with button copy: Sometimes a simple button like “Learn More” or “Get Started” works best. However, there are times when energy copywriters should switch things up and make it fun. For example, “Enroll. Enter. Win?” for a sweepstakes email or “Start Saving Now” for a rebate program promotion.
Placement matters: If your email is lengthy and requires readers to scroll, include two CTAs: one near the top and one near the bottom. This ensures customers can click through at any point in the email.

In this example from Duquesne Light Company, a Pennsylvania-based energy utility, there are two CTA buttons at the top and bottom of the email. The first button, “Enroll for a chance to WIN” gives readers an immediate opportunity to take action. The second button, below the benefits box, gives those who read the entire email an easy click-through to the enrollment page.

Example of effective CTA buttons written by energy copywriter

To help FirstEnergy promote its financial assistance programs, Questline Digital created an email campaign series with multiple CTA buttons. Since the email goes to both homeowners and renters, there are two buttons that link to the specific application pages.

The first two CTA buttons are located directly below the headline. Since the headline makes it clear what the email is about (connecting the customers to bill assistance), a CTA directly below the headline is appropriate in this instance. As an energy copywriter, you’ll need to determine what placement and number of CTAs are best for the subject matter and email length.

Example of call-to-action placement in email written by an energy copywriter

Copywriting is More Than Creative Writing

As these examples demonstrate, there are many things for energy copywriters to keep in mind when writing for utility marketing campaigns or program promotions. Copywriting is more than just creative writing — it’s about crafting an effective, concise and persuasive message that motivates your target audience. With these best practices in mind, you can transform your utility’s marketing messages, one word at a time.

Learn how Questline Digital’s energy copywriters can help you craft an effective message that connects with customers.

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Email Subject Line Best Practices + Sample Subject Lines

Subject lines are the make-it-or-break-it text for emails. An effective email subject line will catch the attention of the recipient and inspire them to open the message to learn more. The goal is to drive opens and engagement with your emails. A well-executed subject line can make your utility’s email stand out in the noise of customers’ inboxes.

To ensure successful email campaigns and boost engagement rates, it’s important to follow email subject line best practices, including:

Make it personalized
Keep it short
Don’t bury the lead
Use action language
Include numbers
Don’t use clickbait
Think through emojis
Make it readable
Avoid shouting
Test, test, test

BONUS TIP: Don’t forget the preview text.

Chart listing the top 10 best practices for effective email subject lines

Sample Subject Lines for Energy Utilities

Typically, program promotions can be the most difficult emails to get customers engaged with. After all, people don’t typically enjoy being sold to. Your subject lines for promotion emails need to work hard to showcase the benefits of utility programs, inspire action and catch customers’ attention.

With this in mind, we evaluated the top email sends in 2022 that were deployed to over 20,000 customers for our energy utility clients and have compiled the best sample subject lines for your reference and inspiration.

List of sample subject lines from top performing emails

Make it personalized

Research shows that 74% of customers are frustrated when content is not relevant to their interests. This means personalization is no longer a nice-to-have in digital marketing — it’s essential to increasing engagement with customers.

There are two main ways you can personalize an email subject line:

Make the subject line text personal to what you know about the customer: Consider who the email is being sent to and why. Are you trying to increase awareness of an EV rebate to customers who have shown interest in purchasing one? Then make the subject line stand out for those customers.
Humanize who the email is coming from: Instead of just using your utility name as the sender, state who it’s actually coming from. Questline Digital’s monthly newsletters are delivered from our Marketing Director and customers know that immediately with the subject line “From: Bethany @ Questline Digital.”

By following this email subject line best practice and adding more of a human touch to your utility’s subject lines, customers will see the communications as personal rather than promotional.

Sample of personalized email subject lines

Keep it short

One of the most common questions we hear at Questline Digital is, “How long should an email subject line be?”

The answer?

Email subject lines should be quick, clear and specific. Data shows that the best length is 40 characters or fewer. Longer subject lines are often truncated because of mobile displays and screen settings. Your intended message could be unintelligible if you make it too long.

With nearly 1.7 billion people using their mobile devices to read and share emails and 42% of users deleting emails that aren’t optimized for mobile, it’s essential that your subject lines are prepared for mobile viewing.

A Marketo study surveying around 200 email samples found that subject lines with four words received the highest open rate at 18.3%, followed by five words with an open rate of 17.1%. However, seven-word subject lines received the highest click-to-open rate, with 10.8%. Depending on your utility’s goal, it’s best to stick between four and seven words.

Don’t bury the lead

Put important words and information at the beginning of the subject line to catch a customer’s attention immediately. Let recipients understand what they are getting before they even open the email with this email subject line best practice. If your utility is offering a rebate or promotion, make that known upfront. Or, if your utility is announcing a new product or offer, convey the feeling of “insider updates” to customers via the subject line.

Answer the question: How would opening the email benefit them? Customers respond well to specific references to their situation; email subject lines with the words “you,” “your” and “about your” tend to perform well.

Use action language

Customers are more likely to open emails when they see actionable, eye-catching words in the subject line. Some powerful action words to use include:

Improve
Increase
Update
Join
Congratulations
Last Chance
Offer
Rebate

When deciding what action words to use, consider your goal for the email:

Are you trying to pique customers’ curiosity?
Are you appealing to their sense of self?
Are you trying to build trust?

No matter your utility’s goal, an email subject line best practice is to include action words in your subject line that makes sense with your goal. For example, if you are trying to increase paperless billing enrollments, try using “Enroll Today!”

Include numbers

Numbers naturally catch people’s attention. Humans like to organize information into logical, numbers-backed scenarios. So, including numbers in your utility’s subject lines only makes sense. Numbers can succinctly tell a story that words alone can’t. Plus, numbers differentiate themselves among words — making the email subject line stand out more.

Yesware completed a survey that analyzed 115 million email subject lines and found that those that include numbers outperform those without. Subject lines that include a number were found to achieve:

53.2% open rate, compared to the average 51.9%
32.0% reply rate, compared to the average 29.8%

When considering what numbers to add to subject lines, try including a promo code or dollar amount to catch attention. Subject lines such as “Save $XX when you use promo code XXXXX” are shown to improve open rates as well as CTOR.

Screenshot example of sample subject lines

Don’t use clickbait

Heed this email subject line best practice: Do not try to amplify your subject line with words that could be considered clickbait.

Your utility’s subject line should match the content of your email. Don’t try to trick recipients and boost open rates with an over-the-top subject line only to disappoint them when they see the email message.

Your subject line should always be clear and concise, informing customers exactly what they can expect when they open your email. Although your utility may be trying to cut through the clutter of customers’ inboxes, using clickbait is a surefire way to be flagged for spam or lose subscribers.

Instead, use tactics like including numbers, testing emojis and using action words to drive opens and clicks with your subject lines.

Think through emojis

There are strong arguments to be made both for and against using emojis in email subject lines. Some research has found that 56% of brands that included emojis in their subject lines saw an increase in unique open rates.

Other data has indicated that emails without emojis were considered to have more value. This same research, though, discovered after testing 3.9 million email subject lines with and without emojis that:

Subject lines without an emoji had higher open rates
Subject lines with an emoji had higher click-through rates

Even after testing, the data was still mixed.

So, what should your utility do? Test them to determine whether emojis resonate with your customers, and which messages lend themselves to subject lines with emojis.

When considering using emojis, remember:

Use no more than one emoji at a time.
Use emojis to complement words, not replace them.
Test among different systems. Google and Apple, for example, use different versions of emojis, so it’s important to test which ones you want to use across different systems that will receive them.

You can also test placing emojis at the beginning or end of your subject line. Just don’t assume that emojis will automatically elicit opens or clicks. Test and review the metrics to discover what your utility’s customers prefer.

Make it readable

Using unique text characters or different fonts may seem like it would help your utility’s message stand out. But using special Unicode characters makes subject lines unintelligible to users who rely on screen readers. This means your email is not accessible to all audiences.

Plus, different fonts within subject lines tend to appear as spam to viewers, meaning your utility’s emails likely wouldn’t reach customer inboxes.

Making your utility’s email subject lines readable and accessible to all customers and systems is vital to having your message read.

Avoid shouting

We all know the feeling of seeing an all-caps message in our inbox, and immediately wondering why you’re being yelled at. Although some brands try this tactic to gain attention, most often it is seen as obnoxious and dissuades customers from wanting to open an email. Plus, this is another way emails can be flagged as spam.

As an email subject line best practice, simply avoid shouting at your customers. Instead, get your message across in a less-aggressive manner, such as using the action words mentioned above.

Additionally, your utility can test the use of capitalization (such as sentence case or title case) to see what resonates with customers. Typically, these tend to fare better in customers’ eyes than all-caps subject lines.

Test, test, test

Email subject line best practices include A/B testing. This is when you send two versions of a subject line to a portion of your audience, measure the open rate or click-through rate, then deliver the “winning” subject line to the remaining mailing list.

Through the consistent use of A/B testing over time, an energy utility can narrow down very specific best practices for their customer segments. Some tips to keep in mind:

Is my A/B testing sample size big enough? Typically, 500 to 1,000 recipients is an effective sample size and will deliver statistically meaningful results.
How long should the A/B test run? More than 50% of opens and clicks happen within the first six hours after email delivery. However, to eliminate seasonal and day-of-week variables, it’s best to test for one full week before determining a winner.
Is there a clear winner in A/B testing? Depending on the sample size, a good rule of thumb is to look for a 25% to 35% performance variance in order to declare a clear winner.

You can also leverage free online tools to test your subject lines. These tools analyze and offer suggestions for improvement:

Don’t forget the preview text

While not technically a subject line, your preview text (also known as preheader text) is equally important and can help your utility grab attention and boost opens. Preview text is the sentence or phrase that appears in the list view of email clients before the message is opened.

Use preview text to convey additional information that expands on the subject line, without repeating the same information that’s in the subject line. For example, add an explanation or highlight a detail from the subject line that the preview text can expand on. Preview text length should range between 40 and 140 characters.

Sample of preheader or preview text included with email subject line

Employing Email Subject Line Best Practices

By following these email subject line best practices, your utility will set itself up to achieve increased open rates and click-through rates. In doing so, customer engagement will rise as customers look forward to receiving emails from your utility, knowing that they are receiving valuable and informative messages.

Learn how Questline Digital’s engagement experts can boost the performance of your email marketing campaigns.

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