Design emails and newsletters your customers will read
Contents
Utility customer communication preferences
Recommendations for email design
Recommendations for newsletter design
Customers want emails from you but how can you make sure your emails stand out in their overflowing inboxes?
To learn more about utility email and newsletter performance, we spoke with Bethany Farchione, director of Marketing at Questline, who shared data and insights from the content marketing agency’s 2022 Energy Utility Benchmarks Report.
Below, we share expert advice for creating engaging emails and newsletters that customers will actually read. We also feature examples of utility emails and newsletters, and offer advice on the best performance metrics to measure.
Utility customer communication preferences
Residential customers prefer to receive most utility communications by email, according to the E Source US Residential Customer Insights Center (figure 1). In fact, respondents rated email as their most preferred channel for seven out of the eight communication types surveyed.
Figure 1: Customer preferences for email communications
It’s clear that customers most often prefer to receive emails from you for almost every topic. So when it comes to talking to customers about billing, energy efficiency, energy use, newsletters, and more, focus on email communications. Looking specifically at newsletters, nearly half of residential customers prefer to receive newsletters via email, trailed by postal mail at 28%.
By focusing your communications on customers’ preferred channels, you’ll not only find more success in your communications but also save money, as email is a lower-cost channel than direct mail. For more on how to successfully market programs on a small budget, read our blog post 4 effective low-cost marketing strategies for utilities.
Recommendations for email design
Even though your customers prefer email communications, you’re still competing for their attention with hundreds of other brands, news articles, and personal emails. You need to craft engaging emails that customers want to open and read. Here are our recommendations on how to accomplish that:
- Write simple and engaging subject lines
- Use preheader text to grab customers’ attention
- Design emails for mobile devices
- Include customers’ names in the subject line or body text
- Make emails accessible in appearance and language
- Use clear CTAs
Write simple and engaging subject lines
The subject line is the first thing customers will see. According to Questline, you should use action verbs in your subject lines and keep them to fewer than 40 characters. Use attention-grabbing language that also lets the customer know what they’ll gain from the email—for example, “Get $5 off your next bill.”
If your email marketing software allows, we recommend using A/B testing on the subject line. A/B testing allows you to randomly show two different versions to customers so you can compare the effectiveness of each and see which subject line performs better.
Use preheader text to grab customers’ attention
Don’t neglect your preheader. This is the preview text customers see in their inboxes. It gives you an extra 40–70 characters to entice customers to open your email.
Keep the preheader short and simple, and treat it as a companion to the subject line. You don’t need to repeat the information from your subject line, but you can expand on the benefits—for example, “Subject line: Get $5 off your next bill. Preheader: By enrolling in paperless billing.”
Design emails for mobile devices
With so many customers on their phones, your emails need to be mobile responsive. According to email marketing platform Litmus:
- 7.1% of email opens in April 2022 were from mobile devices
- 49.7% were from Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), which includes Apple mobile opens
Before the release of Apple’s MPP, Litmus’s data more clearly showed mobile as the most common way people access emails. In the first three months of 2021, 43% of email opens came from mobile devices, followed by webmail at 36%. And in 2020, mobile was the top way to read email except between April and June when webmail surpassed mobile, which Litmus correlates to the pandemic.
Read more about Litmus’s data:
- Email client market share in April 2022, Kimberly Huang, Litmus (2022)
- Email client market share in 2021, Magan Le, Litmus (2021)
- Email client market share in 2020, Magan Le, Litmus (2021)
Include customers’ names in the subject line or body text
Make emails personal for your customers. At the most basic level, use customers’ names in the subject line or body text.
In its 2021 State of Email report, Litmus asked email marketers how they’re personalizing their emails. Here are some of the top strategies:
- 80% of marketers personalize emails with name, company name, or other profile data
- 64% personalize by customer segment
- 42% personalize by past email interactions
- 40% personalize by location or geolocation
Note that if you use third-party cookies to collect customer data and inform your personalization, you may need to find an alternative. Google plans to phase out third-party cookies by the end of 2023. Learn more in HubSpot’s blog post What Marketers Need to Know About Google’s 2022 Phase-Out.
Make emails accessible in appearance and language
When talking about accessibility, we mean that, in the words of the Global Accessibility Awareness Day website:
Every user deserves a first-rate digital experience on the web. Someone with a disability must be able to experience web-based services, content and other digital products with the same successful outcome as those without disabilities.
That said, accessible design helps every customer, not just those with disabilities. Anyone can be disabled, even temporarily—consider someone with an eye infection or someone holding a baby in one arm. The more inclusive your design is, the better it will serve all your customers.
Here are some of our top recommendations for making emails accessible:
- Use HTML and responsive design to make your emails accessible to screen readers.
- Use color carefully to accommodate color blindness and visual impairments. And be mindful of contrast and font size.
- Use alternative text on any images in your emails.
- Use white space to keep your emails looking clean.
- Write at a fifth-grade reading level or lower to improve readability.
- Use plain language, simple grammar, short sentences, and a clear “we” and “you” writer-and-reader relationship.
You can measure reading level by running the Flesch-Kincaid grade-level test on your content. Tools such as Grammarly, Readable, Hemingway Editor, and the readability calculator from Online-Utility.org can tell you the Flesch-Kincaid reading level of your content. You can also run the test using the spellchecker in Microsoft Word, as explained in the Microsoft article Get your document’s readability and level statistics.
Use clear CTAs
You’re sending emails for a reason, and that reason should be clear to the customer. If you’ve succeeded in getting them to read your email, don’t lose them by hiding your CTA.
Use clear action verbs and noticeable buttons to direct customers to the next step in their journey such as enrolling in a program or learning more about a topic. We recommend repeating the CTA in multiple places in your email such as the body text, a button, and the PS line.
Recommendations for newsletter design
Newsletters are an important tool for utilities to build brand loyalty and keep customers informed. Questline’s 2022 Energy Utility Benchmarks Report found that customers who engaged with e-newsletters were more likely to open and click on other utility emails and promotions. Here are our recommendations on designing engaging utility newsletters:
- Brand your newsletter
- Provide the right balance of educational content and promotional items
- Avoid overwhelming customers with information
- Switch up your content types
- Deliver newsletters on a monthly cadence
Brand your newsletter
Questline’s 2022 Benchmarks Report found that utility newsletters that had repeatable subject lines had 28% higher open rates and 23% higher click-to-open rates than those that had variable subject lines from issue to issue. Branding your newsletter will give customers the ability to recognize its arrival each month.
For example, if you send a seasonal newsletter, your subject lines could look like:
- Spring 2022 | [Catchy subject line here]
- Summer 2022 | [Catchy subject line here]
Or you could use your newsletter name or utility name:
- Newsletter name | [Catchy subject line here]
- Utility name | [Catchy subject line here]
Whatever you choose, having a consistent format is key.
Provide the right balance of educational content and promotional items
Customers aren’t signing up for your newsletter to hear a sales pitch through a different channel. Software company HubSpot recommends that 90% of your newsletter content be educational or brand related and 10% be promotional:
In your email newsletters, get rid of the self-promotion (most of the time) and focus on sending your subscribers educational, relevant, timely information. Unless you actually have an exciting, big piece of news about your product, service, or company, leave out the promotional parts.
Read more in HubSpot’s blog How to Create an Email Newsletter People Actually Read.
Avoid overwhelming customers with information
Limit the number of unique blurbs or stories in your newsletters to around four or five. Focus on topics that resonate with a wide range of your customer base. Common topics we’ve seen from utilities include:
- Case studies of local organizations or customers who have benefited from energy efficiency improvements
- Community involvement, events, charity, and volunteerism
- Employee recognition
- Energy efficiency tips
- Important billing options and information
- Social media channels
- New programs available to customers and where to find information about them
- Safety tips
- Seasonal recipes
- Updates on improvements to technology, infrastructure, operations, equipment, and clean-energy goals
According to Questline’s 2022 Benchmarks Report, residential utility customers like content that teaches them something new or helps them save energy or money (figure 2). And business customers prefer DIY content that helps their business save energy or money (figure 3).
Figure 2: Top-performing residential newsletter content of 2022
| Title | Content type |
|---|---|
| © E Source; data from Questline 2022 Energy Utility Benchmarks Report | |
| Are You Cool With Your Air Conditioning System? | Article |
| What Are Your Home Cooling Habits? | Article |
| Beyond the Bulb: 3 Ways to Save on Lighting | Article |
| 5 Ways to Save Without Spending Money | Video |
| Make Time for Savings This Morning | Infographic |
| Make Time for Savings This Evening | Infographic |
| Fact or Fable? You Shouldn’t Shower During a Thunderstorm | Infographic |
| Energy-Saving Tips for Fall | Media essay |
| Crank up the Savings on Your Heating This Winter | Infographic |
| Simple Steps to Saving Energy at Home | Infographic |
Figure 3: Top-performing business newsletter content of 2022
| Title | Content type |
|---|---|
| © E Source; data from Questline 2022 Energy Utility Benchmarks Report | |
| 6 Energy-Saving Tips for Difficult Times | Article |
| Your Cooling System: A Mid-Summer Checkup | Infographic |
| Energy Trends to Watch in 2021 | Article |
| You Can Upgrade Your Business to LED Lighting | Video |
| 5 Steps to Winter Savings and Comfort | Infographic |
| Air Conditioning: 5 Signs That You Should Upgrade | Article |
| Energy Battle: Standard vs. Advanced Power Strips | Infographic |
| The Best Kept Secret in Energy Efficiency | Article |
| Solar Energy: Answering Your Questions | Article |
| Who Wants To Be An Energy Expert? Beneficial Electrification | Infographic |
Switch up your content types
One big advantage of an e-newsletter is that you can link to multiple content types within the newsletter. Not everyone wants to consume information in the same way, and e-newsletters give you the flexibility to include all types of content, including:
- Written articles
- Infographics
- Videos
Deliver newsletters on a monthly cadence
Questline has found that monthly e-newsletter communications perform best. A monthly cadence is consistent enough that customers expect and look forward to emails without it being overwhelming. And by featuring interesting content that makes a difference in customers’ daily lives, you’re keeping readers engaged month to month.
Examples of utility email and newsletter communications
We searched E Source Energy AdVision for examples of utility campaigns featuring email communications. Below, you’ll find examples of utility emails from two successful marketing campaigns.
We also feature two examples of standout utility newsletters.
Georgia Power’s AAPI Heritage Month campaign
Georgia Power’s marketing campaign Woven Together: A Pattern of Resilience won first place for best brand campaign in the 2021 E Source Utility Ad Awards Contest.
Georgia Power wanted to commemorate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, especially in the face of rising hate crimes against Asian Americans. The campaign sought to show support and advocacy for the AAPI community by highlighting AAPI employees and hosting a Facebook Live event with community leaders.
The email campaign saw 195,000 opens and a 29.2% click-to-open rate (figure 4). The Facebook Live event had 2,545 viewers.
Figure 4: Georgia Power email from its marketing campaign Woven Together: A Pattern of Resilience
- It had a clear call to action
- It had clear branding
- It used ample white space
- It used plain language
- Adding a CTA button at the top after the header image
- Including a reason why customers should attend the event
PSE’s Small Business Energy Makeover Contest campaign
In 2020 Puget Sound Energy (PSE) launched its Small Business Energy Makeover Contest to support small businesses during the pandemic. Four winning businesses each received “$45,000 makeovers, with $30,000 allocated for energy-efficiency improvements and $15,000 for needed cosmetic or safety upgrades.” They were also featured on the local news. And 100 other nominated businesses received free energy assessments.
PSE’s campaign had two goals:
- To strengthen its reputation as a community partner
- To increase awareness of other rebates and grants available to businesses through the utility’s programs
The campaign relied heavily on email, social media, and publicity from a local news partner. The email piece of the campaign saw over a 30% open rate and 2,300 small business nominations (figure 5).
Figure 5: PSE email from its marketing campaign Small Business Energy Makeover Contest
- It had a clear CTA
- It had clear branding
- It used ample white space
- It used plain language
- It used boldface for key information
- It clearly outlined the benefits of the contest
- Including a hyperlinked CTA sentence in addition to the button
- Using bullet points to summarize the benefits to make it easier to skim
SMUD’s Connections newsletter
Connections, SMUD’s monthly newsletter for residential customers, is a good example of newsletter design. SMUD’s newsletter has:
- Clear branding
- A good balance of educational and promotional content
- The most important news or updates up front
For example, in SMUD’s March 2022 edition of Connections (PDF), the first half of the newsletter focuses on SMUD resuming its standard payment, late fee, and disconnection policies (figure 6). It clearly states when this will affect customers and where they can go on SMUD’s website to get more billing help. Further down in the newsletter, SMUD features information about a new solar rate, electrification rebates, and community workshops.
Figure 6: SMUD’s March 2022 Connections newsletter
BC Hydro’s Connected newsletter
Connected, BC Hydro’s monthly newsletter for residential customers, is another good example of newsletter design. BC Hydro’s newsletter has:
- Clear branding
- A good balance of educational and promotional content
- A good use of white space
BC Hydro takes a different, but still effective, approach from SMUD and includes links to all featured stories in the intro paragraph of its newsletter (figure 7). For example, in the first paragraph of its May 2022 edition of Connected, BC Hydro links to an article on thermostat tips, a contest, an article on how to test-drive an EV, and a web page on energy efficiency tips via its Power Smart website.
Figure 7: BC Hydro’s May 2022 Connected newsletter
Email and newsletter metrics
How Apple’s MPP affects email metrics
Apple’s iOS 15 update in late 2021 added a new MPP feature that lets users disable the ability for email senders to see if their email was opened. This means open rate metrics are no longer available with the same accuracy as earlier iOS versions, and your open rates are now likely inflated.
According to Litmus’s Email Client Market Share in April 2022, Apple was the most popular email client with 57.2% of overall market share. Litmus predicts high adoption of Apple’s MPP based on how customers responded to the iOS 14 ad-tracking feature. According to news publication AppleInsider, Only 4% of iOS users in US are opting in to ad tracking.
Because of this, open rates and click-to-open rates shouldn’t be your main performance indicators for email campaigns and newsletters. Instead, evaluate the goals of your campaign and look at metrics that can better gauge success such as total clicks or conversion rates. We also recommend looking at top-performing email topics.
And make sure you aren’t using opens as the trigger for any of your automated emails or email drip campaigns. Marketing platform Constant Contact recommends using clicks or time-based triggers. Read more in its blog post How Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection Impacts Email Marketing.
What email performance looked like for utilities in 2021
Questline’s 2022 Energy Utility Benchmarks Report shows that since 2016, utilities have been increasing their email engagement, reaching a record high in 2021 with a:
- 29% delivery rate
- 15% open rate
These types of emails had the highest open rates in 2021:
- Billing notifications—88.78%
- Welcome series—60.25%
- Ancillary messages—33.15%
Like email, e-newsletters saw higher delivery rates and open rates in 2021 (figure 8).
Figure 8: E-newsletter performance
A. E-newsletter performance by year
| Delivery rate (%) | Open rate (%) | Click-to-open rate (%) | Click-through rate (%) | Opt-out rate (%) | Complaint rate (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| © E Source; data from Questline 2022 Energy Utility Benchmarks Report. Note: NA = not applicable. | ||||||
| 2021 | 99.28 | 23.67 | 6.60 | 1.56 | 0.07 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 98.57 | 21.43 | 8.31 | 1.78 | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 98.82 | 21.62 | 8.10 | 1.75 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| 2018 | 98.57 | 21.43 | 8.31 | 1.78 | 0.09 | 0.00 |
| 2017 | 98.16 | 22.29 | 8.71 | 1.94 | 0.02 | 0.02 |
| 2016 | 98.92 | 20.18 | 10.67 | 2.15 | 0.00 | NA |
B. 2021 e-newsletter performance by audience
| Delivery rate (%) | Open rate (%) | Click-to-open rate (%) | Click-through rate (%) | Opt-out rate (%) | Complaint rate (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| © E Source; data from Questline 2022 Energy Utility Benchmarks Report | ||||||
| Residential | 99.39 | 23.93 | 6.10 | 1.46 | 0.07 | 0.01 |
| Key account | 97.45 | 23.75 | 16.51 | 3.92 | 0.15 | 0.01 |
| Small and midsize business | 98.51 | 19.34 | 10.38 | 2.01 | 0.09 | 0.01 |
C. 2021 e-newsletter performance by utility type
| Delivery rate (%) | Open rate (%) | Click-to-open rate (%) | Click-through rate (%) | Opt-out rate (%) | Complaint rate (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| © E Source; data from Questline 2022 Energy Utility Benchmarks Report | ||||||
| Electric cooperatives | 99.28 | 33.37 | 9.75 | 3.25 | 0.16 | 0.02 |
| Investor-owned utilities | 99.29 | 23.41 | 6.40 | 1.50 | 0.06 | 0.01 |
| Municipal utilities | 98.62 | 26.63 | 12.60 | 3.35 | 0.25 | 0.01 |
| Natural gas utilities | 96.20 | 25.11 | 17.46 | 4.38 | 0.15 | 0.00 |
More research on email and newsletter design
- Best Practices: Email Design for Energy Utilities, Questline
- Email Subject Line Best Practices, Questline
- Email Design: The Best Practices Guide (+ Bonus Checklist), Campaign Monitor (2019)
- How to Write Better Preheader Text in Your Next Email Marketing Campaign, Campaign Monitor (2019)
- Hook, Line, and Sinker: 7 Tips for a Killer Call-to-Action, Billy McCaffrey, WordStream (2022)
- Best Email Subject Lines for Newsletters, Questline