• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 23, 2021

Desperate for information — and savings — energy customers engaged with their utilities at record rates rate last year,  according to Accelerating Digital Customer Relationships, an analysis by Questline. 

For instance, email open rates hit an average high of 28.1%, a 14% increase YoY. 

On the downside, the overall email delivery rate fell to 97.8% in 2020, versus 98.8% in 2019. 

“This was an important reminder than digital relationships must be continuous,” the study notes. 

That said, response metrics also rose last year, when there was a 51.3% open rate for welcome series, and messages. And customers who graduated from a Welcome series had a 29.8% higher open rate for subsequent emails.

In addition, there was a 65% higher newsletter open rate YoY from March 2019 to March 2020.  

Email newsletter subscribers opened coronavirus-related messaging at a 16.4% higher rate than non-subscribers and had a 53.1% higher click-through rate. In addition, they were 16.1% more likely to open promotional emails. 

What's more, segmented email newsletters drew a 22% higher open rate and 44% higher click-through rate than those that were unsegmented. Plus, the click-to-open rate hit a four-year high in March and April. 

Among types of content, articles remain the top format for 61.6% of residential customers and 74% of B2B consumers.

The other popular residential formats were: 

Video — 11.9%

Infographic — 11%%

Slideshow — 8.2%

Interactive — 6.6% 

In particular, emails on energy savings were the most successful. 

Overall, promotional emails drew an 18% higher open rate YoY during the initial months and a 27% higher click rate. 

And, there was a 53% higher click-to-open rate (CTOR) on eBill campaigns in 2020 compared to 2019. 

“Energy utility customers looked to their service providers for aid and education during the 2020 pandemic,” states Dave Reim, CEO and President of Questline. “They opened more emails and engaged with more content than ever before.”