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Strand says 490 of the 10,000 recipients, or 4.9 percent, turned on
e-billing. So the test proved Progress Energy was on to something. To reinforce the message to its new e-bill users, Progress Energy sent a one-time “thank-you” e-mail to its customers through the financial institutions. (The e-mails were facilitated by the banks, which didn’t release their depositors’ e-mail addresses to Progress Energy.)
“Those are very good results, by any standard,” she says, adding that the company has used the analytics a couple times since the 2008 test. “We actually are not pursuing the direct mail option as much as using e-mail.”
Direct mail is too costly for e-bill campaigns, Strand says.
Progress Energy used the benefits message in an e-bill push the company e-mailed to 500,000 customers in early spring 2009. (The company removed the donation incentive, as the higher conversion rates still didn’t justify the increased costs.) Strand says about 4 percent or 5 percent of recipients opted in to e-billing, so she’s planned another e-mail campaign to take place during the summer.
“We definitely have used the message, ‘We know you’re already paying electronically, why not take the next step?’”
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