THE CHALLENGE
The NW Natural Gas Smart Energy program offsets carbon and supports development of renewable energy in the form of biogas, a methane-based product made from cow waste. With an aggressive target of 4,000 program registrations, NW Natural developed The Smart Energy Challenge, a contest with a fantastic prize that centered around participants answering energy-related questions through a series of online quizzes. Their goal was not only to drive program enrollments, but also to create sustainable remarketing opportunities through contest registrations. Email was a key component of the plan. After the first email drove only 300 registrations (when typical results average around 1,000), NW Natural turned to HMH for help.
THE APPROACH
After meeting with NW Natural to gain deeper insight into the contest goals and audience mindset, HMH determined it was necessary to revamp and re-energize the previous email campaign. We overhauled the emails and increased the level of communication via alerts.
THE WORK
The team expanded the Smart Energy Challenge email campaign to include unique content for each of three individual Challenge registration emails and refinements to the microsite copy to create a more seamless system of communications. We livened up the copy, making it more conversational and explained the Challenge prize and participation details more clearly. We also decided to send Challenge registrants email alerts each time a new quiz was posted. This would keep them coming back for more chances to win and also increase the opportunities to promote enrollment in the Smart Energy Program. It worked.
THE RESULTS
On the second send alone, using our new email, we drew 5,400 Challenge registrations, an 1,800% lift over the previous email, and more than one-third of the client's overall campaign goal of 15,000 registrations. Emails throughout the campaign averaged an impressive click-through rate of nearly 45%. Within six weeks, Smart Energy Program enrollments increased by over half the number of the previous six months combined. The client attributes nearly 3,000 new program enrollments in the latter half of 2009 to the email campaign alone. Happily, the campaign also earned us the Gold in MarketingSherpa.com's 2010 Email Marketing Awards in the Best Promotional Consumer Message category, an award whose criterion is performance.
