ESB Customer Supply wanted to communicate detailed messages to their customers - while turning a fixed billing expense into a revenue generator.

The Business

ESB Customer Supply serves a customer base of over 1.8 million households. The company needs to communicate a variety of marketing messages, some with a considerable amount of detail - which could prove very costly with a customer base of this size.

The Challenge

ESB Customer Supply needed a cost-effective, flexible way of communicating with customers on a regular basis. Since the company is committed to issuing all communications in both Irish and English, this presented a further challenge in cost terms.

Meeting the Challenge

Specific marketing messages on additional inserts were included with customers’ bi-monthly electricity bills. The added bonus is that the fixed billing expense becomes a potential revenue generator. The inserts were printed with a “tilt and turn” format to accommodate the English and Irish versions in one document. Response mechanisms were included on every insert, to encourage interaction from customers. The outer envelope was generally used to reinforce the key message of the insert.

The Results

The billing communications campaign generated tangible results in the areas of:

-  Competitions generated a significantly higher level of entries and additional customer email addresses

-  The ESB website experienced a substantial increase in customer traffic following each mailing of the “Energy at Home” insert, which directs customers to the site for energy-saving tips and other information

ESB Customer Supply continues to use billing communications as an important tool in communicating with its large and diverse customer base.

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