Case Study: Uswitch - New-look newsletter ups open rates

Budget: Undisclosed

Agency: Harvest Digital

Challenge

Uswitch, founded in 2000, is an independent comparison and switching
service operating across the utilities, financial services and telephony
sectors. Consumers can compare prices and suppliers for services such as
gas, electricity, water, broadband, digital TV and credit cards. Uswitch
wanted to strengthen its relationship with customers, and find out more
about them.

Strategy

Uswitch had been using email marketing campaigns in three ways: to
deliver a monthly newsletter to customers, attract new customers and
strengthen its customer service levels by sending emails following a
customer transaction.

The newsletter launched in 2004, but lacked identity and focus. Uswitch
turned to online marketing agency Harvest Digital for help.

"We wanted the email to be engaging, but not boring," says Barry
Holloway, marketing director at Uswitch.

The content, design and customer registration procedure were overhauled
to make it more compelling.

Execution

The newsletter was rebranded as 'Insight' and focuses on a particular
product each month.

It is sent out to 350,000 opt-in only subscribers and contains a summary
of contents, which helps customers identify the main topics, with links
to push customers to specific pages on the website.

Copy containing tips, surveys and a 'recommend a friend' option was also
added to increase client feedback, with money-off vouchers to encourage
responses.

The newsletter's main issue is highlighted in colour and uses
images.

A navigation bar allows people to click through to the main switching
areas they are interested in and uses colour and icons to improve
signposting.

"We tested the argument for using or not using images, as broadband was
not as developed as it is today and download times took longer," says
Holloway. "But images are also important for visual impact and getting
the message across."

Uswitch's email to prospective customers focuses more on the
money-saving aspect of switching suppliers. It is sent out on a weekly
basis to an in-house prospect database of 250,000 names.

The customer service emails are event-based mailings, focusing on areas
such as loan rejections, or confirmations following an application.

Results

The change in registration procedure has resulted in more

people signing up. After Insight was launched, the open rate, compared
with the old newsletter, was 77 per cent against 80 per cent and unique
clicks were 28 per cent versus 8.8 per cent.

"The open rates have decreased slightly, but the number of unique clicks
has risen and we get many more visitors to the site," says Holloway.

"We are now looking to increase the personalisation aspect of our emails
by talking about individual customers' transactions. We will do more
one-to-one communications."

Consumers have responded well to the format and Uswitch is using the
data from its surveys and tips to further customer research.

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