EnergySage increased approved users by adding a personal touch to emails

When a user signs up on the EnergySage platform, they immediately receive a verification email as part of the onboarding process.

This email includes a “Verify Email Address” button that the user must click to be approved for the marketplace. The email concludes with a generic sign-off from the EnergySage team, representing the company but lacking a personal touch.

Therefore, it was decided to test whether adding a team member’s name to the verification email would affect user engagement and verification rates.

There were three specific goals to be tracked: 

Approval of properties:

The main metric focused on increasing the number of approved properties, ensuring more shoppers considered solar solutions.

Registrations: 

Luke and his team would monitor the number of user registrations to assess overall interest and engagement with their offerings.

Engage installers: 

This metric evaluated how well installers engaged with the platform, ensuring that high-quality, motivated shoppers were matched with serious providers.

The EnergySage team gathered qualitative data that led to this improvement idea. Feedback from customers indicated that speaking to real people made them more likely to “go solar” with the company. 

Many emphasized that having in-house energy advisors enhanced their trust and confidence in the process. Further, those who interacted with these advisors were much more likely to become paying customers. 

This insight led the team to believe that adding a personal touch to the verification emails could similarly boost user engagement and trust.

The hypothesis was that improving the email sign-off with the name of an actual team member would make the email feel more personal. 

This human touch was expected to build greater trust in the brand, leading to higher verification rates.

Luke and his team decided to conduct an A/B test on the server side using VWO for two main reasons: 

1. Their previous tool required a reverse proxy, which didn’t comply with their security protocols. Thus, they needed a solution like the SDKs offered by VWO. 
2. Page speed was a crucial factor in their decision-making. VWO’s minimal impact on load times made it an ideal choice, especially given the company’s reliance on SEO.

To implement the test, one of their engineers integrated their email automation tool with VWO. This enabled different email templates from HubSpot to be served to various users, addressing the server-side requirements.

VWO seamlessly integrates with major platforms to enhance overall marketing activities. (Check out our list of integrations.) 

Here are the control and variation images for the test. 

The primary funnel metric for the campaign was property approvals, representing users successfully reaching the marketplace.

After two weeks, the variation led by 5%. Ultimately, the overall funnel saw a 4% improvement, which significantly impacted company revenue.

This success story highlights the importance of the human touch in driving customer engagement.

EnergySage’s success stemmed from applying user insights to make their emails more effective by simply using the name of a team member. They also prioritized testing to validate their hypothesis rather than making changes outright.

Data-driven decisions are key to continuous improvement, as demonstrated by EnergySage.

Are you ready to optimize for better conversions? VWO is here to assist you with research and testing through its wide array of capabilities. Connect with our team, and let them guide you in making informed decisions.