3 Effective Ways to Increase Electronic Payment Adoption

In most cases, the more effort you put into promoting your electronic bill pay offering, the more likely you are to have a higher adoption, which helps decrease printing costs and improves collections and customer satisfaction. Our clients have communicated their bill pay service in many ways, from bill messages and inserts to announcements (newsletters, website, email and social media) to advertisements on the web, radio and TV and everything in between. But what types of marketing activities have the greatest impact on e-payment adoption, resulting in the “best bang for your buck?”

After recently speaking with a few dozen of our clients from across the country, we gained valuable new insight that can SIGNIFICANTLY impact adoption:

  1. Add a Message on Envelopes. This is a simple message on the outside of the envelope (printed, sprayed on, or in the form of a sticker) that helps promote your online payment functionality, which could focus on paying online, convenient payment options, going paperless, AutoPay, etc. Adding an envelope teaser can serve as a reminder every time the bill is received and can quickly turn mail-in or walk-in payers into online payers and eventually paperless customers – saving money on printing and check processing costs! This initiative can be used by the majority of our clients and our marketing team can assist with developing envelope teasers. Our study shows that those who implemented an envelope teaser have a 44% growth in adoption.
  2. Create a Sweepstakes. We all like to be rewarded for good behavior, especially when there’s a chance to win a prize – why not create a contest out of it? A sweepstakes can do just that by providing an incentive. Whether it’s enrolling in paperless billing, signing up for AutoPay, creating an online account, or even registering for Pay by Text, sweepstakes can be highly effective with minimal effort. Based on our findings, clients who implemented a sweepstakes campaign have a 54% increase in adoption. Invoice Cloud will even help you run a sweepstakes and issue the prize to the lucky winner!
  3. Post a News Release. We’ve found that posting a news release on your website or having an article in a news publication is one of the best ways to get the word out about the new online payment platform or new functionality. Customers may view it as a more formal notice, especially when the local media picks it up as a public service announcement. This becomes good publicity for your organization and for the community, particularly for clients who recently went live with the new service or are preparing for a launch. Clients who’ve been using the service for some time can generate press around the success of the solution, cost-savings to your organization by going green or how it’s been helping the community by offering convenient payment options. What’s more, if a new feature is added, that further demonstrates your continued focus on making bill paying easier! The results for this marketing effort were the most impressive, with clients who posted a news release showing a 132% increase in adoption compared to those who did not.

Think of these three items as key ingredients and there’s more that you can mix in to enhance the recipe for even better results such as bill messages, website content, onsite promotion and social media.

Interested in Invoice Cloud sponsoring a sweepstakes? Need assistance with marketing or want to discuss ideas? Contact us at marketing@invoicecloud.net.