A Year of 1 Trillion Emails: The Customers Who Sent Them

A Year of 1 Trillion Emails: The Customers Who Sent Them

This article originally appeared on the Twilio SendGrid blog.

During a year of change, email has become an even more crucial connection between businesses and their customers. Email engagement increased by 200% in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As more customers stay at home, checking the inbox has become a regular part of customers’ daily routines—day and night, we check-in with our favorite brands and organizations. 

In 2020, Twilio SendGrid kept businesses connected to their customers by reliably processing over 1 trillion emails. Imagine 1 trillion letter-sized pieces of paper lined up end to end. That’s 173 million miles—long enough to travel to Mars and back when it's closest to Earth. Twice!

This incredible feat would not have been possible without our customers: senders both large and small who trusted us to deliver email to their customers. To celebrate this milestone, here’s a look at a few of our customers who helped us reach this goal and the email programs they built with Twilio SendGrid.

DonorsChoose reaches recipients at home 

A surge in email sending was the norm across many industries, including the nonprofit sector. As many teachers and students transitioned to remote learning, DonorsChoose, a nonprofit that raises funds for teachers and students in need, relied on email more than ever to engage its user-base. A personalized, multichannel strategy combining Email and SMS enabled the nonprofit to build lifelong supporters.

DonorsChoose has grown its email program with Twilio SendGrid:

• 70% engagement boost: The flexibility to customize email experiences through Twilio SendGrid’s Email API drove engagement success, boosting open rates as high as 70%.
• Automation increases efficiency: The email team can easily send automated promotional emails without overburdening engineering support.

With each trip around the sun, email recipients are evolving. Personalization helps email senders better engage recipients over time.

This past year especially, DonorsChoose created personalized lists to serve its donors—like those interested in providing anti-racism resources for classrooms or donors who needed a temporary opt-out option in light of economic conditions. 

"Twilio SendGrid allows us to have more control over our promotional email program. This, along with reliable delivery at scale, has had a profound impact on our teacher and donor engagement.” -Jasmine Penny, Email Program Manager

Check out the philanthropic impact DonorsChoose has accomplished using Twilio SendGrid.

PetDesk scales to support critical policy updates

Adapting email programs to better serve customers was the key to success for many organizations during a year of contactless service. PetDesk, a veterinary care platform, quickly expanded its multichannel customer engagement strategy using Email and SMS. Sending out crucial policy notifications to pet parents, the company reliably delivered at scale with Twilio SendGrid’s Email API.

Twilio SendGrid supported PetDesk’s accelerated email growth:

• 10x scale increase: Outbound email notifications, including vaccination reminders and health reports, scaled to 10x the average monthly volume after the onset of COVID-19.
• 80% open rates: PetDesk has prioritized sending important, health-focused emails, boosting open rates to 80%.

As companies grow into sending millions of emails, it's important for senders to implement tactics like IP warmup to gradually increase email volume without running into trouble. Trusting the Email API’s flexible infrastructure, PetDesk reliably scaled its email output, reaching more than 5.5 million pet owners in a single week.

Read more about how PetDesk reliably scaled to deliver pet owners critical policy updates.

Luma Health provides reliable care at scale

Among the most essential senders during a public health crisis, telehealth providers, like Luma Health, accelerated digital engagement strategies to provide patients care. Before COVID-19, Luma Health’s end-to-end offering focused on patient communication and engagement.

The pandemic spurred the company to expand to the actual delivery of care via telehealth—and for nearly everything, they rely on Twilio to power it all. 

Luma Health effectively delivers patients care, relying on Twilio SendGrid to:

• Reach more patients: The flexible Email API scales to accommodate increased sending for patient care.
• Provide patients’ channel preference: The telehealth company meets patients at their channel preference—including email—to book appointments and receive appointment confirmations and reminders.

For healthcare providers like Luma Health, reliability is an absolute necessity. Twilio SendGrid’s reliable infrastructure supports scale for senders of all sizes.

When disruptions occur, a multi-data center approach ensures crucial communications are sent without even a blip on the radar. Learn from Luma—it’s never too early to plan for the growth of your email program. 

“We cannot compromise on being reliable. These are sensitive, sometimes life-threatening situations, and with communication being the core of what we do, we cannot compromise on it. We have never had a reliability issue with Twilio, and I think that speaks to the nature of its scalability and reflects on every single product we’ve worked with Twilio on so far.” -VP of Engineering, Marcelo Oliviera

See how Luma Health provides better care for patients with email, and its omnichannel approach.

To trillions of emails and beyond!

As we look toward sending another trillion emails, we know we cannot reach these grand milestones without our customers. From providing patients care, to delivering order confirmations, or raising money for schools, the emails our customers send on a daily basis are incredibly important—they move us forward.

Likewise, you can use email to move your customer communications forward. Email is the most popular communication channel globally. Whether you’re a new explorer planning your program or a seasoned sender honing your craft, Twilio SendGrid is here to help you build your ideal email experience and plan for where it will go. See why our deliverability expertise and reliable infrastructure is the best launchpad for your email journey.