Case Study: Santa Margarita Water District achieves 50% event attendance increase with Vertexone's WaterSmart Group Messenger

Enhancing Engagement Digitally

Santa Margarita Water District (SMWD), the second-largest retail water agency in Orange County serving 165,000 residents, struggled to reach a dispersed customer base where overlapping service areas and limited local media made bill inserts and door hangers ineffective and hard to measure. Vertexone’s WaterSmart platform, using the Group Messenger module, was selected to deliver targeted, personalized outreach via email, text, and automated voice.

Using Vertexone’s Group Messenger, SMWD sent roughly 20,000 targeted communications with dynamic personalization and tracked engagement, achieving email open rates of 40–45% versus a 15% industry standard and driving a 50% increase in attendance at its annual water festival (about 2,000 attendees). The measurable success convinced SMWD to expand its customer contact collection and further adopt Vertexone’s digital engagement tools.

Santa Margarita Water District

Nate Adams

Water Efficiency Administrator