How To Capitalise On Email Marketing During The COVID-19 Crisis?

The coronavirus pandemic is far from being a thing in the past. As people adapt to this ‘new normal’, marketing strategies must be reinvented and adapted to current times as well. Considering Email marketing is a direct link between you and your customers, it is a vital channel to scale your marketing efforts.

However, the strategy behind email marketing has changed within the last couple of months or so. Initially, brands went all-in to talk about COVID-19 and what it meant for their customers. Innumerable emails containing the subject ‘A message from the team at… ’, ‘We’re all in this together…’, and so on were sent out. However, the pandemic isn’t a new story anymore and is very much a part of our lives. To that end, the tone needs to adapt as well. With that in mind, there are several things that you can proactively do to improve your email marketing strategy. The most important amongst those are listed below.

1. Be careful about the content
   Going viral, crisis, essential, necessity — these are just a few examples of the many words and phrases that mean a whole different thing now. So, ensure that you don’t use these words out of context.
   Fear and negativity need to be phased out and a more solution-driven thought must be applied. People don’t appreciate a mail with a false sense of urgency. So, asking people to ‘hurry!’ or get products before they ‘run out!’ isn’t a great strategy.
   Ensure that the tone and language of your emails are cautiously positive.
2. Decide if your product is really ‘essential’
   Every company believes that its product will greatly improve the lives of its customers, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, things aren’t normal right now and insinuating that your product is essential when it isn’t will leave a bad aftertaste with your customers.
   When you’re sending out emails, make sure that you don’t claim that your product is ‘absolutely essential!’ or something similar if it truly isn’t. We’re reaching a point where non-essential sales figures are picking up too. So, people will buy ‘non-essential’ products too. Just don’t try to mask them as essential.
3. Too much is too bad
   All brands know that a lot of people are in lockdown and that email opening rates are up. So, it’s natural to want to send as many emails as possible. The problem is that every other brand is busy doing the same. Sending too many emails leads to a few problems.
   One, people get tired of seeing every brand they’ve ever come in contact with bombarding them with emails about the pandemic. This can lead to disinterest and every email simply ends up in the trash. Second, communication is crucial these days and you don’t want to clutter people’s inboxes if you don’t have anything of value to contribute.
   Craft your emails with care and be careful about discarding unnecessary emails. If you have a sale coming up, or a new product or new services that are coming out, an email for informing customers is a good idea. Ensure that you respect the situation and sentiments, but remain upbeat anyway.
4. Honesty is appreciated
   Your customers understand that the situation is ever-changing and there may be changes in the way we do business today. So, if you’re having trouble transporting products, or even running your office, communicate that fact to your customers.
   Your customers will not only understand but also appreciate it. The most important point here is to communicate problems before a purchase/transaction is made and not after. Emails are invaluable for something like this. You can just craft a simple email explaining the facts of the problem. Complete honesty and transparency in times like this go a long way.
5. Even normal images may come off as insensitive
   If you include a whole lot of images in your email, ensure that these images don’t come off as insensitive. A picture of a large group of people in a pub — what would be a normal, harmless image pre-COVID — can come off as a bit insensitive to people living under a lockdown.
   While this seems like a small issue, it really isn’t. And what’s more, a lot of brands seem to be making this mistake. So, ensure that you’re not one of them. It’s a small change, but it shows that you’re just that much more sympathetic to the situation.
6. Get a Professional Email Account
   Picture yourself as a consumer getting an email from a business. However, they have used a Gmail/Outlook/Yahoo account to send the email. Will you trust the source of the email? Will the “@gmail.com” portray brand reliability?
   With more and more people using online modes of purchase and payment in the pandemic, the incidences of phishing and hacking are on the rise. In these circumstances, a business using free email services fails to assure people of the security and reliability of the brand.
   Therefore, it is advisable to adopt a professional email account for your business. Prior to planning your email marketing strategy, ensure to buy Business Email from a reliable Email Hosting provider. With a professional Email Hosting account, you can set up an email address to match your domain. “xyz@companyname.com” sounds more reliable than “xyzcompanyname@gmail.com”. Opting for a Business Email plan accords reliability to your email marketing efforts, along with a host of other benefits! And what’s more, it doesn’t cost too much. Leading Email Hosting companies offer Business Email Hosting at reasonable prices.

Conclusion

As businesses, it’s important to acknowledge the current situation, but what’s more important is to stay positive and tell your customers that you’re making the best of the current situation. Email marketing is the best tool for this job.

Reach into your customer’s inbox with a carefully crafted email and let them know they are your top priority.