With the number of Covid 19 cases reaching a huge 3,081,410 and the deaths related to it increasing to 212,337 (Source: Statista), the world has certainly come to a standstill.
The outbreak has affected around 210 countries, thereby compelling the World Health Organization to declare it a pandemic.
Moreover, this sudden outbreak has severely affected the global economy too. Consequently, the monetary loss of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to be about 76.7 billion U.S. dollars (Source: Statista). Simply put, the world is facing unprecedented times and has led to an overall economic slowdown. Businesses are experiencing its effect too. With social distancing and remote working becoming the new normal, the businesses have entirely changed the way they functioned and are making extensive use of technology to connect with their customers.
This is where email marketing comes in handy more than ever. However, in such testing times, it becomes imperative for marketers to keep a check on their messaging and take into account special considerations while dealing with its customer base. Here are 7 ways to utilize email marketing during Covid 19 or any pandemic in general. Take a look.
1. Have a quick approach
In these testing times, your audience is looking forward to hearing from you. So, don’t wait to strike a conversation and communicate critical information. Remember, if you aren’t quick in your approach or keep waiting for the right time, you might end up having a negative impact on your customer base. To put it in other words, your laid-back attitude can confuse and stress them. They might perceive you as someone who doesn’t care or is unable to understand the seriousness of the whole pandemic situation. So, be quick and update your customers with important pandemic related communications asap.
2. Choose your words wisely
Words can make or break your email campaign. So, before you unleash your inner wordsmith, make sure you choose your words wisely. The pandemic has changed the way people perceived things. Words and phrases that appeared as inoffensive earlier might come across as insensitive for many. Therefore, make it a point to double-check anything you send so that nothing appears as tone-deaf or offensive.
Further, you must also keep a check on your automated email campaigns. If you doubt that your campaigns can in any slightest way hurt the sentiments of your audience, consider pausing it right away. In short, you must review all of your planned content. From blogs and webinars to social media advertising and paid campaigns, make sure your content is on point and relevant in the present scenario.
3. Pause the evergreen stuff for a while
With everyone around focusing on their health and safety while dealing with anxiety and uncertainty, the least your customer base would want is seeing irrelevant content in their inbox. So, instead of being that extra noise and landing in the spam folder of your customer base, it is better to provide value through your content and contribute in ways that can help them deal with the current situation.
In this context, you can pause your usual, evergreen campaigns for a while. For instance, an email with a subject line “Download our app now” is not only insensitive but also shows the aggressive marketing tactics of the marketers. This surely wouldn’t go well with your customer base. So, make sure you are not the one doing such mistakes.
4. Show your educational side, not promotional
As a business and an email marketer, the worst thing you can do is take undue advantage of the present scenario. Hence, do not push your products and services for sales unnecessarily, especially if it belongs to a non-essential commodity. Doing so would only make you appear as greedy and disingenuous. In addition, if you are into the business of essential commodities, don’t cash out on people’s anxiety by increasing the prices. Sure, the businesses work on the principle of demand and supply. But with a global tragedy lurking around, it is time to share valuable advice and resources that can help your customer base rather than thinking about profit and sales.
5. Let your customer base know how you are tackling the situation
Your client’s and customer base want to know how you are tackling the overall pandemic situation. Henceforth, let them know what measures are you taking to support the health, safety and well being of your audience. Here’s how you can do it.
- Let your customers know how you are protecting your staff and employees. Here’s an email template example from Brook Brothers who did a good job with it. Take a look.
- Inform them about any changes that take place within your operating hours.
- Keep them updated about the measures you are taking to maintain the cleanliness and hygiene of your workplace.
6. Deliver empathy and kindness
Let your customer base know that you all are in this together. These sure are tough times for everyone. While some are infected by the painstaking Covid 19, few others have lost their lives to it. In short, everyone is scared, anxious, and fearful. Therefore, it is high time you deliver empathy and kindness to your customer base by instilling them with positivity and good words. From writing an optimistic email copy to giving them answers to all their pandemic related FAQs, you can do a lot to help people deal with the situation in a positive way. In this context, you can make use of custom email templates to create empathetic emails that resonates with your brand identity.
7. Be your best version and try to help
Global tragedies make way for corporate social responsibility for businesses. So, with this pandemic hitting people hard with ever-increasing new infected cases and deaths, it is high time you take action to help people affected by the crisis. It wouldn’t only let you connect with your customer base on a deeper level but also help you create a positive brand image for your business. You can take the following steps to help your audience during these tough times.
- Create a relief fund for the affected people just the way American Airlines Take a look.
- Create content that helps your customer get a clear insight about the crisis, thereby assisting them to navigate through it better.
- Come up with discounts and offers of your products and services.
- You can even give your products and services for free to help the crisis-affected people.
Wrap up
The emergence of Covid 19 has changed a lot of things around us. From restricted movements to isolation, the world is witnessing changes like never before. While people are finding it hard to adapt to the present scenario, it is the job of email marketers and businesses to put their best foot forward and utilize their email marketing strategies to the core. Email Uplers provided the above-mentioned tips, and We hope it will help you do the needful.
