Navigating email marketing etiquette during the Covid-19 pandemic can feel overwhelming. You don’t want to send emails with a hard sell during a time when a lot of your regular customers may be going through economic hardship. On the other hand, you probably don’t want to completely stop your email marketing efforts,
either. How can you stay relevant to your customers without being too pushy? Here are our top 3 tips.
Nix Huge Mass Mailings
At the beginning of the pandemic, many companies made a common mistake of emailing every single person on their mailing list the same, canned message. People were suddenly hearing from companies they hadn’t heard from in years, and the messages seemed insincere—definitely something you want to avoid.
Even if you are sending messages to a list of people, strive to personalize them by including the recipient’s name and other relevant information. Thankfully, it’s easy to take this step with many automated email service providers.
We always recommend segmenting your email marketing lists in order to send your customers relevant information. You may have segmented your lists based on how frequently a customer shops with you, how long they’ve been a customer, or whether they have subscribed to a service you offer. Look at these lists now and see if you can use the information you have to meet your customers where they are and help them with what they need.
You may even find it works best for you to be more direct and ask your subscribers to complete a customer survey so you can gather information on how your company can help them overcome the challenges they’re facing.
Show Your Value
One way to prevent people from unsubscribing to your marketing emails? Don’t market to them—at least not all the time. If all of your emails focus on sales, new products, or solely on your business, then you’re not providing value to your email subscribers.
Instead, strive to make at least half of your email communications useful to your subscribers. Providing information is a great way to offer value without hurting your bottom line. Many people appreciate information that can help them solve a problem—this is another reason it’s so important to segment your email lists. Options for useful content might include links to some of your recent blog posts or even a link to someone else’s content that you’ve curated.
If at all possible, you may want to offer a steep discount for customers during the pandemic. It’s a great way to make sure people have a positive perception of your company. Offering a generous discount shows that you’re empathetic to what your customers are going through right now, and you’re not trying to profit too much during a time when many are hurting.
Watch Your Tone
We’ve mentioned how important it is to avoid emails with a hard sell, but there are other traps to avoid. Prioritize tone sensitivity so that all of your marketing efforts are appropriate for the pandemic climate.
For example, you probably have some automated emails you send when someone becomes a new subscriber, first purchases a product, or abandons a shopping cart. Check these messages now to make sure you’re not sending out something that could come across as insensitive.
Also, while avoiding a hard sell and an insensitive tone is important, you need to avoid going too far in the other direction. Some phrases have become synonymous with the pandemic, and people are tired of hearing them. “Uncertain times” and “out of an abundance of caution” are some examples of phrases to avoid.
Making sure your email marketing strikes the right tone while providing useful information often requires help from someone with a different perspective. Please reach out to us today so we can help you strike the right tone for all your email campaigns.
