COVID-19 has created a new reality for everyone. Many businesses had to close their doors, while others tried to keep in touch with their customers during these difficult times.
Keeping in touch with subscribers has been essential to ensure the profitability of any thriving company. And to do that, companies have utilized email marketing to keep providing their customers with excellent customer experiences.
Why is email marketing the best way to improve customer experience and reach your audience during the COVID-19 situation?
Well, sending tailored messages and avoiding cold emails without a personal touch will make your audience feel valued and appreciated. With the right message, you can use email marketing to make sure that your brand remains afloat.
Read on because today we’ll see how to do email marketing during the pandemic the right way!
How To Use Email Marketing During COVID-19
1. Leverage Behavioral Emails More
Behavioral emails are automated emails sent to your subscribers when they take action on your website. Unlike your newsletter, these emails are more targeted and can give you better open and click-through rates.
Some of the most successful behavioral campaigns include your welcome and abandoned cart emails. To send these emails to the right person at the right moment, you need to use automation.
If you’ve just taken your store online and need to find some great tools to set them up, you can leverage some of the best affordable email marketing services. Then, you only have to create and send them to your audience.
Here’s a recent welcome email I received from Lucchese:
Behavioral emails have been around for ages. However, now it’s the right time to use them more than ever. Lucchese’s campaign is an excellent example of what you need to do to nail your COVID-19 campaigns. To convert your subscribers, you should help them get exactly what they need, the moment they need it.
Your strategy should focus on helping them rather than forcing them to buy something by claiming it's necessary. With a great offer, you can boost the efficiency of your welcome series in a breeze. What’s more, giving your abandoner free shipping or an extra discount will maximize your open, click-through, and conversion rates.
And if you want to follow Lucchese’s example, adding a fit guide will save your self-isolated customer from unnecessary returns.
2. Promote Your Cause
As we said, forcing your audience to make a purchase will feel out of place and promote you as a brand that doesn’t care about its customers. To make sure that your subscribers see you as a trustworthy business, you should show them what matters.
For instance, if your company has recently joined a cause to help fight the coronavirus, you can promote it in your newsletter. What’s more, letting your subscribers know that your organization is there to support them every step of the way, no matter how hard the pandemic hit them, can guarantee a boost in customer loyalty.
Here’s how Apple has come up with a great campaign showcasing their willingness to help their Apple Card customers and accept late fees due to the pandemic:
The technology giant makes sure that its subscribers understand why they received this email and how they can proceed. Apple also has an additional message at the bottom of the campaign to provide subscribers with more information about how they can sort out their payments by getting in touch with a customer service specialist.
3. Leverage Your Subscription Forms
Your newsletter signup forms are the perfect lead generators to expand your mailing list through amazing offers.
Here’s a simple example from Bruno Magli:
Using subscription forms on your website is a proven tactic that will help you collect more email addresses. Moreover, popups are great to segment your audience based on demographics. For instance, you can group your male and female subscribers and use the data to create tailored campaigns for them.
To use them during the pandemic, you can come up with a COVID-19 related copy to inform visitors about your store.
Here’s how the brand uses its newsletter signup form to provide visitors with essential information.
If you notice, this message doesn’t have a CTA. However, its efficiency lies in solving customer queries about the store’s returns and product shipments.
Using your popups like Bruno Magli is a great eCommerce marketing strategy to promote your brand and let your audience know that you are back in business.
So, don’t forget to give it a try!
4. Show Your Customers Relevant Products
Imagine sitting on your couch, checking your emails during quarantine when you receive an amazing offer for ski equipment. Well, that’s not what you want to see during self-isolation. What’s more, it’s not even skiing season yet!
If you want to nail your email marketing during the pandemic - and boost that ROI and conversion rate when all’s said and done - you need to create campaigns that will excite your audience and give them practical solutions.
Getting creative with your campaigns will also increase your subscribers' desire to purchase and feel satisfied with their new items.
Here’s a fantastic campaign from Elago:
With more people working from home, the brand has made a campaign to target their needs most creatively. You can see that the message is both short and to the point, offering 15% off for selected products. This email campaign shows us how you can engage your target audience without being too promotional or intrusive.
To nail this tactic, try to make emails promoting items that will help your subscribers adapt to the new COVID-19 reality.
5. Let Your Customers Know About Delays
As expected, the new virus has also influenced product shipment with delays of up to a month. While such delays are understandable, customers still want their items delivered to them at a reasonable time. Or at least know how many days it will take to enjoy their new quarantine shopping experience.
Here, you can see how Morphe lets its customers know that their orders will take extra days to process and ship:
Like Morphe, you can use this tactic to reduce the number of queries asking for delayed orders and provide additional information about your website’s COVID-19 policy.
Informing your customer will also give your busy customer support representatives a helping hand during this difficult time and help shift customer focus to what’s more important while using empathy and proper customer service skills.
6. Create a New Sending Schedule
Since your subscribers stay at home all day long, you also need to optimize your sending schedule. The volume of emails in their inbox will possibly make your email get lost in the clutter.
To ensure that your subscribers see it, you need to change your sending pattern to get the opens, clicks, and conversions you want. Paying attention to your customer’s behavior and tracking your email clicks will give you valuable insight into whether your schedule works.
Instead of bombarding your audience with new emails every single day, try to create more targeted content that will keep them entertained and intrigued throughout the week.
For instance, sending a newsletter and a promotional offer per week is a great way to share updates and incentivize your audience to purchase. Don’t be afraid to be creative with your messages and email design as your subscribers will appreciate your effort and click-through.
To sum it up, if you notice a drop in engagement, more unsubscribes, and bad email deliverability, then it’s time for a new sending pattern and better content.
7. Challenge Your Subscribers
Staying at home can be a little boring for your audience. However, that’ll give you the perfect opportunity to engage and entertain them. To do that, you can challenge your subscribers by inviting them to participate in competitions or events from the comfort of their living rooms.
Brands like Tone It Up that focus on well-being have an incredible idea to inspire their audience.
Tone It Up starts with a greeting that feels personal and friendly and then invites its subscribers to join a 6-week challenge. This challenge is the perfect opportunity to forget self-isolation and let your audience do what they love without putting anyone at risk.
Creating something new for them will distinguish your brand and help you nurture your subscribers into customers who will support you no matter what.
Next time you think about sending an offer, why not send them some beautiful inspirational quotes or challenge them and their friends, have them engage with your content, and boost your customer retention efforts down the line?
Takeaway
COVID-19 has altered the way businesses reach their customers. However, leveraging your most profitable digital marketing channel will help you keep your audience engaged and your business afloat. If you want your campaigns to work, try to create a strategy that will focus on your customers, and less on your brand.
To sum it up, make sure to leverage behavioral emails, promote your COVID-19 cause, use your subscription forms, target your audience with relevant campaigns, inform your customers about shipping issues and delays, and try to inspire them through amazing events.
Using all these tactics, you’ll manage to increase your messages’ effectiveness, get more conversions, and surprise your audience without being promotional or insensitive during this difficult time.
Author bio
Marilia Dimitriou is a Content Writer and digital marketing enthusiast working for email marketing automation software Moosend. When she’s not writing articles, you’ll find her testing new marketing tools and refining her SEO copywriting skills.