We are in unprecedented times, with COVID-19 affecting every walk of our lives. The businesses are opening back up and digital marketing has become even more important than it was earlier. Email marketing is one of the simplest and most effective medium of communication at this point of time, especially for small businesses & nonprofits. Following are the 5 important do’s & don’ts of email marketing during the re-opening process.

DO’S:

1. Communicate clearly with personalized messages

It’s important to communicate clearly, with exact details like the date of opening, hours of operation & safety measures your business is taking to ensure the safety of customers & employees. Ensure the messages are personalized with names, company & job title, etc. This can very easily be achieved through most email automated services.

2. Sensitive tone

The pandemic has affected everyone and it’s important to consider the emotional state of your customers. Include statements like “how are you holding up?’ or ‘what you business can do to help them in this time?’. Just make sure the message is empathetic rather than sales-y.

3. Segmentation to be more sensitive

Knowing your target audience in the given situation is of utmost importance. The pandemic has affected different people differently, some people are working from home, while some are doing essential jobs or are frontline workers. The email campaign if not segmented, would lead to emails being delivered to everyone in your mailing lists rather than sending to focused groups in turn reducing the quality of your content. Segmentation is offered by most email marketing services and is an effective strategy.

DON’TS:

4. High Frequency

The frequency of emails from your business shouldn’t be too high in the given market conditions. The focus should be on quality not the quantity of your emails. The emails need to be interactive based on segmentation. You do not want users to unsubscribe from your mailing list because of email fatigue.

5. Sending out mails at any time

The pandemic has affected every aspect of our lives. Given the challenge the world is facing, a change in the habits of people was expected and it has impacted the email engagement times as well. Mornings are a good time to send the emails, but it’s important to monitor each segment to figure out which time frame works the best for each segment. If the emails are sent out at odd hours, it will reduce the open rate of your email campaign.

Take Away:

These are really difficult times and the efforts your business makes to help your customers by showing compassion can go really far in establishing your brand.
Email marketing is a very effective means of communicating to your customers how your business can assist them in these times. The most important thing to do is to communicate with your clients.