Use Email to Effectively Communicate with Your Customers During COVID-19 and Boost Your Email Response Rates

With the spread of COVID-19, we are living in unprecedented times. Many marketers are carefully considering whether to send an email to customers regarding COVID-19 or whether it’s appropriate to market their products and services to customers during these difficult times.

Brands rely heavily on digital communications and they need to know how to use email effectively to reach customers. In today’s environment, there is an increasing number of emails being sent out related to COVID-19.

If you are wondering if you should send out an email to customers, here are some questions to ask yourself.

Do you need to communicate in the context of the crisis?

It’s becoming a balancing act for many companies between saying nothing and saying the wrong thing. If you are wondering if you need to communicate with your clients right now. The answer depends on your industry and whether your industry has been greatly affected. If you need to communicate important information, then you should continue to communicate with your customers.

When should you send an email about COVID-19?

If your company is impacted by COVID-19, then your customers would probably appreciate the update but you should only send an email if you have important and useful information to share. This information could include:

• Closures on brick and mortar locations, restaurants and businesses
• Help you are offering to customers to make their lives easier during these difficult times (providing food or supplies, offering virtual services, free shipping or faster delivery times, refunding orders or bookings, etc.)
• Offering health and medical information
• Offering tips to improve quality of life right now
• Providing special offers to your customers

If you are unsure that your COVID-19 email communications are on target, here are 5 tips to increase your email engagement rates during COVID-19.

1. Only include useful content that is meaningful to your customers right now
2. Keep your email messaging short, concise and easy to skim
3. Acknowledge the situation with personalized messages including how your business is impacted and what you are doing to help your customers
4. Consider adding a COVID-19 update to your existing e-newsletter
5. Include contact information so your customers can contact you if they have additional questions

We want to help our customers stay productive during these unprecedented times. We are open for business and are available to provide counts, list recommendations and email deployments for campaigns you want to send out now or are considering for Q3 and Q4. You can count on us if you need help with your campaigns. Learn more at https://www.etargetmedia.com.