Like almost every field, the coronavirus has also affected email marketing, which could hurt your online shop. This devastating virus has also shaken the stock market and caused operational disruption in various industries, whether healthcare, e-commerce, medicine or education.

This leads email marketers to ask themselves two questions:

How to adapt to these changes and how to anticipate customer behaviour so that it does not affect sales on a large scale. However, to help the affected countries and restore the global economy, you need to develop new marketing strategies that take the current situation into account.

As an email marketer, you need to think about how you will proceed. Here is how to adapt your email marketing during the coronavirus crisis.

•  Don't focus on your sales during this sensitive period

Mutual aid and empathy are the key words. Don't stay silent in times of crisis. Instead, show some support in this frightening situation. Although there are times when you might say the wrong thing at the wrong time, in this situation you simply need to show your full support to the people affected and their families.

To do this, it is better to focus on “how to support your customers during this devastating period” rather than simply on increasing your sales. That could even harm your brand promotion.

Many companies, including Dell and Microsoft, have already donated millions of dollars to the Chinese Red Cross. But you don't need to break the bank if money is tight. You can build your brand by sharing motivating messages, sending products to those in need and creating relevant content to inform people.

Apart from that, make sure you don't use this time or take advantage of the virus to boost your online shop's sales. Put simply, DO NOT focus on promoting sales by offering discounts. Although this might increase your sales, it could damage your reputation.

Be humanitarian: another important step is to provide essential items. For example, provide free masks so people can protect themselves against the virus. Or, since people wash their hands frequently, you can give them hand creams to keep their hands from drying out. You can even send these products directly to hospitals or distribute them to homes.

· Target the right customers

During lockdown, people tend to buy more and more online. But this doesn't only have advantages: it also leads to low inventory and delays in logistics and manufacturing, making it hard to deliver products to paying customers.

With all the stress Covid-19 causes people in general, instead of making efforts to acquire new customers, e-commerce marketers should focus on developing existing customers with higher, safer value. They are the ones who will stay and keep spending beyond the crisis.

Use this time to analyse your data more effectively to identify your high-value customers. This is done by examining past behaviour, finding audience segmentation patterns, then predicting conversion rates for each group. Once you have the picture, you can personalise your campaigns accordingly.

Look on the bright side: this is the moment when targeting the right customer is essential. Keep your products in mind and focus on the right customers. Suppose you sell masks; in that case, don't target children. Instead, it would be better to target their parents and hospitals.

Moreover, whatever you create and send by email, make sure it is relevant and compelling, so that people feel they have to open it and browse your sections. With the coronavirus in mind, including relevant crisis-related keywords and visuals in your email marketing campaigns and ads can help you get attention. However, you need to be careful and make sure they are appropriate.

Also, don't run campaigns for products that are unrelated to the current situation. However, if your product can help people these days, like hand sanitiser, you should get your message and your product out there.

· More frequent communication

Given the current situation, more and more people are avoiding social interaction and prefer to stay at home for safety. This is a good opportunity to communicate more with your customers, as they will be online more often. Lockdown leads to higher open rates.

Unsurprisingly, every social media platform has seen a sudden rise in its number of users, across many areas and kinds of content, whether fitness and health, games, crafts or the latest news: everyone spends most of their time behind a laptop or phone screen.

So you can stay in touch with your audience through relevant emails more often, instead of every two weeks or once a month. You can send your email daily or every other day, or you can create videos and apps to promote your brand.

If you are in the health and fitness industry, you can promote simple exercise videos and suggest healthy eating to fight COVID-19. You can also promote your product in the right way. If you sell food, promote your products by highlighting certain safety measures and encourage people to stay healthy.

· Segment your audiences

Another important thing that will boost your email marketing sales is segmenting your audience. Segmenting your contact lists will help you deliver the useful, relevant information your audience is looking for at the right time.

COVID-19 is driving more and more people online to read more. As they read more about the virus, they will look for relevant products to help protect themselves against it.

This opens up many opportunities and profits for you and various brands. Industries may include wellness and healthcare. To make the most of the benefits during this crisis, you need to focus on the right customers at the right time.

You can use AI-based tools to analyse online data and identify who is reading coronavirus content and what kind of content they read. You can then segment your target audience by the different topics or keywords they use, to deliver relevant content and target more precisely.

· Awareness

In these difficult times, you need to handle your target audience sensitively. Since COVID-19 has affected people physically and mentally, you need to be very careful when dealing with these issues and the people concerned.

Don't try to profit from it unkindly and focus only on selling products. This could damage your reputation, which could also hurt your sales after this situation. Keep in mind that times are hard, that this is a difficult period and that people just need moral support.

In addition, in every email, make sure you include useful information that can help and inform about the situation, highlighting tips and tricks to avoid the virus, or mentioning nearby places where people can get tested if they have symptoms of the virus.

Not everyone is fully aware of the situation and the harmful effects of the virus. With your email, you can alert everyone to the current situation and offer precautionary advice to cope with it. Mention the symptoms of the virus and tell people to get tested as soon as possible so they can be treated.

At this stage, you need to be more sensitive. Put your ads and emails in the right context. Pay attention to the timing and to how your customers react when they see your emails.

Before sending an email, make sure the way you present things feels natural. Use web-based tools to analyse dataand gain better customer insight so you can help them through these difficult times.

Summary:

The world is going through a difficult crisis.

The good news is that the crisis is only temporary. With people spending most of their time online, this is a fantastic opportunity to build a strong reputation. You can do this by following the advice above. Or you can get more people engaged by offering them interesting, quality content.

Without ever neglecting the current circumstances, focusing mainly on training and entertainment would really benefit your email marketing campaigns and brands. Also show your employees internal support. Let them work from home and check in on them and their families frequently.

However, make sure your customers remain your absolute focus. Support them and be available 24/7 by adjusting your schedule and marketing strategy accordingly. With all this, you can keep your brand safe, now and in the future.

And if you need help with your email marketing, you can contact us. At Sparrow Mailing , we will give you real suggestions on your campaigns to increase your conversion rate.