Consumers are being hit from all sides with information about COVID-19, including in the email marketing that gets fired into their inboxes every day. You have either already sent a COVID-19 email or are considering doing so, but how do you ensure that it says what it needs to and communicates your message effectively? Here are five tips that should help your COVID-19 mail to cut through the clutter.
1. Make sure the information is genuinely useful
Don’t be tempted to send an email on this subject just because that’s what people are doing. Only send one if you genuinely have something insightful and relevant to say. It can’t be generic either – it should relate directly to your line of work and your customers’ interests.
2. Be concise and to the point
Your readers can watch the news and do their own research – they don’t need a lot of technical information or jargon from you. Stick to the point and include only as much background information as is absolutely necessary to back up your specific message.
3. Make the content easy to skim
This is true of all emails but particularly so if you want to include a great deal of background info leading up to your main message, as many companies are doing with COVID-19 emails. Many mails out there are made up of big, dense paragraphs. Nobody is going to read those. You need to cut down the text to its essentials and space it out so that readers can scan through it quickly. If you don’t, you risk losing your message completely.
4. Instead of a dedicated mail, add to your existing newsletter
You may not even need a dedicated mailer on this subject. Think about whether it would really suit your business and marketing goals. You may be better served by adding a short note at the top or bottom of your usual weekly newsletter.
5. Ask for feedback
If you’re uncertain about what you should be communicating to your audience about COVID-19 – or about any topic in the midst of the pandemic – just come right out and ask them. They might be overwhelmed by COVID-19 information and would rather like to hear about your products alone. Or they may not be in the mood to make any consumer decisions right now and thus, not interested in your latest business developments. Just be honest with them and they will probably return the favour. This is just good customer relationship practice.
If you need more help making your COVID-19 emails as effective as possible, or for assistance in designing a powerful and impactful email marketing strategy, contact WSI OMS.