Our friends at Ongage gathered input from 17 email marketing experts on how best to adapt their marketing strategies during a time of crisis, like we’re experiencing now with the COVID-19 pandemic. The tips include one from OPTIZMO’s head of marketing, Tom Wozniak.  Check out Tom’s recommendations and then visit the Ongage blog to read the entire article.

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Managing your email marketing program (or any other digital marketing channel) can present real challenges during a public crisis. In our current situation, many marketers are also dealing with significant disruption to their day-to-day operations (adapting to working from home, etc.), so it makes things that much more difficult. Here are a few key things to keep in mind.

Think carefully about your audience

While focusing on your audience is always a best practice, it is even more important during a crisis. Remember that your email recipients are likely very focused on the issue they are facing, which means the way you normally engage with them may not be effective, while their priorities have shifted. 

How can you best connect with them in their current mindset?

How does your product or service fit a need they are currently experiencing? The answer may not be the same as it was prior to the crisis. 

Do you address the crisis in marketing copy or not?

Any mention of the crisis in your email marketing campaign runs at least some risk of it seeming like you are taking advantage of the issue.  So, think carefully about whether it makes sense for you to address the crisis directly in your content or not. 

Does your product or service address a particular need or challenge related to the current situation? Is there a particularly relevant message you really want to get out to your audience? If you do decide to address the crisis in your content, then craft that email copy very carefully, to ensure it doesn’t come across as self-serving in any way. 

Remember the competition for attention

You are always competing for your audience’s attention – against every other email in their inbox, along with every other marketing and communications channel. However, that competition may be utterly changed during a crisis. First, your audience may be entirely preoccupied with the crisis and its impact on them and their family. 

Second, their inboxes are likely filled with messages related to the crisis. It is definitely not business as usual for them. So, you should be that much more diligent in working on your subject line and email content to ensure it is as engaging as possible.