"DURING & POST LOCKDOWN ERA" - MOST IMPACTFUL EMAIL STRATEGIES - Pepipost
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MOST IMPACTFUL
EMAIL STRATEGIES
FOR E-COMMERCE / E-GROCERY
"DURING & POST LOCKDOWN ERA"
#fortheloveofemails pepipost.com
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Table of Contents
Essential Email Strategies for E-Commerce / E-Grocery
01
Industry during the COVID-19 crisis
Impact on the E-commerce/E-Grocery Industry 02
Campaign examples 03
Tips to communicate with your brands during these 08
tough times
Keep the brand tone serious and formal 09
Be the positive light during the dark times 09
Think innovatively to surprise your subscribers 10
Have a strong value proposition 11
Target the right kind of audience for your campaigns 11
Be extra helpful with customer needs 12
Practices to avoid in sending your corona crisis email update 13
Irrelevant messaging 14
Trying to be deceptive and seek profits 14
Follow the herd mentality 15
Not offering any value 15
Keeping it fun and light-hearted 16
Impact on the E-commerce industry post lock-down 17
Principles for communicating in the post lock-down era 18
Informative messaging 19
Drive your brand values 19
Emotionally intelligent messaging 20
Incentivize customer loyalty 21
Campaign strategies and examples for E-commerce to 22
pick up on revenue
Takeaways 29
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ESSENTIAL EMAIL STRATEGIES
FOR E-COMMERCE / E-GROCERY INDUSTRY
DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS
Essential Email Strategies for E-Commerce / E-Grocery Industry during the COVID-19 crisis The COVID-19 crisis has affected every other brand in the digital space. The marketing plans for all the brands have been derailed as home isolation has become the new normal. Government directives of shutdowns have impacted the economy as well as the marketing budgets for the brands. But some verticals in the industry like health and wellness, at-home entertainment, and essentials have been in more demand than ever since the start of the crisis. There has also been a clear shift in online spending across all the verticals since the start of the crisis. Social distancing and savings mindset has also resulted in a reduction in consumer spending. People are looking out for some in-house comforts and doorstep deliveries of essentials during the period of home isolation. Also, with the current economic impact of the corona crisis, people are clearly deciding to postpone any huge purchases in the next 6 months. The brands that have an adaptive and agile mindset will thrive during this crisis and still manage to get their message across to their customers. In this post we have covered the field of E-Commerce/E-Grocery industries which has been positively impacted due to the corona crisis. #fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 01
a netcore product We have provided the tips to communicate with your users during the crisis and practices to avoid sending them the wrong kind of messages. We have provided the impact of the crisis on this industry along with some email campaign recommendations. These are done globally as the pandemic has affected nearly every country in the world. Also we have mentioned some exceptional campaign examples done globally by other brands in the same industry. Impact on the E-commerce/E-Grocery Industry In some countries around the world, the government has issued strict directives to avoid stepping out of their homes, there has been a rise in e-grocery chains delivering essential products to people at home. According to a survey in America, there has been an increase by 15-20% in users spending on groceries, most of it will be delivered at home with social distance restrictions in places around the world. The demand has risen more for essentials as people have a tendency to stockpile the essentials for months to come. E-grocery chains like Bigbasket, Amazon have been ramping up their operations and inventories as they receive more orders in a short period of time during the corona crisis. This has increased the demand for e-grocery chains and the e-commerce industry to deliver the products amid overwhelming demand and an uncertain logistics supply. We are all in this together, hence during such times the brands should come together and collaborate. This should solve their logistics #fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 02
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problem like collaborating in areas where the other brand might have
good resources for delivery.
Campaign suggestions on email campaigns for E-commerce:
Email campaigns on the lines of advising the customers on which
essential products to stockpile and which items they can avoid buying
in large quantities to create awareness.
Campaign to take precautions with washing veggies and other edible
food before using them for cooking is helpful advice.
E-commerce companies who cannot deliver their goods due to
restrictions or man shortage have been sending wellness campaigns
to get through for days of the lockdown.
E-commerce brands have also been sending lockdown wish-list items
curated for their customers.
Campaign on contact-less delivery during the crisis and how they are
keeping their staff safe.
E-fashion brands can send celebrity fashion trends from their social
quarantine posts.
Campaign examples
This campaign example from White horse wine empathizes with
customers who have been forced to stay home while gently encouraging
them to shop.
The essentials are delivered to their doorstep via home-delivery hence
it is a convenience for the customers.
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1. White Horse Wine
cont...
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Image source:v
https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/stay-at-home-essentials/
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The below campaign by Woolworths talks about delivering on basic
essentials all in one box. It would be easier for the elderly or people
caring for them to avail all their groceries in 1 box.
2. Woolworths (Australia)
Dear
We understand thatduring these challenging times, some
of our valuable customers are unable to visit our stores
for the basics.
That’s why we created the woolworths Basics Box, filled
with a range of pantry essentials and food to help make
meals and snacks for one person, for up to two weeks...
it even includes an 8-pack of toilet paper.
Image source: https://www.woolworths.com.au/
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Big Bazaar is a brick and mortar chain store but since the outbreak, they
decided to start home delivery of essential groceries. This has saved big
queues outside their stores and helped many families get their essen-
tials at their doorstep.
3. Big Bazaar (India)
Image source: https://www.bigbazaar.com
#fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 07TIPS TO COMMUNICATE
WITH YOUR BRANDS
DURING THESE TOUGH TIMESa netcore product 1. Keep the brand tone serious and formal Currently there is a lot of anxiety around getting infected with the virus as it is a contagion. People are scared to roam outside and hence are cooped up in their places working from home and hoping for the situation to improve Hence in such times, it is necessary for your brand to keep your communication to the point and not indulge in any sense of humor. It might come across as insensitive. So no toilet paper jokes considering toilet paper is a commodity in demand. The basic aim should be to convey your message of how you are taking care of your employees and ensuring business continuity during COVID-19 in a serious and objective manner. That is all that your customers are looking for when they read your email. 2. Be the positive light during the dark times These are bad times for the world. There will be an obvious tendency of the people to focus on the negative of the rising number of infections all over the world. The biggest relief you can provide now to your audience will be a ton of positivity. The world needs to know it is going to be okay. #fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 09
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How will your brand ensure doing that?
Here the onus will be on the way you communicate the message to your
customers of positivity in your email.
Some of the ways you could do this:
Ensuring a super optimistic subject line that asks people to stay calm
and not panic.
Solve their questions on the pandemic by offering a FAQ page where a
certified panel of doctors have answered common questions on
COVID-19
Including some good remote work tips and how to stay productive
during such times will also be highly effective as not everyone has
fun working from home.
Meaningful campaigns like this will turn your regular active users into
loyal customers.
Optimistic subject lines and content with out of the box ideas will
ensure that your email gets responses and customers are able to
identify with your brand even more for all the good help you are
offering.
So the message is simple, stay positive, stay helpful.
3. Think innovatively to surprise your subscribers
The COVID-19 situation is overwhelming to say the least and will take
time to subside. But despite the challenges, it offers a golden chance for
a marketer to make a mark with brilliant email campaigns.
#fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 10a netcore product A dose of creative and innovative thinking can create a special campaign. The point is to come up with something that your users will like to engage in and will leave a good impression of your brand in their minds. If you can sympathize with your audience and still ensure that you provide some service to your customer which eases their situation then it will be accepted readily. This could also include community service in such dire times. 4. Have a strong value proposition Don’t follow the herd in sending updates on how you are going to keep your employees safe from COVID-19 and ensuring business continuity by working remotely. This offers no meaningful takeaways for your subscribers. Instead come up with ideas where you can offer some practical ways to combat the virus and deliver your service to the subscribers. 5. Target the right kind of audience for your campaigns Your coronavirus communication should not be sent to everyone on your mailing list. Don’t be another email in their inbox. That is not the correct aspiration to have. What we recommend is to figure out those users who will be affected by your messaging. Eg: Some of your regions of service could be impacted due to lockdowns or public closures, then you can send the users of such regions your update. #fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 11
a netcore product If your service is not based on location, then send your campaign to an active audience who are engaged with your brand and will respond positively to it. Eg: send it to the last 90 days activity based on opens and clicks. Alternatively you can send it to the last 90 days transacted users. Do not touch base with inactive users who you have not contacted for the last 1 year. This will help your email deliverability too as the engagement of the active audience will be high. 6. Be extra helpful with customer needs Your COVID-19 content should be structured in such a way so as to avoid overwhelming your subscribers, but instead, providing value to them in such a stressful time. Getting the context of the place where you are operating from and the kind of audience you are communicating with, needs to be thought about before designing any content during a world crisis. #fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 12
PRACTICES TO AVOID
IN SENDING YOUR
CORONA CRISIS EMAIL UPDATEa netcore product Here are some basic tips to avoid in emailing your users anything during the COVID-19 crisis. 1. Irrelevant messaging The last thing your customer needs right now is any kind of promotional offer for your product with a deadline to buy before it expires. These kinds of campaigns will come across as insensitive and unethical considering that thousands of people are dying around the world and people are scared of staying at home for their loved ones. Your tone of marketing has to clearly shift from promotional to empathy and showing genuine concern. It would be appreciated much better by your customers if your brand tone is one of genuine empathy and suggestions for ways to tackle this virus. Send your email updates to users who value the communication that comes from your brand. Trying to revive users who have not interacted with you in the last 1 year telling them you are worried about their safety is not relevant. 2. Trying to be deceptive and seek profits Some brands may take up this opportunity to sell their service or product under the guise of the corona crisis. It would be unethical marketing if a marketer wishes to sell their products and make profits under the hood of fake sympathy. If you are still confused then take proper permission of your customers to send them promotional communication and act on their feedback. #fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 14
a netcore product But sending any kind of promotional messaging now without gauging your customer feedback will be seen as eerily deceptive. There could be spam complaints about such emails and that will damage your domain health and deliverability. 3. Follow the herd mentality Financial and government institutions can send their mandatory emails on COVID-19 precautions they are taking. These are mandatory regulato- ry emails that the BFSI sector has to send to its customers all over the world. But that does not mean that your brand has to follow suit and send basic precautionary measures that you are taking for your employees. With the huge amount of messages that the user will be receiving from all the brands during the corona crisis, your email should not land in their inbox as just another message to read and delete. Hence the brand marketer should stand out from the competition and do something unique to engage their audiences. 4. Not offering any value Some questions a marketer can ask themselves before sending a corona crisis email: Is there something extra you are providing your subscribers during the containment period? Are you offering any community service or any stay at home kit to ease the pressure on parents at home who have to work as well as take care of their young ones? Are you offering your services digitally now as people are practicing #fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 15
a netcore product social distancing? Eg: Restaurants can send their special chef made healthy recipes on the video to your inbox so that you can stay healthy and boost immunity. A theatre can provide movie recommendations during the quarantine period that you can stream from their online platform. If you can’t provide any value to your customers, refrain from sending any email communication during this period. 5. Keeping it fun and light-hearted COVID-19 crisis is a serious matter of concern around the world and any attempt made to ridicule it in your marketing communication will be a setback for your brand. Any light-hearted communication should be avoided during this period as your customers will not appreciate it and it would impact on your brand image. Keep your brand tone serious and get your point across in a sympathetic and formal manner. Your users will respect your brand for the same. #fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 16
IMPACT ON THE E-COMMERCE INDUSTRY POST LOCK-DOWN
a netcore product Impact on the E-commerce industry post lock-down The corona virus pandemic is going to have wide ranging ramifications for industries across the globe. For those positively impacted like E-commerce, the outlook looks bright. With increased social distancing measures here to stay till a vaccine is produced, we can look forward to a considerable increase in online shopping for essentials and other luxury goods till people feel safe enough to step out to a retail store. Online shopping as a part of retail reached 30.7% in April, 8% increase from that in March. Traditional grocery and chain stores in U.S., Canada have seen an 80% increase in online sales in April. First time online shoppers have grown globally by 119% compared to same time last year. Though there was a considerable dip in revenue from E-commerce during March, this was largely due to the lock-downs in various parts of the world. But we see a bounce back in April from online stores globally with orders increased by 40% and conversion rate lifted to 12%. Thus the E-commerce and essentials industry seems to be on the upward curve to bouncing back big in the post-pandemic times with online revenue soaring. Those brick and mortar stores who won’t have an online presence will be missing out. #fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 18
a netcore product Principles for communicating in the post lock-down era In the post pandemic time when the lock-down will be slowly lifted and things will start going back to normal, brands will have to follow certain tips to ensure that they are keeping the customer in mind and not going crazy with their promotions. Informative messaging: Be precise and accurate in terms of communication on how you are going to start delivering to more regions and cities. You can send these campaigns targeted to specific region audience. Inform the users on what kind of precautions that your brand will be following and what the people still need to follow if they wish to visit their brick and mortar stores. Being upfront and having honest channels of communication with your audience diminishes any uncertainty that they might have on shopping from your portal once the restrictions are over. Drive your brand values: During the pandemic, various sections of the society have all gone through a lot of hardship,grief and pain. A marketer’s prime focus now should be to deliver on the values of your brand by being positive , empathetic and show sympathy towards your users. The vaccine is still a long way from being produced but till then, we can all atleast do away with the doom and gloom. #fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 19
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Some questions a marketer can ask themselves:
What are the values of our brand?
Is our campaign content conveying the same to our customers?
How can I re-brand our communication to stand out within our
user inbox?
Your audience should feel thrilled to receive your positive messages.
Make sure the underlying theme of your messaging is hope for a
brighter future and that we are all in this together.
This campaign by Nike shows us the gold standard of value driven
messaging:
Emotionally intelligent messaging:
During the pandemic period, millions have lost their jobs due to businesses
shutting down. It is estimated that whenever there is a recession, 17% of
the companies shut down globally. That is a lot of jobs gone in a moment.
#fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 20a netcore product In such times, a marketer needs to display a high amount of EQ to show empathy towards those who may be struggling in the post pandemic time. It may not be possible for some part of your audience to consider your promotional offers. Recession has lowered purchasing power and the demand will be down. Hence for such users, provide some option to pause their campaigns while they recover and come back stronger. Just considering their plight instead of sending irrelevant content will make your brand stand out as a ‘good brand’ and will foster genuine positive relationships with customers. Being emotionally zen in the post pandemic time is a powerful tool for developing connections with your subscribers and gaining back your brand affinity. Incentivize customer loyalty: Those customers who have stuck by your brand despite the hard times need to be treated specially. You need to provide them with VIP offers which you won’t offer to the rest of your mailing list. These users are your biggest ‘brand fans’ and they need to be catered to at a premium level to ensure that they transact with you post pandemic and contribute to your revenue stream. Many users currently will be eager to do some shopping as they have been restricted for some months. Hence, according to Pareto principle, your loyal customers (20%) could potentially contribute to 80% of your online revenue. Incentivize these users and keep your brand relationship growing with them post the pandemic. #fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 21
CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES & EXAMPLES
FOR E-COMMERCE TO
PICK UP ON REVENUEa netcore product Campaign strategies and examples for E-commerce to pick up on revenue Keeping the above principles in mind we have the following campaign ideas that a brand in the E-commerce field can deploy: Run a campaign on store opening and closing hours and precautions to be taken by visitors. This can be sent to every user on your segment for that particular city. This campaign by retailer pharmacy store Walgreens has sent a campaign to their customers on store hours and precautions for the users to take. Image source: https://www.walgreens.com/ #fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 23
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For e-grocery stores, you can have the customer select their
essentials cart and store it on your website. You can offer them the
same to shop from your data memory in your campaigns. This should
be sent to regular transactors.
E-commerce brands can provide offers on summer essentials and
discounts on designer masks.
Run a campaign on looking smart on conference calls.
Offer an update on delivery to your users - Good news ! We are
delivering again!
Offer a discount code to your loyal customers to get more
transactions.
Run a campaign for Summer sale offers for E-fashion and other
e-commerce portals.
Ask for a feedback on what your users will like to receive from your
brand. This should be sent to active as well as inactive users to
gauge their feedback.
Example: This Campaign done by a Stay Golden Coffee roastery asking
the users to fill up a 4 min survey for helping them plan better future
campaigns:
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Image source: https://stay-golden.com/
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Ecommerce brands can offer loyalty cards to your repetitive
customers and have a points system to encourage more shopping.
This should only be sent to active openers.
E-grocery brands can detail the procedure and safety they take care
of while sourcing the vegetables, fruits and other products to their
warehouses. Target this campaign to active users.
E-grocery stores can send campaign on type of food to eat for
boosting immunity and wellness.
E-groceries can send recipes to prepare snacks and meals at home
as people might still be reluctant to eat outside. Target this to
inactive non openers.
Example: This campaign sent by Bobby Berk adds value and provides
practical tips to users struggling with lock-down cooking attempts. It
has recipes to create restaurant level dishes with ingredients from your
existing pantry.
#fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 26a netcore product
Image source: https://bobbyberk.com/
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Run a campaign on ‘Essential needs to work from home like a boss!’
Following campaign by Nykaa fashion delivers the positive news of
starting delivery again since the restrictions have been eased:
Image source: https://bobbyberk.com/
#fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 28a netcore product Takeaways The impact of the global pandemic is harrowing and will be felt for some time to come, but that should not stop your brand from trying to add value for your customers. The global outlook for E-commerce brands looks bright with the statis- tics showing a growth in revenue as they have started delivering their products to customers. Using the above campaign strategies with your brand will ensure that you can connect with your users on a personal level and show that you care about them. Empathetic communication and emotional intelligence used by the brand marketer will go a long way in improving your brand relationship with your customers during and after the crisis is over. Post-pandemic campaign planning is necessary to ensure that you continue with the good connection you have built with your customers during the crisis. #fortheloveofemails pepipost.com 29
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