Email Communication "How-To" During COVID-19 - May 12, 2020 - Inte Q
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Email Communication “How-To” During COVID-19 May 12, 2020
Important Notes • Today’s webinar will be conducted in listen only mode to minimize background noise. • The webinar is accessible through computer speakers (VoIP) only. • If you are having trouble with audio, please check your speaker volume.
Webinar Tool Overview 3
Meet Our Presenter:
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The presenter may ask you to
do so periodically. Jason is an experienced digital marketing
professional, spending the last 20+ years
managing communication strategy, email
Questions marketing operations, messaging strategy,
Chris
JasonDuncan
Sisley
Submit questions for the
presenter here. Questions will
and customer journey mapping.
Chief
be Marketing
President,
answered in Den Officer
Aviary
a follow up
email after the presentation.
4
Meet Our Presenter:
Jason is a digital marketing expert, managing
communication strategy, email marketing
operations, messaging strategy, and customer
journey mapping for top brands in multiple
Jason Sisley industries for over 20 years.
President, Den Aviary
Overview 5
Anything online right now will be consumed (and scrutinized!) more than ever before
and it’s not the time to become invisible and hope for the best.
• Now is not the time to try to force brand equity, but it’s important to maintain it with your
customers
• Be thoughtful with your communications and pay attention to what your competitors are doing
• Don’t make big, broad changes (creative, content, volume, frequency). Make small changes
over time.
• Keep an eye on your signals:
• Keep a close eye on deliverability and how ISPs are responding
• How is your messaging resonating with your best customers and your less active
customers?
• Who should you ultimately be emailing?
• Shift your email marketing goals and success metrics to focus on retention
• Actively measure your results & learn for future communications.
Current State 6
Many companies are laying low and others are
sending out email that seems self centered.
11.7% of retailers analyzed used coronavirus or COVID-19 in
their email subject lines from March 9-17.
COVID-19 emails can be an effective strategy,
but it depends on the person receiving them —
someone who last ate at a restaurant in 2007
might dismiss the message, but a person who
orders delivery twice a week will be looking for
that information.
Email Marketing During COVID-19 7
DO DO NOT
• Protect your deliverability by maintaining a relatively • Send mass COVID-19 emails if you do not have
reasonable frequency. Judge this based on anything critical and valuable to say to your customers.
engagement.
• Send email to subscribers who have not opened or
• Send to the most engaged customers at a similar clicked one of your emails within the past 9 months (at
frequency, but don’t forget about your lapsed a maximum).
customers.
• Sound desperate by mentioning your business is
• Maintain email content best practices (minimal copy, suffering as this is impacting all companies and sectors.
clear CTAs, maintain a high live-text to image ratio).
• A global pandemic may or may not be a business
• Keep information on other mediums such as Facebook, opportunity for your brand, please use email very
Instagram, or your website if you are announcing new carefully and make sure your message is timely and
hours or any additional information that does not helpful to your subscribers. Otherwise, you will pay the
require immediate action. price in the form of a damaged brand sentiment,
customer engagement and sender reputation.Email Marketing During COVID-19 8
However the business is managed, now
is the time to be disciplined.
You must have a very focused data-driven
approach to your marketing activities.
Make sure you’re investing in your highest
performing segments first and make sure
your email marketing activities are
measurable.What is Email Deliverability… 9
…And why is it so important in uncertain times?
• Email deliverability is the measurement of overall program reputation, your ability to maintain high inbox
rates and take preventative action based on signals from the ISPs.
• Deliverability is a major issue for brands, especially in times of crisis due to a high rate of fraudulent
emails. ISPs are simply protecting their customers.
• Brands rely heavily on digital communications and want to know that these communications will reach
their intended recipients.Deliverability: A Major Concern 10 • The increase of COVID-19 emails and decrease in engagement is a huge deliverability problem. People are more selective in the emails they open related to the coronavirus. • Decreased engagement leads to more unsubscribes and spam reports. • Email providers will begin to filter these emails into the junk folder. Some email providers can’t handle the increased traffic of emails, causing delays in delivery. • Above all, work to avoid deliverability issues vs. reacting to them when they occur.
Email Messaging Tone 11
No Longer “Business As Usual”
• What is relevant this week can change the next. A willingness to adapt, When Levi Strauss & Co. decided to close
move quickly and grow will help during a crisis. its stores, it sent a short email explaining
• Sensitivity is paramount. Put the needs of your customers first. that while its doors were shut, its website
• Consider a “service over sales” approach to avoid sounding insincere would remain open, and that the company
or self-centered. understood that “shopping for jeans is
• Provide service with ideas, discounts, suspended fees, free shipping or probably the last thing on your mind right
great content. Focus on the things your customers will care about. now.”
• Examine every message, including promotional, automated and
recurring campaigns, for “No one wants to get a bunch of emails
1. Relevancy from brands and stores saying what they
2. Tone are doing,” said Levi’s Chief Marketing
3. Usefulness and Officer Jen Sey. “It’s spam.”
4. Service.Audience 12
Inactives Don’t Exist (At the Moment)
• Retail companies rely on customer data to send the
right message to the right people at the right time.
• You may find that active customers with your
brand aren’t very active right now.
• Don’t mark them as inactive. Because they are not
interacting with your content does not mean they
are truly inactive.
• The changing social and economic environment
requires us to view active and inactive recipients
through a different lens. Becoming inactive may
have nothing to do with your brand.In Summary ARE YOUR EMAIL
13
CAMPAIGNS REACHING
1 MEASURE and closely monitor your email CUSTOMER INBOXES?
deliverability rates.
Find Out with Inte Q’s
Ramp down your volume if you’re decreasing
2 your send frequency/weekly volume.
Email Deliverability Audit.
Inte Q brings together comprehensive deliverability
features to protect your sender score, we can help you
Listen to your customers react based on their
3 engagement. Be relevant.
boost delivery rates and optimize inbox placement across
your entire email list.
MEASURE and monitor activity from your most
4 engaged customers and those who have become
less engaged during this time.
Ramp up your volume when returning to Deliverability Real-Time Stay Valuable
5 “normal” and continue to MEASURE email
Metrics Reporting Informed Insights
deliverability.
To learn more, or to schedule your deliverability audit, contact
Karyn Speckels@kspeckels@inteqinsights.com14
Resources
Articles
https://emailkarma.net/2020/03/coronavirus-and-the-prominence-of-email-fraud/
https://www.emailmonday.com/guide-crisis-email-marketing/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/business/coronavirus-emails.html
https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-emails-from-companies-may-not-be-calming-to-customers-11584957184
https://www.business2community.com/email-marketing/covid-19-emailing-best-practices-in-times-of-crisis-02296953
Deliverability
MxToolBox: http://www.mxtoolbox.com
MailTester: https://www.mail-tester.com/
Talos Reputation Check: https://talosintelligence.com/reputation_center
Competitive Analysis
Mail Charts: http://www.mailcharts.com
Content & Design Ideas
Really Good Emails: https://reallygoodemails.com/You can also read
