By MICHAEL S
Ecommerce stores are facing challenging times as the economic impact of Coronavirus starts to bite. 
Businesses are looking more carefully at budgets, making sure they can squeeze every penny of profit out of their investments, and looking for the most cost-effective way to deliver their products.
Marketing budgets may appear to be an easy target for eComm stores looking to make budget cuts. But a cut in marketing activity is a short term fix that has long term consequences. 
Customers are also watching the pennies, but they are still spending money.
They don’t want to risk wasting it, they want to buy the right products from companies they can trust.
One of your best choices is to retain your existing customer base!
You need to keep in touch with your customers or you risk losing them.
It’s a more cost-effective way to retain an existing customer than acquire a new one…
During a crisis, your email communication can make or break your business.
You can’t just ignore a crisis when it’s affecting your audience. With the outbreak of the world pandemic Coronavirus, email communication about the virus skyrocketed.
So we are here with a brief guide on how to create your emails during this crisis:
Consider Your Word Of Choice 
Words and phrases that seemed harmless just a month ago may suddenly seem offensive or cause panic now.
Check that there aren’t any messages that could have a double meaning or be viewed differently amid a crisis. If you have even the slightest doubt, consider pausing the campaign.
Be Compassionate And Respectful 
Take time to think about how the crisis is having a direct impact on your community, customers, and followers.
Pause insensitive email campaigns, like contests or humorous (especially black humor) content.
Limit The Caps 
There’s an argument about using all caps in email subject lines that it can make your message spammy and quickly lose its impact. But when used sparingly and in the right situations, it can be effective.
However, when people are in the middle of a global pandemic is not one of those situations…
Notify your subscribers about the actions you’re taking to deal with the situation 
Your customers, subscribers, and community want to know what you are doing to support the health, safety, and well-being of the community.
Consider answering questions like these in your email marketing communication:
– How are you protecting your customers?
– Will your customer service be disrupted?
– Will product deliveries be delayed?
– Where can customers get the latest information about how you’re handling the crisis?
Be Informative/Educational, Not Promotional 
One of the worst things a business can do is try to benefit from a global tragedy.
The virus is heavily on everyone’s minds, but forcing your products or services into a conversation around it will only come across as disingenuous and deceitful.
That doesn’t mean you need to stop all forms of email communication.
Focus on providing value for your customers rather than pushing a product to make money for your business, share advice or resources that can help your customers during these hard times.
And the most important is to show your audience that you care.
Your audience is stressed, upset, or possibly even in danger during this crisis. Make sure they know you care about their well-being, health, family, and friends. 
Check out how email marketing will change in 2020, by clicking here!
Spread the word
