What Has Covid-19 Done To Email Marketing?

Email Marketing, always a strong channel, has become even more important during the Covid-19 pandemic as companies sought to take their business completely online. Hubspot reported a 44% increase in the number of emails sent in the months following lockdown and from March 16 to April 26, year-on-year open rates increased by nearly 32%. Safe to say, email marketing is going from strength to strength!

Always a communication tool, we saw email being used in a variety of ways:

• It was the primary way of letting customers know whether a business was still operating, or whether the staff had all been furloughed and the premises temporarily closed.
• Newsletters were a way to let customers know a business had survived. It was a way of communicating how they could continue to serve customers in spite of lockdown.
• Email was the chosen method for sending limited time offers, for off-loading stock that would otherwise have gone to waste, for advertising new products or services developed in response to Coronavirus and lockdown.
• Shoppers relied increasingly on online shopping as lockdown persisted.
• When restrictions started lifting, email was heavily used to inform customers the procedures in place to keep them safe and how they could once more visit.
• Even now, email remains more popular than ever to buy online as consumers remain reluctant to return to the shops. Brands with a strong presence who have won consumer confidence have faired the best.

With so much additional email ‘noise’ out there, it’s essential to make sure your email campaign is engaging, the content you are writing is catching your audiences’ attention. Campaigns have to be well thought-out, tested and measured to ascertain how effective they are, to see what is working best and driving sales. If you would like expert help in this competitive market, Email-Postman is here.