By now, you have likely heard that people are now spending more time online. This is not a surprise, considering how the quarantine and the social distancing restrictions that is now invoke have affected everybody’s lifestyles. However, as the New York Times analysis revealed, people are not necessarily visiting the same websites that they have been frequently visiting before COVID-19 swept the globe.
While many of the established media brands and the streaming websites saw many significant increases in traffic, many of the other URLs took the hits as the digital viewing behaviors of people metamorphose. Those Email marketers who could not keep up were left in the limbo wondering why their content was not converting despite the large number of people that are online.
As the lives of consumers’ have shifted, so also have their priorities and their interests. Everyone’s day to day now looks different. It will only make sense for your emails to reflect that. As a marketer, you must be very relevant, empathetic, and also innovative to stand a chance in this latest environment, and it is pretty safe to say that the pandemic’s effects will carry on for sometime.
No matter the industry that you are in or how much competition you are facing, you can still find a percentage of prospects who are open to making purchases. All you just need is to implement a few key tactics to help you grab their attention. Here is how you should approach email marketing now.
1. Use Persona Based Messaging
It is time for you to dust off your target personas, even if it has been a while since you have created them. While it may not be easy for you to identify every need of your consumer, utilizing personas can be of help to you for you to remain relevant while reaching a large audience. You can actually make assumptions on the basis of your personas mainly in terms of pain points, value propositions, and their tone. After all, you are still trying to reach the same kind of people it is only the details that have changed.
2. Follow Up with Your Prospects
Contrary to the popular belief, the email marketing prospects who have “ghost” you a few times are not necessarily or totally uninterested. Some might just be busy, maybe navigating the craziness that is happening in the world. Instead foe you to write them off, just put forth some extra effort and follow them up.
For you checking in again sends a message to your prospect that you are not just credible and trustworthy, but you are also serious about developing a relationship. Be ready to extend your typical process and to provide additional digital touch points, such as for you sending four emails instead of just three, before you can temporarily or permanently give up on a lead. Note that there are distraction for many people right now, so putting a little extra diligence could pay off as we move further.
3. Put data in the driver’s seat
As a marketer, data is always your friend. Make use of what you know and learn to A/B test all the aspects of your email messaging and your content. Precision will really pay off as you figure out what the email engagement looks like during this time of pandemic and ways on which you can connect with your customers.
Where should you start? You might want to begin at the top with your email subject lines in front. Once you figure out the one that performs the best, you can move on so you will have to master the preview text, the greeting, the introductory sentence, the call to action, and also the special offers. Your results may even help out to inform your target persona descriptions by giving indication of which elements compel different groups.
4. Lead With Empathy
Emotional intelligence is a skill you must have, it is very important for any email marketer who wants to snag their prospect attention and close deals. That is why pandemic related email open rates got an increase of 41% in March 2020, according to the Worldata, despite the overall email open rates that is plummeting. Consumers felt very isolated and uncertain, so they just needed the support and direction.
If your team’s strong suit is not situated on crafting empathetic emails, then you should try putting yourself in your prospects’ shoes. You can ask yourself, what do your readers want to see? What are the things that they going through right now? What support will they embrace in this time? Is there any special incentive that could be added to entice them? Could you let them buy on a specific payment plan?
The pandemic has really changed our everyday life including everyday email marketing. You should be ready to reinvent your messages. You can make use of these four tips to guide your efforts as you are reaching out to prospects moving forward.