The coronavirus pandemic is changing the way we do business – forever.
Yet, this change – especially now, when the initial shock is over – generates a wealth of innovative ways for recovery.
One of those innovations is taking digital transformation to a whole new level.
Our response to this crisis can teach us how we can leverage innovation to handle future times of uncertainty.
Here are several ways that you can use to revamp your own email marketing strategy.
Build Trust through Frequent, Actionable Information
Email remains most customers’ preferred channel of communication, according to a Marketing Sherpa study.
Seventy-two percent of all Americans prefer email above all other ways companies communicate with them.
It’s no wonder. Email builds customers’ trust by its capacity for personalization through data-driven targeting.
With today’s technology, companies can use analytics to segment their email subscribers so that they can send each customer segment emails that interest them.
This kind of data-driven marketing is what drives email’s ROI to insanely high levels.
For every dollar companies invest in email newsletters, they receive, on average, 44 dollars in return, according to the SEO experts at Backlinko.
When email newsletters can address the needs of each of its customer segments, it builds customers’ trust levels to new heights.
Furthermore, when a company becomes a trusted source of actionable information that they can count on, they become loyal newsletter readers.
And – as the statistics show – more likely to become paying customers.
Email is the best way to engage your target customers’ full attention.
With 91 percent of American consumers checking their emails every day of the year, putting your messages into their inbox is the ideal way to get their attention.
When you use your social media platforms to encourage your followers to become email subscribers, you can quickly build your email subscriber list.
Build Loyalty with Emails that Put the Customer at the Center of Your Concern
During times of uncertainty, customers want the companies they deal with to put them at the center of their concern.
For example, KLM Airlines sent their newsletter subscriber an email that assured customers that have already booked flights or plan to do so soon that they could change their tickets without the usual change fee.
KLM’s agile response to customers’ fears brought assurance and stability to an uncertain situation.
When you come up with innovative responses to crises, your customers will reward you with their loyalty.
Using a tried-and-true tool (in this case, email) in a new way can contribute enormous value to a company’s reputation, even during times when sales plummet.
Repurposing existing assets demonstrates that a company is flexible enough to adapt during tough times.
Take inspiration from people like the French researcher, Didier Raoult, who repurposed a World War II malaria remedy and the ubiquitous Z-Pack to arrive at a promising coronavirus treatment. Take the lead on innovation, whatever your business.
People want to see your business as an advocate for their needs during tough times.
The fact that you even try – and communicate it to your customers – marks you as on the cutting edge of your industry in both innovation and compassion.
And compassion isn’t just good for building a better world.
Empathy is also good for building your reputation as a business.
Lean into the Uncertainty with a Clear Content Strategy
Use times of uncertainty to develop your email marketing strategy so that your brand appears before all the right people – your target customers.
Reaching the right people with the right messages positions your brand as the one calm place amid the storm.
Watch Your Metrics
Keep a close watch on your emails’ performance.
Whatever key metrics you use to measure engagement, be they opens, click-throughs, conversions, or sales, they are even more important to make sure that people are interacting positively with your messages.
Adjust Your Message
Sit down with your team to see what steps your company can take to help your customers (and your community at large) to deal with the situation.
They will welcome helpful information that outlines clear steps people can take to minimize the damage to their businesses and personal lives.
Tone-deaf messages, such as promotional emails touting your collection of prom gowns when your state’s schools have canceled the prom due to the crisis, will turn off even your best customers.
Keep your emails focused on the news and the steps your company is taking to deal with the situation.
During any crisis, people are hungry for news. Be that source of information that your target customers can trust.
Use Email to Build Short-Term Revenue and Goodwill, Too
The more that your emails focus on meeting your customers’ needs, the more likely you are to build the kind of relationships that yield more revenue in the long term.
However, you can also use your email newsletter to earn revenue during the short term as well.
Email Monetization
Today’s AI-enabled technology can “look” at your subscribers’ list, digging deeply into their demographics, needs, pain points, and preferences to find products and services that they will be interested in.
With an email monetization platform, businesses can insert ads for their products within the body of your newsletter.
The same technology that identifies the types of products and services your subscribers will be interested in selects only advertisements from companies that are not direct competitors to your business.
Rather, they’re complementary products that your customers will associate with your own.
The result: Your email subscribers will see your brand as one that provides helpful suggestions about products that go hand in hand with your own.
You will see increased revenue with every time one of your subscribers clicks on an ad.
For example, if you’re a real estate brokerage, your ads might include an interior designer, a furniture store, and a flooring company. All for businesses that your subscribers will find extremely useful.
When you monetize newsletters with ads, you have a stream of income that can flow into your business practically 24/7.
Email monetization is a great way to shore up your business’s revenue during uncertain times.
At inboxAds, that money can flow in not only the first time your subscribers click on the link but at subsequent times as well. For newsletter publishers, the service is free of charge no matter how much you decide to use it.
When you treat uncertainty as a challenge that drives innovation, you become part of the solution for your community, your customers, and the future of your business.
If you would like to put your business at the forefront of its industry during both good times and bad, get in touch with our email monetization specialists today.
