Best and worst COVID email examples
Some companies treated COVID-19 like they did GDPR - an opportunity to blanket email all customers who have ever come in contact with, to notify them they are really putting “their customers’ and employees’ safety first” in these “unprecedented times”.
Others, however, saw an opportunity to be creative and really offer value to their customers while they were spending more time online and on their mobiles.
Guess who is going to emerge as a winner after the crisis? You got it!
Here’s my take on some examples:
The good
Drink, Shop & Do
Being a creative space and bar in London and keeping in line with their brand, Drink, Shop & Do offered these print-at-home colouring designs for a creative pass-time during lockdown. They also emailed a roundup of their favourite online activities every week, keeping their customers engaged this way. Notice the gift card prompt too? A good way to secure some revenue, while the physical location of the venue was closed.
Trouva
A marketplace for products from independent shops, Trouva utilised the hashtag #supportsmall to promote how shopping at Trouva would support small businesses. They curated emails that catered to new customer needs, as they were emerging from life in lockdown - creating a home office, doing workouts and keeping the kids entertained.
Trouva also did a great job with subject lines too - my favourite being:
‘Screen break ⏰ 3 home activities to brighten your day’.
Girlfriend Collective
The DTC sustainable active wear brand, used their direct tone of voice when offering 20% off to their email subscribers as a little something to brighten their day and show their appreciation. For small brands like Girlfriend Collective, maintaining a revenue stream while COVID had affected their business was hard, was vital. So this was a great and - creatively pleasing - way to offer an incentive for customers to shop in the first month of lockdown, when sales for many brands dropped dramatically.
Not On The High Street
Being a gift marketplace, Not On The High Street cleverly promoted the idea of sending thoughtful gifts to people in our life we couldn’t see due to lockdown restrictions. They also adopted an empathetic tone of voice referencing how consumers must feel during this period and curated products with ‘positive vibes’.
Not On The High Street aimed to be a constant source of joy in customers’ inbox with uplifting subject lines like:
‘Who wants a big dollop of happy vibes?’ and‘Ready for feel-good rainbow gifts?’
Refinery29
It’s no surprise that the content website, which is very in tune with the tone of voice of its -predominantly millennial - database, would come up with a good way to connect with them during this crisis. With a very direct and conversational email, the editor in chief both conveyed a community feeling and reiterated the role Refinery29 can play during the pandemic, while seamlessly linking all of the relevant sources of information into the email. If that’s not clever marketing, I don’t know what is!
Duolingo
With a lot of people utilizing the extra time in order to learn a new language, learning app Duolingo jumped at the opportunity to encourage previously active users to come back to the app, educating about the app features that make learning on Duolingo fun. All while using a friendly and upbeat tone of voice.
Bonus entry
Future Learn
Admittedly they didn’t have the most beautifully designed emails - quite text heavy - but Future Learn capitalised on the appetite for learning something new, by curating a ‘Boredom busting’ series of online courses on their platform.
They also got more playful with their tone of voice with subject lines like: ‘Bored of Netflix?’ and ‘How are you?’ which spoke to how consumers were feeling at the time. These subject lines were sure to stand out in a crowded inbox, too.
The bad
*Disclaimer: This is not to shame any brands or marketing colleagues, but just to showcase email examples that may not work as hard at engaging consumers.
Booking.com
Booking.com opted for a text-only email, possibly to allow them to class this as a ‘service message’ and send it to unsubscribed users too. By focusing on that, they missed an opportunity to keep their customers engaged by beautiful images about destinations Booking.com covers and trips consumers can look forward to.
I would argue that if someone is unsubscribed, they don’t need to be emailed about how a business is putting safety first, as this information can be hosted on the website, accessible to all website visitors.
La Tagliata
This is actually one of my favourite restaurants in London, but this email from pre-lockdown looks like a missed opportunity. I am forever against sending an email just for the sake of sending it, if it doesn’t provide any value to the recipient.
Although a beautiful image is included and heartfelt language around the Italian origins of the management team and staff, it unfortunately fails to steer away from the standard language of ‘following the developments daily’ and doesn’t provide any clear reassurance as to what the measures that the restaurant has taken are. That would have helped make customers feel safe in taking the desired call to action - visit the restaurant.
Finally, the subject line ‘Covid-19 update’ isn’t doing a great job in getting subscribers interested in opening the email.
Boots opticians
Imagine a consumer has just been told they’re being put on furlough or losing their job. They’re shifting through tons of these emails to find the really important stuff - bill notices, bank statements. They stumble upon an email from Boots opticians, with the subject line ‘We are closing our stores today’. This leaves little to the imagination right? How likely would you say it is for them to open the email? I would say not very likely.
And if they do open the email, what they will be faced with is an unknown name and face and what looks like a letter, with bullet points and everything, that looks like copied and pasted from Word.
So again, I would have to say it is highly unlikely a subscriber would engage with this email. Keeping in mind the subscriber’s needs and behaviour is the most important thing in creating successful campaigns.
And the ugly…
Wiggly Wigglers
Everything about this email, from the subject line, to the content and layout was a mix between marketing and COVID-19 update. The subject line was ‘Bringing your Garden to Life during the Covid-19 crisis’ and the content is mainly promotional, but I assume it is a text-only email mentioning the virus, so as to be disguised as a service message - as per Booking.com practices, above.
I’m still confused as to whether I am subscribed or not, as there is a link for me to re-activate my account, but there is also an unsubscribe link.
Again, I love Wiggly Wigglers and what they stand for. I have been a customer in the past! But this is shady.
Do you need some guidance to get your emails exactly right?
Get in touch for a friendly chat and keep your brand always on the ‘good’ side :)
