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Research: How Covid-19 Affects Email Marketing Performance

Transferred MessageGears study on how to open distribution of subscribers Covid-19, how to interact with them, there was a lot of formal replies.

MessageGears analyzed the delivery and engagement metrics for marketing campaigns the week before Trump banned visiting Europe, and compared them to data collected a week after more establishments began to close.

Here's what they wanted to know:

  • how brands communicate with users during a crisis;
  • whether people began to interact more actively with newsletters while in isolation;
  • Whether users began to unsubscribe more often.



You probably noticed that your mailbox is full of letters from all brands that had your email address. All of them report on how to cope with this crisis situation and assure that they are taking all precautions. Some give advice and write words of support. Others tell you what steps to take if your plans related to their service have changed. Many refuse penalties and fees that are usually charged for changing plans.

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The travel and hotel industry is undoubtedly the most affected sector of the economy. Trips in the short term are canceled almost everywhere, especially if they involve a flight. All airlines, hotels, travel companies, transport sharing companies are in pain.

As for retail, some companies providing essentials such as groceries and pharmaceuticals are even seeing a surge in sales.

Companies that sell less important goods or rely mainly on personal sales experience difficulties. They are trying to figure out how to find new customers and adjust their email marketing to changing conditions.

Do users open these newsletters?




The evidence suggests that discovery rates are now quite high. So if your job is to create marketing campaigns, you know, people still care about that. Some, perhaps, are looking for something to distract or feel more comfortable by performing a daily routine and looking through their inbox. So all these letters about Covid-19 can really convey important information to users, suggest a course of action in difficult situations and feel more comfortable at this indefinite time.

How many interactions account for all these discoveries




While the opening rate has increased, the click rate for openings has fallen significantly. There are many possible reasons for this fall, but it rather speaks well of the brands that sent these letters. Brands focused on providing useful information, reassuring and supporting, so it was pointless to include the usual calls for action in these letters. They simply remained human and called for support of each other during this difficult time.

How users unsubscribed after a letter about Covid-19




The data suggests that unsubscribes almost doubled in tourism and hotel business, but declined in other areas. Most likely, because no one wants to think about traveling and generally leave their home right now. But users perceive other information in the marketing newsletters more positively, since during the quarantine weeks any factors that can distract and entertain are pleased.

How the percentage of openings from mobile and desktops has changed




The number of openings on computers / desktops fell by 20%, with a correlative increase in openings on mobile devices. Perhaps this is due to the fact that users prefer to stay active rather than sit in front of a computer, but it's hard to say for sure.

Returning to the original question: is it a good time to send an email? Yes! The relationship between the brand and the consumer is important even in such a difficult time. Companies are responding to the crisis, and users open and interact with these messages at a much faster rate than before.

What do we think about this


It is too early to draw conclusions, but it seems that users really began to devote more time to e-mail and decided to parse not only mezzanines, but also their mailboxes. For our last two newsletters with blog updates, the percentage of unsubscriptions increased from the usual 0.2% to 0.3% - 0.4%. If you look at the statistics for these users, then 9 out of 10 have not opened our newsletter for the last 3-4 months. We can say that we also cleaned our base. The number of blog subscriptions remains at the same level, and the download of useful materials and distribution is even growing.

Examples of letters that we have already sent to our customers.



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