In my role as an expert on email policy, compliance, and anti-abuse, I've spent a lot of time talking to people about what to send and what not to send around COVID-19. I figured it was time to write a handy FAQ doc for anyone trying to make a decision on whether or not to send an email.

SHOULD I SEND A COVID-19 EMAIL?

The quick answer is, "Probably not".

WHY NOT?

Unless you are directly linked to the CDC or WHO, people are not looking to your brand for information on the virus. You're contributing to inbox clutter and general noise, which can prevent critical updates from reaching your recipients. Sometimes, the best thing to do is take a step back. Many are seeing it as a thinly veiled attempt for a business to use COVID-19 to generate attention and to perform virtue-signaling. How genuinely useful to your subscribers is an email that says "We're all in this together"? How genuinely useful is 100 emails in your inbox that have effectively that same message? Would you, personally, miss hearing about how Company A is sending thoughts and good vibes? Probably not. If you're sending an email that's following the trend of "Our hearts go out to all affected, we have a great product, our employees are working from home and can take PTO", you're doing what everyone else is doing and don't need to be emailing about it. It's just not worth sending that email and potentially contributing to negative brand perception. You can cause significant harm to your email deliverability. I've seen an uncomfortably high number of cases where leadership at a company lacks an understanding of the importance of email reputation and demands an email out to their entire mailable database. Reputation systems do not stop for a crisis email. If you suddenly up and decide to send to your entire database of millions of addresses after not engaging with that database, how many bounces are you going to get? How old is that list? You're risking high bounce rates, high spam complaint rates, and high unsubscribe rates for an email that isn't critically important to send.

IF I SHOULDN'T SEND A COVID-19 EMAIL, BUT I WANT TO SEND THE MESSAGE THAT I'M HAVING EMPLOYEES WORK FROM HOME AND CAN TAKE PTO, WHAT SHOULD I DO?

There are other channels to get a message across without sending an email. Consider an alert on your website with information on what you're doing. Share it on social media. Blog about it. If you have an online product, put a note about it somewhere in your app, perhaps on the login page.

IN WHAT SITUATION SHOULD I BE SENDING A COVID-19 EMAIL?

If you are sending an email because.....

You are canceling an event or all events until x date

Your policies are changing around not allowing visitors or shoppers

You have a system outage

You are canceling flights/hotels/appointments

You are a healthcare provider

Then yes, you can send a COVID-19 email.

I'VE DECIDED I DO NEED TO SEND A COVID-19 EMAIL. SHOULD I SEND IT TO MY ENTIRE DATABASE?

Unless you are completely confident of your database cleanliness and have been engaging with your entire database before this point, no, do not send it to your entire database. You're risking your deliverability by doing so. Segment it down to clients you've been engaging with in the last 3 months, clients with existing appointments/flights/reservations, clients who visit your nursing home, etc. Target the messaging at the population that will be most affected by this and the population you've been closely working with the most. It's not worth emailing someone who hasn't engaged in 2 years and may not remember who you actually are.

IS NOW A GOOD TIME TO START USING A NEW EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDER?

Definitely not. It takes time to build up a positive email sending reputation on a new provider, and it's only going to cause problems to both their system and to your reputation if you swap providers and start sending mail. Users are also much more vulnerable right now and are willing to let their guard down to click links, so it's critical that your email is sent with appropriate authentication and passes all security checks. Now is not the time to buy a new domain, ignore your IT teams, or send mail from a domain you don't ordinarily send from.

OKAY, I'VE GOT MY EMAIL WRITTEN, I'VE GOT MY AUDIENCE, IS IT COOL IF I SEND THAT EMAIL AS TRANSACTIONAL/OPERATIONAL?

It depends.

If you're being stubborn and are ignoring my earlier "don't send that email unless these conditions apply", you should be sending it as a marketing email. It's not related to a transaction, it's just someone sending an email for the sake of sending an email. Again, I'd strongly urge you to not do it, but if you have no choice, it's a marketing send.

If you're sending a critical email that relates to cancellations, yes, you can send it as transactional. It's canceling a transaction you have in place, so that's fine.

If you're sending a critical email that says something to the effect of "Please don't visit my nursing home/hospital/store because we're here for some social distancing", yes, you can send it as transactional. It's critically important information to get out.

NOW IS A GOOD TIME FOR ME TO SEND SOME SALES EMAILS, ISN'T IT?

If you're sending a sales email, I'd strongly urge you to reconsider.

Consider how it would make you feel if someone tried to sell you something while you were anxious about your older relatives or stressed about finances. How tone deaf would that be? The best thing to do is to take a step back and think about those in other situations- a little empathy can go a very long way.

If I were to receive an email from a company trying to sell me on something at a time like this, not only would I unsubscribe and not shop there again, I'd tell my friends about how wildly insensitive this company is about the current economic and health crisis. A sales email can backfire and you can go viral in a bad way!

Sometimes, the best thing to do is not sending an email at all. Even if your company would benefit, in theory, the potential damage to your brand reputation may not recover. You likely don't want to be remembered as that company that focused on capitalizing during a crisis.

THIS IS ALL WELL AND GOOD, BUT YOU'RE JUST ONE PERSON. DO YOU HAVE OTHER RESOURCES TO BACK UP ALL THESE CLAIMS?

Why yes, I most certainly do!

Check out Litmus's webinar on emailing in a crisis: https://litmus.com/webinars/email-marketing-in-a-crisis

Laura Atkins over at Word to the Wise: https://wordtothewise.com/2020/03/advice-on-coronavirus-emails/

Gartner: https://blogs.gartner.com/augie-ray/2020/03/15/beware-virtue-signaling-outright-greed-brand-communications-covid-19/ (favorite quote: "Brands seemed to go from COVID-19 denial to COVID-19 FOMO in a matter of days.")

Mickey Chandler over at Spamtacular: https://www.spamtacular.com/2020/03/16/policy-practicum-covid-19/ (also features some excellent Tweets)

Megan Reed put together a lovely graphic over on Twitter: https://twitter.com/iammeganreed/status/1238536459918983169





IN CONCLUSION.....

Take a step back, take a deep breath, don't click "send" unless it's 100% necessary.

Stay safe and sanitize, my friends.