498: Marketing During the COVID-19 Crisis

What It Covers

Steli Efti and Hiten Shah examine marketing strategies during COVID-19, critiquing mass email campaigns from brands and explaining how companies should focus on genuinely helping customers rather than sending tone-deaf messages.

Key Questions Answered

• •Email relevance filter: Most COVID-19 marketing emails come from irrelevant brands customers barely recognize, not essential services they use daily like AWS or Zoom. Only send crisis communications if customers actually need information from you specifically about service continuity or relevant offerings.
• •E-commerce exception: Direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands shipping relevant products see purchase upticks during the pandemic by reminding customers they exist. This works because people are home, online shopping increases, and timely reminders about useful products convert when paired with appropriate messaging about availability and shipping.
• •Customer research first: Before launching crisis marketing, survey customers to identify their actual struggles and worries. Close.com asked customers about remote sales challenges, then offered specific help through one-on-one calls for large customers and webinars for smaller ones, generating strong engagement and useful feedback.
• •Tone audit requirement: Review all scheduled marketing campaigns and ads immediately to eliminate tone-deaf content. Pause generic sales presentation templates, humor about viruses, or remote work tips suggesting coffee shop visits. Content created months ago likely contradicts current reality and damages brand perception when published unchanged.