With the devastating LA wildfires, an age-old debate has resurfaced among business owners (as it does every few months):

“Should businesses pause their email marketing to be sensitive towards those impacted?”

(If you or someone you know has been affected by the wildfires, I’m so sorry. I hope you/they are safe).

It’s hard to know what to do sometimes.

A lot of businesses keep going…

Many others privately press pause on their email broadcasts and campaigns.

Then there’s the very vocal group of business owners and consumers online who try to pressure you to pause your emails too.

(Just a note: this email isn’t about the LA wildfires. This email is about any tragic event or disaster in the world that sparks this conversation. You can apply this convo to any time there’s another case of police brutality against Black people in the US, school shootings, The LA wildfires, the Palestinian genocide, the Ukrainian war, or any other tragedy that comes to mind).

So what should you, as a business owner, do?

Pause your emails or keep going?

First thing’s first: I can’t tell you what to do.

Because the answer is: it really depends.

Personally, I don’t think you’re morally obligated to pause your business operations or marketing.

There are so many tragic events that happen every single day. If we stopped marketing after every disaster, we wouldn’t be able to run a business.

And if I’m being honest, I think the selective outrage is a marker of white supremacy and maybe even US imperialism.

We’re commanded to halt our business when tragedy strikes western, usually white, communities – but not so much when tragedy strikes non-western, non-white, Black or brown communities.

I’m not the only one who feels this way:

And yet…there are times when stopping your email marketing is the right thing to do.

You might want to pause your emails because:

🛑 You want to stop. It feels like the right decision for you.

You might have been impacted (literally or emotionally) by the tragedy, so pausing your email marketing is a no-brainer.

As a show of respect or sensitivity, it just feels like the right thing to do.

🛑 Stopping is a gesture of solidarity for you.

As my friend, Sonia Thompson – an inclusive marketing strategist, consultant, and coach – shared when I interviewed her on my podcast, Mistakes That Made Me…

It’s literally impossible to stand for every single cause in the world. So, the best thing to do is choose the one or two causes where you can really make a difference.

Some business owners choose the environment, others choose accessibility, others choose animal rights/welfare, and others choose racial injustice. (There are soo many other options).

The point is, if something happens in the world that makes you want to stand up for a particular people or cause…that’s a good time to pause your business-as-usual email marketing.

🛑 You’re launching

This sounds insensitive, but the truth is: if your audience’s attention is rightfully somewhere else, you’ll want to hit pause on your launch emails.

For example: election week in the US.

A lot of Americans are not thinking about buying from you or hiring you at that moment – so if Americans make up a big portion of your audience…you might want to hit pause.

🛑 You want to be super sensitive

Someone on Threads said they saw a business owner launching a workshop this week, and it was called fire-something.

The person launching decided to keep the name and continue on with their launch – which I totally understand.

(Imagine having to rename your entire workshop, rework all the messaging, the copy, and the imagery too 😅).

But if you’re worried your product/emails might come across as insensitive, I can see why you’d consider rescheduling.

But what if, like me, you decide that (even in the wake of a tragedy) you want to continue sending marketing emails?

Here are some things you need to know:

💛 You’re not a bad person

We’ve all got bills to pay. For some of us, pausing our emails or other marketing activities just isn’t an option.

Even those people who are demanding you stop sending emails will at some point go back to sending their emails.

And guess what? There will be a tragic event taking place when they decide to do that because, sadly, there’s always something tragic happening.

💛 You don’t have to ignore it. You can find a middle ground.

There are other ways – beyond pausing your email marketing – for you to be respectful and sensitive to a tragedy or disaster.

Tell your subscribers what’s on your mind.

Dedicate an email to it and let your subscribers know that even though you’re going to continue sending emails, X or Y tragedy is on your mind and you’re thinking about everyone who’s been impacted.

You could even go a step further by taking action.

Maybe you donate a portion of your sales to people impacted by the disaster. Or maybe you share via email the various ways people can help.

Either way, you’re pausing to acknowledge what’s happened/happening…before you continue with your usual email schedule.

💛 It’s okay if people unsubscribe

There will be people who aren’t happy to receive your emails at that specific moment in time, so they might unsubscribe.

That is totally okay. They’re doing what they need to do to maintain their peace.

Don’t take it personally. It’s not a reflection on you, your business, or your emails.

⚠️If you do choose to keep emailing, there’s obviously one thing you shouldn’t do:

Absolutely DO NOT try to profit off the back of a disaster.

Someone online posted a marketing email from a gym that briefly mentioned the LA wildfires, and then reminded people their gyms were still open and that they could buy their gym membership today.

BIG SIGH.

Anyway, let me know if this helped, Reader?

Off to listen to my Year-in-Review before we hit publish tomorrow!

Eman

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