The subscribers to your email marketing list suffered under the coronavirus pandemic and government lockdown. You have a choice. You can obviously retrench and work to those who have suffered least and you believe will probably continue buying, or you can try to reach your old level or may be even expand your customer base. Which is it to be?
If you wish to return to your pre-pandemic level, you again have options. Your competitors have probably suffered as much as you have and have been shedding subscribers, but these are probably not the ones who are most profitable. They are the ones struggling. You could consider an entirely new demographic, one that you probably ignored in the past. It will still be tough, but it will increase your chances of gaining subscribers.
If, for instance, you’ve targeted premium customers in the past in your email marketing campaigns, your base will be rather restricted. Have you considered trying for bulk? In the medium term many 
people might be looking to cut costs and the most obvious options are to cut quality or desirability.
The sensible option is to keep the two lines separate. After all, there’s always the danger of lucrative customers migrating to the cheaper line while still being able to boast the label with your name on it. Conflating the two would do no one any favours. However, there is the option of choosing the ‘lite’ marketing ploy which will put off your premium customers from slumming it while encouraging new customers with the suggestion they are moving upmarket, although at only a slight increase in costs.
Much as you might want to protect your original name, being disparaging to your ‘lite’ customers in a premium email marketing campaign might not be the best way to go. Similarly, you need to congratulate your new customers on being shrewd enough to recognise the high quality of your standards and make them feel good about their decisions. It’s what we do normally, isn’t it?
There is likely to be migration to the cheaper line but if you plan the new one properly, it would probably appeal to those who would be considering unsubscribing from your email marketing lists due to costs. You don’t want to lose them completely. There’s every chance of them returning to your premium line once their financial situation has improved. They will, after all, see the click-through to premium products with every marketing email they receive for the cheaper line.
It will be a difficult to work out just how cheap is better. Going too far the other way will obviously hurt your online image although it might well attract potential subscribers. However, we need to massage our premium customers to keep them on board.
As with anything in email marketing, especially post lockdown, there is a risk inherent in change and it has to be weighed carefully. Retrenchment might well be the only option in the short term. Chasing a new demographic will, at the very least, hold out the promise of increasing turnover.
