No thanks, Trevor from Hallmark Hotel, Hull 

Inbox full of emails about COVID-19? Mine too. Lots from companies I'd forgotten I’d used. This is one reason they’re so annoying.

The other is the content.

The annoying ones are all about the company and what they’re doing. Who cares? Right now I want to know ‘What’s in it for me?’.

This is what copywriters and marketers mean in normal times when we go on about:

✏️“Benefits not features”

💓“People only care about themselves”

🦸🏻‍♀️“Make the client the hero”

No one cares much about the year you started, your qualifications etc. The equivalent of this at the moment is: “We’re buying laptops, signing up to Zoom and washing our hands.”

Great but what does that mean for me? In fact, not great, because you’re clogging up my email. And I only stayed in your hotel once in 2015.

Naff off.

Sometimes writing seems like an easy job.

But the skill comes in getting into the heads of the people reading the piece and answering – why should they give a monkeys?

So, tell me the impact – events cancelled, shops closed, how to get hold of you remotely, how I can get a refund.

This is what good copywriters are writing: the emails that make you feel positive, informed and reassured.

Not the ones you resent for clogging up your inbox.

So don't sack them just yet:)