“Covid19 recalibration” email

Score… 🥁 9/10

Are your eyes starting to glaze over at the word “unprecedented”?

Yep. You’re not the only one.

Once a perfectly acceptable description, it has now run out of juice.

Humans are novelty-seeking machines. So when the topic du jour sticks around for weeks or months, some words wind up clinging to the bin in a pile of pith and pips and soggy teabags.

That’s what grabbed me about the messaging in the email below. It talks about coronavirus in a way that FEELS different. Even though deep down it’s saying the sort of stuff that (by necessity) every organisation is saying.

Normally this level of attention to detail in the craft of wordsmithery wouldn’t pay off, because we all have more to occupy our minds than comb through every email we receive for entertainment’s sake.

But in these unpr… I mean, unusual times, when there’s little to do and nowhere to go, style is a lever to pull.

The backstory:

The email came from one of London’s music and arts venues. I’ve gone along to a few exhibitions there and have been using the members area as a cheeky coworking space for the past 18 months. For a mere £70 a year it’s a sanctuary of peace, quiet, plants and wifi. I’d been wondering when I would hear from them about the pandemic lockdown…

(Sender anonymised to “Xxxx” out of courtesy. Think you know who? Guess away.)

— — — — — Forwarded message — — — — —

Subject line: “Your Members’ culture fix”

Dull AF, but hey ho, this is the format they always use for their emails, and as a happy camper I tend to open them anyway. (As a mainstay in my life, they have MessagingCredit™ in the bank.)

“YOUR CULTURE FIX”

“Hang in there — we’ll come to you”

Behold, a new phrase for the coronavirus dictionary! I can sense that this email is going to be an oxygen mask for the eyes.

“There’s never been a week like this one.”

Sweet, sweet mercy. They’ve somehow rehashed the meaning of “unprecedented”.

“We’re not really sure what to make of it, but we do know one thing: with so many of us stuck indoors, we want to bring you all the creativity and culture we can muster, direct to your inbox.”

Yaaaaas! What a relief to hear an organisation admit that they’re scratching their heads just as much as the rest of us and are muddling through as best they can — instead of clambering onto their soap box in a tone that implies they have all the answers.

“We hope you can make your bedroom a little bit bigger with a podcast recorded in Xxxx.”

Such metaphor. Very imagery. Wow. Gets straight to the heart of the problem and paints a picture about how podcasts can help.

“Maybe liven up your living room with a playlist of disco hits.”

The alliteration is getting twee now, but I can deal.

“The show goes on(line), right here, right now.”

A pun that’s tied to the point of it all? Kaboom! Wordplay is risky. More often than not, it comes off as the writer posing at themselves in the mirror. But if you know what you’re doing, it can etch your sentiment onto the reader’s brain forever and ever amen.

(The email then went on to talk more about the events.)

— — — — — End — — — — —

Conclusion:

Email Teardown Club score = 9/10

Standing ovation. One point knocked off for the email header, which could have tried harder to show that something has changed.

At the end of the day, all this email is telling us is “some of our stuff is moving online”, same story as hundreds of others. But it’s the window-dressing that sets it apart. Which in itself was, well… unprecedented.

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*Side note* These teardowns are just my gut reactions as a real life customer, mashed together with my copywriter background, to explore what good and bad messaging looks like outside the sender’s ivory tower. I’m only one person, and I might not be representative. Agree or disagree? Tell me in the comments!

Cheerio,
Corissa

P.S. If you need a hand with your messaging strategy, I can help. I also have a few slots of 121 writing coaching up for grabs. Find out more 👉 corissanunn.com