TA #158: 📦 Want to unpack this box with me?

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Hi, spring chicken!

A package arrived last Tuesday. The return address was a bookseller.

"Probably a review copy of a new book," I thought. (I get a lot of unsolicited review copies from publishers.) I left it on the dining room table.

A few days later, I opened the box. Not a review copy at all, it turns out. But a copy of Letters of E.B. White.

I could read the title through its clear bubble-wrap packaging; there was a note on top that said it was gift from Harry Morton from Lower Street in the UK. I'd spoken at his event a few weeks prior. (You can watch the replay for free here.)

Harry had lightly stalked me, it seems.

He'd discovered that I am fan of E.B. White's—author of Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and half of the duo who wrote The Elements of Style. (The latter was my inspiration for Everybody Writes.)

From his office in London, Harry had tracked down a copy of E.B's Letters from a used bookseller in California. The seller included this note from Harry:

What better way to say thank you for teaching us about the value of making content that matters than with some content that matters. 
—Harry

So thoughtful, right?

The thing was... I already own a copy of Letters of E.B. White.

A few summers ago, I'd found my copy in a bin at a Maine library book sale. The book I found looked hungover: jacket torn, pages disheveled. It looked like E.B. White's letters had been up all night on a bender. I bought it from the library for the bargain price of $1.

I didn't unwrap the copy from Harry—I need to get a knife to cut through the layers of bubble wrap and packing tape. Will do that later.

* * *

Just now I unwrapped it. And... Wow.

Wow. Wow. WOW.

This book!

Yes, I have a copy already.

But THIS. BOOK. This copy? It's a first edition. It's signed.

Inside the copy Harry sent me.

This book is SIGNED by the author. By E.B. White himself!!

E.B. White touched this book. E.B. White inscribed it in black pen, in a scrawling, spidery hand. (Must google "Lee Dodge" later.)

This copy is not hungover.

This copy is pristine, preserved in near-perfect condition since 1976, its publication date. He likely signed this then, E.B. White. He would have been 77.

I can't emphasize the thrill it gave me: E.B. White touched this book. He. Signed. This. Book.

And now it's mine.

* * *

Maybe you're like... big deal. But from the story of your own life think of a person you admire.

Imagine that you hold an icon or a symbol or the art of that person in your hands right now. Imagine that adult-you is suddenly connected to the child-you who first felt connected to wonder, felt its spark, and then felt it ignite something in yourself, too.

Imagine holding a symbol of something that made you who you are today. Imagine that.

That's how it is for me now, standing in my dining room, holding a book that my literary hero had also held in 1976, 48 years ago.

I am holding a book touched literally by the person whose words first touched me.

The person who inspired me to want to be a writer, too, back when 8-year-old me was sitting on my twin-sized bed in my childhood bedroom, reading Charlotte's Web for the very first time.

* * *

In an age of writing robots—an age where machines are going to only get better and faster at creating content at scale—the question I've been obsessed with lately is this: 

How do we sign our work?

Whether we use AI in the process or not, it's never been more important to ask:

• How do we signal to an audience that this is ours?
• How do we show our reader that we touched this?
• What can we sign?

Here's the reality: We might use AI, but the value of marketers increasingly comes in the things that cannot be automated.

The value of creatives comes down to how well we can do things that do not scale.

The value of our work comes down to how much artful creativity* it has.

*(Side-rant: I will slap any elitist who says that any of us are not "artists." Maybe smack them with this 2-pound, 768-page Letters of E.B. White. Creativity is about possibility: solving problems differently... showing up in memorable ways... considering out-of-the-box alternatives... and thennnnn... shredding the box entirely and refashioning it to construct something brand new.)

So how do we sign our own work?

▶️ By kindling the warmth of our actual human voices in whatever we create, with a focus on building and sustaining relationships.

• Your From Line matters more than your Subject Line. A particularly good Subject Line might inspire an open. But the From Line offers a more consistent signal of a relationship.
• You've opened this newsletter because it's from me; not because I've used a tool to write 15 subject lines and A/B-tested them to select the best-performing one. (I did not do that.)
• This example is specific to email. But it's also a proxy for building relationships through any marketing we create.

▶️ With the pounding pulse of people within an organization, with a focus on sharing who we are, not just what we do.

• The point of view of subject-matter experts, internal influencers, execs, and you.
• How consistently we're showing up, building connection and trust along as many customer moments as we can think of. (Or as many as AI can help us identify.)
• In a meta way... Harry did this for his company Lower Street by researching and connecting with me, and then gifting me the perfect gift that (in a meta way x2) inspired this post.   

Walk with me into the future...

Two blog posts are side-by-side: Both offer the exact same content.

Two newsletters arrive in your inbox: Both contain similar value.

Two copies of the same book sit on your shelf: One is signed, one is not.

Which do we read, open, treasure?
Which do we engage with the most?
Which do we remember?

We engage with the one that feels like it was signed.

The one that feels like it was touched by someone, anyone.

I want that someone to be you.

* * *

WHY WE AREN'T MORE CREATIVE IN MARKETING [sponsored]

Because we're...

😑 Maxed out?
🔥 Burnt out?
💸 Creativity doesn't matter? The road to success is paved with ROI + dollar bills not stories + funfetti + imagination?

Just kidding about the funfetti part.

Creativity is about imagining possibilities. (As we talked about 14 paragraphs ago!)

A brand-new survey of 1,900+ marketers from Braze says it's not any one thing holding us back... It's a combo platter of 4 parallel challenges. (See the chart 👇.) 

Braze looked through the lens of Customer Engagement... but I'd argue that the data applies more broadly, too.

Braze's 2024 Customer Engagement Review includes stories and ideas around how AI can free up our time to help us be more creative (+strategic), among other trends to watch.

>>> See the whole glorious report here. <<<
[It's free; reg. required; worth it.]

🚨 THE FLASHIEST OF FLASH SALES

Attending the MarketingProfs B2B Forum is as if you rolled into one your favorite college classes plus best moments of summer camp plus live theater plus you chugged into town on a steamboat powered by confetti.

It's fun. It's educational. It's unlike any B2B conference you've ever been to. (Don't take my word for it; take Christopher S. Penn's word for it.)

(We give the B2B Forum a boring name to get buy-in from the Serious Executives who think we sit around at the event reading white papers out loud.)

I want to invite you. Please come!

If you are in B2B Marketing, grab one of these few remaining FLASH SALE tickets. The sale TECHNICALLY ended Friday; but I convinced our Marketing team (hi Bri!) to extend the sale just for us.

There were only 9 seats left as of Friday; don't delay. Sales ends at midnight, Wednesday, March 20.

Grab your ticket and save $150 on already-low prices with code FLASH.

DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

Unhinged Nextdoor Subject Lines as pure poetry.

(via Total Annarchy reader Kimberly Houston)

Thanks for reading this far.

Thanks for your kindness and generosity.

Stay healthy.

Breathe.

🫡 See you March 31!