TA #104: 🐘 Addressing the elephant in the room; Writing + AI

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Welcome to the 104th issue of Total Annarchy, a fortnightly newsletter by me, Ann Handley, with a focus on writing, marketing, living your best life. I'm glad you're here.

Boston, Sunday, January 16, 2022

Hi, friend.

How do you write about Difficult Topics?

How do you message to an audience about the Hard Stuff? At a time everything is wildly in flux for everyone literally everywhere?

If there were an awards show for Top Issues that have challenged all of us in Marketing and Communications these past few pandemicked years... I'd nominate "How to Message Hard Stuff When We Haven't the Foggiest Idea What to Say" to take home the Golden Globe.

There is no one right way to message the Hard Stuff.

But I liked an approach I saw last week.

It comes in the form of a 125-word intro to an email from Kristina Halvorson, CEO of Brain Traffic, in Minneapolis.

I'm going to share it with you. Then let's together break down what we can learn and lift from it after the dinkus...

(A dinkus is that three-asterisk thing right below this line.)

* * *

First an important point: Kristina is writing about Confab, her agency's in-person event this May. She's detailing how they will safely hold an event when sweet Cheez-Its who knows what Covid will feel like doing with itself then?

(Will Omicron decide to spawn Son of Omicron? Will it decide to stay here permanently? Buy a house in a leafier suburb? Will it start to pay taxes? Who really knows?)

So don't read "event" and "Covid." Instead, look at this message more broadly.

We can sub in almost any topic for "industry event." We can sub in almost any elephant in for "Covid."

Use this as a template for any customer-facing communication that requires a deft touch and empathy around a shifting topic.*

*(My Microsoft Word wants to change this to "shitting topic." Part of me wants to let it lol.)

* * *

Below is part of an email Confab sent with the subject line:

"A personal note from Kristina."

Can't see the image above? See the version posted on LinkedIn.

The three points Kristina offers for consideration are:

1. Refund policy: Will you get your money back if things change after you register?

2. Vaccination/testing requirements

3. A CTA to register, because Confab's still gotta sell tickets

* * *

Here are 6 reasons I like her email as a model.

1. The subject line delivers on the promise.

"A personal note from Kristina" reads like it actually is from Kristina. She told me she wrote it at her kitchen table. You can tell.

So often we get emails from execs that claim to be "personal" but don't read that way.

👉 I call these kind of messages Hot Dog Messaging: Extruded through so many Messaging Machines that you can't tell what it was originally made of. (Snouts? Intestines? Who knows?)

2. Does not ignore our collective reality. Look at this empathic, human, exhausted language:

"I'm REAL SICK OF COVID." (SAMES!)

"I can't not talk about it."

"No matter how we try to spin it..."

Maybe you can relate to this: You look at the sales/marketing communications teed up and a tiny bit of ourselves feels the disconnect between what's going on in the world and what our marketing messaging says...?

Haven't we all been inside Kristina's Midwestern winter boots when she says, "I looked at everything ready to go out. And... ick."

I'm paraphrasing. But that's the vibe.

3. Even serious messages don't have to feel like they're written by a minister delivering a graveside eulogy.

I love Kristina's playful image of the "Omicron-sized elephant in the room."

4. No candy-coating. The best way to talk about Hard Things Policies is to be direct. Straight-talk clarity.

"If you can't make it you will get a refund."
"Proof of vax or negative test. No exceptions."
"We will comply with government health guidelines."

Simply stated. There you go. It is what it is.

5. Your own point of view. Conversations about vaccines and gatherings are difficult. But Confab wraps the requirements for attending the event as "for your consideration."

You have a choice. Confab's organizers have made theirs. Ball's in your court.

6. Clear Call to Action. This email is, of course, a sales and marketing message with a clear CTA of "register now because..."

The CTA works only because it comes after the other stuff.

Context is everything. How differently would the message have played if Kristina had simply said, "Prices are going up! Can't wait to see you in May!"

Your CTA should come after all your reader's unasked questions have been answered.

I'm bolding that because it's important. ^^

* * *

Kristina is a good friend. I've attended and spoken at Confab—an event for content strategists—3 times in the past 10 years. I'm not speaking this year, but if that's your industry, these are your people!

But none of that really matters. The point is: It's a great example of messaging and leadership—and trying to light the way forward through an Omi-murky stressful time.

* * *

Bit of trivia for you: Kristina was the one responsible for titling my book, Everybody Writes. In 2010, I was still writing the still-untitled book. I'd been angsty and panicky for weeks, because the book was pre-listed on Amazon already with this awful title: The Elements of Marketing Writing.

Eww. I know. Sad.

Anyway, Kristina called me early one February morning. She was crossing a parking lot, on the way into her dentist. I could barely hear her over the aggressive Minnesota wind. (Maybe the wind had an idea for my book title too? Can you ask it? Clearly I was grasping.)

Then!

I heard her loud and clear somewhere in my soul when she shouted into the phone...

"OK I GOT IT FOR YOU! IT'S EVERYBODY WRITES!"

BOOM. There it is.

I mention this for two reasons: (1) A reminder that every book needs a midwife or two. And (2) should this bit of trivia ever comes up as a Jeopardy clue or during an evening of bar trivia... you'll nail it.

* * *

MACHINE MINUTES OF FAME: AI + WRITING

Should we all be depositing poop emojis in our drawers at the notion that artificially intelligent robots are coming to take away all of our jobs?

Or should we high-five?

I think it's the latter.

We'll never see a day when AI writes this newsletter start to finish. But will there be a day when AI will help me write the first draft?

Probably? Maybe?

AI can/will increasingly help with some parts of marketing and writing. And not with others. Which?

That's exactly what Assaf Baciu, Paul Roetzer, and I talked about in this far-reaching, fun conversation about writing, marketing, about what's possible now, what's coming, and why Paul's book isn't on my rainbow bookshelf.

(It turns out it was. But it's fun to watch me sweat.)

Can robots delight in Zoom conversations like this...? (No they cannot!)

You can access the On-Demand version if you click on this line right here. (Reg. required.)

* * *

DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

She was the greatest. No matter how you slice it.

* * *

As I'm finishing this letter to you, it's 2 degrees Fahrenheit in Boston. "Feels like" negative 17 degrees, says the Weather App.

I just asked Alexa if "negative 17" is a real temperature? She said, "I don't know that one." I wish I didn't, Alexa.

Thanks for reading this far.
Thanks for your kindness and generosity.
Stay warm, wherever you are.

P.S. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, you can:

1) buy a book.
2) Get yourself some $WORD coin. (Read more about creator coins here.)
3) Simply forward this newsletter to a friend with an invitation to subscribe right here: www.annhandley.com/newsletter.

SPECIAL THANKS to AWeber for being the provider of choice for Total Annarchy. If you are looking to up your email game, give them a shout.

Ann Handley is the author of Everybody Writes and other books.
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Ann Handley

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TA #104: 🐘 Addressing the elephant in the room; Writing + AI

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