TA #108: 📫 Reader Q&A; finding focus; a new fun tool to play with

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Above: My Tiny House Studio

Welcome to the 108th 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. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, you need your own: Subscribe here.

Boston, Sunday, March 13, 2022

Top o' the morning, friend!

From time to time I use this letter to answer reader questions. This is one of those times.

Today's mailbag arrived to my Tiny House Studio via snowshoe; there was still snow on the ground in Boston last week. (That's my studio, above.) I rummaged around and selected 3.*

* Kidding. Of course these questions arrived via email. But "cut and pasted them here" doesn't land quite the same, does it?

Welcome to this week's episode of...

Big Questions from the Tiny House Studio

1. "How do you know what your email newsletter should be about?" —Nicholas

You should google "What should my newsletter be about?"

I'm kidding. Do NOT do that. ^^

Again: DO. NOT. DO. THAT.

Google might have a lot of answers. But the only real answer to "What should your newsletter be about?" is going to come from within your own heart and noggin.

Your 5-point focus checklist:

☑️ Hey Self, what niche am I in? This could be a business (you sell rutabagas) or personal project (you love rutabagas and have a million rutabaga facts and root-vegetable recipes to share).

☑️ What's my point of view? In the era of content abundance, your rutabaga category is already covered. That's OK: Add your spin/angle/point of view. Use your voice. No one can out-pizza the Hut, and no one can copy your voice.

☑️ Check in with your heart. Newsletters are a long game. If you don't love rutabagas enough to commit to a regular cadence, your newsletter will wither and rot.

☑️ Are you in love? Check. Yes I love this topic. I can commit. Proceed to the next bullet.

☑️ Don't be afraid to evolve. Actually, expect to evolve.

Through your publishing you'll build confidence and community—both of which will give back to you in surprising and unexpected ways.

You will sprout ideas like a spring tadpole sprouts limbs. You'll walk (hop?) in new directions and on unexpected paths.

Related >> How your writing gives back to you.

* * *

2. "How can I use personalization to take our marketing to the next level?" —Carlos

Let's pause for a sec here and think about that word "personalization."

The root of the word is "personal"—something made or designed to be used by one person.

Like a computer post-1974.

Or a pan pizza.

Marketing took "personal" and hot-glued on the mess of the suffix "-ization."

We know personalization is a scalable ability to use technology and data to tailor messages and experiences to people in our audience.

That's all well and good. Love ya, Tech and Data.

But that definition is a little bloodless, isn't it?

Personalization is ultimately about serving the person at the heart of our marketing. The person viewing it or reading it and clicking and chuckling to themselves because they love your work.

Sometimes we get so caught up in -ization that we neglect the person-.

We forget the goal—like we bonked our head on our towering tech stack and blacked out for a second like Wait what are we doing here again?

If you DO have a tech solution that allows you to segment and create lovely and specific messages to the very best companies at the very most optimal time based on when they indicate through their actions and behavior and choices that they are perfectly primed to hear your human voice and yikes is this still one sentence...?

Anyway... if that's you? Then 1,000%, Carlos. Go for it.

But if you are a marketing team of one, scrounging in the couch cushions for enough budget to fund the F- in Hello {F-Name}... then rise up!

In 2022, personalization is a tech solution.

But personalization is also a human concoction. A potion of creativity and care optimized with empathy and only THEN infused with technology.

Ultimately, "personalization" means "relevance."

"Personalization" means "I care." (Not we. You—the person putting together this email campaign or writing that ebook or publishing this newsletter.)

Stop sounding like a marketer. Sound like a person.

* * *

3. "How do I write like a person and less like a marketer?" —Fake question I planted as a promo because I'm getting punchy here in the late winter twilight

Anyway: I have some thoughts.

* * *

Thanks for your questions!

Next week we'll be back to our regularly scheduled shenanigans. (And BTW: If you have a question... you can always hit reply and ask away. It'll arrive in my Tiny House Studio directly to me and only me.

Here's what else is going on this week:

➡️ ➡️ ➡️ CREATORS, FREELANCERS: PLEASE TAKE THIS 5-MIN SURVEY

To any writer, newsletter publisher, blogger, podcaster, online educator, YouTuber, TikTok creator, Twitch streamer, freelancer... will you please share your experiences + perspective in this quick 5-min survey?

As a thank you... you could win a pair of Airpods Pro or a $250 Amazon gift certificate (your choice).

>>> TAKE THE SURVEY HERE <<<

Back story on the survey: This is the second year I've partnered with Joe Pulizzi and Brian Clark to understand the journey of the creator.

Side note: The Journey of the Creator sounds like an adventure series or a Genesis creation story, doesn't it? But here I mean the path we take to create content, grow an audience, build a business we love.

* * *

TOOLS

Content tools I used or discovered this week.

Analyze My Writing. This is a fun one. Paste your text into the field and feel judged.

The tool assesses many things—from readability to passive voice to something called "lexical density," which sounds like it's measured by submerging your paragraphs into water to see if they can swim...? IDK.

One odd thing: The "Analyze Text!" CTA button is weirdly small. Took me a minute. You've been warned.

SPECIAL EVENTS

March 24: Writing for Email. Join SparkPost + me as we talk truths and lies about writing for email. [Free]

April 6-7: MarketingProfs B2B Forum Online. The goodbye event! No, the B2B Forum isn't going away... but April's event will be all-virtual for the very last time! We are back IN PERSON in October! Don't miss this virtual swan song. There will be actual swans.* Sweet deal: Use code ANNTICS for $100 off.

*probs

May 2-4: CEX -Creator Economy Expo. This brand new conference helps content creators grow audience, drive revenue, sharpen operations, and more (like learn about Web3). I'll be there along with Dan Pink, Leesh Capeesh, and others. Sweet deal: Get $150 off the ticket price. (Or use code HANDLEY.)

Related: NOW On-Demand: The Future of Email Newsletters. You have 90 days to access the recording of this talk on newsletters I did in partnership with Get Response. Almost as good as being there.

DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

When you're too close to the work and you miss the obvious.

LOVE LETTERS

Shouts from around the internet.

💌 To Jay Clouse at Creative Elements for the fun convo he turned into a podcast.

💌 To Chandni U at CXM Today for naming me one of 10 global marketing influencers.

💌 To the generous Jessica Noel and Joanna Wiebe at Copyhackers for the newsletter Valentine-delivered-in-March.

💌 To CustomFit.ai for the influencer shoutout.

💌 To Paul Leslie at Zero Bounce for quoting me in this piece on emails.

💌 To Elizabeth Williams at TopRank Marketing for putting my face next to Dolly Parton's.

💌 To Megan Powers and Jen Cole at Making a Marketer who talked to me about... uh, my making as a marketer.

* * *

Thanks for reading this far.

Thanks for your kindness and generosity.

Stay sane. Stay healthy. See you again on March 27.

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

9 Bartlett St., #313, Andover, MA 01810

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