TA #110: 🤘 How to Sell an Idea; Best Description of a Boring Product

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Queen's Freddie Mercury (R) is peeved at Def Leppard's Joe Elliott (L)

Welcome to the 110th 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, April 10, 2022

Hiya, Rock Star!

Let's eavesdrop in on a recent conversation between Nina Interlandi Bell and me:

"We need an anthem about how we are Better Together," I said. "High-energy. And in a memorable way."

"I got it," said Nina. "Like Queen and Def Leppard."

"YESSSSSS," I said. And just like that: The opening video for last week's MarketingProfs B2B Forum event ~~was born~~ ROSE UP!

I saw the whole idea snap into place in my mind. I imagined band leads Freddie Mercury and Joe Elliott as the perfect spokes-singers to carry home our theme, Better Together. I was all-in... way before Nina shot a single frame or recorded a single note.

We were plotting on a video call, Nina and I.

So to signal my joy and exuberance I attempted a hand-horn—the classic rock 'n' roll salute. 🤘 Plus I wanted Nina to think I was as cool as she is. To momentarily be thought of even as the kind of person who casually throws up rock star moves.

But I'm not cool. I accidentally held my thumb out, too, so it came out like "I love you" in American Sign Language.

Embarrassing.

But I guess that works, too?

* * *

Here's the story we ultimately told: Freddie Mercury opens the show with a parody of the Queen classic We Will Rock You, rewritten with marketing lyrics. Joe Elliott crashes the Queen-party-of-one with a parody of Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar on Me.

Freddie is peeved. Then it dawns on him: Joe is basically his soul mate (rock mate?). The mashup of their two sounds makes them... wait for it... Better Together.

Go watch it here. It's hand-horn great.

* * *

Specific sells an idea.

The high-speed lane to stronger writing is this: Be as specific as possible.

Specific is also the guitar riff that makes your content your own. (That's a mixed metaphor with the high-speed lane metaphor, maybe. Oops.)

Whether you're writing a blog post, captioning a social media post, scripting a video: Specific sells.

Name names. Offer enough detail to create an image in the mind of the reader.

Why?

Because specifics paint pictures. Details create connection.

We imagine things more vividly and robustly. Your writing comes to life. Your brand voice feels real and relatable.

* * *

Writer Natalie Goldberg describes adding details as giving things "the dignity of their names." (I love that.)

Instead of > Say this

Flower > Poppy
Dog > A fat pug named Carl
Food-service truck > Vietnamese sandwich truck
Dance class > Zumba
Our client > Mabel from Finance
SAAS solution > Pay-as-you-go messaging platform
Rock star > Freddie Mercury
Rock star bestie > Joe Elliott

* * *

Naming a specific thing is also funnier. It's way funnier for Freddie to be peeved by Joe Elliott than it would be to have an annoyed generic rock star peeved at another generic rock star.

It's funnier still to imagine them plopped into an unlikely scenario: as B2B marketers singing about marketing things:

Ads on your face

A big click-rate

Automated nurture all over the place.

Two musicians who may not be super familiar to the audience are now relatable.

You don't have to be a fan of Def Leppard or Queen to relate to the opening video. But you do have to be a marketer. Which is, after all, the intended audience.

In comedy writing, specific details flesh out a scene or a product or idea—making them feel real to an audience.

My friend & comedy writer Tim Washer told me this recently, when I texted him to ask what I knew to be true intuitively: Why is specific funnier than nonspecific?

"We need a certain level of reality, even in what we know to be hyperbole," Tim texted back.

Without the details, we as the audience "feel like we're listening to a bunch of made-up stuff, and that won't even begin to pull us into the reality that the writer has created," he said.

Ah! So that's why minivan is funnier than car.

Lentil soup is funnier than soup.

Cardigan is funnier than sweater. But "Brooks Brothers cardigan" or "a cardigan from Sears and Roebuck" also carries clues about the character who is wearing the cardigan.

And of course... rock star Freddie being irritated by enthusiastic rock star Joe is funnier than two unnamed rockers' interaction.

It's all in the name.

* * *

Try it! Let me know how it goes.

And let me know if it inspires your audience to give you BOTH a rock star salute AND an I Love You!

* * *

💥 💥 💥 FLASH SALE >>> EVERYBODY WRITES

Everybody Writes: Just $2.99 today only! Jeff Bezos called me last week to tell me that Amazon is dropping the Kindle price of my WSJ best-seller from $15 to $2.99 today only: Sunday, April 10.

The book contains about 60,000 of my words, each hand-selected, polished til it glowed, and placed lovingly on the page. At $2.99... that's $0.00004983 a word.

Q: What else can you buy for $0.00004983 that promises so much value to you?
A: Nothing. Literally not a thing.

DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

The absolute best description of a boring product.

LOVE LETTERS
Shouts from around the internet this week.

💌 💌 💌 To all the people in that image above! Andrew Davis, Ahava Leibtag, Ashley Zeckman, Holly Interlandi, Jay Baer, Jeffrey Thomas, Lauren Teague, Lee Odden, Michael Barber, Marc Schaefer, Sean Leahy, Shashi Bellamkonda, Shelley Ryan, Tamsen Webster, Tyler Lessard: Enormous gratitude for your lip-synching talents and willingness to go all-in on the Day 2 opening video, We Are The Marketers.

And to...

💌 To BizPaul (Paul Ince!) and the Marketed.Live community for HOLY WHAT #1?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! in this list. I could not be more honored by this peer-generated list of inspiring marketers.
💌 To Vidya at Newsletter Glue for calling this newsletter "beloved."
💌 To the fabulous Christine Gritmon at Social Media Pulse for interviewing me on social stories with a... uh, pulse.
💌 To Linda Rey for the Everybody Writes Medium-sized hug.
💌 To Maxime Hoppenot at PlayPlay for the ContentContent LoveLove.
💌 To CDP for the naming me a top expert to follow.

💌 To the wonderful Martin Jones at Cox Business for this honor.

💌 To Ramona Sukhraj at IMPACT for everything always but this week: this shout.

SELECT EVENTS

📅 April 19: Your Future-Proofed Career [online, free] My colleague Val Witt and I team up for our thoughts on how you can stay relevant, connected, happy.

📅 May 2-4: CEX—Creator Economy Expo, Phoenix. 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, Joe Pulizzi, and others. Sweet deal: Get $150 off the ticket price. (Or use code HANDLEY.)
📅 June 1-2: Webinar Days [online, free] I'm delivering a State of the Union on webinars and content marketing. Possibly from an Oval Office? We'll see.

* * *

Thanks for reading this far.

Thanks for your kindness and generosity.

Stay sane. Stay healthy. See you again on April 24.

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, I highly recommend.

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

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TA #110: 🤘 How to Sell an Idea; Best Description of a Boring Product

Older messages

TA #109: 🎡 9 Ways to Make Email the Happiest Place on Earth; New Metrics for Fun + Profit

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

TA #107: 🌭 How to Avoid Writing by Committee: A 7-Step Guide + Therapy Session; Brilliant Creative on a Tiny Budget

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