Hi, friend.

 

Tomorrow is Cyber Monday, the name we marketers invented for the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday in the US.

"Cyber Monday" is a retro-ridiculous name that feels hopelessly, mortifyingly embarrassing (like calling a flight attendant a "stewardess"). For years I've called for its rebranding. (Spendy Monday? Hey Alexa Day?)

But Cyber Monday is 14 years old tomorrow. And if every Internet year is several actual years... it's old enough to be cute-retro, like calling underpants "britches."

When I was in Brazil a few weeks ago, I saw signs in shop windows advertising both Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. It turns out that countless shops in countless other countries do, too, even in places where no one celebrates Thanksgiving in November. (As in: All of them other than the US.)

That widespread adoption suggests two things:

In 2005, the National Retail Federation issued a press release with the headline: "'Cyber Monday' Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year."

That reads like it's the trade organization's top item on a letter to Santa, doesn't it? I imagine the full text of the letter was something like this...

"Dear Santa... Please bring us 200 Mbps, miles of fiber-optic cable, and (eventually) a shoppable Instagram. Love, Every Retailer Everywhere."

Here in 2019, that wish has come true: Cyber Monday is expected to pull in $9.4 billion this year, or $1.5 billion more than last year, says Adobe.

 

 

What's most relevant to you is that Cyber Monday isn't just a thing that Marketing invented out of nowhere. It's grounded in data from NRF retailers, which noted an increase in online purchases on the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2004.

Why would that be, the NRF wondered? Because in the mid-2000s, many of us had slow, dial-up Internet at home. Shopping online was slow and torturous. That 2004 Monday was when millions of working Americans left their turtle-slow dial-ups and returned to rabbit-speed Internet connections at work.

What Marketing did, really, was connect the dots. Which is what the best marketing does. Which is what we all do.

The framework the NRF used (and you can, too) might have been something like this:

✔️ Data insight: What does your data tell you about how your prospects/customers behave?

✔️ Why do they do that?

✔️ What's frustrating or annoying about that? Can we name the enemy standing in the way?

✔️ How can we help?

✔️ What do we name this new reality? How do we tell people about it?

* * *

 

Here are 3 things worth sharing this week.

1. Content Marketing Casserole

 

 

Something like that Cyber Monday framework is what Campbell's Soup probably used in 1955:

Data insight: US housewives felt trapped in the tyranny of mealtime, especially at the holidays.

Campbell's response: We got you: Here's a prescription for ease, convenience, and make-ahead freedom.

The 100-word recipe Campbell's created became one of the most lasting and successful content marketing efforts of all time.

Related 👉👉👉 This Simple Strategy Will Stuff Your Business so Full of Content That It Will Have to Wear Its Fat Pants.

2. What Hank Green Wants You to Know About Writing

In a short video, Hank Green—author, YouTuber, VidCon-co-creator—distills the 8 things he wishes he knew when he was writing his first novel.

Among the 8 are 6 that apply to all of us as marketers and writers, even if we're writing content for... I don't know... restaurant point-of-sale technology. Like this one:

Flow, don't fix. Or: Don't self-edit the thing while you're writing the thing.
To go back and fix that exact same thing again takes a thousand years... so I just created a folder in my project file of things to change... and it's full of stuff I need to change so that I don't miss it in revision.

Editing while writing is a temptation I struggle with daily. Maybe you, too? Check out the other 5 things to know AND Hank's super-short video.

Related 👉👉👉 'It's OK to Be Terrible' and Other Affirmations for the Frustrated Writer. (Free reg. required.)

3. How to Write a Blog Post That Ranks High-Five High

Andy Crestodina recorded himself writing a high-ranking blog post, compressing his 4-hour process into a 20-minute video that shows the guts of how to research and write a search-optimized article.

The high-speed video itself is a little like watching the pace car at an Indy race: easy to follow yet hard to keep up. But the full breakdown here is gold.

Related (also from Andy) 👉👉👉 This blank content marketing template helps you plan, write, promote a blog post or guest article. Copy it.

 

QUICKIES

🗣️ 12 Interview Questions to Ask Your Next Subject-Matter Expert. Atypical interview questions suggested by writer/artist Austin Kleon.

Related  👉👉👉 MarketingProfs podcast host Kerry Gorgone's go-to question is: "Before we start recording, what's the thing you always want to talk about never get asked?"

📝 Are Plain-Text Emails More Likely to Reach an Inbox? Always wondered this? Me, too. Liz Willits from AWeber breaks it down.

🎁 The Ridiculously Useful 2019 Holiday Gift Guide for Marketers and Writers

 

TOOLS

Three content tools new to me this week.

Trace. A free tool from StickerMule that instantly removes the background from your photos.

The Most Dangerous Writing App, recommended by my friend David Berkowitz, who called it "a mix of pressure and focus." From David:

If I know roughly what I want to write about, I set a five-minute timer and just let it rip. You must keep writing, or you lose it all. For me, I can usually bang out 150-200 words, ~80% usable, and then I can craft the rest around that. I don't use it all the time, but often enough that it makes a big difference and saves me a lot of time staring at my keyboard.

Audience Empathy Map. Sweet jeebus an "empathy map" sounds high-fallutin' and new-agey. And complicated. But this one is none of those things: It's a good step that will help you remember to put the people you want to reach at the center of your marketing.

 

 

 

The "Anxiety" version of the Fibery website is hilarious.

Better yet is how you get there: You keep hitting the "I don't get it, explain differently" button in the corner right (the "chatbot zone") until you get an explanation of the work management platform that just can't anymore...

 

Gutsy move. Sarcastic writing. Well done, Fibery.io! [h/t Lee Odden]

 

LOVE LETTERS

💌 To Dominick Sorrentino at Brafton for including my quote in his collection of 15 inspiring digital marketing quotes.

💌 To the beautiful Goldie Chan, writing at Forbes, for featuring me/this newsletter.
💌 To Robert Rose at CMI for this fun conversation about doing less, and obsessing.

💌 Honestly again Robert Rose again at CMI  has been too generous to me.
💌 To Dennis Shiao for his post and including my ideas on how brands can be relatable.
💌 To Zena Ryder for the love in her post on the essentials of great content.

💌 To George Stenitzer for answering the question: "What are the best books on content marketing?" and including Everybody Writes.
💌 To Evan Lauterborn at SmartBrief for giving me/MarketingProfs a shout in this roundup of 2019 digital marketing trends.
💌 To Tony Faustino for including me in his piece on writers and robots.
💌 To Heidi Cohen for the shout in her piece on blogging best practices.
💌 To Denise Wakeman for the love for my "smaller stories" piece.
💌 To John Elsasser of PRSA in his roundup of 7 newsletters all communication professionals should subscribe to (including this one).
💌 And, finally, a meta-love letter to marketing leader David Berkowitz for the honor of naming Total Annarchy one of his 2 favorite newsletters—in his own excellent newsletter.