TA #112: 📸 A snapshot of inspired content + a formula to get you there

Published: Sun, 05/08/22

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Source: ATJ's bulletin board

Welcome to the 112th 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, May 8, 2022

Looking sharp, Prickly Pear!

I love how you tell a bit of a story but also educate about photography & your biz, too. Your feed is really GREAT. Sincerely mean it. So well done.

I wrote that ^^ on November 13, 2018, in an Instagram DM to Allison Tyler Jones (@atjphoto), a portrait photographer in Mesa, Arizona.

I didn't know Allison. I had somehow stumbled onto her work. I liked her captions. I told her.

Allison flipped out. Wait, she liked MY work! she said. She'd read my books! I'd actually inspired those captions! (My inner voice: WUT IS HAPPENING HERE)

Then she messaged me the above photo... which she kept pinned above her desk. It's a quote from Everybody Writes.

"We are soul sisters," Allison said, still on Messenger. "When I read your books I was like... You are my people!"

That's the miracle of the Internet, isn't it?

It makes our world smaller. It points to two people from opposite ends of the country leading very different lives and says, "HERE. YOU TWO. GO BE FRIENDS."

It's easy to take for granted, those moments of connection. But when it happens to you it feels like a massive did-that-really-just-happen miracle.

Like you just heard your dog ask for a grilled cheese sandwich.

* * *

Last week I was in Phoenix at the inaugural Creator Economy Expo, known as CEX. (Were you there, too? HI. Not there? Go next year!)

I talked about Writing as Your CEX-y Superpower [because puns!]: How can we creators make our products irresistible?

The answer I gave (but in a way more entertaining way): By writing our reader directly into our story.

Your words are a hand mirror for your reader. They see their own faces beaming back at them (but 10% more attractive). They feel an It's-me! moment. They feel seen.

The talk went GREAT. (I don't say that about all my talks. But you just know when the vibe is there.)

Later that day, a woman named Jen stopped me in the hallway of the conference center. She loved my talk, she said. But my message ran counter to what her coach had told her.

"I'm just confused," Jen said. "He said I'm supposed to highlight my own unique special thing... but you say I should talk more about my customer? Like... I don't know what to do with this?"

Jen had stopped me as I'd been heading out to the patio in search of coffee. Over Jen's shoulder I could see through the open doors the desert heat rising off the patio, where the refreshments were. A few dozen people stood around sweating in the sun; the rising heat made their legs look blurry, like a Monet watercolor.

Inside it was freezing—the aggressive AC making the conference center feel like the inside of a Coleman cooler.

Alternatively freezing & sweating... sweating & freezing.

You might be perfectly healthy... but a visit to Arizona pantomimes flu-like symptoms.

* * *

The two things—talking about yourself, talking to your ideal customer—aren't actually at odds.

Look at how Allison Tyler Jones captioned this Instagram:

"Never work with children or animals." -W.C. Fields ⁠

And yet....⁠

IMO, that is where the unpredictable MAGIC lies. ⁠

A beautiful adult, willing to sit still and do what I tell them?⁠

YAWN⁠

A sassy 3 year old with mischief in her eye? ⁠

ALL. DAY. LONG.⁠

Bring me your naughty, your opinionated, your undisciplineable littles yearning to breathe free.⁠

These are my people.

Or this one:

The older your kids get, the faster time seems to fly.

Preschool to 3rd grade is a leisurely stroll, but once they hit 7th grade it's like they've got one foot on a banana peel and the other on their Senior Year!

One day this mom will blink and ALL of her kids will be grown.

That's why we are document the NOW (as Edna Mode would say;).

It may seem sad to let them go, but watching my kids tackle adulthood and parenthood has been one of the most fulfilling parts of my life.

Parenting is not only about raising good kids, it's about raising damn fine adults....

* * *

What makes Allison's marketing stand out to me is her CEX-y (!) Writing Superpower: How she also takes the opportunity to show who she is. How the work gets done. What she's like to work with.

And (IMPORTANTLY!) She tells you why now.

Allison's product is great. Her work is gorgeous.

Allison makes Muggles magically morph into supermodels.
But her marketing is what makes her product matter.

(I bolded that ^^ because it's important!)

Let's break down what Allison is actually saying in those two captions.

Who she sells to: You're a mom? "I'm a mom, too!" she says. Family is everything to her. And to you.
Neutering objections: What might make someone *NOT* book her? Price? Maybe... she's not JCPenney Portraits. But she's worth it. She gets shots JCPenney can't.

(That's why some of Allison's behind-the-scenes photo show Allison shooting families while she's literally lying on the floor—her body as contorted as a ballpark pretzel. Send chiropractor.)
Neutering objections 2: Your photo shoot will be painless. Zero awkward. Fun! Because Allison is funny! EDNA MODE, dahling!
Why should you book now: Because life moves fast. Blink and your kids are grown. Banana peels are real. She knows this. She's lived it.
Group hug: Don't worry. The best chaos is yet to come.

Yes, we're talking Instagram captions here.

But the approach applies to anything.

Landing pages. Newsletters. Email marketing copy. TikTok script. Sales letter. A B2B musical. Animated puppet show.

* * *

Your content is a long game. It's slow marketing.

Content gives you a way to show up... to continually engage.

But the REAL CEX-y happens when you also use it as a way to delight your audience (and yourself). Show who you are. Answer why now—in the context of your customer.

Because someday... they will pick up the phone and book an appointment. Maybe it'll take weeks. Or maybe it'll take years. (Like 4.)

Because someday... they will find themselves speaking at an event in your city. And they will reach out again to you on Instagram Messenger: "The next time I'm near you I'm coming in for a photo."

And maybe that photo turns into new branding/headshot photos. Maybe you'll spend 3 hours together laughing and shooting an insane 700 photos. Maybe you'll realize you both like certain music, certain authors, and office supplies. Maybe you actually ARE soul sisters!

* * *

When you meet face-to-face with people you only knew online, it can feel a little like a "preunion," as my friend Scott Monty puts it. Like you've known each other forever but never met.

That's how it felt when I walked into Allison's studio last week... so familiar and foreign at once. A little out-of-body weird to realize that we were actually in the same room.

(And I met her husband! And saw her photographs! Her books! The free candy everywhere! All the work that I only knew through my phone! So close I could touch it!)

I felt like I was meeting a Kardashian.

The photo shoot was glorious. We blasted music. We danced. She had me screaming all my awkward out. The final photos will be back in a few weeks. (I'll share them when they are.)

Which is all to say...

Useful x Inspired x Empathy means you

Show don't tell.
Delight.
Write your face off.
Answer WHY NOW.
And then... let your audience see how much they need you.

* * *

QUICKIES

It's a Whole New World is the title of the best Aladdin song but also the title of this conversation I had with the wonderful Cheryl Cook, SVP at Dell. I love talking to accomplished, smart women who ask great questions about how the world has changed, and what we believe that means for Marketing, Sales. Give it a listen!

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.

HEAR CANDY

Overhead this week

"When they love what you love to do... the money will follow."

—Robert Rose at CEX

DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

The perfect cold sales outreach for 2022. (h/t Josh Van Den Berg)

* * *

Thanks for reading this far.

Thanks for your kindness and generosity.

Stay sane. Stay healthy. See you again on May 22.

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