Ideas you can steal

The Best Marketing CTA (and Why It Works So Well)

A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * This is a story about the best Call To Action (CTA), and why it works so well. In my two decades of marketing experience, this is one truism I’ve learned: Some of the best marketing ideas are first proposed as a lark. A joke. The crazy off-the-wall concept that someone works up the courage to share with the group. The punts that come in the final hour of a brainstorm. The flash of half-drunk inspiration. (Like this. And this.) Why is that? Because good marketing requires fearlessness. You have to be willing to veer left toward the bumpy road of unknown when the rest of the world is veering to the worn-smooth right. And that’s inherently risky. So it’s […]

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How to Not Be a Jerk at Work

A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * This summer, millions of new college grads are vaulting into adulthood and trying to stick the landing on a mat slippery with uncertainty. Here’s the data: Three in four college students who had secured internships or post-graduation work have had those plans skid sideways thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, according to a College Reaction poll. So today I’m sharing two things for newly-minted marketers (or anyone looking for their next gig). First up: How to find work. Second: How to work. I. How to Find Work The ideas here are curated from my friend Peep Laja and used with his permission. I edited/added to them. Peep’s full post is here; I encourage you to read the whole thing.

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The Ridiculously Useful Holiday Gift Guide for Marketers and Writers [Updated for 2019]

This is the Handley Ridiculously Useful Holiday Gift Guide for marketers and writers, updated for 2019. Here are my picks for ridiculously useful gifts to help marketers become better, more confident communicators now and in the new year. Some are useful. Some are ridiculous. Some are both. Which are which? Well, that’s up to you. Marketer Gift Guide for 2019 1. Masterclass writing classes. Wouldn’t it be fun to take a writing class with Malcolm Gladwell, R. L. Stine, Shonda Rhimes, David Mamet, Margaret Atwood, Dan Brown, Judy Blume, or James Patterson? You can, for $90. Or you can pay $180 for an all-access pass, take them all, and spend 2020 developing your made-for-TV nonfiction-thriller street-smart play for young adults. 2. MarketingProfs Marketing Writing Bootcamp. This annual MarketingProfs writing-palooza is specially tailored to what marketers need to know to level-up their writing game. I teach a class on newsletter writing.

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Why Marketers Are Embracing Long-Form Storytelling

I’ve been talking about the benefits of long-form storytelling for a while. And lately, I’ve noticed a bunch of new examples crop up. “Gradually, and then suddenly,” as Hemingway once wrote. That’s long-form storytelling and longer content pieces. Right now. We marketers are always experimenting with new content formats and new vehicles. And lately, the trend is moving toward longer pieces and more fleshed-out, substantive ideas. I’m resisting using the word “quality” here—it’s so subjective, and ultimately so meaningless without context—but you know me well enough to know that I’m thinking it. Why is the trend toward long-form storytelling happening now? There are two key reasons. But first, here are a few examples I’ve seen just these past few weeks. Many of these projects have been developed in partnership with established publishers, too. (But that’s a story for another day.) Paper magazine and cannabis company MedMen are launching Ember, a

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These Two Incredible Stories from the Morning Newspaper Will Inspire Your Own Storytelling

For all the stories of gutted newsrooms and struggling newspapers, there’s still an awful lot of innovation coming out of journalism. Staffed as they are with storytellers, writers, and illustrators, newsrooms can offer marketers and content creators a lot of storytelling inspiration. Here are two of my recent favorites. I The Boston Globe‘s Metro section published Finding Home, a story about a stray Yorkie on the lam in Milton, Massachusetts. The tiny beast was slippery: He repeatedly evaded authorities (ducking through a tiny hole in a fence, impossibly scaling a wall). The antagonist is the animal-control officer, “Ms. Bersani.” Already, you can see how this thing just wrote itself… A Globe editor had heard about the dog on Facebook, and over three weeks reporter Dugan Arnett and illustrator Yan Wu collaborated to fashion a scrolling story (using a platform called Scrollytelling), creating a watercolor map of the pup’s travels. Here’s

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