Hi there, friends.

"Our market is a really niche market. The benefit of our approach isn't always obvious. It's hard to convey what makes us unique."

That ☝️ is a snippet from a conversation I had last week.

I could have been talking to a tech marketer. Or someone who sells professional services. Or a person who peddles washing machines.

But no, no + no. I was talking to Anita Garland, Dean of Admissions for Hampden-Sydney College, a small, rural, all-male college outside Richmond, Virginia.

If you've ever been a high school student teetering on the verge of college (or you've parented one), you know the drill: You take a standardized test—and suddenly all your mailboxes (your email inbox, the one outside your house) are stuffed with collateral from wooing colleges and universities.

That's because the institutions you're hearing from have bought your data for roughly 45 cents.

And what do most send? Braggy brochures. Banal form letters. It's marketing that feels like marketing.

But not if you're Hampden-Sydney. And not if you're Dean Anita Garland. Because, again: Niche. Non-obvious. Hard to convey what's unique.

You know, like a lot of us—whether we sell tech solutions or accounting services or washing machines... or Crocs, chewing gum, or car tires.

This (this!) is what Hampden-Sydney sends to woo prospective students:

Whoooooaaa. And also: WHAT.

 

Handwritten letter. Individual details unique to the recipient. Signed personally by the Dean.

That alone would be impressive, wouldn't it? But sprawled across the hood of this engine—casual-like—is that it's penned in calligraphy. No, wait... in two-tone calligraphy, inked in school colors.

 

This is possibly the most over-the-top marketing approach I've ever seen.

 

That letter is addressed to Declan Shaw, the son of my friend Dean Shaw. He messaged it to me last week, just as I was settling into a flight back to Boston from LA, and I got so excited I startled the woman beside me. "Look at this!" I said, by way of explanation.

She smiled weakly, but I could tell she didn't get it. She kept her body half-turned away from me the rest of the way—because now I was that weirdo you're forced to endure on a flight.

Whatever, Seat 2B. I know it when I see it: This is Peak Marketing.

Peak Marketing is marketing that hits on all cylinders:

Dean Garland writes as many as 120 letters a day.

"My job is to sell the magic," she told me on the phone, speaking in a voice cushioned with a slight Virginia lilt. I hear the Southern swaying to and fro on the tail of the "y" in her "my."

Hampden-Sydney has challenges: All dudes. In the boonies. Not cheap. Sure, Stephen Colbert went there. But only for two years before he transferred to Northwestern.

But if the Dean can entice a student to visit its rural campus so that he can feel the magic of the place... there's a pretty good chance he'll apply. Years of data says that.

 

So, the calligraphy letters. Selling magic.

Not every prospect or applicant gets as detailed a letter as Declan's; he's considered a top prospect because his brother goes there, among other reasons.

But everyone gets some level of personalization. Dean Garland described a scoring system based on a number of intent factors that sound not unlike those of a marketing automation system. Except the drip campaign is 100% analog.

I asked the Dean how does one measure the click-through rate on a calligraphy letter...?

I mean, I didn't ask her exactly that... but that was the gist. "The number of comments I get about them is telling enough," she said. And people save them.

They. Save. Them. Do people save your marketing?

The personal approach is fundamental to the school's brand, which makes the Dean's letters sound more like a vocation than a recruiting effort.

 

"Every young man deserves to be recognized," she said. "Some of them have never had their name embellished. Some of them have never been recognized in just this way.

"Every one of them deserves to be."

* * *

In marketing, our job is to focus our time on what will bring the most return to the business.

But also: What will return you the most joy. What will make you love your job?

Dean Garland loves, loves, loves writing these letters. She loves everything about it—even when she has to wear a ridiculous surgical mask when she's using the gold ink. ("The vapors. They get to me.")

My point here isn't that we should be marketing our businesses with hand-written letters, with calligraphy, in our own brand colors. (Although part of me would love to tell you that—because if we aren't marketing with calligraphy... we really have to ask ourselves what are we even doing with our lives...? 😉)

 

The broader point is how all of us might achieve Peak Marketing—in our own way. What if we looked at our marketing through this lens...?

 

So yes:

And also:

* * *

Here are a few things worth sharing this week:

1.
Writing Lessons from Snoopy 🐶

Snoopy taught me how to be a writer, says eight-time novelist Ann Patchett in a beautiful little essay on the writing lessons she learned from Peanuts and its cartoon dog. (Like rejection. Like the need for self-editing.)

I love a few things about her essay—I relate so hard to her line, "Thanks to Snoopy, I have ascribed an inner life to all the dogs I've known." (#ItMe)

Ann—self-described as "not a strong reader"—also thanks Snoopy for kindling her love of reading, subtly reframing what we think of as literature:

I imagine that for Henry James...the extended European tour of his youth led him to write about American expatriates. I, instead, was in Northern California being imprinted by a beagle.

If you're a writer, a reader, a graphic artist, a Peanuts fan, or if you are human... this essay is a gem.

2.
Rule of Dumb

In "In Defence of Obscure Words," lawyer-turned-marketer Doug Jasinski asks: "Writing guides tell you to dumb it down. Isn't it time we smartened up instead?"

This is the mantra that has been repeatedly drilled into our heads lo these last many years to the point that it has simply become accepted wisdom.... Make it shorter. Simpler. Delete those big scary compound words and replace them with sweet, smiley monosyllabic chirps and warbles to appease the easily confounded.

Doug makes a compelling case for all of us to stretch a little as writers.

P.S. I just argued with my email software over the "defence" vs. "defense" in Doug's headline. Doug is Canadian, as are some of you, as are some of my own people—shoutout to the Québécois! So I felt the need to defend all of Canada's right to kick the S out of "defense" and let C have its moment.

Anyway... Microsoft Word has since joined the spat and this newsletter platform AWeber isn't too pleased either, so now my entire MacBook PRO is apparently not speaking to me.

Related 👉 👉 👉 How do you paint a picture in the mind of your reader? Add these 5 things.

3.
Because I'm happy... Take this survey?

It might seem crazy what I'm 'bout to say... but I could use your help on this survey of what makes for a happy and fulfilled marketer. Your answers will help MarketingProfs and Mantis Research create the 2020 Marketer Happiness Report. Clap along if you feel like that's what you wanna do... Take the survey.

P.S. If you're in the US,* you can win a $25 Amazon gift card, just for sharing your thoughts.

*Dear non-US: Sorry. I don't make the rules.**
**Well, I don't make all of them.

4.
Ai for an Ai

AI is more creative than you might think, says Jay Baer. Meaning: In a world enhanced by artificial intelligence, creatives are more important... not less:

Photographers, illustrators, artists and marketers who are artists in some way are required to make brands feel and talk and seem different. Machines, if left to their own devices, will make us all sound the same.

Check out Jay's post over at Cisco.

Related 👉 👉 👉 Jay is keynoting The World's Best B2B Marketing Conference—the MarketingProfs B2B Forum—along with the incredible Kara Swisher, the impressive Neen James, and me, your host. We just added new sessions + speakers... see the entire glorious program here. [Reg. code ANNLIKESME saves you $$$.]

 

QUICKIES

🧀  I thought the marketing partnership of boxed wine and Cheez-Its was a joke. But it actually makes sense, when you think about it.

👖 What will we put on pants to buy? An interesting look at online/offline retail trends. Spoiler: Yes pants = bananas. No pants = books. The surprise for me... bleach? [free reg. required]

✔️ 28 of the best questions to ask your customers to get better, richer insights into the ongoing mystery marketers everywhere wrestle with daily: What, exactly, motivates our customers fercrissake? [via Fio Dossetto at Hotjar]

 

TOOLS
Marketing tools I used this week.

This new feature at LinkedIn allows you to share the services you most want to provide right on your profile, as a way to quickly indicate that you are "open for business." (Premium subscribers only right now; wider availability coming this fall.)

25 Ways to Sign Someone Up for Your Newsletter. I've shared this before. But this is for Jen, who asked me this question a few weeks ago. [h/t Dan Oshinsky]

 

DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

✏️ Take this new NY Times copyediting quiz to see whether you can brag that you know grammar rules better than Times editors. (It's crazy-hard. I cannot brag. You?) [h/t Laura Forer]

 

 

💌 To the incomparable Ilise Benun, for generously inviting me on her show last week to talk about ridiculously good "letters."

 

READER QUOTE OF THE WEEK (RQOTW)

This week I'm introducing a new feature, Reader Quote of the Week: Smart things you say. This RQOTW is from Dean Shaw, a marketer at SAS whose son Declan is featured in the lead story and who generously connected me with Dean Garland.
 

“Networking is not about what you can get from people, it's what you can give to people.” —Dean Shaw, SAS

 

 

📅  October 22-23: Mayo Clinic Annual Conference, Rochester, Minnesota
📅  November 6-8: RD Summit, Floripa, Brazil