Morning, Muffin.
The story of the Sioux Falls fifth-grader whose thank-you letter to her local letter carrier catapulted her to international fame has got several things going for it.
- It's got a writerly hero.
- It's got a villainous challenge: How does our hero-without-a-phone keep in touch during a global pandemic?
- It's got resolution: Essential workers. Celebrity cameo. International press coverage.
- And it has marketing takeaways, of course. (You knew that was coming.)
But I'm getting ahead of myself....
Here's the story, in case you've been six feet away from the news for the past few weeks:
Emerson Weber, age 11, is quarantined at home, like many of us. But phoneless, unlike all of us.
So in an age of texting and Instagram and TikTok... the phone-free-Emerson hunkers down with paper and pens and a set of magic markers and writes letters to stay connected to her friends and family.
Emerson decides to thank her local mail carrier, Doug, for the essential service he provides—a literal lifeline to the outside world. She writes:
I'm Emerson. You may know me as the person that lives here that writes a lot of letters & decorated the envelopes. Well, I wanted to thank you for taking my letters and delivering them. You are very important to me. I make people happy with my letters, but you do too.
This is all according to her dad, Hugh Weber, who told the story in
this Twitter thread. Here's what went down:
Doug the carrier shares Emerson's thank-you letter with his Sioux Falls supervisor, Sara.
Sara shares it with an internal USPS newsletter.
Postal workers nationwide write letter after letter to thank Emerson for the recognition. ("Not a lot of people think about how hard we work…")
The US Postmaster General hears about all this and sends Emerson an official Thank You.
The press gets wind of the story. Good Morning America interviews Emerson and Hugh, and when the host asks who Emerson would most love to get a letter from, Emerson doesn't hesitate: Her favorite. Taylor Swift. Hard stop.
And then that happens, too: A hand-decorated letter and a package from T-Swift herself. (See the image above.) Taylor sends Emerson her own special "13" wax seal to secure her envelopes, a hand-written note, some swag, and lots and lots of love.
* * *
I've never met Emerson, but I know Hugh. When C.C. Chapman and I published Content Rules in 2010, Hugh invited us to keynote a conference he used to run in Sioux Falls. (My one and only time in South Dakota. I still keep a small metal buffalo sculpture from Hugh in my Tiny House.)
I'm sharing this story with you not because I know Hugh or because it's a wonderful story about a special kid.
I'm sharing it because it's a story about two things.
First, it's a Masterclass in How To Empathy. It's a story of what can happen when you slow down to truly see, acknowledge, and put yourself into the postman-sized shoes of someone else.
In writing and in marketing we talk a lot about the need for empathy, for the need to see things from another's point of view: Why should your reader or customer care?
- In writing, audience empathy is key to successfully taking an idea > drafts > publishing.
- In marketing, customer empathy is key to successfully moving from messaging > campaign > results.
- In both areas, answer the question: What value am I delivering? To your reader. To your prospect. To Doug the mail carrier.
Second, it's a story about how the simplest approaches are often the most powerful. You can spend a lot of money marketing your nonprofit or your for-profit or your solution. But the biggest budget doesn't win: What does win is the most thoughtful, empathetic approach. Sometimes Doug just needs a simple Thank You.
Before you pick up the pen or sit at your keyboard, ask yourself two questions:
- What does your audience need from you?
- What's the simplest way to deliver it?
* * *
It's Memorial Day weekend here in the US (thank a veteran from a safe distance!), so I'm going to keep this brief. Here are a few things on marketing, writing, working worth sharing this week.
