Prologue

Twice in a month she came out of the gym in tears.

Her tumbling coach is… not well-suited to my youngest daughter’s personality.

At 10, she is getting really good at gymnastics and cheer.

But she’s aware that she’s more sensitive than other kids her age.

This is not a cop-out.

It’s a real thing she has to navigate.

Interactions or comments other children can easily absorb are challenging for her to accept.

They hit her at a different angle.

And hurt.

And this guy’s coaching style doesn’t accommodate her sensitivity.

So she’s practicing something besides tumbling these days: going numb, mentally.

So that she can stave off the emotions and perform physically.

And this week she came home proud.

“I did it. I didn’t give him my tears.”

It’s a thing we all learn to do, right?

Going numb.

Sometimes intentionally.

And sometimes we’re just conditioned to it.

Think of your social media feeds. After years of scrolling, you recognize ads and don’t pay attention.

It’s the same with display ads on websites.

And emails from brands that have lost inbox priority for you.

As marketers / content creators, we’re trying to catch the attention of numbed audiences.

And to do that, we have to figure out ways to break through the barriers their brains create.

These barriers are mostly the byproduct of more and more brands adopting a best practice until what felt like a fresh, new approach now saturates the spaces we occupy.

Eventually, it’s a sea of sameness we’re all numb (aka immune) to. We learn to ignore them.

That’s why “doing what our competitors do” rarely works.

But doing what very few can do does.

You can break through the numb barrier with…

…a strong point of view.

…content that goes beyond anything else out there to solve a buyer’s problem.

…building a relationship that feels 1:1 (engaging on social media in the comments; replying to every reply to your newsletter).

…publishing content that is unmistakably from you / your brand.

In continuing to shift this newsletter more toward content marketing with a touch of newsletter advice, you’ll notice this issue has less newsletter tips and another heaping dose of marketing content.

I’m taking it slow so you have time to react and send me feedback. Let me know what you think.

Newsletter Tips

Lessons From A Year Of Newsletter Publishing

Ashley Janssen has been publishing The Every Intention for a year now. In this issue, she shares some reflections including:

• Consistency is key
• Just because you love it, doesn’t mean it isn’t work
• We are all the same, we are all different
• You never know how something you share is going to hit
• The end of one thing allows for the beginning of another

Discovered via The Rebooting.

Newsletter Advice From Peter Houston

“I saw a quote the other day that said everyone and their grandmother has a newsletter. Is it even worth me starting one? ...I saw that quote too and I thought, ‘Yes, but you’re going to have to do it differently from everyone else, especially their grandmother’.”

Learn what else Peter Houston, co-host of Media Voices, thinks about starting a newsletter now here.

Discovered via The Media Roundup.

Marketing

Where Does Your B2B Marketing Mix Fall On This List?

Gaetano Nino DiNardi created a quick guide to B2B marketing plays, including what he categorizes as outdated, changing, and modern in his LinkedIn post.

Here are a few he put in the outdated list:

• Months of planning in advance for campaigns
• Gated eBooks / White papers for Lead Gen
• Webinars for Lead Gen
• Over-Reliance on Attribution Software

Check out the full list.

Marketing Insights From Amanda Natividad

In this 35-minute episode of “Flip the Script,” Josh Spector interviews Amanda Natividad, (VP of Marketing for Sparktoro). Among other things, she shares tips for explaining complicated topics through content marketing and offers key journalism skills for non-journalists.

How To: Social Proof

In this Social Media Examiner article, Anna Sonnenberg shares why social proof makes a difference and offers detailed steps on how to get started. Most importantly, she offers examples of several types of social proof and answers some tough questions with sections like How to Legally Use UGC as Social Proof.

Discovered via Smart Brief on Social Business.

The content marketers of LinkedIn delivered some solid strategies, tips, and opportunities this week. Here’s what dominated my feed:

Establish a brand/founder POV

Your content strategy needs an editorial angle. John Bonini suggests finding that angle by asking founders these 2 questions. Note: you’ll want to dig into the emotional side of why your company exists.

Conduct customer research

Do you do this? Melissa Harstine’s post mentions a Coschedule survey that revealed that teams that do are 303% more likely to hit their goals.

Equip your content writer to write

“Good stories are simple. Telling good stories shouldn’t be harder than it has to be.”— Lauren Lang advocates for doing the groundwork (provide a really solid brief) to help your writer avoid on-the-fly strategic decisions.

Find content cannibalization and fix it

Derek Flint delivered this guide on finding content consolidation opportunities/fixing content cannibalization. It goes into great detail for a LI post, plus it uses the term Frankenstein post, which I'm now in love with.

Shift to true demand gen and get buy-in

Sam Kuehnle shared 3 things you need to do if you want to shift to a true demand generation strategy:

1. Know your historical performance
2. Show leadership what happens if you continue on the current path
3. Educate stakeholders on what the new strategy results will be + the timeline to get there

The post includes details on executing all 3.

Writing

Have You Tried These Blog-Ending CTAs?

It’s no secret that ending your newsletter or blog post with a CTA is a good practice, but it’s easy to get in a rut. Jackie Pearce lists 6 types of CTAs you can try here.

Discovered via The Write Life.

Publishing

What’s happening in and around the publishing world? This week’s Publishing Insights take a look.

• In this INMA article, Erin Lebar reports how the Winnipeg Free Press is changing up their newsletter strategy after surveying subscribers about the topics they’re interested in reading.
• Why did Axios find success when so many other digital media startups failed? Simon Owens lists 4 things they did right in his newsletter.
• When you think New York Times you think news right? Sara Fischer reports on their expansion of their advertising business into bundled products.
• In this issue of Trusting News, Lynn Walsh recommends making it easy for people to reach you by using contact forms.
• Carolyn Morgan is asking all the questions about publishing and community building. She not only asks and investigates why and how, but she also goes deeper into getting started and building engagement.
• Is it time to report the news differently? The creators of RocaNews thought so, and are now successfully reaching younger generations by taking a social-first approach. Esther Kezia Thorpe shares the full story for WNIP here.
• Are there still opportunities for publishers and NFTs? Freddy Mayhew explains how NFTs may be a way to reach new audiences and expand the publishing industry.

Curated News

A Curated News Repository

As we transition this newsletter from a primarily newsletter-focused newsletter, we’ll be phasing out Curated News. But, you can check out all past segments here to learn more about features and tips for using Curated.

New to Curated? Make a copy of this Getting Started with Curated Checklist to help launch your newsletter (public, private, or paid).

Opt In Challenge

Stop “Sucking” At Social Media

“The truth is that right now, no one cares about your newsletter... so make them.”

This week your Opt In Challenge is to read Krager’s issue of Newsletter to Socials and apply some of the tips to improve your social media presence.

Discovered via Inbox Reads.

Signature

Let me know. Reply, email me at Ashley[at]optinweekly.com, or find me on LinkedIn to hit me with some feedback. I’d love to know what you think.

Happy content marketing (and newslettering),