too much cream in my coffee

Published 2 months ago • 1 min read

Popping into your inbox a day late, Reader,

I've been out of whack since coming back from BETT (seriously, I thought yesterday was Tuesday until 3:30).

Speaking of realizations... I had one recently about my coffee habits.

My longtime friend raved about intermittent fasting, and since she knew I was a diehard cream in coffee kind of gal, she suggested I do something called ‘dirty fasting’ where you put a splash of heavy cream in your coffee.

Welp, that 'splash' turned into a log flume and became an invisible calorie loophole, if you will.

This is exactly what happens in marketing.

We all have our version of this with things we swear “don’t count”:

“It’s just a quick email.”
“It’s just one more link.”
“It’s just one more feature to mention.”

Individually, they seem harmless.

But it's the inbox equivalent of:

How did this get so heavy when I thought I was being intentional?

Most messy marketing includes tiny, invisible decisions we never thought to question.

So here's a 7-minute challenge for your next email:

Pull up the last email you sent (or the one you’re about to send).

Then ask yourself three questions:

What's the one action I want my target audience to take here?
What sentence, CTA, or feature mention doesn’t directly support that action?
If I had to cut 20% of this email, what would go first?

Delete just one of those “it doesn’t really count” extras.

That's it for me. See you next week (on our usual Wednesday).

And as always, I'm rooting for you,

Kelly

PS. Pssssst. Can you tell me some of the podcasts you're listening to that are getting your creative marketing juices flowing?

Any EdTech-related ones that are your go-tos?

I need something to listen to on my walks. Reply to this email and let me know, please and tak (pronounced 'tack' & it's the Danish way of saying thanks).

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