The Sunday Letter, 14 Oct 2018
Dearest Pixieling, were you aware that there is no collective or diminutive nouns for ‘pixie’? You are now. Hence, I can make them up and today you are a Pixieling.
First things first: One of our clients is running the first ever public ORANGES program.
What is ORANGES? Well, the guys at The ORANGES Toolkit will tell you that it’s a resilience and wellbeing program… yawn. Having done it myself, I can tell you that it is the single-most effective, dynamic personal development program you’ll ever do. In just two days it gives you access to incredible tools for dealing with almost anything life throws at you. It is never offered to the public: You usually have to get a team of 25+ together just to book a session!
When you apply it across entire teams, the shift in workplaces is phenomenal. Here at Brutal Pixie, we developed this case study for Training x Design that explains how ORANGES blew community care culture metrics out of the water for a NSW business. I wish we could have put everything we learned into the case study… but alas it was not to be. (You’ll just have to believe me about how it fundamentally changed the lives of those we talked to.)
So, go read this article, and then go sign up for the program! It’s the best spend you’ll make in this quarter, I guarantee. Seats are limited, so go now.
This week’s reading covers a whole lot of fabulous material. From crafting effective alt-text to using AI to write content for you, there are loads of insights, and a super sweet tool for you to use (and get $10 for free while doing so) right at the end.
Enjoy!
~ Leticia Mooney
Queen Pixie at Brutal Pixie
Tip of the week
Your readers can smell your desperation. [tweet this]
The Sunday Five
Here are the best articles we’ve found from the past week. If you find any gems during your week and would like to see them included, email them to hello@brutalpixie.com.
[ Accessibility] Writing good text alternatives
We know that they are there. All those Alt Text and Caption and Description fields. But do you just guess, when you use them? Well Amy Leak, who is a UX Designer for the BBC, wrote this fabulous piece about how to do them well. Read it here.
Key takeaway: Take the time to craft a sentence that describes content, action, mood and concept. Otherwise, it’s useless.
[ Marketing ] Podcasting is the new blogging
This week, Seth Godin wrote a short blurb on how podcasting is the new blogging. Most of this article is him pitching a new offer. BUT the important thing is the message about podcasting being an open mic for those with something to give. I’d like to suggest that right now is a good time to jump in. If you wait, you’ll end up competing with a sea of noise, just like your blogs did. Read it here.
Key takeaway:
Don’t wait until every man and his dog is podcasting, or you’ll be better off blogging.
[ Tech ] Big brands like Microsoft and Gap are using AI to to create personalized ads for people — and the results blow away ads written by humans
This is behind a paywall, so if you want to read it without paying, load the page and hit the stop button before the page is properly loaded. Tip of the day. ;) It tells us how major brands are using narrative technology to write ads and content - often content that is cognitively and emotionally engaging. It does this by leveraging the huge data sets that these companies have access to. You can do it, too, if you have the data to do it, just like we do here at the Pixie with Quill Engage, or you’re willing to experiment with Persado. Read this article here.
Key takeaway:
MarTech like this allows you to very quickly generate high performance content, instead of running traditional tests. Computers do it much faster than we do.
[ Content ] Spark your next breakthrough copy insight with systematic listening
You can use all of the copywriting formulas you like, but if you aren’t listening to your audience, you will never get it just right. This is because listening tells you what their problems are. It tells you what they appreciate. It tells you want they want. Just like Business 101, this is one of those basics that you can never repeat enough. Listen, listen, listen. Read it here, then go put on your stethoscope.
Key takeaway:
If you are going to be effective in anything - marketing, sales, and content - the first skill you need is listening.
[ Tools ] Rev
From the outset, I’m going to tell you that we are affiliate partners with Rev. But it’s not going to stop me from banging on about it to you. We are only partners because we love it so damned much, and use it all the damned time. Rev is a platform that gives you super-fast, super-accurate, super-cheap transcriptions, captions and translations. And the bonus? They pay their people properly - unlike Mechanical Turk, which is just modern-day slavery. This people-care is another reason why we love them! Learn more about Rev and get your $10 coupon for the tool here.
Key takeaway:
If you’re still paying $600 AUD for transcribing, save your money. Rev will do it for $1 per minute.