Hey y’all,
A few weeks ago, I wrote about buying from a tiny ecommerce brand run by a solo ceramics artist, who’d included a handwritten note in the box for me.
That note was so touching, I ended up writing a whole newsletter about it.
It struck a chord with you and my colleagues alike – but one person needed more info. They reached out and asked, “What do I include in the note?”
My immediate reaction was: “Just write the note.”
Because that’s easy for me. It comes naturally. I’ve been writing somewhere along the lines of 20K words a week since 2014, so with writing, I’m a fish in a cool stream.
But that doesn’t help you because you’re (probably) not a fish.
Instead, I’m going to dig deep and give you the tips that helped me become the slightly-above-average writer that I am today.
The general formula:
Write the way you speak
Write something about them
Write something about you
You can use this formula in your notes, emails, outreach – anything where you want to build a connection with someone else. Here’s how:
Have coffee with the person you’re writing to
Close your eyes.
No, not now, you won’t be able to read with your eyes closed.
I mean, when you sit down to write the note. Close your eyes and imagine yourself sitting at a cozy coffee shop with the creator.
You’re having coffee. Maybe there are cookies on a plate in the center of the table. Maybe you’ve handed them the gifted product directly. Their face lights up. What do you say to them in that moment?
Don’t imagine this, though. Who is out here “cheers-ing” with full coffee mugs?
The point is, you’re face-to-face. In your brain, have a pretend conversation with the person sitting across from you.
Something happens to your brain when you imagine a pretend coffee date. It helps you relax, and this helps your writing sound more natural.
The whole reason behind a handwritten note is to inject a human element into an interaction. It’s astonishingly easy to sound like a robot – especially when you have to send hundreds of gifted products out.
The easiest way to not sound like a machine? Write how you speak. For example, the note that the ceramic artist included in my order was literally 12 words.
“Thank u for such a big order! It really made my day! <3”
I can picture her saying this to me, in person, over a cappuccino.
Compare that to “Thank you for your recent purchase. Your business is valued."
Same information, but nobody speaks like that to a friend over coffee.
(Unless you've completely sold your soul to the corporate machine, and all that's left is a hollow husk of buzzwords and businessy platitudes.)
Write something that’s unique to the creator
These are creators you’ve recruited. You know them. You likely vetted them. You probably even negotiated with some of them.
Pick out one thing that stood out to you about them. It can be anything – a great hairstyle in a recent video, a funny joke that they made, the name of their dog – anything.
“I think this is going to go so well [with your current wall decor/that little red dress from a recent video/in your dungeon full of the skeletons of your enemies].”
If the creator chose the products themselves, you can compliment their choice.
“Love what you chose – I’ve got it in black! We’ve got excellent taste.”
Just like personalizing your outreach, the bar is on the floor. You just need something that makes it feel like this was written just for them – and only them.
Sprinkle in some “personal” to make you more relatable
Think about how we make connections with people – we do it by making ourselves vulnerable. And creators are no strangers to this; they make themselves vulnerable every day through their content. It’s what makes them authentic and relatable.
So you want to do the same. Offer up some personal information about yourself that you think the creator can relate to. It doesn’t have to (and shouldn’t) be your childhood trauma, but something small about your personal life will 100% do the trick.
“This is my wife’s favorite, I think you’re going to love it too!”
That personal touch makes it feel human.
For example, when I write anything, I pepper a bit of “weird" in there. I’m a weird little person, so weird little notes sound like me.
Here are a few examples from actual outreach I did to creators (and they responded!):
“I love your style. It's just so casual and chic. I've always tried to get that effortless kind of look – but it's either swampmonster or overdressed for me.”
“I've been thinking about getting into quilting myself (added to the list of 1000 hobbies), but realistically, I think the amount of math is intimidating me a bit. Anyway, enough about my subpar math skills. I'm reaching out because I think you'd be perfect for this project I'm working on (yes, it's paid).”
Apparently, self-deprecation is my go-to.
The point is, talk about how you related to their content, and why it meant something to you. Starting from your own perspective is the easiest hack to figuring out what to say.
It’s really easy to forget that behind every handle, username, and email address, there’s usually a human being.
That human has thoughts, ideas, fears, insecurities, loves, and hates – just like you. They sleep, they eat, they laugh and cry.
They put their pants on one leg at a time, too.
And when you keep that in mind, writing a note becomes easy. When you imagine this person as a friend or family member, it becomes second nature.
And after they’ve put on those pants, you can imagine them sitting at your table, and write what you’d say to them if they were.
That’s what I do when I’m writing to you, anyway.
Until next time, keep it human and keep it real, ✌️
Whitney 🦇
Content R&D at Modash. Send hate mail to LinkedIn
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Who they are: Inspector Organ on Instagram and TikTok
Why he’s worth a follow: Hold on, fam, this is a weird one. Inspector Organ is on a mission to play every church organ in existence, or die trying. He releases music videos (of astonishingly high quality) in a Weird Al parody style, which usually entails his love of architecture. I’m gonna be honest – his content is literally at the perfect intersection of nerdy architecture and musical pop-culture for me. He sold me with his Norman Nave parody of Prince’s Purple Rain.
Who has he collaborated with? Easy to see in Modash.
Dream collab: He recently did a collab with a charity organization that puts on reenactments of the Norman conquest of England in 1066 – I think he could do a lot more in the tourism industry. Considering there are tons of churches between the UK and France where his specific content works well – loads of opportunities to partner with tourism and travel brands.
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