One of the online shticks I completely defile on a daily basis is:
“Sell the click!”
Now, to be fair, that is what spammers do.
Especially the malicious ones wanting to scam and sextort people.
And, if you sell to naive people or those who don’t know better… you can get lots of clicks. And, if you really have your marketing game tight and generate lots of new leads each day as you burn & churn through your old leads by focusing on the click instead of the relationship with your list… you can potentially make a lot of sales doing just that.
In my case though, I sell the “me”, not the click, or the open, or even the offer.
Why?
Because the open & click & offer purchase are both far more dependent on you, your name, your brand, your track record of sending emails people want to open and click and buy from, the quality of offers you’ve already sold someone, etc… than any tricks, tips, or other assorted goo-roo tactics.
More:
When I sit down to write an email, the last thing I care about is:
“What subject line trick can I use to get this opened?”
Instead, I think of something worth talking about, that will hopefully not waste the time of those who read it. And I’m far more interested in the message to market match, than I am anything else. Because if I get the message to market match down, the opens, clicks, and sales take care of themselves. If I get those wrong, no magical subject line or other email wizardry is going to do all that much good anyway.
Thus, I don’t care about the open or the click or the “copy.”
Those things all take care of themselves if I focus on the sale of “me.”
And, specifically, the relationship my list has with me.
Because ultimately — to paraphrase something the great A-list copywriting Doug D’Anna told me many years ago on the phone — we aren’t first looking to buy the product or service, we are looking for a salesman. A salesman who cares about your well being, who isn’t pushy, and who can solve whatever problem you are seeking a solution for in a way where you enjoy the experience, so they come back again and refer others to you abundantly.
In other words:
Making the sale in a way that enhances the relationship with the prospect.
Yes, even if they don’t buy now.
Enter my “Email Players Skh?ma Book” you can only get via subscribing to the “Email Players” newsletter.
It’s basically a blueprint for doing this, day in and day out.
Yes, it teaches you subject lines.
And body copy.
And all the other essentials of writing emails people want to read and buy from.
But, it does so in the context of creating a customer and not just a buyer, who wants to hear from you, buy from you, and ideally tell others about you. This book is also something I give free to new “Email Players” subscribers, to get them up to speed on the evergreen methodology, with each issue then building upon that methodology — and often via mixing & matching with concepts and ideas that are not strictly “email”, but that email enhances and creates more sales by virtue of doing.
But, a word of caution:
I don’t tolerate people who can’t think critically or who can’t read.
Example:
A blue light special recently got the the book, then complained it was “the same information!” as what is in my “Big Book of Business” on Amazon. Anyone with the ability to read and think critically knows how asinine that is.
I say this to turn away:
1. Others who don’t know the fundamentals of direct response marketing
2. People who think because they read something in something else I wrote, that they somehow got the whole picture of what I have inside the “Email Players Skh?ma Book” — which is a long-tested and thought-out methodology, not a bunch of random tips strung together or whatever
3. If you’ve only gotten your marketing education on social media, like practically every single one of the people who fit in the above camp have
Why?
Because if the above applies to you, not only have you done your research in the wrong library (i.e. social media), but I am not the one to take the time and energy to dispel all the horse shyt you’ve no doubt learned, all out of context, and without the guidance of having the fundamentals drilled into your mind — without which “Email Players” will do you little or no good outside of maybe amping up your opens and engagement in the short term.
You must have a list and an offer to use “Email Players.”
I don’t know how to be more clear about this.
But, even when I say this outright, a bunch of social media dorks who hang out on Facebook or Twitter all day like flies on the same turd still think they somehow are going to get value out of it, and then proceed to waste their money and my time.
So if the above applies to you:
Don’t subscribe until you’ve learned the fundamentals.
Then, build some kind of list, even if it’s small, and have something to sell it.
Then, and only then, can I be of help to you.
Help me, help you, help ourselves by following the above instructions…
After that — and only after that — check out the newsletter here:
Ben Settle
