An inquiring mind wants to know…
“Ben, I notice some big name marketing guys giving their new subscribers an option with how frequently they receive emails from them. You mail daily but what are your thoughts on this?”
Yeah, I’ve heard about that.
Makes zero sense to me.
But maybe they have a purpose I’m not aware of, so I say if it works for them, all the power to ’em.
Me?
I don’t let my customers steer my ship.
I do the steering.
If you let your customers steer your ship, you’re going to end up on the rocks. And letting them tell you how often to email them (by what they say, and not by their buying habits), how much to charge, or how to conduct your business in any way, is committing a classic marketing mistake:
Believing what people SAY they want vs what they buy.
Want to know what someone really wants?
Observe what he buys.
How much he pays for it.
And, how happy he is with his purchase.
For example:
I’m sure if Gary Bencivenga had charged $50 for his farewell seminar instead of $5000 he would have been listening to “the people” — only to have his product treated like just another copywriting product that would be put in the closet with all the other $50 products they bought and didn’t consume.
Same with my “Email Players” newsletter.
If I took a survey, people would probably want it for $19.
They’d want it in PDF.
And, they’d want bells & whistles (online forums, etc).
But I do it the way I have it for a purpose:
To get it consumed.
To get it valued.
And, to get it making subscribers money.
The pricing, formatting, page count, and everything else about that newsletter (even the sales page — which breaks several copywriting “rules”) are all carefully structured to give them what they need, not necessarily what they want.
Now, before you even ask:
I ain’t saying not to ask your customers’ opinions.
Or to avoid listening to their feedback.
Or to ignore them.
Not at all.
Just don’t let ’em tell you how to run your business.
Don’t let ’em steer your ship, Skipper.
Otherwise, you WILL end up on the rocks.
To subscribe to “Email Players” go here:
Ben Settle
