Ben Settle

The great, and esteemed Doug D’Anna recently mocked some dork on Twitter who tried sliding into his DMs to cold pitch him.

I’m not saying the cold outreach never works.

But the way a lot of these guys go about it, it has about as much chance of working on high quality and discerning clients as it does sending random dick pics to chicks on dating sites. It’s amusing to think how in 2023 it’s never been cheaper, simpler, or easier to get clients doing the chasing instead of you chasing them, yet people insist on playing game in hard mode like it’s 1975 cold calling out of Yellow Pages.

But, one may ask, what works better to find clients then?

My answer:

Applying leverage instead of force.

Like, for example…

1. Ask friends in biz for referrals & intros

2. Joint venture with peers

3. Pull a Jim Camp by revisiting leads on who are on the fence & putting you off, then politely asking them to tell you No. And if they do, still ask for referral..

4. Build email list & mail it daily

Numbers 1-3 above can & should be done today.

And number #4 can & should be done over time

And incidentally, the above is not even getting creative.

It’s just marketing 101.

And it works a helluva lot better than unsolicited dick pic marketing.

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

For a lot of business’s at least.

And for the eager beaver reply guys itching to respond:

I know I say this as someone who sells not just one but multiple subscription offers.

Thus why I said “a lot of” businesses, and launching something new.

I say this due to everyone and their mother suddenly offering a new subscription offer thanks to sites like substack and, more recently, Twitter, that makes offering subscriptions easier than ever. Not to mention every big name brand from entertainment to clothing to car companies, to mobile apps to restaurants to even doctors selling subscriptions — where people are starting to cancel frivolous cheapy subscriptions like it’s a sport for their own sanity.

All of which is why:

1. I told Troy Broussard I didn’t want to sell our Subscription Biz offer this year

2. I am debating whether or not to even sell my elBenbo Press book later this year

It’s much better for a lot of businesses I’ve seen to sell in bulk instead.

Supplement marketers with solid direct response game figured this out years ago. Bulk is way more profitable than subscriptions due to lack of consumption, which causes churn. In other words, sell 6 months of a product up front, when average customer cancels in 3 months, and the hardcore users will keep buying bulk repeatedly when they run out anyway.

Selling bulk often means you get more profits with less work.

Plus, doing it with a fraction of the competition since everyone’s selling subscription offers.

Of course, it’s one thing with supplements.

But what about with information and other types of offers?

The answer:

1. Sell your product, then upsell more of that product

2. Or sell product with as many high quality 1-click upsells as you can

This is why I’ve been adding more 1-click upsells to my books lately.

For example:

My Email Client Horde book has 6 upsells.

And, yes, people take many of them, and sometimes even ALL of them.

(When I last offered that book, a customer took all 6 — and got a $2,500 charge on their credit card, after which his American Express contacted my merchant account to tell me to gather the info needed to validate the purchase, if that tells you something…)

I’d have to sell over 25 new Email Players subscriptions to match that.

And that is why, if launching a new offer, I’d sell bulk right now, not a subscription.

In my opinion the time to launch a subscription offer was 5-10 years ago, not now.

Those of us who already have the loyal subscriber base in place, logistics nailed down, and back end humming need only wait out the horde of normies flooding the subscription offer space as they start dropping like flies over the next several months.

I predict the market will “reset” like this after 2024.

Until then?

When asked I recommend selling bulk and not launching subscriptions.

Then, when conditions are ripe for subscriptions again, launch a subscription if you want.

When everyone zigs, zag, Chuckles.

That’s the ticket…

wwww.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Something I’ve regularly read over the years is Gary Halbert’s bit on:

“The Halbert Index”

It is all about what he called “Players with money.”

There are many reasons to cater to them and those with their traits.

Like, for instance:

* They don’t usually shop on price unless it’s to use a high price as a low value filter.

* They aren’t pain in the asses to deal with.

* They aren’t flakes.

* They are decisive.

* When satisfied they tell all their other PWM friends about your business (excellent word of mouth), and the list goes on.

Another trait they have:

They are likely to use a high price as a way to decide.

They don’t want cheap.

And, in fact, if no time to research (as they value time MORE than money, which, ironically, is why they have money…), they will often reflexively take the higher price, just assuming it’s going to be higher quality. And, even better, they are more likely to use a service or buy a product that only other PWM use or buy, for no other reason than they don’t want to be around normies or be associated with them, even if they virtue signal otherwise.

Higher pricing is like a litmus test for them.

Anyway, not every business lends themselves to marketing to them.

Walmart, for example.

Or any business that competes on price, caters to price shoppers, etc.

And PWM still like a good bargain.

But only a bargain for something that is already high priced and high quality. Discounting something from $1 to .33 cents ain’t the same as discounting something from $500 to $400. I say this for anyone reading who can’t grasp nuance & context:

“Ben then why do you discount your books sometimes lol!”

Anyone asking that is not a PWM.

And that, in and of itself, is telling…

One last thing about having a PWM list:

The secret to growing such an email list is not the tool you use.

It’s the approach and psychology behind how you go about it.

It’s way too much to go into here. But the important thing is how you begin to think about it anyway. Go for quality, not quantity. Be a four quarters not a 100 pennies kind a guy.

That is, if you want a business you enjoy.

With customers you enjoy.

And, yes, with profits you enjoy.

The book I give to new Email Players subscribers talks a bit about list-building. More than enough to get a business started.

All right, more next time..

Ben Settle

Following is arguably the single best “tactical” method of persuasion ever invented.

Frankly I have never seen it not work.

But then again, I have not seen that many marketers or copywriters do it, either.

They’re too scared probably.

Whatever the case, here goes:

My late dog Zoe’s breed was part corgi and basenji. And the basenji part was especially strong with her. And, because of that, she had an instinct to chase things (basenjis are African hunting dogs). Which is why when I first adopted her from the dog shelter they said if she got away the last thing I should do is chase her.

Why?

Because that’d only guarantee she’d run away — flee — from me.

And no amount of yelling, calling, or even outright bribing with treats or food would have changed that. That meant, if she ran away, instead of chasing her, I was advised to do the opposite — and run the other way from her. That way, her instinct to chase would kick in, and she’d want to chase me instead.

That little tidbit of info saved me quite a bit of anxiety over the years.

None of this is “new” to anyone paying attention.

It’s just pure law of the jungle.

i.e., we pursue that which flees from us, and we flee from that which pursues us.

This instinct is embedded in probably every animal on the planet.

Yes, including humans.

And most humans in business go about violating it on a near daily basis while wondering why nobody wants to do business with them, flees from them, takes all their ideas and hires someone else to help implement them.

It happens so often it’s practically a trope:

* Person becomes a coach or freelancer.

* Person starts buying into the wrong training and chases instead of being the chased.

* Person sees it is not working.

* Person then gets desperate.

* Person then gets needy.

* Person then starts chasing even harder, becoming more repellant.

* Person then gets mad at elBenbo for (obnoxiously) saying “I told you so”…

This happens with info marketers, and pretty much anyone else who sells anything I have noticed. But real life works the exact opposite. If you want to get customers & clients chasing and pursuing you, don’t try to attract them.

Try to REPEL them.

I’m not talking about being a jerk.

Although, admittedly, that can work for certain people and in certain markets.

(Usually either damaged people or those used to having their butts smooched)

But it works magnificently.

In some cases it can potentially help get certain customers & clients nearly desperate to pay you.

Call that hyperbole if you want.

But I’ve seen and experienced it many times.

No, I won’t say any of it’s easy.

Probably a lot of marketers will find it hard.

Especially if you are a people pleaser (not a condition I am afflicted with, admittedly.)

But it’s all very simple.

Try it in your emails and see what happens.

Then, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

KUA stands for:

“Keeping up appearances”

Examples:

Back in WW2 the Allies made inflatable decoy tanks to make the Germans think they had a bigger arsenal and more firepower, manpower, etc than they really had. George Washington did the exact same sort of thing during the Revolutionary War (not with tanks obviously) to make the Brits think the Colonial army had more soldiers, firepower, ability to attack & win battles.

It’s all purely psychological – to demoralize.

KUA is a powerful way of doing business.

If you’re doing it right, and you’re on hard times, hurting, in pain, on the brink of quitting… everything going to hell in a hand basket around you with business, family, marriage, kids, current events, whatever it is… nobody should ever know, or even so much as suspect.

That is, if you’re KUA.

At the very least, even if you do lose, you get to keep your dignity & self respect.

Without those two attributes it’ll be rough to rebuild.

And no, it ain’t easy.

In fact, the worse off things are, the harder it is to pull KUA off.

But if/when you do, you’ll almost certainly be stronger for it.

Email lets you play KUA like a fiddle.

Just showing up every day, selling, not backing down, doing your thing in day in, and day out, can help move mountains not just in sales, but in screwing with your haters’ heads, etc.

More on Email Players here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of my customers observed that I never chase reviews for any of my books, never try to coax people into reviewing my books, or never even so much as ask people to review my books.

And he wanted to know why.

Almost as if I have secret algorithmic Amazon insights they should know.

No, the answer is not nearly that sexy. It’s just that I see 2-star reviews like this one for my “Persuasion Secrets of the World’s Most Charismatic & Influential Villains” and realize I have better things to do than chase low IQ reviewers:

misunderstood title

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2023

Here I was looking for an interesting, new book on writing villains. Bought the book, which like an extended article blocked out for book form, paid $13 something plus tax, get the book, and it turns out that it is about how you can be a badass villain in your life. It has some good villain comparisons, but all aimed at “stealing from their playbooks” for your personal life. I misunderstood what it was about, $13 worth of misunderstanding. So if you are looking for a writing book on villains, save your money. On the other hand, if you want to be a badass villain, spend away.

It’s like a guy saying:

“I bought this book on engineering only to realize half way through it wasn’t about trains”

People don’t even read the descriptions anymore.

I will never forget a review for my first novel Zombie Cop where some wannabe literary critic bought it and wrote a long negative review about a plot hole that didn’t exist, where the real problem was he didn’t read the book carefully.

It’s even worse inside the software business.

The vast majority of negative reviews are user-related.

With nothing at-all to do with the software itself.

We saw this to the extreme in my recent Bargain Bin of Bonuses Vol 3 sale.

So many end-user errors because people refused to read even the most basic of instructions on how to do something, but then blame the software, the team, the helpdesk, Troy, me… everyone but themselves.

That’s just how it goes though.

Doesn’t stop me from selling my books or software.

But it does make me wonder how many people go through their days drunk or high.

And, thus, chasing reviews is the last thing on my mind.

Those who take the time to leave legitimate reviews are great.

And they are always appreciated.

But my opinion of these people who can’t even be bothered to read a description before buying & then leaving a negative review because of their own stupidity is the same opinion I have of voters who have the right to vote but clearly shouldn’t.

So no, I don’t chase reviews.

I chase excellence in what I create and in how I sell it.

After that?

Que sera sera.

For more on my Email Players methodology, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A real life, “chair squirming” copywriting lesson:

A few years back, when I was still on the book of Faces, I was reading the day-by-day adventures of a chick I knew from selling in the MLM market who was passing a kidney stone. It sounded excruciating too.

I don’t remember how many days it took her to lay that egg and get it over with.

But it sounded horrifying.

It was also “world class” copywriting in action.

Even though she wasn’t selling anything.

And even though that was not her intent.

How so?

I know for a fact (others I know were also getting the play-by-play) I was not the only person watching, being filled with horror, and hoping to God Almighty that didn’t happen to us. Just as I know I was not the only one reading about her agony who found myself Googling’ the subject, spending money on specific kinds of supplements, making sure I’m getting enough water, checking to see my family history of kidney stones, looking up symptoms, causes, remedies, etc.

Again, she wasn’t even selling anything.

Yet, she definitely sold many of us, if’n you catch my drift.

That’s copywriting at its finest, in my opinion:

A vision of a problem, but that also offers to sell you a solution you’d crawl through a football field of broken glass to get your hands on, regardless of price, inconvenience, or difficulty.

Not every market & product lends itself to this.

Often the more clearly-defined & horrifying the pain (physical or otherwise), the more it applies.

But that is the gist of it.

And if you use this knowledge in conjunction with my Email Players methodology, I daresay it can amp up your sales in ways you can’t even fathom now.

To see why go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A while back, I got to ranting & raving to Stefania about Tolkien’s races (hobbits, dwarves, elves, orcs, etc) and their respective copywriting styles, after re-watching the Hobbit movies.

My opinion:

1. Guys like Dan Kennedy & Gene Schwartz have a “dwarf” copywriting style:

Not much subtlety (pure sales pitch).

And completely, un-apologetically in-your-face headlines (with the whole offer right in the headline sometimes) & offers, bulling their way through price resistance and skepticism with brute force, with almost Berserker-like intensity.

2. Guys like the late copywriters Jim Rutz & Gary Halbert have an “elf” copywriting style:

Almost the exact opposite as dwarves.

Very little brute force.

Lots of nimbleness.

Not so much using brute force as re-directing force of skepticism & price resistance back at the customer, using it to such an extent that I’ve heard both of them (in interviews) say they’ve run ads where they forgot to even include a call to action. The reader was just so caught up in the story, sucked in, not even realizing they are being sold, some would hunt the client down to buy anyway.

3. Then there are “hybrids” of elves & dwarves (dwelves?) who do both brilliantly.

Like, for example, guys like John Carlton.

And especially Email Players subscriber Gary Bencivenga.

4. There are also Hobbit-style ads.

I think of ads that look “otherworldly” and that may be complete nonsense — but come off as innocent, fun, and even if you know they are a bit exaggerated (or outright fantasy) you don’t care.

i.e., the Sea-Monkeys ads of yore in old comicbooks.

Or the Charles Atlas “How An Insult Made a Man Out of Mac” ad.

5. Then there are orc-style ads.

Those are the ads that may pull like crazy but are hot, steaming piles of bull shyt, filled with lots of hype, lies, & deceit, preying on the public’s sense of trust or low information. The whole coordinated jab push by big government & big pharma & big media fan fiction (dancing ShtickTok nurses at supposedly overrun ICUs or, my favorite, “I’m on my death bed, if only I’d gotten the jab!” big pharma exec fan fiction) being probably the most successful orc copywriting.

Frankly, Fauxci even kinda looks like an orc…

Not to mention the legions of ads selling fake cures for diseases.

Or prosperity preacher advertising.

Or surgeons pushing elective surgeries that cause pain & agony.

Or even garden variety classified ads from the old timey days selling x-ray glasses, books on how to grow taller, mortgage scams, fly-by-night investment schemes, and the list goes on and on and on.

Anyway, as far as legit copywriters:

Some are dwarves.

Others are elves.

And some are a bit of both, with hardly any hobbits anymore.

For a framework for using email that can be used any of the copywriting races, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A true story for the history books:

The first time I ever spoke with the “founding father” of online marketing (even according to Time Magazine, and whose discovery Google & Facebook built their business models on…), email marketing (he also had to tell the CEO of AOL to use his email list…), and even online video (was talking about streaming video, webinar-type solutions back in 1994 when it took 2 hours to download a 10 mb video clip)… Ken McCarthy, he told me two things I have never forgotten.

The first:

Approach selling every offer as if it cost $25,000.

Whether you’re selling a $5 eBook or a $5,000 course.

What would you say in your copy if it cost $25k?

I gave this advice to those who bought classified ads from me last January, and it helped simplify things according to what they told me.

The second thing:

(paraphrased)

“I get them on my list and email them forever”

For a real life example of this:

Whenever someone buys from me, they have the option to answer a question on the cart that asks where they heard about me from. I’d say probably 30% – 40% of people fill that in, give or take. And it’s endlessly useful info.

One recent customer answer that question with:

“8 years worth of emails, lol”

Think about that.

8 years until pulling the trigger.

I’ve had people show me their Gmail inbox revealing it took them 2,000+ emails.

And that’s just how it is.

At the risk of using a tired cliche:

This really is a marathon not a sprint.

To learn my email methodology go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle