Ben Settle

So I’m gonna do it.

I’ve been kicking the idea around for months and several people have been asking about it off and on since launching The Crypto Marketing Newsletter back in March of 2010.

But due to time constraints I delayed it.

Well, methinks now’s the time.

What do I speaketh of?

I’m launching a SECOND print newsletter.

And this one is about… email marketing.

It’s much more expensive than The Crypto Marketing Newsletter, and is really only for hardcore “doers” who already know the power of using emails… how quickly and cleanly it brings in sales (when done right)… and want ongoing education on the subject (as well as a few other “perks” subscribers get).

Anyway, it’s not ready yet.

But FAQ’s are up if you’re interested.

Details at:

Ben Settle

P.S. Be sure to sign up for the early bird discount list at the above link. That way you won’t miss the window to get the discount when it launches.

Sometimes people ask about my sales letters.

Usually, they want to know where they can find them online so they can “swipe” them (which I HIGHLY discourage, BTW) and probably to get on any other lists. Anyway, one person was recently asking about the The Crypto Marketing Newsletter ad.

He wanted to know why it lacks testimonials.

People asking that are often a bit brainwashed.

They assume testimonials MUST be used, but they’re wrong. Not only are testimonials often ignored but sometimes they even lower response.

Plus, there’s the FTC rules.

They make using testimonials with teeth obsolete.

So online I don’t always use them.

Still, I understand the need to see 3rd party validation. And a while back one of my subscribers, Courtney Houde, made a short little video about it. Courtney writes ads for one of the biggest and most respected marketing training sites on the Internet.

A serious student of the game.

I suspect he doesn’t give testimonials lightly.

You can see it here:

Ben Settle

P.S. To check out the newsletter go to:

Unlike Courtney, I won’t call you a dork for not subscribing.

But, I might for other reasons.

For example…

Lately, a few losers (dorks) have geeked their way in, and I’m thinking of making it harder to join and taking away some of the bonuses people get until they’ve demonstrated they’re serious business owners, and not goo-roo fanboys (i.e. people who join just to get the free stuff, think they can join today and be making a gazillion dollars by next week, etc)

We’ll see.

I’m more interested in quality of subscribers than quantity.

Got asked about email & non-info businesses.

In other words, most of us online tend to sell books, CDs, DVDs, eBooks, MP3’s and that sort of thing, and thus, most of the stuff I write about here with email is with those businesses.

But what about brick & mortar businesses?

People who don’t sell information at all?

And who instead sell services or classes or physical products like sporting goods, or whatever?

What about them?

Can they use email like this?

Hey, does Bigfoot poop in the woods?

Listen, in the town I used to live there was a natural health food store with excellent products, great customer service (very knowledgeable) and were quite likable, with lots of customers.

But they NEVER captured emails.

Didn’t even try.

Frankly, they did zero marketing at all.

It was all word of mouth.

And they eventually went under.

Kinda sad, too.

Because it COULD have been avoided with email.

For example…

They could have captured the email addresses of everyone who came in for their free tips and special offers newsletter. (Of course, they’d have had to consult with their auto-responder company about adding names manually, or maybe have customers subscribe from a laptop at the cash register.) Then, have a daily tip/offer/special to get people in the door.

Each day a new health tip.

And each tip selling a product related to the tip with an offer…

“Come in today and get two
bottles for the price of one…”

Irresistible.

See, no problem.

To step and use email more profitably, go to:

Ben Settle

What’s every marketers’ favorite word?

“Test!”

It’s the only answer some people know.

Yes, testing is mucho important.

(Don’t get me wrong.)

But here are some things to be mindful of…

1. Testing crap against crap

If you throw two clumps of poop against the wall, one of them might stick better than the other, but the “winner” is still crap. This is the problem I have with people acting like testing is all you need to do.

No, you need solid fundamentals, too.

Otherwise, you’re just learning which turd smells best…

2. Not enough traffic

If you lack significant traffic, it’s going to be a LONG time before you get any statistically relevant numbers to go on (TIP: don’t trust google optimizer to tell you when a test is over, they declare winners and losers WAY too soon).

If you have little traffic, it’s cool and the gang.

Just get started, you can get it right later.

3. Testing whispers not screams

I think Jay Abraham first used this phrase. And even some of the fanatical testers I know flub this up by wasting time testing “whispers” (i.e. small changes) instead of “screams” (big changes).

If you’re testing, test BIG.

Test big, win big.

Test small, win small.

OK, that’s it for today.

For advanced “how to” copywriting training, go to:

Ben Settle

Ouch.

Got this email from a Street-Smart Email customer who basically said the course sucked (well, sort of, it actually ended up quite different than what I was expecting…)

And anyone on the “fence” about buying should probably read it.

Here’s what he said…

On May 23, 2011, at 1:38 PM, Doc Carney wrote:

Hey Ben,

You might want to read this.

I have to tell you I was not impressed with your system.

I received it on Friday, so I pulled it out of the box, dumped it on car seat, and took it home.

I looked at the cover of the CD’s and boy was that a plain Jane wrapper.

Wow.

As I was driving back to Canyon Lake, I was thinking, “What am I doing. I’m ordering all this stuff and I think I’m as good as Ben.”

So I took it home.

Once there, I left it in the car. It didn’t excite me that much.

Well I had to leave for Dallas, TX the next day at 7 AM.

On the way to my friends house, I thought, “You know, I’m going to take one of those coil bound books with me and actually try to read it. I know there’s no guarantee, so I’d better find something that I can use.”

Well I have to tell you…

I was in the air for 3 hours and I read about 40 some pages.

I love to write, and I think I can write emails and I think I can tell stories, but Ben I have to give you some BIG credit.

The stuff is absolutely awesome.

I don’t know what else to say.

But here’s why I’m writing.

I have three friends I regard as close friends of mine.

Doberman Dan, Troy White and Markus Allen.

And I have to tell you when I talked to them, they all said that it was good. That was after the fact though.

So again, thanks for a great manual, and like I said, when I hit page 67 or 68 I had at least 8 ideas that I know will make my internet business and offline business more profitable.

In fact, I’m thinking it’ll give me over a $200,000 boost in my collections, but we’ll wait and see.

I love the stuff so keep on keeping on.

Your eternal subscriber in CA.

Dr. Carney
www.outrageouschiropracticmarketing.com

P.S. I’m not sure about pigs flying but I will tell you this. Anyone would be crazy not to INVEST in your email marketing system.

Have a great Monday!

That was quite the email itself, wasn’t it?

Interesting way to get attention…

Anyway, to see what the fuss is about go to:

Ben Settle

Got this great question about email:

“Ben would you still email daily with a small list (30 subscribers)?”

You bet your gluteus assimus I would.

Here’s a “real life” example:

A few months ago I started selling to a completely different market than business-to-business.

I had no list.

No customers.

No nothing.

Yet, the FIRST thing I did was start writing an email every day (7 days a week at first, then 5 days).

That’s a lot of emails.

Especially to a list of zero subscribers.

But, I kept doing it anyway.

And each email was turned into an article for the website and article directories, and were added to the auto-responder. By the time the first subscriber signed up there was over a week’s worth of emails loaded, and kept adding from there.

So big, small, whatever — I’d mail daily.

It’s sorta like taking vitamins.

The first few weeks you may not feel any different.

Yet each time you take your vitamins they build up in your system and you get healthier, but if you skip days or go a few weeks in between taking them, they’re practically worthless.

So it is with emails.

The more you do it consistently the merrier.

Only “catch” is… they must be written the right way.

This discombobulates people most.

After all, if you send emails nobody wants to read then your ducky is dead in the water out the gate no matter how much (or how little) you mail.

It’s about practice and knowledge.

Knowing HOW to write them, then DOING it.

And as you practice, you make sales.

Earn while you learn, baby.

To get started, go to:

Ben Settle

Let me ask you a question…

If your life depended on it and you HAD to make more money this month from your existing email list (no more people would be added) than you ever have before or you would be tortured and killed…

• Would you only mail once that month (or once per week)?

• Would you spend any of those 30 days only giving away free stuff and “incubating” people without doing any selling?

• Would you care about offending non-buyers?

• Would you treat your list with disrespect?

• Would you obsess over open rates & clickthrus?

• Would you spend more than 15 minutes on each email?

• Would you do short “teasers” sending people to a blog?

I don’t know about you…

But my answer to all the above is “no.”

Instead, I’d mail EVERY day (even multiple times per day…), would sell like crazy, would purposely try to offend ALL non-buyers, would write FAST, and would show my list nothing but respect (yes, even though I’d be mailing them, and offending people and selling each day).

What?

You don’t see how that’s possible?

Well, it is possible.

And, it’s easier than you think.

I do it all the time (even when my life isn’t on the line…)

You can, too.

Yes, you can, my friend.

And I don’t care what product you sell, what market you sell to or how much you hate writing, either.

None of that matters.

Get the skinny on email at:

Ben Settle

Here’s a new word I just learned:

“Bigorexia.”

Big-or-what?

It’s a brand spanking new “disorder” psychiatrists have cooked up that’s sort of like anorexia — except, instead of being obsessed with the desire to lose poundage by refusing to eat, guys with bigorexia are shamed and embarrassed about being puny and small after watching Hollywood movie stars all bulked up on the big screen.

Sheesh.

What’s next?

Anyway, a lot of people who write ads (whether as freelancers or when writing their own ads) suffer from a similar problem.

Except for them it’s not muscles.

It’s exaggerated copy.

In other words… they see the ginormous “power claims” goo-roos use in their ads, feel their own ads are puny by comparison and then try to make their claims even bigger, even more exaggerated, and even more unbelievable than the airbrushed and CGI muscles put on hollywood actors!

The result?

Usually less sales.

(Maybe even WAY less sales.)

Hey, we’re in the age of the skeptic.

Nobody believes you.

Nobody believes me, either.

They can’t afford to — it’s not like 6 years ago when everyone was fat and happy and banks were loaning money like it was going out of style.

Now you gotta prove your case.

Prove you’re “for real.”

And prove you got the goods.

And everyone else?

They’ll keep doing what they do best:

Killing sales with their “killer” copy…

Ben Settle

P.S. I did an entire training on how to write ads to skeptics a little while back. It’s available in the Crypto Marketing Lounge (the yahoo group accessible only to subscribers).

To subscribe, go to:

Got this question recently…

“Ben is it really necessary to read my sales letters out loud?? why can’t I just read silently since that is what my readers are doing??”

There are many reasons.

One of which is obviously catching errors.

For example:

Just last week I was editing a 28 page (ugh!) sales letter and read it silently several times. Then I started reading it out loud. Usually I like to do so 10 times, but time was of the essence so I could only do it 5 times.

Anyway, on reading #3 I caught a doozy.

The word?

“workalcoholic”

(Instead of “workaholic”)

Jinkies!

I missed it on the “silent” readings and first 2 aloud ones.

And here’s something else:

I cannot explain it, but when tediously reading a sales letter out loud (in addition to annoying anyone within earshot) you will generate many more ad ideas, solutions and improvements than you would otherwise.

Different ways of phrasing things pop up.

New headlines appear in your mind.

And you might even see whole sections that should be moved, eliminated or expanded upon.

So there you go.

Reason #1001 to read ’em aloud.

And you know what?

Last year I wrote a series of 5 newsletters showing you how to write ads from scratch (one of which included my methodology for editing sales letters).

Very important stuff.

Today they’re in The Copywriting Grab Bag:

Ben Settle

P.S. You can also get them by subscribing to the Crypto Marketing Newsletter and purchasing the May-September 2010 back issues (for sale only to subscribers):