Ben Settle

Last month there was a news article headline that said:

“Henry Cavill says he prefers playing video games than hanging out with people.”

To which I quote Tweeted:

@stefaniasettle says it’s totally normal & not-at-all pathological that I go on walks 2 hours before sunrise to avoid the possibility of a friendly tourist waving good morning to me, interrupting my thoughts to wave back, then bitching about the intrusion for the rest of the week

Why do I bring this up?

Because my list is, by my estimation, mostly introverts.

I can tell by the lack of engagement I get from them on live calls (coaching, free, whatever) vs the engagement I get from them via email replies. It’s like trying to pull teeth getting them to engage on live calls, webinars, etc. But I never lack for engagement when they are replying to my daily emails, from the comfort of their little hobbit holes, by their warm hearths.

And it makes perfect sense too.

Email is a true introvert-friendly platform.

It doesn’t mean extroverts — with all their annoying character flaws — can’t use email.

But they tend to like nattering away on social media.

And that’s just how it is.

Introvert, extrovert, Email Players can work for all.

To learn more go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Came a rather timely… question:

Hi ben,

If I start from scratch with my biz the strategy Traffic > Optin > Email > Sales Letter still does it works in 2023? Or It’s better to add a for ex. a Fb Group to have more “Intimacy” with your new audience?

Thanks for your answer 🙂

True story about this:

Back in 2008 at one the founding father of online marketing (Ken McCarthy’s) System Seminars, he did a joint session with Lloyd Irvin (who was doing something like $15 million per year in the martial arts school market, I think), for newbies and beginners.

One of the questions was similar to the one above:

“Do I need to be using social media, YouTube, etc?”

Ken’s answer:

(paraphrased)

“Go ahead and use all that if you want. But realize the vast majority of the money in direct response on the internet is still made — and always has been made — with an opt in page, sales page, and relentless email followup.”

That was 2008.

And if anything, this is even more the case in 2023.

Especially with everyone diddling around on social media.

The irony:

What works in direct marketing in 2023 (build list and mail it) is exactly what worked just after 1903 when John E Kennedy told Albert Lasker (the two founders of direct response marketers as we know it) what the definition of advertising is.

I doubt 1 in 10,000 online marketers even know who those guys were.

Much less what they said.

Nor will they bother to look it up.

But this has got to be one major reason why a lot of younger people who I see up in this business are frustrated & broke. Why so many desperately chase clout on social media via trying to troll their intellectual & professional superiors. And why a lot of the more bitter ones I’ve seen are about as persuasive & engaging in their limp-wristed social media-dependent businesses as a mouth breather sending dick pics to women on dating sites.

Just the end result of growing up with participation trophies probably.

A plight neither I or anyone I deal with regularly was ever burdened with.

But it does seem to be a thing amongst a lot of the yutes.

Anyway, no need for anyone in that situation to stay that way.

Awareness is half the battle.

So anyway, build list, and mail it.

To learn how to write emails to mail that list go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of the (very few) podcasts I listen to is Chuck “the legend” Dixon’s podcast.

Chuck Dixon is officially the single most prolific comicbook writer who ever lived. (Some one was able to calculate that – it’s not just puffery.) And on a recent podcast he talked about a trick for coming up with great stories for comicbooks that is just as applicable to coming up with great ideas for email or sales letter themes and content. His example was how a Superman creative team would sometimes come up with their best stories.

Their secret:

By first coming up with a crazy cover idea.

No plot.

Not storyline.

No idea what it’d be about or what characters would appear in the issue.

The editor or writer would simply have a crazy idea of a cover for the artist to draw, and then they’d build the story around whatever that crazy image they had in their heads was.

Very cunning way to come up with stories.

It’s also a cunning way to build out cool emails and ads, too.

The human brain can come up with truly excellent ideas this way.

Some of the most powerful headlines and ad campaigns were created this way, where the copywriter(s) started with some super dramatic and intriguing headline and theme, then built the story, offer, etc around that.

I’m not really into “hacks.”

But this is definitely one hack that can work.

It’s also, for example, how I wrote my book Markauteur published last year.

The “theme” for the book was built around a single image that popped in my mind out of the blue while on a walk for the cover, before I started writing it or had so much as a title for it, much less writing the ad for it. And in many ways, the ad, the bullets, the offer, the way things are worded in the book and everything else about the book and the advertising (including the email campaign) were formulated around this image.

Something to think about when writing your ads.

Or, also, your subject lines.

Or, really, anything else.

For more on the Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A while back one of my customers noticed something in the milk wasn’t clean:

I recently unsubscribed from an email copywriter’s print newsletter (I respect him a great deal and have learned a lot from him so far). But I wanted to go deep into your methodology without anyone else in my ear giving me conflicting data.

Another reason though is a bit more subtle, I felt like he copied you (or tried to at least imitate you) without giving the full credit or paying homage. I’d notice little things he’d say, do and teach and it seemed like he’d try to “be different” just for the sake of it, but really I know he got his knowledge from you.

YOU pay homage to Matt Furey and all the other greats who’ve helped you. You dedicated an entire podcast (and a book) to Matt Furey and suggested us to buy his products – which is great. I appreciate you being honest and non-needy. Yet I’ve never heard this guy “big you up”, even though I know he was an Email Players subscriber when he was new – I’ve seen his questions to you on your blog and his testimonial in your book.

And then there’s other details – like his print newsletter comes in an identical envelope to yours with the same layout that says “your paid newsletter enclosed” or something like that – it’s in a black box in the exact same place as yours. It’s the exact same address printed in the same place on the envelope as well. The whole thing just doesn’t feel right! I know this is a small detail and it might be accidental but I don’t like it.

And then he just imitates all of your product ideas! Like, it’s annoying to ME.

You got a list building product, he got a list building product. You got a “good enough” sales letter product, he got a “good enough” sales letter product. You got a print newsletter, he got a print newsletter. You got an email copywriting book, he got an email copywriting book.

Those little details, even if they seem stupid, put me off a little bit.

I really respect how you go about business, especially when it comes to paying homage to those who came before you. But then ur still original – as you teach in Brand Barbarian.

I just wanted to tell you about my experience as a customer of yours compared to my experience with others. And you win, by a country mile.

I’m starting to understand more and more what you mean when you say “think for yourself” – something as little as envelope design has repelled me (amongst other things). I’ve definitely learned from this and will apply it in my own business.

“Always copied, never duplicated” is just how it goes ‘round here.

Market grifting & follow-the-leader style offer and/or idea cloning is just how 95%+ of direct marketers are “wired.” So I figure these guys doing it with my stuff literally can’t help themselves. And, as the above testimonial proves, they ultimately end up making me sales.

Maybe I should be thanking them?

Whatever the case:

If you want the real deal and not just a streaked copy, of a grainy fax, of a faded xerox, of a blurry scan, of a low res screenshot of something that kinda sort looks what I am doing & teaching, simply buy my offers direct from me, and not those copying me.

Go here next:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

An opinion:

The most valuable gold in the late Gene Schwartz’s magnificent “Breakthrough Advertising” book ain’t the main content where it drills deep into the gold mines of headlines, market/product awareness & sophistication, image-building, verbally creating credibility for your offers, and all the other ingenious information inside.

I’d argue the biggest slab of gold is in the preface & introduction.

Specifically, the 3 gleaming gems below.

On vision:

“This book is not about building better mousetraps. It is…about building larger mice, and then building terrifying fear of them into your customers.”

On swiping:

“That’s why memorizing theories won’t make you a market wizard, or rewriting somebody else’s headlines won’t make you a copy writer.”

And on… thinking:

“The correct solution, the right headline, the perfect ad lies buried in the problem itself. It has never been written before. It cannot be produced by rote, carbon copying or mutations. But it can be sprung to the surface — automatically — by asking the right question.”

Each one of those gems is worthy of hours of examination.

And of thinking deeply about how to apply them to your business.

Here’s another thought:

Thinking is practically discouraged in copywriting these days. Something about creativity being bad, the pioneers go home full of arrows, and other one-liners almost always being pushed by people who oh-so-ironically use creativity to the max and are often pioneers.

Thus, the rise in copywriting sex robots.

(i.e., fapGPT and other AI that supposedly writes copy for you)

Goo-roo fanboys blatantly swiping everything in sight.

And direct response copywriters so ignorant of their own industry they think split testing was invented on Facebook and branding was invented on Instagram.

Whatever the case, here’s the point:

The one thing that separates the men from the boys when it comes to copywriting ain’t swipe file content, NLP wizardry, 90-year old headline formulas, or hacks.

It’s thinking.

He or she who thinks hardest wins.

It’s the only way to solve problems, after all.

All right, ‘nuff said.

Go here for more:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Despite his bat shyt political rants, one of my favorite comicbook writers is Peter David.

He’s been writing comics for some 30+ years, and probably his main claim to fame is his 12-year run on the Incredible Hulk in the 80’s and 90’s — where he went deep into how the Hulk is essentially a guy with multiple personalities, writing several wildly popular takes on the character (from the brilliant “Joe Fixit” grey version of the hulk… to the merged hulk who was a combination of the Banner, the savage green hulk, and the crafty gray hulk… to the plot twist version of the hulk who would turn back into banner if he got too mad…) whose ideas have been heavily used in the recent Marvel movies. And when I decided to convert my “Enoch Wars” novels into comicbook scripts, one of the first books I bought on the subject was Peter David’s excellent book:

“Writing Comics & Graphic Novels”

I found this book extremely fascinating and helpful.

But, not just for comicbook writing, but copywriting, too.

Take, for example, this snippet:

“There is no one way to tell a story well. There is, however, only one way to tell a story badly: bore the reader…to quote Howard Beale in Paddy Chayefsky’s Network, “We’re in the boredom-killing business.”

“Boredom-killing business.”

A very good way of thinking about email copywriting & marketing.

For ways to kill the boredom in your emails check out:

www.EmailPlayers.com

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