Ben Settle

Took the Nerd Girl to see Iron Man 2 yesterday.

Was a GREAT movie, too.

And I highly recommend it.

In fact, on the way home (after my “nerdgasm” wore off and I could think rationally again), something occurred to me about the movie that’s directly applicable to selling, marketing, copywriting or any kind of persuasion.

Here’s the skinny:

Iron Man 2 had some extremely good special effects.

But, they did not take away your attention from the story.

In other words, they weren’t the focus of the movie, the story was (as it should be).

And you know what?

That’s exactly how selling should be.

All the cool sales “fireworks” are well and good.

But what a lot of marketers do (and it’s especially rampant online) is get so caught up in the hot new sales and persuasion “techniques” their favorite goo-roo has been using (usually on them)… they forget about the REAL part that makes the sale:

Helping people solve a problem or eliminate a pain.

To paraphrase the late (great) Eugene Schwartz:

You want the person to look through your sales pitch like they are able to look through a glass showcase and see the product inside. If that glass becomes dirty, reflective or calls attention to itself, you’re dead in the water.

No sale for you.

And that’s what focusing on the tricks and tips do:

Dirty the glass.

Just like too much attention on special effects does to a movie.

Anyway, the point?

It’s not about us and our fancy tricks and tips, it’s about them — their problems, needs, desires and pain.

Focusing on THEM is the key.

That’s the whole secret to speeding ahead on the highway of selling and leaving your competition eating your dust (while making more of ye old green stuff, too).

You can learn more about selling like this at:

These principles have been used by some of history’s most persuasive salesman, marketers, copywriters, politicians and negotiators.

They’ve even worked for geeky pick-up artists.

And you know what?

I’m pretty sure they’ll work for you, too.

Ben Settle

I’ve made some stoopid sales mistakes in my day.

Some real doozies.

The kind that, when thinking back, make me wince at the sheer idiocy of it all (this includes selling online, offline, belly-to-belly, by phone… the whole ball of wax).

Below are a FEW of those mistakes.

If you find yourself making any of them, fear ye not.

Even though almost everyone does at least 1 or 2 (probably more) of these at some time in their lives, they are quickly and easily fixed.

In some cases, even instantly fixed.

Ready?

Okay then, here goes…

• Waiting too long to take action (this has gotten me WAY too many times, and I shudder to think of all the sales I’ve flushed down the toilet because of this…)

• Not respecting the customer’s intelligence

• Bad customer service

• Not collecting mailing list info (I’m still amazed how few retail stores do this everytime someone calls, buys or stops by — it’s like stealing from themselves)

• And last (but definitely not least)… Using manipulative “tricks and tips”… instead of proven psychological principles that are in perfect harmony with the way people think, buy and actually LIKE being sold by.

Like the ones packed inside “Crackerjack Selling Secrets”:

Oh mama.

Methinks the goo-roo fanboys using all the head games and so-called “mind control” techniques (right…) have no idea how much that nonsense turns people off.

Sometimes it’s actually kind of amusing.

Anyway, that’s it for today.

More marketing merry-making on the way tomorrow…

Ben Settle

Couple hours from where I live is a rather unusual house.

I won’t say it’s “haunted.”

(I don’t believe in ghosts.)

But methinks there’s some bad mojo going on there.

And it’s given the nerd girl and me an extremely… uneasy… vibe whenever we’ve driven past it. (It’s one of those places where you can almost feel the hairs on your arms bristle when you get near it.)

But you know what?

We’ve got freaky places like that online, too.

I’m talking about marketing so blatantly manipulative and dishonest (usually targeted at newbies) one can get a bad vibe from it without knowing anything about the product, the website owner or even the market.

Just reading for a few seconds is all it takes.

It’s truly freaky how easy it is for some people to lie, con, cheat and steal from unsuspecting (often gullible) people like that.

As if it’s “the thing to do” now.

But guess what?

These “haunted” sales letters open up a HUGE opportunity, too — especially for anyone who’s willing to put away the fancy tricks and tips… and go the opposite way.

For example…

We’re pretty much at the point where just having an ad that doesn’t scream “sales job!” ALONE flings you past the rest of the bleating herd of goo-roo fanboys.

Using “candor” is extremely profitable, too.

Frankly, just treating your prospects like thinking people (instead of cattle) can make you stand out like a fart in study hall.

Hey, go ahead and try it.

See for yourself.

Put away the marketing “mind tricks” and nonsense… and use simple, “meat and potatoes” principles, instead. (The kind used by history’s most persuasive marketers, salesmen, politicians, lawyers, negotiators, etc).

There’s 101 of them in “Crackerjack Selling Secrets”:

And I think once you use them, you’ll find selling FAR easier.

Or, at the very least, you won’t freak anyone out…

Ben Settle

Last year we went through 3 accountants.

Why?

It is it because the nerd girl and I are sloppy with the books?

Or maybe careless?

Or, perhaps pain in the butt clients?

No, nothing like that.

The reason is because we were being cheap.

You see, we figured we needed a service more sophisticated than H&R Block… but didn’t think we needed anyone particularly bright or expensive.

I mean, numbers are numbers, right?

And with today’s software it’s not rocket science.

Or so we thought, at least.

And several months of unanswered phone calls from one accountant (can you believe that?), bad advice and other misadventures (too numerous to go into here)… we finally came to our senses, stopped being cheap, and sally forthed to hire an Enrolled Agent.

What’s an Enrolled Agent?

EA’s are specially trained accountants by the IRS.

They know the tax laws like the back of their hands. They know what’s legal and what’s not. And they know how the bureaucratic “game” is played.

Of course, our EA isn’t necessarily “cheap.”

But he’s WELL worth the extra investment.

Especially when it comes to saving time and energy.

Anyway, here’s the point:

It doesn’t matter if it’s an accountant, a lawyer, coach, copywriter, advisor, website coder, designer, doctor, vet or even someone to mow your lawn…

When it’s “mission critical” don’t scrimp.

Scrimping might seem like a good idea at first.

But, as the old saying goes: You get what you pay for.

Or, as a not-necessarily-wise man once said:

“Scrimps are wimps.”

Ben Settle

P.S. BTW, this is not a cheap shot (no pun) of people who simply cannot afford something. That’s certainly no crime. What I’m talking about is the dangers of being “cheap.”

There’s a BIG difference.

If you want to start attracting and selling to people who are buyers of quality instead of scavengers of cheap, check out:

OK, one more rant on testing.

I know I’m beating this subject to death this week.

But this tip’s especially important:

Testing CRAZY stuff.

And by that I mean, testing things that completely and utterly shatter all the popular marketing, selling and copywriting “rules” set down by the old marketing masters — like John Caples, Claude Hopkins, David Ogilvy, Gary Halbert, Eugene Schwartz, Robert Collier, Bruce Barton… and the list goes on.

All GREAT marketers.

And us whipper-snappers today owe them BIG time.

I mean, these guys paved the trail for us. And many of the best books, eBooks, courses, etc quote these guys chapter by chapter and verse by verse.

But you know what?

Letting yourself be enslaved to their “rules” is no good.

Yes, they make great guidelines.

And yes, it’s good to master the fundamentals.

But eventually, it’s time to break those rules and start testing crazy ideas everyone else would never think to. Take, for example, Gary Halbert’s coat of arms sales letter.

It’s arguably the most mailed sales letter in history.

And yet…

• There’s no (gasp!) headline.

• It’s not long copy.

• It wasn’t even targeted (they pulled names from the phone book!)

Three MAJOR rules ignored.

And yet, that bad-boy mailed to hundreds of millions of people.

Anyway, the point?

All the big marketing rules are mucho important.

But they’re kinda like the Biblical sabbath day.

There’s a story in the Bible where the disciples were collecting corn on the sabbath (when people were supposed to rest and not do any work) and the Pharisees start pointing the finger asking how they should be allowed to do such a thing.

Jesus’s answer?

“The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath”

And that idea applies DIRECTLY to marketing, too.

The old time rules are great and have made FORTUNES for people.

But don’t be enslaved to them.

In fact, every now and then… ruthlessly break them.

You just never know what you’ll find.

Ben Settle

P.S. For dozens of ideas (including some that are a bit on the “crazy” side) you can test in your ads and sales letters (including ideas from some of the world’s highest paid copywriters), check out:

After yesterday’s email about testing, I got to thinking.

It’s really a shame when people see a goo-roo quoting their latest test results, and then immediately treat those results like gospel, as if that’s the new “rule” for everyone’s product and market.

This can absolutely destroy sales and tank a business.

It’s like my recent food allergy test.

For the last 6 months I was POSITIVE I was allergic to eggs. There was no question about it, and really, I considered the allergy test a mere formality.

A trifle nuisance.

After all, I was such a smart guy, I already knew the results.

Well, guess what?

Turns out I’m NOT allergic to eggs.

Not even a little.

Instead, I’m allergic to something else I never would have suspected in a million years of being allergic to. A food that was causing me considerable discomfort because of my ignorance — and that I’d happily eaten the entire time I swore off eggs due to my being so sure I was allergic to them.

Can you believe that?

Well, most marketers do the exact same thing.

They assume something’s working when it isn’t… or that something’s hurting their ads when it isn’t.

The result is ads that die slow deaths.

Or (at the very least) don’t pull even close to their potential.

I’m not sure who coined this phrase, but it’s true:

“It’s a mess to guess.”

Ben Settle

P.S. The Copywriting Grab Bag has all kinds of ideas to test in your ads and sales letters.

In fact, here’s what a couple “hardcore” testers have said:

“My first read through I pulled out between 6 to 10 new things to take and test in my own sales letters online. And it’s on the shelf for another read through again coming up soon.”

-Terry Dean
TerryDean.org

“I absolutely love The Copywriting Grab Bag and it’s already making me money. Just the other day I wrote an article using ‘precaution copy’ as recommended on page 106 and it helped me sell quite a few extra copies of one of my new products.”

-Roger Haeske
RogerHaeske.com

You can nab “The Copywriting Grab Bag” here:

Check out this question that came in:

“Ben, why don’t you ever show us test results? Would love to see some split tests can you show us any?”

That’s the million penny question, ain’t it?

So why won’t I get on the stick and show you the goods?

Why am I “holding out”?

Well, for one thing, I’m not about to share confidential information from client tests. Would you want someone blabbing about your test results to potential competitors?

And secondly, they probably wouldn’t help you, anyway.

In fact, they may even hurt you.

Why?

Because I’ve seen many test results.

And you know what I’ve discovered?

In many cases, what applies to one market/product/business doesn’t directly apply to another. What works (for example) in the self defense market could get you killed in the dog market, the golf market or in probably any female-dominated market.

One person’s winner is sometimes another’s bomb.

I’ve seen it time and time again.

One dude swears on his mother’s grave using only video (no text) is the 8th wonder of conversion… only for someone to blindly only use video too (without even bothering to test) and lose his shirt.

Same with everything else, too:

Physical vs digital products… long copy vs short copy… HTML vs plain text… morning vs evening emails… long headlines vs short headlines… and the list goes on.

There’s no one size fits all.

Every product is unique.

Every market is unique.

And every market/product/timing relationship is unique.

That’s why, if I HAD to make a sale or be beheaded… and was given the choice to look at some goo-roo’s test results or use proven persuasion principles (based on sound psychological laws instead of “tips and tricks”), well, I know what I’m studying.

And it ain’t gonna be the goo-roo’s tests.

Especially if they’re in a different market altogether.

So anyway, I’m not against testing by any means.

I think you should test.

But do it based on knowledge of YOUR market and product.

And not on someone else’s.

Ben Settle

P.S. For lots more ideas to test that have worked for all kinds of different markets and products (and are used by some of the world’s highest paid copywriters) check out:

Been getting questions about testing, lately.

Usually, they ask me which headline color works best… what font pulls the most orders… where to put the product photo graphic… and so on, and so forth.

You know what I tell ’em?

I think they’re wasting their time.

Hey, it can’t hurt to test those things.

But it’s usually much more profitable to put your energy into what I call the “gross” sales letter components… instead of the “fine” components.

What does that mean?

Well, let’s take martial arts as an example.

Most martial arts involve “fine” motor movements — like reverse punches, head kicks, wrist locks, arm bars, hip throws, etc. These may work in a classroom… but can get you seriously hurt (maybe even killed) in a REAL attack with some drooling rapist or cold-blooded psychopath in an empty parking garage.

Why?

Because these moves are too complex.

They’re almost impossible to pull off when you’re shaking from a white-hot adrenaline dump and can’t even unlock your car much less execute a spinning high kick.

Just ain’t happening.

So you know what the smart fighters do?

They use “gross” motor movements, instead.

These are movements you can do without thinking — like throwing a hard elbow into someone’s soft eye or kneeing them in the ballz.

You know… the “dirty” stuff.

Same with sales letters, too.

Frankly, when “doing battle” in your market… your chances of wiping the floor with your competition are FAR greater testing and honing in on the gross moving parts of your ad (like your headline, lead, story, close, offer, etc)… instead of geeking around with the fine parts (like headline colors, fonts, etc).

The green stuff’s in the GROSS moving parts.

Not in the fine.

And you know what?

This is EXACTLY the kind of info I’m teaching (in depth) in the next several Crypto Marketing Newsletter issues. When you graduate my “dojo”, you’ll know how to make your competition eat the pavement no matter how tough their ads are now.

But you can’t dawdle.

The next issue goes to the printer Friday.

Grab your subscription here…

Ben Settle

So we went on a little road trip couple weeks ago.

It was nothing exotic — just a trip to our doctor and dentist who’re 3 hours away. (Hey, good healthcare is rare out here in the “sticks.”)

Anyway, much of the drive is through “bigfoot country.”

No… we didn’t see BF.

BUT… we did see another “monster” even FREAKIER.

Here’s what I mean:

When we got to town, we decided to grab a slice of pizza from a popular pizza joint. A place everyone raves about, gets great reviews and that’s a “household name” in the area. So we hopped into the Settle-mobile, and sped off to get some. Except… what should have been a two minute jaunt down the street, turned into a 30 minute goose chase… since we couldn’t FIND the place.

You see… it had no sign.

Can you believe that?

It was extremely frustrating, too.

Frankly, after about 20 minutes I was ready to abandon the chase until, by sheer accident, we stumbled into it.

Ironic, isn’t it?

This is supposedly the BEST pizza joint in the area.

Yet they didn’t even have a sign.

Freaky.

I wonder how much moolah they’ve lost from that?

How many said “screw it!” and went elsewhere?

How many WOULD have bought if they saw the sign?

It’s just like an ad without a headline (or with a WEAK headline) — even if you have the best product, a world-class sales letter and hundreds of glowing testimonials singing your praises… if nobody SEES or notices (if the headline’s lame)… it’s all for naught.

No sale for you.

The battle truly is won or lost at the headline.

No ifs, ands or buts about it.

And that’s why the next issue of The Crypto Marketing Newsletter is ALL about headlines. Including how to get DEEP into your prospect’s psychology and bang out headlines that let you blow right past your competitors (even those with better “copywriting.”)

This ain’t just a bunch of headlines to swipe, either.

This is the MENTAL side of copywriting.

The part you can’t get from templates or swipe files.

Anyway, this issue goes to the printer Friday.

Go here to subscribe, while there’s time…

Ben Settle