Ben Settle

Finally saw the movie “Zombieland” Friday.

Awesome movie — one of my all time favorites.

It’s about how almost everyone in the world has turned into vicious, man-eating zombies. And one of the plot gimmicks is a series of rules one of the survivors follows to avoid becoming “zombie chow.”

And guess what?

It’s uncanny how many zombieland “rules” apply to marketing.

For example…

1. Cardio

People who’re out of shape are caught and eaten first in zombieland (I guess they’re “low hanging fruit”). That’s how it is in marketing zombieland as well — people in good shape have more energy and “mental toughness.” Both VERY useful in business.

2. Beware Of Bathrooms

Those sneaky zombies cleverly attack people when most vulnerable (i.e. when on the “can”). You gotta beware of bathrooms in marketing zombieland, too. If there’s no marketing/business related book or magazine to read while in the john, you’ll miss out on a prime opportoonity to get your learn on.

3. Know Your Way Out

To avoid being eaten in zombieland, you always need a backup escape plan from any room. And so it is in marketing zombieland. Like it says in “The 7 Habits Of Highly Successful People” — begin every venture with the end in mind.

4. Limber Up

Being “loose” and ready in zombieland is mandatory for survival. And it’s equally important in marketing zombieland. Mucho profits are made from being flexible enough to test bold ideas, break “rules” and ignore the crowd.

5. Check The Backseat

Vicious zombies love hiding out in your car’s back seat in zombieland. We got some of that in business, too (yes, corporate espionage IS real). Always double check who has access to your passwords and customer list.

6. Enjoy The Little Things

Staying sane in zombieland means savoring the “little things” (like twinkies, for example). And so it is in marketing zombieland. Sally forth and regularly have some fun. Otherwise you’ll turn into a burnout “zombie” yourself and make everyone around you miserable.

And finally… a rule not in the movie (but should be)…

7. Never Eat Meat While Watching Zombieland

Trust me (from personal experience), it’ll GROSS you out.

(Try eating a twinkie instead.)

Awright, that’s a wrap for today.

For 101 more ways to survive marketing zombieland, check out:

Ben Settle

Here’s an interesting question that rolled in:

“Ben, I understand the basics of writing sales letters and ads, but what can I do to KEEP my sales letters running strong and squeeze all the profit I can from them?”

That’s an interesting question.

How DO you increase a sales letter’s “shelf life”?

Luckily, there are lots of ways to skin this cat. Here are a few really easy changes that can often do the trick:

1. Headline

Yeah, I know, “duh.”

But it’s worth repeating even if we’ve all heard it a million times from the copywriting goo-roos.

2. Offer

Another “uh-duh!”

But again… a simple offer (or just a guarantee) change can have mucho impact on sales. Often times even more than changing your headline! (If you don’t believe me try a triple-your-money-back guarantee sometime).

3. Story

Another biggie.

It’s easier said than done, but if your ad starts fatiguing or even outright dying… test telling another story. (You ARE telling stories in your ads, right?)

The story can sometimes carry the sale all by it’s lonesome.

4. Design

This is especially true on ye old Internet.

If you want to do a radical test without changing a word of copy, try a completely different “look” on your site. I’m talking different fonts, background colors, font sizes, order buttons/links, images, videos… the whole shmear.

You might be shocked at the change in response.

5. Market

A true story:

Once upon a time I wrote an ad selling an info product showing people how to buy existing businesses without banks or using your own money. And while there’s an obvious “biz opp” angle there, we noticed something else interesting:

A lot of real estate investors were buying it.

So I simply changed the angle to talk “to” them and their desires, goals, pains, etc (instead of the biz opp crowd’s) and…

Voila!

A whole new market was born for the product.

Anyway, those are a few ways to revive dead (or dying) ads.

Go ye forth and profit from them.

Ben Settle

P.S. For 122+ MORE sales letters tips (used by some of the world’s highest paid copywriters), check out:

Over the past year I’ve had my blog comments closed.

This baffles a lot of people.

After all, aren’t we in the age of Web 2.0 and social media where interaction and being “social” is the new business panacea? Where web visitors now expect (and in some ways demand) you have a blog so they can socialize and interact with you?

Maybe.

And I probably AM missing out on sales, profits and other long term benefits by turning comments off.

But in this case it’s all about balance.

Specifically, balancing out my time.

Most of my income is from freelance copywriting assignments and a couple other ventures I’ve got my fingers in.

My site is just a small “cog” in the machine.

And unfortunately, there were just too many jackanapes trying to goose in comments sucking up my time.

Some tried plugging their crap on my site.

And others simply had a bad case of “diarrhea of the keyboard” — where they’d start ranting, cussing, tearing down other commenters, etc. One blue flame special — who I call the “seething email” guy — would try posting multi page political rants that made no sense whatsoever (in giant block paragraphs that were impossible to read without going blind), and then whine about how I was “censoring” him because the spam filter zapped his (obviously inappropriate) comments.

Dumb.

Anyhoo, if I had more time, I’d still entertain this stuff.

Because in a lot of ways it IS entertaining.

But the whole moderating thing is just too time consuming.

But, who knows?

Mayhaps one day I’ll fire the comments section back up. In the meantime, if you want to comment on a blog post/email, all you have to do is go to my FaceBook page:

All posts automatically show there by day’s end.

And it’s easy to comment on them if you want.

See?

I’m not a total social media “luddite” after all…

Ben Settle

Let’s do something fun today.

After writing a couple emails about marketing and movies last month a few people have asked about making a list of movies that might be helpful for their marketing, selling, copywriting, etc.

Below are a few I’ve found helpful.

In fact, in many cases, these flicks have been more practical and helpful than some of the books and high falutin’ marketing courses I’ve bought.

Ready?

OK, let’s roll…

1. Boiler Room

This isn’t so much a “how to” movie, but a “how NOT to do” movie.

I don’t waste my time getting on goo-roo lists, but from what people I know are telling me, this is exactly the kind of high pressure nonsense some of these goo-roos are using to upsell people by phone into big ticket coaching programs.

Still… there is ONE good lesson in it.

And that is, when one of the salesmen is doing his thing, he asks a question (I think for the sale) and then… shuts up.

That was pretty cool.

And good advice when selling in person or phone.

2. The Matrix

I think we covered this movie pretty well here:

3. Sherlock Holmes

Ditto with Sherlock Holmes — you can skim my “review” at:

4. Lethal Weapon

Ah yes… now we’re cookin’.

Once upon a time, marketing and copywriting “legend” Eugene Schwartz said Lethal Weapon was “mandatory” for direct marketers.

Why?

Well, the short version is, there’s a certain “rhythm” to it you will see in a lot of great sales pitches, Check out chapter 3 in “The Copywriting Grab Bag” — www.CopywritingGrabBag.com — for a more detailed analysis on this particular movie.

5. Batman Begins

IMHO, the “sales rhythm” in Batman Begins is even better than the one in Lethal Weapon. In fact, I use it as sort of sales letter “template” when writing my ads these days.

Anyway, there are more than this.

But these 5 movies are like little “mini marketing seminars” if you pay attention to them.

And (especially) if you watch how people react to them.

Ben Settle

Recently, my friend Jim Yaghi Tweeted an unusual question:

@JimYaghi: “watching Being Human. Wonder why VAMPIRES and WEREWOLVES hate each other so much? @BenSettle how about a daily email answering this?

OK Jim, sounds like fun 😉

Vampires and werewolves ain’t my area of expertise.

But my guess is probably for the same reasons shady Internet marketing goo-roos and corrupt government bureaucrats hate each other:

They take food off each other’s tables.

You see, whether you’re talking about werewolves and vampires or shady goo-roos and corrupt bureaucrats, they both have the same agenda to feast on as many defenseless “peasants” (i.e. earners and consumers) as they can. And unfortunately, when they battle it out, some of the peasants always get hurt (i.e. the recent Visa/Mastercard smack down).

Sadly, that’s just the way it is.

But here’s the truly scary part about this:

The human (goo-roo/bureaucrat) “monsters” are far worse than the Hollywood werewolves and vampires.

Why?

Because they pretty much have no limitations.

In most of the movies, werewolves can only pop up during full moons and can be slain by silver bullets, while the vampires can only show their ugly mugs at night and can be scragged by a sharp stake in their sleep.

Not so with the government and goo-roos.

The government can go after anyone they want, with an unlimited “war chest” of tax payer money. And even when they’re wrong and sue innocent people (which happens a LOT), they get away with it and move on to their next victim. At the same time, a shady goo-roo can easily change shape and “slip” away into the night to another village and start his rampage anew with a simple business, country or identity change.

Spooky stuff for sure.

And hey, let’s face it:

Whoever said “monsters” don’t exist has never run a business!

Ben Settle

P.S. For 101 ways to ethically sell your products and services (and hopefully stay off the bureaucrats’ “goo-roo radars”), grab your stake and silver bullets and run over to:

Been playing a LOT of “Mario Kart” lately.

What’s Mario Kart?

It’s a Nintendo Wii game where characters from the Mario video games race go-karts around exotic race tracks. So, for example, you can race as Mario, or Donkey Kong (the one I play) or any of the characters from the Mario games.

This stoopid game has me hooked, too.

A couple times I’ve literally dreamt about it.

And even caught myself thinking about ramming into the car next to me on the highway last weekend to pull ahead of him — just like when racing in Mario Kart!

Whoa!

Anyway, why am I actually admitting this?

Because dorky as it is… MK is the ultimate success metaphor.

Whether you’re in 11th place or 1st place, you’re constantly being hit, whacked and attacked by everything from flying debris and flesh eating plants… to fire balls and semi trucks… to the other racers knocking you off the track. (Which can mean getting tossed into water, sinking in molten lava or, on one course, falling into outer space and incinerating in the atmosphere!)

It gets extremely frustrating, too.

You can be seconds from winning… only to finish dead last due to some random attack or prank by another character. (I’ve even caught myself shaking my fist at the screen yelling obscenities at the little $%&!’s who beat me!)

And guess what?

That’s EXACTLY how it is as an entrepreneur.

Nobody wins this “race” without massive frustration, either.

Someone can knock you off your track into the molten lava just before some big sale or landing a new client at the last possible minute (and when you’re not expecting it).

This kind of stuff can frustrate you to the point of quitting, too.

But you gotta hang in there no matter what.

Because just like in Mario Kart, you can be in dead last place, and then run over a “power up” mushroom (or get some other gimmick from the game) that gives you super speed at the last minute to win.

That’s just how this crazy entrepreneur life is.

It’s as weird and hair raising as it is fun and rewarding — but only if you stay long enough to finish the race.

Anyway, that’s all for today.

I think I hear Mario Kart calling…

Ben Settle

Let’s shake things up a little, shall we?

Couple days ago I babbled about “The Matrix” and breaking rules.

Remember that?

Well, check out THESE apples:

Not long ago a friend told me about an ad selling a “make money online” product (yeah, I know… yaaaaawn). And they tested two versions. One was full of screenshots “proving” their income using their super duper system, with some bullets, and an offer.

The other was just a story, same bullets and same offer.

In other words, no fancy shmancy screen shots. No “proof” of income. And none of the bells & whistles showing bank statements, PayPal accounts, and all that jazz.

Which version won?

Drum roll…

The winner was the “plain Jane” version.

Now, this ad broke a major “rule” (i.e. not using a bunch of proof) and yet it kicked rumpus when tested against the proof letter.

What gives?

Isn’t proof the “end all be all” in advertising?

You bet your underoos it is.

And smart marketers pack their ads with lots of proof and credibility elements (although personally, I rarely ever use the “usual suspect” kinds of proof anymore — like screenshots or testimonials, etc).

But in this case, I guess the proof wasn’t in the pudding.

And, in fact, it got beaten to a pulp.

Question is… why?

Who knows?

Mayhaps all the photoshopped bank statements looked phony. Or maybe people just thought, “anyone can do a photoshop job, this is BS”. Or maybe… just MAYBE… an irresistible story is more persuasive than flashing dry facts and figures?

I guess we’ll never know for sure.

But one thing is certain:

Breaking rules can be very profitable.

And sometimes… the bigger the rule you break, the bigger the winner that breaks the bank.

Giddy-up.

Ben Settle

P.S. If you want to learn how to tell stories that sell, check out the free sales story-telling bonus that comes with “Crackerjack Selling Secrets”:

I gotta be blunt with you.

Right now, I’m not really all that much in the mood to write an email… the sales letter on my desk that needs to get done this week… or even so much as a grocery list right now.

Hey, sometimes that’s just the way it is.

So instead, let’s do something else that’s both fun… and kind of useful.

Below is a short video a friend sent me about how to (and how NOT to) behave on FaceBook.

It should be required viewing, IMHO.

And it makes a great “gift” you can send people who spam your FB wall with virtual cards, irrelevant tags and other impersonal (i.e. no impact) tricks people use to try to get attention.

Anyway, just click here to grab it on YouTube.

Ben Settle

P.S. And don’t forget to grab some more marketing lovin’ over at:

A few weeks ago, I wrote about movies and marketing.

Remember that?

It was about how some of the world’s best marketing geniuses (like Eugene Schwartz and David Ogilvy) were heavily influenced by the movie industry and, in Schwartz’s case, watching all the highest grossing flicks at the box office.

Anyway, there’s another person’s name to add to that list.

And that is David Bullock.

Now, I don’t know David.

Nor do I (yet) own any of his products.

But he once did an interview with Glenn Livingston and said something that’s had a HUGE impact on my little ol’ business ever since.

What did he say?

Simply that he watches the movie “The Matrx” once per month… and gets ideas for his testing and Internet business each time.

For example, he talked about the character Morpheus.

And how Morpheus was talking to Neo about when you’re in a situation where there are rules (such as in marketing, testing, software, copywriting, etc) you can bend them depending on your thinking and your belief in yourself that you CAN bend them successfully.

That opened my mind in ways no other book or course ever had.

And it completely changed the way I market and write ads.

So anyway, the message is clear:

Movies can be awesome “marketing fodder.”

Watch ’em, enjoy ’em and, yes, profit from ’em.

Ben Settle

P.S. Movies are also great for getting sales story ideas, too.

Believe it or not, some of my highest pulling ads were influenced by ideas from movie characters and plots.

And guess what?

You can get an advanced teaching on using stories in your sales and marketing when you grab your copy of Crackerjack Selling Secrets. This MP3 bonus puts 5 different kinds of stories I’ve used to successfully sell products under the microscope (including a .pdf of the stories themselves)… and shows you how to adapt them to whatever YOU sell, too.

It comes by immediate download when you buy the book at: