Ben Settle

Last night was our 9th wedding anniversary.

We’re talking nine looooong, grueling years of such hell and nagging… if she doesn’t behave herself I may not be renewing her contract next year at anniversary numero 10 —

Just kidding… just kidding 😉

Actually, it ain’t easy being married to me.

Take, for example, the weekend we got married.

We were in a little jerk water town near the church where we were hitched and I (in my infinite wisdom) picked this little hole in the wall motel to stay that week.

The motel was called… “The Bel Air.”

But it wasn’t anything like the 5-star version in LA.

This one was stinky, trashy and cramped.

And those who came to watch us get married couldn’t understand why I picked such a joint.

Why not go to a “real” hotel?

My answer?

Because I didn’t know their WERE any real hotels around there until my brother and dad said, “yeah, we’re staying at the Holiday Inn Express nearby…”

Doh!

Nice travel detective work there, Batman.

Anyway, while chatting about this last night, I got to thinking:

How many times does this happen to marketers in business?

Why do people stay with accountants who can’t count before realizing there are a million (plus one) others to choose from? Or keep doing business with banks that treat us like igits? Or continue to dish out hard earned smackeroos for advice that is either worthless or even makes things worse?

This stuff happens all the time.

And you know what?

Unless you’re dealing with the DMV here in the ‘states you’re usually not forced to put up with mediocre (or bad) service.

Choices abound these days.

And if you don’t take a moment to look around, you may never realize that, instead of swatting flies and mosquitos all night at that fleabag motel, you could be kicking back in the hot tub at the Ritz Carlton down the street.

Just something to think about.

Ben Settle

P.S. My Copywriting Grab Bag book is out of stock for the next week or so. And the Crackerjack Selling Secrets book launch has been delayed by about that long, too.

I’ll send an announcement when things are back online.

While back, I wrote a about “bizarro world” marketers.

They are basically like Bizarro Superman, but in business.

Bizarro Superman (in case you don’t know) is Superman’s exact opposite who lives in the backwards Bizarro world — where up is down, down is up, he says hello when he leaves, says goodbye when he arrives, has freeze vision (instead of heat vision), flame breath (instead of frost breath), etc.

And Bizarro marketers are the same way:

They do the exact OPPOSITE of what they should be doing when it comes to marketing, customer service, etc.

But guess what?

There are also Bizarro customers, too.

And if you aren’t prepared for them, they’ll make you think you are indeed living on a backwards planet!

Take this dude who recently accused me of using “tricks.”

He said I had “planned” for 6 months to launch The Crackerjack Selling CD Club only to end it after the first lesson on purpose… as some grand scheme to get more money out of my hapless, unsuspecting customers. Kinda like a scheming Lex Luthor criminal mastermind rubbing my hands together and laughing all the way to the bank.

Muw-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Except, there are a few holes in that theory.

Like, for example, how can someone make more profit selling a $67 book one time via forced continuity (which pretty much always translates to less sales) vs selling it for as much as $97 (the cost when re-released) without forced continuity?

Answer:

You probably can’t.

Unless, of course, you live in Bizarro customer world — where up is down, right is left and, apparently, $67 is more than $97.

Anyway, why am I telling you about this?

Because like it or not, sooner or later you’re going to run into your own version of a bizarro customer.

Might as well expect it.

And when it happens, don’t let them rattle you.

Just recognize ’em for what they are, and don’t let them buy again.

Who knows?

Maybe they’ll go away and haunt your competition, instead.

Ben Settle

P.S. By the way, the Crackerjack Selling Secrets book might be ready this week. And there will be a $20 discount for anyone ordering on launch day.

I’ll make an announcement when it’s ready.

Today’s email might very well have zero interest for you.

After all, there’s no real tip in it.

Just a “housekeeping” item I wanted to share about why I killed the original Crackerjack Selling CD Club and am soon offering the book as a stand-alone product.

So why did I do it?

Why, after 6 months of build up, sweat and blood (not to mention a successful launch that did almost twice as well as expected)… did I bring it crashing down after just one month?

Here are a few of the reasons:

1. The Book

Seems many more people than I anticipated wanted “Crackerjack Selling Secrets” without having to join the Crackerjack Selling CD Club.

And I just didn’t think it through very well, at the time.

So I’m soon releasing the book as a stand alone product — along with what was the first lesson in The Crackerjack Selling CD Club (called “The King Of Selling Online”) as a bonus.

Plus, on launch day, I’m knocking $20 off the price.

2. Lack Of Time And Enjoyment

I completely misjudged this part.

The process of doing audio interviews, editing, transcribing, setting it all up, making sure everything was right (I don’t believe in just “slapping” these things together), coordinating interviews, etc was just too time consuming to do it the justice it really deserves month after month.

I like doing audio interviews once in a while.

But every month?

Not so much.

And eventually, it would have shown.

So that’s another reason I nipped it in the “bud.”

3. Print Newsletter

I’m instead cooking up something else.

Something my gut told me to do in the first place:

An offline print newsletter.

It’ll be way less expensive than The Crackerjack Selling CD Club, much more in line with my strengths, and a lot more intimate and personal.

Kind of like my daily emails on STEROIDS.

Besides writing about all things marketing, selling, copywriting, persuasion, etc, I’ll also include critiques of subscribers’ ads, emails, press releases, marketing plans… and at times toss in some free (or discounted) products, expert interviews, and even live tele-seminars just for kicks.

I’ll have more details in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, if you want to get Crackerjack Selling Secrets (without having to join any monthly continuity programs), it’s on the way.

Probably before the end of this week.

Ben Settle

Whoda’ thunk it?

Yesterday’s John Caples email about misleading ads hit a nerve.

And so today I want to tell you another story about how marketing deceit hurts (and not helps) sales.

Here’s the scoop:

A while back, I read a goo-roo’s account of how someone got swindled by some convenience store owner out of something like 30 cents.

It was by one of those loaded choices like:

“Buy one for 30 cents or 3 for a dollar.”

And like most people, the “mark” grabbed the 3 for a dollar option without thinking about it.

Okay, so what?

Well, this goo-roo thought that was pretty cool since it wasn’t lying, just playing into peoples’ lack of thinking (something like that).

And hey, it worked, right?

The store got 10 cents richer, and probably made a lot more than that when you multiplied this by thousands of others falling for the same gag.

But you know what I think?

I think it literally robs stores like that of sales.

Why?

Because (and this is the case with a LOT of people), later on, the sucker who got taken realized he’d been “had.”

No… 10 cents isn’t going to break anyone.

But it made him kind of mad when he thought about it.

And that means, he probably NEVER went back. Which means he probably never spent money there again. And for all we know, he may have even told other people not to go there, too — potentially taking away future sales from other potential customers.

Who knows how much one angry customer costs?

Which is why smart selling is not about tricks and gimmicks.

It’s about serving customers — finding out what they want and need, and then offering it to them in a way that gives them a good, warm, positive experience so they:

1. Eagerly WANT to come back again.

2. Enthusiastically TELL everyone else they know about you.

Not exactly “sexy”, is it?

Mayhaps not.

But in the end, you will make far more sales if you concentrate on “serving” people… instead of “tricking” them.

Ben Settle

P.S. Speaking of selling without tricks…

My Crackerjack Selling Secrets book reveals 101 ways to sell more products and services without selling your soul to some goo-roo.

It should be ready for re-release next week.

Last week, my friend Ryan Healy blogged an interesting question.

It was about misleading people in advertising.

And how far is “too far” when telling stories in sales letters, where it goes from a perfectly ethical and legal sales tool to a blatant and misleading lie?

One of his examples was the famous John Caples ad:

Very successful ad.

But, IMHO, misleading.

In fact, here’s what I wrote on Ryan’s blog about it:

Anyway, just one man’s opinion.

To judge for yourself, you can grab the ad here.

And if you’d like to chime in on this, click here.

Ben Settle

P.S. Last week I killed The Crackerjack Selling CD Club.

I’ll explain why in the world I’d end a program which did almost twice as well as expected soon. But for now, I’d like to give a heads-up to those who originally wanted the “Crackerjack Selling Secrets” book without being forced to join the continuity.

It’ll be available as a stand alone product probably next week.

Please let me know if you joined the Crackerjack Selling CD Club and did NOT get my special announcement sent to the customers last week.

Got a snazzy little Twitter tip for you today.

But first, my standard disclaimer:

I am NOT a Twitter expert in any way, shape or form whatsoever. I never will be one, either. So take the following with a big ol’ fatty grain of salt.

Anyway, here’s the tip:

Remember yesterday’s email about “Obvious Adams”?

Well, to further illustrate its timeless wisdom, one of the stories it tells is about how ol’ “Obvious” solved an advertising problem that plagued his boss, their agency’s client and everyone else involved with the project.

The exact problem isn’t really important here.

What is important was the solution — which was (and I quote):

Got a lot of that on Twitter, don’t we?

By the way, I know some of the social media goo-roos will freak out at the mere use of “Twitter” and “selling” in the same sentence. After all, it’s a SOCIAL medium, dang nab it! Not a platform for selling!

Which, IMHO, shows they don’t really know what “selling” is.

Let’s take all these teeth whitening tweets for example.

You can see these all the time when someone tweets something like, “Do Not Pay For Teeth Whitening” or whatever.

Pretty obnoxious stuff, isn’t it?

Now, again, I’m no Twitter goo-roo.

But here’s how I’d sell a thinga-ma-ding like this on Twitter:

First, I sure as heck wouldn’t advertise it on there.

That only annoys people.

And, in a lot of ways, turns off good prospects.

No… what I’d do is create a new Twitter account and start following and attracting people who are complaining about their white teeth problem… and engage them.

No selling or pitching, either.

Just yapping away about the PROBLEM.

And during some of this yapping, I’d mention a free ezine on the subject and plug THAT. Then, in the ezine, to my friendly group of people desperate to get rid of the problem they hate so much, I’d plug the product.

That, in my opinion, is how to sell with Twitter.

And you know what?

I think Obvious Adams would agree with me.

So there.

Ben Settle

P.S. For another Twitter brain fart like this, check out:

Got a cool (but kinda strange) writing tip for you today.

And, if you are someone who finds writing hard and painful, I suspect you’ll find it especially useful.

Check this out:

Recently, when rapping with my bud Rich Bryda (I’ll tell you more about him later), he told me about a way to make your concentration when writing SUPER focused.

Rich, by the way, is no dummie.

He’s written thousands of ezine articles in an ultra-competitive market, and what he told me is probably the best writing tip I’ve ever heard.

What did he say?

Just that, when writing, he puts a Mozart song on “repeat” so it loops over and over.

Does it work?

You bet your under-roos it does.

In fact, I’ve been doing this for a couple weeks now, and it’s done miracles for my concentration and attention span when writing.

The key is to pick songs that “rev” you up.

For example, here are a few songs from my “play list”:

• Clubbed To Death (From “The Matrix” Soundtrack)
• Driving With The Top Down (Iron Man Soundtrack)
• Fire Man (Iron Man Soundtrack)
• Rescue Mission (Watchmen Soundtrack)
• New Divide (Transformers 2 Soundtrack)
• Jamie (Weezer — no idea why this song works for me, whatever)

Anyway, those are just a few.

And what you do is, you pick a song and let it loop for 33.33 minutes (ala Eugene Schwarz’s classic “egg timer” teaching) while writing.

Do you need to listen to the same music I do?

No way, Jose.

I listen to action movie soundtracks cuz that’s what floats my boat.

But what you want to do is make YOUR own playlist, put one of the songs on “repeat” mode (you can do this in iTunes) and let the words fly.

Won’t this get boring?

Or even annoying listening to the same song over and over?

Surprisingly, no.

But it does focus your mind like nothing else.

And hey, who knows?

You may just have yourself a bit of fun to boot.

Ben Settle

P.S. Once you get your own play list, jam over to www.CopywritingGrabBag.com for 122+ ways to write your ads, emails and sales letters used by some of the best copywriters on the planet.

Recently, I had a chat with a marketing friend about goo-roos.

And he was telling me about this marketer he knows who’s just really, really (REALLY) arrogant.

On an “arrogance scale” of 1-10, he’s a solid 17.

Now, neither of us was judging this guy.

Frankly, the dude seems to WANT to be seen as arrogant. Probably as part of his positioning or brand or whatever. Which is perfectly fine — I mean, the way I see it, if someone wants to live in sweet, blissful arrogance who am I to stand in their way?

But here’s the problem:

There are thousands of brand new marketers popping up on the scene every day.

And many times all they are seeing is one arrogant goo-roo after another exaggerating, hyping and even lying through their teeth.

Like, for example, about inflated sales letter response rates.

Or how many people are on their list.

Or how much moola they made (funny how they usually only mention gross sales, and not net profit…)

And so on, and so forth.

My point?

Lots (too many) of people are thinking they need to do the same thing — to brag and be “cool” like the goo-roos so they can impress their customers with their wonderfulness.

But you know what?

The real experts don’t just talk about their successes.

They brag about heir FAILURES, too.

In fact, sometimes they brag MORE about their failures than their successes. Because usually the bigger the failure, the bigger the discovery they made that lead to their big success in the first place.

So anyhoo, just something to think about.

Next time you see some arrogant goo-roo strutting around like a miserly peacock counting its money, you may want to take what they say with a grain of salt.

This may not be true all the time.

But if they’re strutting, they could very well be struggling, too.

Ben Settle

P.S. You can learn from all kinds of non-arrogant, “for real” marketing geniuses in the appendixes inside “The Copywriting Grab Bag”:

Earlier this year, I took “inventory” of my schedule.

I’d been working from home full time for over 4 years so far, and yet, for some reason, I was still finding myself having a hard time getting everything done.

Know what I discovered?

I was (shock!) wasting lots and Lots and LOTS of time.

And all this time wasting tomfoolery was crushing my bottom line, making me more stressed and sending me merrily on my way towards total burnout.

So I said screw that — time to get ruthless with my time.

And the first step was making a list of all my time-sucking habits.

Here’s what the list looked like:

• Answering hate mail or some loser’s snarky comments
• Hanging out in forums
• Social media
• Reading the news
• Obsessing over every google brain fart
• Being a perfectionist
• Keeping the email program on when working
• Yapping away on the phone
• Fulfilling my own physical products

Anyway, I still struggle with some of these things at times.

So this ain’t me preaching.

Think of it as a “public service announcement.”

In fact, here’s something to ponder:

If you are indulging in any of these things several times per day (at the expense of doing something productive), I hereby challenge you to cut your time down doing these things by half for the next 30 days (one measly month), and see what happens to your income, your stress levels and even your peace of mind.

If you’re like me, the difference will be night and day.

Laters.

Ben Settle

P.S. For 101 “timeless” persuasion secrets used by some of history’s most successful sales, marketing and advertising pros, check out: