Ben Settle

True story:

Back when I was in 5th or 6th grade, I remember laying in my grandparents’ bed watching the Disney Channel (a big deal back then in the 80’s). And I was fascinated by an episode of a show called The Wonderful World Of Disney titled: “Disney’s Greatest Villains.” It was hosted by the same actor who played Man in the Magic Mirror from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and other Disney specials. The Mirror guy spent the entire show talking about why the villains — not the heroes — are the reason why Disney stories are so popular, along with clips of various Disney films to prove his point.

I probably am butchering how he put it.

But basically he said:

“Take a story with no villain, danger, or evil plans, and put them together and what do you got? Boredom.”

In other words:

It’s the villain that determines how much you like the good guys.

And, it’s the villain that is #1 in any story.

No villain = no conflict.

No conflict = no engagement.

No engagement = no outstanding box office gross.

Many years later I saw another documentary on Amazon:

“Necessary Evil: Super-Villains of DC Comics”

And I highly recommend it for anyone in the marketing game.

It’s hosted by the late Christopher Lee (the perfect voice for it) and it goes deep into the psychology of villains and why you really need villains to have an engaging story.

So it is with creating engaging marketing.

It’s practically embedded in my email methodology, too.

More on that here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

So goes my paraphrasing of the great King Lionidis.

(From the movie “300”)

Very applicable to trolls, too.

Admittedly I don’t get that many trolls these days.

Yes, a few still ankle bite now and then, especially during the BerserkerMail launch.

But I suspect many are on to my antics and don’t bother.

Yet there are many benefits to having trolls haunting your email list & social media pages, spreading lies & fake news about you, and trying to bring some significance to their pathetic little existences by latching onto you for whatever reason — or no reason at all — they chose.

Like, for example:

1. Easy profits — if you know how to “flip” their nonsense into sales.

2. Better email delivery rates — way I understand it is, on at least some level, when they mindlessly reply with whatever mind vomit they reply with, Gmail, Yahoo, etc see they are interacting & engaging with a real human, which can help your inbox delivery.

3. Entertainment — I know it can be hair-raising for some, but after a while hearing from them is like the hitman in the movie “True Romance” talking about killing people… the first one is the bytch of the bunch, the second time is more “diluted”, and eventually he does it just to see their expression change. So it is with trolls, in my experience, dispatching them is routine.

4. Exposing the animal they are — so you can proceed accordingly (block ‘em, bait ‘em in, profit from ‘em, whatever).

5. Good sport — for your own amusement and that of those you share it with.

There are many more benefits to having a troll.

The key is to give them nothing, and take from them everything.

Next step:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A question rears its magnificent head:

Theres a question that I really didn’t find any conforting answer to… And I wanted to get your advice on it?

The iOS update

What about it? How do you evolve your email marketing stragies around it? What should we do?

I know that, at the end of the day, only the sales matters, but… Open rates are a big factor to account, isn’t?

Do you have any course or advices about thst important update?

Thanks a lot, Ben!

It always amuses me when people worry about open rates.

Something Androids have not been accurately tracking this whole time. And I have never once written for the open rate, or even the click, just the relationship. Do that and a lot of problems tend to disappear, in my experience.

But if you really need to track, track clicks.

If someone clicks, you know they opened it.

For those still worried about it, you have two options:

1. Put your head firmly between your legs… and kiss your gluteus assimus goodbye.

2. Or just learn how to write emails people want to read and respond to.

If you know what you’re doing it’s a non-issue.

At least to those who understand #2 above.

Something I teach in the Email Players Skh?ma Book that I give free to new Email Players subscribers. Combine that info with the more bigger picture strategic info I teach in the issues (especially the upcoming 10-month anniversary issue in August) and this sort of thing is simply not relevant.

It’s only relevant to people who still think opens are relevant.

But as far as sales go, opens have always been completely irrelevant.

At least, to anyone who knows what they’re doing.

More info on the newsletter here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A reader asks:

Hey, Ben.

After binge-reading your email newsletter few days ago,

something makes me curious.

You write long story email,

why don’t you write a blog post just like your email

and promote your post through your email newsletter?

The short answer:

I do it the way I do it because I like getting paid.

I find this question fascinating in the same way I would find it fascinating if someone asked me, “Ben how come you don’t use MySpace?” In fact, I thought this silly idea of writing teaser emails to send people to long blog posts which then link to an offer, being more profitable than simply putting the content in the emails with a link directly to an offer died off years ago.

But, apparently not.

About 10 years ago I would sometimes get challenged on this.

And you know what happened?

Every single person I know who tested it who actually knew what they were doing with email found their sales were not just better, but exponentially better… simply putting the content in the email instead of trying to screw around sending them to a blog post to generate comments or for SEO, etc.

That’s not to say not to use blogs.

I certainly do – for purely list-building purposes.

But, not when I want to make direct sales, except in rare circumstances.

Anyway, do with this info what you will.

Take it to heart.

Ignore it.

Or even SPURN it, for all I care.

But if you want to see the exact methodology Yours Crotchety uses, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

In my last book “elBenbo Press” I proudly declared two things:

1. Social media is stupid

2. I’d never write a book on the subject

Yet, barely a month after it launched, I wrote a 400+ page book (called “Social Lair”) about social media (launching on Monday) and am soon going to be launching a social media platform by the same name (“SocialLair”) with “Email Players” subscriber Troy Broussard.

Strange days indeed…

Anyway, there are many reasons for my “about face” on the subject.

One of the main reasons:

Email is great for daily communication.

But there is a limit to how many you can send in a single day without getting into the territory of eroding relationships with even your what I call “Berserker” customers who hang on every word you say and write.

That limit is different for every business.

But a limit there is.

And if you doubt this then go ahead and send 50 emails per day for a month straight and let me know how it goes in the long run with your sales, attrition, engagement, and delivery rates.

Thus, social media.

It’s the one thing I liked using it for:

Dozens of daily impromptu communications.

Sometimes short, sometimes long.

Sometimes selling something, sometimes not.

Sometimes leading to other things I am up to, sometimes mere brain farts.

But the customer has full control to see it or not, there is a social element that can create “feeding frenzy”-like engagement & sales if used correctly with email (what my new Social Lair book launching next week teaches, amongst other things), and it lets you do what I call “list laundering” – which I will also talk more about next week, and that is what has led to my list being probably the single most responsive list in my niche for reasons I won’t go into here.

The problem with social media is everything else:

The privacy butchering.

The creepy line crossings & outright whoring out of your data.

The manipulation of hormones, news, and information.

The anti-small business rules.

The incessant de-platforming & thought policing.

The not being able to export an audience into a list.

And so on, and so forth.

All things our upcoming social media platform does NOT engage in, incidentally.

If anything, it’s capitalist bliss and a way businesses can potentially make fortunes in their own protected “walled garden” platform where your thoughts aren’t policed, where your data is yours and yours alone, and where it’s created — by design — to get maximum engagement and sales if you know what you’re doing.

Anyway, more about that platform in the coming weeks.

For now, I want to talk about my Social Lair book launching in a couple days.

The best way to use social media is in conjunction with email.

And, specifically, in the way I teach in the book.

Until then, to learn the email side of things, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

An opinion, that also happens to be a fact…

I believe Zack Snyder is the most hated director in Hollywood. He’s like the “Trump” of moviemakers. And I fully admit to a borderline jealousy of his ability to create Berserker-like fans & enemies alike.

Here are 10 reasons why:

1. He is equally hated and loved, with no lukewarm reactions to him or his work from those who know who he is and watch his movies

2. His fans are all labeled as “toxic” even though his gaslighting haters are 10xs more so

3. His fans are constantly shamed, marginalized, and mocked to the point many hide the fact they are fans of Snyder at all just so they don’t have to deal with it

4. Many blame him for all that’s wrong with movies

5. His name and Mission not only resurrected a movie (the infamous “Snydercut”) that was supposedly DOA and considered a mere fanboy pipe dream… but he was given $70 million of additional money to fix it up, even though its preceeding movie (Batman v Superman) movie flopped at the box office

6. He basically pulled off a miracle getting his Snydercut released at all, even as everyone (including some of his diehard fans who gave up in despair) said it’d never happen, and even outright laughed at & mocked those who said it would

7. His fans are so devoted they fully intend to make sure a sequel gets made even with Snyder playing coy and acting like it won’t — even while his haters almost pray it never happens

8. Everything he says gets him hated more by his haters (they even found reasons to hate him after raising a few hundred thousand dollars for a suicide awareness cause) and loved more by his diehard fans

9. Many of his haters have admitted they couldn’t resist watching the movie — which only helped it with whatever success it got, i.e., the movie profited from his haters (who became unwitting members of Snyder’s marketing department for it) as much as it did the fans

10. He simply does not compromise, and goes for what he wants no matter what anyone says or thinks — all of which attracts his fans to him like a magnet, while making his haters go even more bonkers seething at the moon

Which brings me to the punchline:

The Snydercut is a magnificent example of Sixth-generation marketing warfare.

Snyder’s fans & haters were/are at WAR with each other in a way where Snyder has financially benefited in ways he never could have otherwise. Even though he did not ask to be paid to finish his cut and release it, it will almost certainly translate into many future deals he wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, plus getting him and his brand all new fans who will see his future movies.

And it’s all because his fans made it not just a Mission but a VIRTUE to war on his behalf.

They were willing — and probably unwitting — soldiers in his war.

And it all played out on the 6G marketing warfare battlefield.

Thus the April “Email Players” issue.

It’s all about what I have dubbed Sixth-generation marketing warfare.

It’s also admittedly light on “how to” info.

Instead it is almost all strategy & big concepts about 6G marketing warfare, which I believe can potentially take nearly any business from 4-figures to 5-figures, 5-figures to 6-figures, and 6-figures to 7-figures and beyond over time, assuming a business has the right amount of work ethic, patience, and discernment.

Without those attributes it will do your business zero good.

I say this to warn away the goo-roo fanboys and new product junkies.

The deadline is tomorrow – 3/31/21.

If you want it, I do not recommend procrastinating.

If you’re a current subscriber who wants it and whose credit card is expiring or you’re waiting for a new one, get your shyt together my friend and figure it out.

Either way:

This issue will have ramifications on everything else I teach for a long time.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

This will sound like copywriting heresy.

But if I don’t profane the false goo-roo gods sometimes, life ain’t much fun.

Here’s the story:

I recently finished my yearly read-through of the late, great brilliant copywriter Eugene Schwartz’s book “Breakthrough Advertising.” It is by far one of the single most valuable copywriting books I possess. There is very little in it I disagree with, and even those disagreements have to do with the times he lived in and nothing else. A time which I describe as Third-generation marketing warfare on page 12 of the upcoming April Email Players issue, whereas I believe we now compete in the theater of Sixth-generation marketing warfare, with many of the old “weapons” still necessary, but not nearly as important or powerful as they were then.

Take the almighty headline.

Old GS says it’s 90% of your ad in the book.

Get that wrong, and nothing else matters.

And at the time, he was absolutely right.

Today?

It’s different.

Headlines are about as important to your overall advertising now as swords used by world class swashbucklers in 17th century sea battles were then – when it was the canons that did the most damage – with the swords being used afterwards to secure the ship and clean out the survivors.

Which brings us back to 6G marketing warfare.

The headline is still extremely important.

But you can win many copywriting battles with a crap headline or even none at all if you use the heavy artillery that wins the day in the current business and marketing world. The only thing a better headline will do you for now is help you win a single battle against someone whose ads you happen to go head to head against, but not even come close to winning the war.

Enter the April “Email Players” issue.

It’s all about Sixth-generation marketing warfare.

And it is, in many ways, the most valuable content I’ve ever written.

Certainly it’s been more valuable to my business than anything else I’ve written about. Whether it will be to anyone else I can’t say. Especially since, it’s actually quite low on “how to” info, and is mostly just an intro to something I have yet to see anyone else write about in my industry, but that I’ll be writing a lot about in the months and years ahead, applying it to various different aspects of business, marketing, email, copywriting, launching products, list building, and everything else I like to talk about and implement in my own businesses — in both the info publishing and software spaces.

But a warning to the goo-roo fanboy chasing hacks & tricks.

There are zero of either in Email Players.

And that’s especially true in this upcoming April issue.

It’s exclusively big & dramatic concepts combined with pure strategy — both of which will take a lot of thought, work, and patience to implement. However, I truly believe those who take it to heart, who read it multiple times, and, most important of all, doggedly APPLY the info over the coming months, years, and decades will see that patience and work rewarded in ways mere money cannot measure.

For now, I will just say this:

For the longest time, I’ve treated business as WAR & not merely business.

And if this issue does nothing but impart that on its readers I’ve done my job.

But the deadline to subscribe is in just 2 short days.

That means if you want in, you can’t procrastinate.

And if you’re a current subscriber whose credit card is expiring or you need a new one because of some low life hacker, put it on whatever card you use to pay for your phone and other entertainment bills then switch it later if need be.

You gotta get your shyt together to stay subscribed.

This is the One Email Players Issue to rule them all.

And its “fingerprints” will be on all future issues henceforth.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Let me tell you a story.

Specifically, about comicbook creator Robert Kirkland who is the writer & creator of the ghoulish & popular comicbook & TV show “The Walking Dead.” When he first wanted to break into Image Comics with the Walking Dead he knew it would not be accepted at face value. The reasons for this were many, and if you want the full story simply watch “The Image Revolution” on Amazon Prime. But needless to say, in order to get his story accepted and his comics made he had to outright lie, deceive, and entrap.

Here’s how:

He did not say what his story was REALLY about.

He told a bald-faced lie saying The Walking Dead zombies were actually an alien invasion. And that his stories would contain lots of hidden Easter Eggs teasing it for a while before the readers would discover it.

Apparently, this was a big turn on at Image.

And, so, his comics were made and the rest is history.

But, what is not common knowledge about that history is, eventually he was asked about when these aliens were going to finally show up (which, if you read the comics or watch the TV show, you know are not there, and never have been).

To which he answered something like:

(Paraphrasing)

“Oh that? I was just saying that so you’d give them a chance.”

Anyway, here’s why I tell this story:

It’s a great example of what I call Sixth-generation marketing warfare.

And that concept is what the entire April “Email Players” issue is about – what it is, what it means, and how you can start using it in your business. No, I’m not saying you have to lie or deceive. Nor should you. In fact, the best Sixth-generation marketing warfare is totally transparent and easily observed even by your competition. But, there are come things you’ll have to do that may make you uncomfortable.

And so it goes.

Listen, there are no tricks or hacks in this issue.

And there is no “how to” info to celebrate.

It’s pure strategy.

Strategy, I believe, will make or break businesses in the years ahead.

Here’s the link to subscribe by the looming 3/31/21 deadline:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Last year one of my readers sent me a screenshot of someone teaching what to do after someone opts-in to a list.

It went something like this:

Day 1: Tell them what to expect + a free gift

Day 2: Share your story in a dramatic way

Day 3: Share the epiphany you had + free basic solution

Day 4: Share the hidden benefits of solution

Day 5: CTA to full solution i.e., your offer

All these supposed “clever” checklists of things to do to get a checks coming in that try to gameify & hack their way into the sale are simply a waste of effort & energy to anyone who knows how to actually market, sell, and close deals.

The reason for their clumsiness:

They are making it about the marketing instead of the market.

Once you realize it’s about them and not the marketing, the whole game changes.

Example:

When I wrote the 14-day sequence for Learnistic, I didn’t sit down and say, “on day 1 I’m gonna tell them what to expect over the next 14 days. On day 2 I’ll give them this other free gift to show what a swell guy I am. On day 3 I’ll tell them about that time I was sitting on the toilet and had an epiphany. On day 4 I’ll tell them about how Aunt Martha in the grove found the hidden benefit to…”

No, no, no.

What I did was ask:

“How can I build a relationship with these people?”

And then that dictated the content, the strategy, and the approach.

It ain’t about checklists, it’s about relationships with your list.

And on that note:

If you want some advice on list-building — both free & paid — that bring them in with an at least somewhat established relationship before they even hear from you… I go deep into both in the upcoming March “Email Players” issue. Including some ways I am experimenting with myself, and that I highly recommend you do too.

The deadline to subscribe in time is tomorrow 2/28/21 when I send it to the printer.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle