Ben Settle

I was once forwarded an email from a copywriting coach nattering on and on and on about how great a “writer” they are, and, presumably, that’s why you should listen to them.

Talent is all well and good.

That and a quarter will get you a gum ball, if nothing else.

But, you don’t have to be a great writer to make lots of sales.

In fact, I’m the first to admit I am not a great “writer.” (If you’ve seen my novels this is obvious — riddled with typos, grammar problems, you name it.)

But, luckily, I don’t need to be.

Why?

Because in my experience, what’s more important is the ability to create vision. If you can do that, your “writing” can be sub par and you’ll still have people scrambling to buy from you. This is straight from the late, great, master of negotiation Jim Camp — called the world’s most feared negotiator by his adversaries (including negotiators at Intel, who, I hear, have some of the toughest negotiators in the world). And, it’s something I’ve used for years to write long running ads in hyper competitive markets (like home business, self defense, golf, etc) overrun with better writers than me. It’s also how, for example, I showed one of my “Email Players” subscribers how to go from making $0 in December (the slowest month for his business) to doing over $100k in a December and almost double that by the end of the next month.

Had nothing to do with writing talent, it was simply creating vision the way I taught him.

Back to Jim Camp… his big teaching was:

“Vision drives decision.”

What that means is, until somebody has a vision and gets emotionally connected to your copy, they won’t make a decision to buy from you. They really can’t make a decision to buy because all decisions are made on emotion.

Yes, even the decision to be rational is an emotional decision…

Anyway, the trick ain’t becoming a great writer, which not everyone can learn.

It’s becoming great at creating vision, and sending the right offer to the right people, which anyone can learn.

Very simple.

Very obvious.

And, on the internet, very rare.

To learn more about my not-all-that-mysterious email ways, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Behold two of the most valuable business quotes ever uttered by human lips:

Quote #1 — from Earl Nightingale

(found in his video “The Boss”)

“Most people…want to be liked and want to get along, who want to be friends. They have problems and sorrows of their own about which we’re not aware. They have bad days and disappointments. Make sure that the time they’re with you is a high spot in their day and that they’ll want to come back, not just because of your company, but because of you.”

Quote #2 — from A-list copywriter Doug D’Anna

(found in my “Copywriting Grab Bag” eBook)

“Everybody can recite benefits, benefits, benefits. Forget the benefits. Ultimately it’s more than just benefits. You’re selling the relationship too. It’s not just a product. Just like I’m going to go look to buy a car today. I’m first really shopping for a salesman.”

They may not look it, but both are extremely deep thinking.

In fact, I’ve been reflecting upon them both for well over a decade, and still find new ways to apply them, almost every day, in almost every email I write, and in almost every interaction I have with my customers.

More:

There’s far more going on then just the surface ideas of people don’t buy your product or service, they buy “you.” The above quotes were simply my own “gateway” drug to learning a special kind of marketing I talk in great detail about in the September “Email Players” issue, which I am sending to the printer today.

I call it a “special” kind of marketing because so few ever think to do it.

And even fewer actually do do it.

Yet, it’s been used by a handful of people to become extremely successful.

(In some cases, even when they didn’t deserve it!)

Like, for example, the media mogul and publishing empire-builder William Randolph Hearst. Donald Trump has used it a lot, too (in fact, I’m reading Hearst’s biography titled “The Chief” and it is astounding how Hearstian Trump is). As did the late brilliant actor Steve McQueen, the late musician Prince, and the still-living Madonna, amongst others.

But very few marketers do it, believe it or not.

Yet the few who do, are all incredibly successful.

Have ridiculously identifiable personal brands.

And, also, have acquired a fanbase of clients and customers who would not even think of buying from or hiring anyone else — even if they could find someone “better” with better pricing at whatever it is they are buying or hiring someone for. It’s all wrapped up in a secret law of persuasion. A law I dedicate the entire September “Email Players” issue to. A law you, too, can use, regardless of your current social status, finances, skill levels, or experience now.

The benefits of using this won’t happen overnight.

And it takes time and patience and hard work.

But, I daresay it’s worth it.

If you want in on this issue, time is short.

Once I send it to the printer today, it’ll be too late to get it.

Grab it at this link immediately, or forever hold your peace:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A cautionary tale:

Back in my Twitter days, I remember someone who was always self promoting on there (which was good), but who was doing it in an awkward way that was almost certainly generating low class leads for himself, while driving the higher quality play directly to my righteous opt-in page.

(Which was not good — for him, at least, I rather enjoyed it).

Here’s what he did:

He was starting to notice a small gaggle of mostly-newbie copywriters on Twitter (Ben Settle Twitter?) who copycatted my every move. Some of these guys did it in a way that made sense, but most did not. And, basically sounded like little wannabe Ben Settle clones, copying my words, my writing style, my personality (as much as that is possible), my business philosophies, my one-liners, and the list goes on.

Just copy, copy, copy.

Paste, paste, paste.

Me too, me too, me too.

So what the guy above did was, he would go out of his way to say he’s “not Ben Settle!” and then go on and on about how he does everything different, doesn’t do things the way I do them, doesn’t offer what I offer, and the list goes on.

The problem with this is twofold:

1. He’s being reactive instead of proactive

2. He was simply building my brand at the expense of his own

I call it “Anti-branding” because that’s exactly what it is.

You can see it in a lot of emails, too.

People are so desperate to be noticed… desperate to be listened to… desperate to be taken seriously, yet are too lazy and unmotivated and impatient to take the time to master a skill, risk any real money to gain invaluable experience and data, or try to think for themselves. So instead, they find a someone with a recognized name, decide to brand themselves as “not” that person, and then pound their chests about it on social media.

It’s as amusing to watch as it is futile.

Nobody of any significance in life became significant because they made it their Mission and brand to be “not someone else” and always naming that other business. Even if doing so works temporarily, it’s a weak long-term business-building goal at best, and business suicide at worst.

This is even the case in politics.

Democrats finally realized simply not being Trump isn’t enough.

You have to have your own point of view, your own opinions, and your own experiences, if you want to succeed up in this business long term.

Enter the September “Email Players” issue.

It shows you a secret “law” of persuasion that will make sure this never happens.

A law that can make you top-of-mind status in the brains and psyches of the people you market to on any media you use (and even on those you don’t, as I am finding out when it comes to social media). That can bond people to you in ways your jealous trolls can only dream of – which is why they will likely ramp up their attacks on you when you do it. And that can, frankly, make writing emails and creating all your other marketing a heckuva lot more fun and profitable all around.

You just have to possess a few attributes like:

1. Guts

2. Patience

3. Hard work ethic

4. Original thinking

5. A wee bit of shamelessness

If you possess all 5 of those attributes, I believe the information in the September “Email Players” issue will radically change your business fairly quickly. If you don’t possess all 5 of those attributes (even if you only have 4 of them), then this issue will be a complete waste of your time and money.

Don’t say you weren’t warned…

If you think you want in, time’s almost up to get this issue.

After I send it to the printer tomorrow, it’ll be too late.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I’ve said it before (many times), and I’ll say it again:

My #1 favorite business book is “The System Club Letters” written by “Email Players” subscriber and the undisputed “founding father” of internet marketing (even Time Magazine more or less admitted it):

Mr. Ken McCarthy.

And one of my favorite parts in his book is when he compares jazz to business:

“Copycats don’t get far in jazz. In fact they don’t exist. Unless you can figure out how to bring something new to the table, there’s no seat for you. Business is a little more tolerant of ‘knock off’ artists, but in the long run the prize goes to businesses that develop a unique personality. The ‘me too’ business makes for slim pickings.”

While you let that soak in, here’s another true life Ken McCarthy story:

He recently and graciously interviewed me for his System Club.

And, one of the first things he asked about was subject line advice.

And the advice I gave was, first and foremost, to write subject lines that don’t sound like something written by anyone else.

Very simple advice.

But, not necessarily very easy advice for a lot of folks.

Even people who study copywriting have a hard time coming up with something that doesn’t sound like something that’d be written by someone else, and is just more easily-ignored “me too” marketing.

But, your long-suffering storyteller has a 2-part cure for this.

First, is what I teach in the “Email Players Skh?ma Book”.

(The book I send to new “Email Players” subscribers)

The second, and even better, cure for me-too marketing and sales copy is simply following the advice in the September “Email Players” issue. It goes way beyond just heavily using your personality, having a unique personality, and saturating your marketing with your voice (all important), and taps into a deep, almost bottomless well-like principle of persuasion and influence and marketing I would say not 1 in 1,000 marketers — especially online — even thinks about, much less uses or uses properly.

The deadline to subscribe in time to get it is in less than 48 hours.

Here’s that secksy link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Before I type another word… a disclaimer:

I’m probably the very last person anyone should listen to about social media. This is especially true since I am not on any social media, and haven’t been in over 9 months. But, even so, I believe the two tips below can significantly increase the sales, brand power, and influence of anyone who is on social media who isn’t foolish enough to think the unbending laws of direct response don’t apply as much (if not more) to social media as they do any other kind of media.

Here goes:

1. Likes don’t keep on the lights

Arguably the dumbest marketing consultant idea ever invented is advertising:

“Like us on Facebook!”

Think about what that means:

Sending potential leads, opt-ins, customers, clients, etc to a platform you don’t control, that can de-platform you on a whim or hide your posts, that you can’t export your audience to (like you can an email or direct mail list), run by people that cheerfully sell & abuse your personal data, in hopes that you’ll get a bunch of people to like and share said page, and stick around to hear more about you and then maybe, just maybe, going to your site and opting in or buying something.

It’s as amusing as it is pointless.

And, it’s another reason why there isn’t any so-called “competition” anymore.

2. My second favorite direct response marketing “law”:

“Sell one thing at a time”

Putting up a post and tagging 34 people you want your audience to follow, or suggesting your audience follow a list of multiple people in a single tweet is honorable, I guess. But if you really want to promote someone as someone to follow, talk about one person at a time.

For one thing, your audience is far more likely to take action.

And for another thing, you’ll be doing that person a much bigger favor than lumping them in with several others so you will have more room to talk about (i.e. sell) them.

All right, I’ve already said more than I know.

Speaking of “laws”:

I mentioned the “sell one thing at a time” law being my second favorite. And the reason that’s my second favorite is because my #1 favorite is so powerful, it can work to make a business a lot of sales even if it ignorantly ignores the sell only one thing at a time law.

I write about it extensively in the September “Email Players” issue.

The deadline to get it is in a couple days.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A true story from the advertising ghetto:

Last week, a faithful and no-doubt sincere and well-meaning and well-intentioned “Email Players” subscriber (i.e. not a troll) gave Yours Crotchety unsolicited advice that not only contradicts 100 years of direct response marketing and billions of dollars in space ad testing over the time… but was a gloriously shining example of the Email Players Rule:

“If you want to know how the deer thinks, ask the hunter, not the deer.”

(Props to comedian Dante Nero for that ditty)

Anyway, what was this unsolicited advice?

To do a better job of clearly defining which pages in “Email Players” are advertisements and which aren’t, to make it easier to read, by doing things like hiding the header and footer on those pages, or putting a box around the the ads like you’d see in a magazine or newspaper which has both informative copy and advertising.

Now I don’t know his exact situation or experiences.

But I do know these three things:

1. He said his advice was based on owning a magazine and as a reader of my newsletter

(i.e. the deer)

2. He did not say his advice was based on paying for ads and testing them and analyzing the results

(i.e. the hunter)

3. I dialed up the “make your ads look as much like the editorial as possible” rule of direct response advertising to 11 in the September issue’s ads — going even more obnoxiously against the unsolicited advice above.

Here’s some context:

I started toying with embedding full page ads inside the newsletter — where before I’d just include a long sales letter for something — in June.

And the June issue’s ads were obviously “ads.”

I even made the stipulation they had to be what I call “Sea-Monkey Advertising.”

(i.e. inspired by the old, brilliant Sea-Monkey comicbook ads.)

The July issue’s ads were, too, although not nearly as much.

And, even the August issue’s ads were obvious ads.

But the upcoming September issue that goes to the printer in a few days?

Well, Troo-Bulleeber, let’s just say, if anyone thought the August issue ads were hard to read because they weren’t obviously defined as advertising… then September’s issue will give them even a hotter case of heartburn over it.

But, even its ads will be merely another feeler to see what works best.

I have some doozies I’ll be running in the coming months that will not only be obvious advertising (not even trying to hide the fact), but prime examples of infotainment that makes even Sea-Monkey ads look prestigious, and not something laying in the gutter of what Marvel Comics once described as “the advertising ghetto” (where, incidentally, all the best direct response advertising can be found, in my opinion…) And it could very well be they handily beat all my sneaky disguised content advertising.

All of which brings me back to the rub:

When you’re hungry and you need to eat or starve, don’t ask the deer how to hunt it, ask the hunter.

You’ll catch more deer.

Eat more heartily.

And, save a lot of ammo.

Whatever the case, if you want to subscribe to “Email Players” in time to get the September issue, you’ll have to hurry.

I’m sending it to the printer later this week.

To get in on time, run (knees to chest!) don’t walk to:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Not long ago, I got this panicky email from a bloke who, too bad for him, left my “Email Players” newsletter before the upcoming September issue:

Speaking of swiping, ____ just beat me and my products to market. They’ve literally launched the same fucking product – including similar designs!

Your recommendations?

The solution is two fold.

The first part is this:

You can never really do much about the pirates and copycats, unfortunately. That is why you want to be aggressively emailing each day, building your personal brand to your own list, and building an audience. It will still piss you off when it happens. But it isn’t really going to affect your sales in the long run.

The second part?

That’s tucked away in the September issue.

It’s something that steals scraps off the tables of the copycats and content pirates because it makes people far less likely to buy their stolen wares. And if you want to have this extremely timely info, here’s what to do:

Go to the URL below and subscribe.

Then, follow the instructions.

So simple even a goo-roo fanboy can probably do it.

The deadline to get it is in a few short days.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“Email Players” subscriber Adrian Kennedy puts on his Garb of Villainy:

Your info has changed my life for the better.

Since I’ve joined your list and Email Players in May I’ve written and published 2 books and I’m working on my third which is a book series now.

I’m no longer selfish and have a mission that even the love child of the Joker and Lex Luthor would be proud of.

There is quite a bit of value packed in that testimonial.

That is, for people with eyes to taste, and noses to see.

If you see what I am speaking of, the prestigious “Email Players” newsletter — and especially the September issue that goes to the printer in a few days — can be of great potential business-building help to you. Especially, I believe, when the economy tanks next time, and making videos for social media in your car won’t quite cut it anymore, and real businesses will have to be built, with real marketing and business game plans implemented.

When that happens?

Like the last crash, you’ll see a lot of people standing around with their John Thomas in their hand, howling on social media about how hard everything is and seething at their favorite politicians to blame their problems on, while my guys and ghouls are mailing their lists and not only weathering the storm, but profiting more than ever from it.

Anyway, that’s my unsolicited prediction.

To subscribe before the 8/31/19 deadline, give this link some lovin’:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle