Ben Settle

“Email Players” subscriber Rene Klein keeps on winning:

Another review:

From the last time I have written stuff has changed:

-Daily google ads budget: 100 euro (before 20)
-price increase for my stop smoking package to 850 (still room above)
-found out that I can create (and am able to) my own life -> yes, that’s a big one.
-started doing daily Facebook lives from my hypnosis site a few days ago
-still considering what kind of email list building business I wanna do, I’ll find something (my optin for hypbosis is a booking tool…I prefer the phone number over email there)

THX for showing me what’s possible. This is the best 97 bucks I spent each month. The motivation and ideas EP gives me is way higher than that amount.

The pleasure is all mine…

If you want to become another in the long line of “Email Players” subscribers conquering your market and pillaging your competition, the October issue goes to the mighty printer in just a few days.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

More secret guru fun:

One of my customers sent me a screen shot of a secret guru with a fake 50 Cent handle tweeting:

(with a profile pic of 50 Cent and everything)

“Ben Settle honestly blows as a copywriter. Selling nootropics. Basic ass tactics. You might have been impressed as a newbie…but now…You should really be seeing thru that shit.”

A truly magnificent specimen of secret guru.

He checks almost all the secret guru boxes:

1. Talks shyt while hiding behind a celebrity pic & name

2. Confused about the very industry he postures at being a guru in (i.e. doesn’t even know the difference between a tactic and offer selection)

3. Projects his insecurities at being a desperate newbie nobody listens to

4. Thinks trolling people more successful than him actually works

And the list goes on and on.

In the October “Email Players” issue I list many more secret guru “tells”, as well as how to profit from them. These chaps are always good for business if you know how to exploit them. In fact, my only problem with them is I don’t get ankle-nipped at by enough of them.

Must try harder to keep these little doggies biting…

Whatever the case, to subscribe in time to get the October issue, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

How to figure out who to sell to

“Email Players” subscriber Paul Campo recently took advantage of the perk subscribers get to ask me questions about those few things on this planet I’m qualified to advise on.

His question?

How to write emails to a market that might encompass multiple markets.

i.e. how do you choose who to “zoom in” on and sell to?

In other words:

Let’s say you sell to the weigh loss market. Do you focus on one specific segment of that market… or talk to all of them in each email, in the sales letter, etc.

The short answer:

The way I do it is to target a specific segment whenever possible

The longer, more detailed answer:

Is in the October “Email Players” issue.

And while Paul is in the real estate niche, the answer I gave him to his wise question can apply to virtually any market/niche/industry I’ve ever seen. And when you do as Herr Doktor elBenbo prescribes, you should not only have a lot more success, but a lot more fun in business, too, and simplify what most people make way too complicated.

At least, that has always been the case when I do it.

Whatever the case, here’s the link to subscribe before the looming deadline:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“Email Players” subscriber Scott Sakata checks in from the great state of Hawaii:

Aloha Ben,

I got The Email Players book last Friday and read it over the weekend.

Lots of great information and even though I’m brand new, I just wanted to share how my confidence and thinking has changed, for the better.

I want to build my customer base for my network marketing company so I have physical products to sell.

Been marketing on Facebook to build my followers as many of us are told.

Also told to build relationships with these people and have them reach out to me to ask about my products.

That hasn’t been working out too well.

Changed up my marketing strategy to create a funnel to give away my supplement list in exchange for their email address. I average about 2 subscribers a day and am now up to 250.

Initially it’s a 3-day email campaign but I’ve done nothing after that.

I then decided that I need to get serious about my email marketing.

That’s why I subscribed.

In your book specifically on page 74 you mention about selling with the very first email and to include a link to my product.

This was totally against what I was taught, but it just makes sense that someone opts in to get my list to see the supplements I’m taking, why not send them to the main product I’m taking?

If they unsubscribe, let them. (This was also what I learned from you).

So I’ve modified my 3-day email campaign and have focused on doing the 30-day email plan that you wrote about in Appendix 1.

I’ve already completed the first 3 emails of week 1, this is more emails than I write in a month!

I foresee he will kick much gluteous assimus.

Especially if he keeps wisely ignoring what all the people in his industry are doing.

Something, incidentally, I would say to nearly everyone these days.

(Regardless of industry, product category, service, etc.)

All right, no to the business:

If you want to get your hot, sticky hands on the book Scott mentions, and start using it to defy all the social media tweeker gurus in your own industry/niche, subscribe to the “Email Players” newsletter.

And to get in for the October issue, you best be quick about it:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

If’n you struggle with “what” to write in sales copy & emails…

“I’m wondering if you could give me some advice on a promo I’m writing…The product is the world’s most expensive and exclusive gun oil…My struggle is with the headline and lead/big idea. There are a lot of benefits to the product, but I haven’t written in this niche before, and I’m not sure what they might care about most… enough to spend $100 on it.”

The answer to this is the same answer for anyone struggling with headlines and leads:

Don’t “write” a headline or think up a big idea at all.

Let your market do that heavy lifting.

In fact, the wise copywriter simply serves as a non-woo-woo, non-mystical, non-magical vessel for the market to speak through them to the rest of the market via the sales copy.

And, lest you think this is advice I merely give but don’t take:

I am doing this very thing for a new SAAS venture I’m heavily invested in.

And to get into the heads & psychology of the market, I did — and am still doing — a lot of market research. And by the time I’m done, 80% of my sales copy and emails will have been written not by your Rood Writer pal elBenbo, but by the market.

Hold on a second, what?

That’s all well and good, but what you want to know is *how* does one do such research?

To anyone asking that question, I have good news:

The October “Email Players” issue gives an example of just that.

In fact, I answer question above in a mere 175 words.

And, the answer is exactly what I’m doing.

What I suggest other people writing copy do.

And, what I hope everyone reading it does forever afterward.

More fun:

I also reveal a secret URL sent to me by “Email Players” subscriber Leticia Mooney where you can do a ton of market research, for free, that will be like a secret weapon for anyone wanting fast market research served up on a golden platter, allowing your business to make out like a fake fortune teller on TV.

The deadline to subscribe in time to get this issue is almost upon you.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

During last year’s brief gov shut-down, I got this from a desperate MBA:

(I know he’s an MBA because it’s stated in his name attached to the email he sent me)

Please know that I absolutely adore your stuff. So much so, that it took me a couple of weeks to actually accept the fact that I needed to do this. But with the government shutdown, my business has tanked and I need to conserve every dollar I have right now until it’s over.

So I need to cancel my newsletter subscription before it renews on Sunday. It pisses me off beyond belief that I have to do this, but business is down 60% since December and I have to cut every cost I can. I realize this means I probably can’t come back. I’m not okay with that, but I have to feed my family first. I’ll keep reading your stuff and buying your books.

Thank you, but please cancel my membership.

I remembering finding this fascinating on multiple levels.

In fact, my first thought was:

“All that MBA education and he can’t use the info he admittedly adores to write an email each day that recoups his whopping $3.23 per day investment (which was preventing him from feeding his family?), and have the wisdom to sell something on the backend that makes him many more sales to boot?”

Instead, he retreated directly into play-not-to-lose victim-mode.

Did absolutely nothing with his investment.

And, I would bet someone else’s kidney… probably kept his bloated cable/satellite bill, kept his starving kids cell phone bills, and kept stepping over $100 bills to pick up dimes.

Anyway, so that was my first thought.

My second thought?

Before curling up into a fetal position and despairing, it’s too bad he didn’t take advantage of the perk I give “Email Players” subscribers where they can ask me questions (not copy critiques, I don’t do critiques) via email about anything I’m qualified to talk about.

He didn’t even bother to ask, before quitting:

“Mr. elBenbo, I am in this pickle… yada yada yada… any ideas?”

To which I would have rattled off some quick-to-implement ideas he easily could have used to wipe that slack, bovine-like look on his face away.

More:

People are always looking for a boogeyman to hide behind (government shut-downs, the economy, Trump, Obama, the weather, the stock market, whatever it is) to justify their inaction, self-sabotage, and easily-overcome failures.

And this MBA’s particular boogyman is easily staked & beheaded.

Enter the upcoming October “Email Players” issue.

I walk you through the exact plan I would have given him, that’s so simple, even an utter and complete newbie (or MBA) can follow it and potentially be up and making cash-in-the-piggy-bank sales in a few days.

Still more:

This plan can work even if you have no product or list now.

Although you will need *some* kind of network. Even if it’s just a small social media following. Plus, even though I created this game plan for someone who’s back is to the wall, or someone who fears that could happen to them, it’s just as useful for someone already successful, too.

And, this is especially true for those of the freelancing persuasion.

This is just one of many business-changing lessons in the October issue.

But the deadline to get this issue is in 6 short days.

After that, it’ll be too late.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Following is for people who either prefer using video over email, or want to know if my wily ways work when applied to email.

The short answer is, yes.

Of course it works.

The longer, better answer comes from Danish “Email Players” subscriber Morten Spindler, whose cousin owns a physical & web shop selling expensive stuff for kitchen enthusiasts.

He says:

I had her hop on the train of daily emails this december, and she and her husband started doing daily video’s on fb for a month… and ever since they’ve done 3 weekly short storytelling fb-videos, with humor and ALWAYS plugging a product in their physical shop + webshop.

Result?

Cirka 45% better sale in december than ANY previous month in 4 years. Ever since their sales have increased by 85-90% per month.

Not so many emails, but same principle.

Shit works.

Thank you for the inspiration.

If you understand how the Email Players methodology works, you can apply it to virtually any marketing media: video, social, content, audio, public talks, webinars, whatever it is you prefer.

More info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of the ways you’ll know your emails are not only being read, but having some sort effect on the psyches of your audience is, certain wannabe overachievers will start giving you unsolicited advice.

It’s always annoying getting it.

And, the advice is also always not only 99% wrong, given without context or bothering to gather facts, but massively wrong.

Thus, should be ignored.

Or, even better, defiled.

Howard Stern once addressed this topic perfectly on his show.

Some dork called in giving him unsolicited advice.

And, when Stern told him it wasn’t necessary, the guy started getting offended.

Stern’s reply?

“I’m telling you your feedback is irrelevant. For my entire career I didn’t ask people their opinion on my show. I don’t care what you think. I care what I think…The way I became an innovator was to IGNOOOOORE the feedback.”

There’s decades of business wisdom in that one million-dollar paragraph.

I hope you use and profit from it until the end of your days…

In the meantime, my “Email Players” methodology goes perfectly in line with this attitude of ignoring feedback, ignoring what everyone else is doing, and especially ignoring the opinions of people who don’t have what you want giving you unsolicited opinions on how to get it.

The October issue is going to the printer soon.

And, it talks a lot about a certain kind of troll that loves giving unsolicited advice.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A self described “NLP guy” once made elBenbo an offer he could easily refuse:

“What I’d like to propose to you is a case study that can be very beneficial to both of us. Teach me your stuff, show me how to develop a saleable package, and how to market it with email and use my success in your own marketing as proof of your pudding. 🙂 I think you can easily see how this could be a boon for you and myself, can you not?”

Not really, Chuckles.

Wait, was that last question NLP he was running on me?

I’m always amused at offers like this from various ex-spurts.

I remember waaaaay back when I first published “Email Players” this guy subscribed and cancelled, wrote a lame review about it (admitting he never implemented a single thing he learned) then made me an offer where I would “get” to write a bunch of his emails, and if they made more money than his current emails, he’d pay me a percentage of the increase in sales.

Mighty generous of him!

But here’s the point:

I often get asked for critiques and to review emails from paying “Email Players” subscribers, which I don’t do either of. There are both logistical and practical reasons why – plus, I hate doing critiques anyway, and 99% of the time people don’t have a “copy” problem, but an offer or list problem that can’t be solved by a copy critique anyway. Whatever the case, those paid Email Players of the Horde members are my priority. And yet, if I won’t even give their copy so much as a cursory glance… what makes these special little internet snowflakes think I’m going to write copy for them or teach them something free?

It takes a lot more than NLP, I’m afraid.

OK, enough of this clacking, on to the business.

To get your hands on my non-NLP ways, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle