Ben Settle

A gleaming gem for Twitter:

I enjoy following an eclectic variety of thought-leaders and thinkers (as well as bizarre accounts that tweet weird stuff) on Twitter — one of which is a fellow called “Black Label Logic”. And, recently, he said something that can put more money in the hot little hand of anyone who uses emails:

(Or writes any kind of sales copy)

“You cannot elicit an emotion from someone who has no seed of that emotion within them from which it can grow.”

There’s a lot of Value packed into that sentence.

Especially if you want to write emails people can’t “un-read.”

Example?

Okay, one of the most profitable emails I wrote in the prostate niche was to sell a product (as an affiliate for a product on clickbank) for men who have problems getting their “solider” to salute. And, it had had this subject line:

“Prostate problems and your flaccid member”

This bad-boy did extremely well, too.

And, it did well because it applied the black label logic quote above from start to finish.

It also broke a lot of “rules” in the process.

Anyway, here’s why I bring this up:

If you’d like to (1) get a deeper understanding of the quote above… (2) see how it applies to sales copy (3) know how applying it can put many more rupees in your hot little hand… and (4) see the email above in its all it’s glory… then the upcoming June “Email Players” issue will give you all that and more.

The deadline to get it is in a couple days.

After that, it’ll be too late.

Here’s where to subscribe while there’s still time:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Admission:

I’m not the king of cold emails (that person was interviewed for last month’s “Email Players” issue). I prefer having an opt-in list and mailing from there. But, over the years, I have picked up a few tricks here and there.

And, one of the best ones is called:

“Knock-Knocks”

This is from the mind of the late, great ad man Norman B. Norman.

And what this means is, imagine you are in a neighborhood full of people who are in your market. You knock on the door. When they open, what do you say to get them to not only not slam the door on your face, but actually invite you in to tell them more? Or, even better, yank you in by your arm and DEMAND you tell them more before leaving?

Sounds simple enough, no?

It is simple.

But, that does not mean it’s easy.

It goes beyond copywriting tricks and chokes. And it takes a knowledge of buyer psychology you aren’t going to easily find in the typical email and copywriting books, courses, and trainings. (It also applies just as much to writing your warm list as your cold list — in fact, knowing this will help you clean up to your main list far easier than usual, in my experience.)

Which brings me to the pitch:

The June Email Players issue.

Specifically, it includes a real-life example of a cold email we use in the golf niche that got us overrun with response, nobody complaining, and will make us all a fat bit o’ change in the long run.

And, I believe what made it work was the Knock-Knock.

Anyway, this issue goes to the printer in a few days.

Grab it here while the grabbins’ good:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Came a question from one of my website readers:

“What would be the best approach to cold email industrial clients (Facility Managers) Subject Lines Types…etc? The objective is to simply set an appointment.”

Cold emails is something that comes up again and again.

And, I included a bonus training about this in the May “Email Players” issue.

Well guess what?

This question comes up so often, I decided to do some more training about this in the upcoming June issue. Specifically, I show you exactly how in the golf niche, we are using cold emails to get tons of replies, set up tons of business relationships, and will ultimately make us lots of sales.

More:

I show you not only the psychology behind it, but the actual cold email.

(Which cannot be “swiped” since it is very personality-based, but it very easily can be modeled for near any industry.)

Anyway, I’m sending the June issue to the printer this week.

If you want in before the deadline, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Piggy-backing on my email from Friday:

(About the ethical persuasion secrets used by the evil psychopath Ted Bundy)

One reason he was so persuasive was this:

He had 100% complete outcome independence.

By that I mean, he was not emotionally connected to whether or not someone told him yes or no. Probably because he didn’t have the emotions necessary to care about such things in the first place, since he was an ice-cold psychopath.

This obviously gave him a huge advantage us regular blokes will never have.

We mere mortals have to consciously create outcome independence.

And, when you do, you’ll possess one of the most Valuable attributes anyone — marketing or otherwise — can develop, where you don’t need anything from someone.

You don’t need them to open your email.

You don’t need them to click on your link.

And you don’t need them to buy what you’re selling.

People can smell neediness like pewp on a shoe.

It turns them off instantly.

And in the June “Email Players” issue, I talk about this and many other attributes Bundy used to do great evil, but that you can use to do great good in your business and other areas of your life.

This sort of thing makes some people uncomfortable.

Good.

That’s the whole point.

Subscribe before the looming deadline here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Let’s talk about… psychopaths. 

The great Ken McCarthy (founding father of Internet marketing) has an entire section of his copywriting course about these people, and how the direct marketing world is rife with them. And, not long ago, I was perusing my Twitter feed when I came across a meme that was a quote of Ted Bundy. If you don’t know who Ted Bundy was, he was a serial killer and psychopath of the highest order. He was also, unfortunately, extremely persuasive and naturally knew and used many persuasion “techniques” most copywriters and marketers have to learn via books and high ticket seminars. 

Anyway, here’s why I bring it up:

About 15 years ago, I subscribed to the great John Carlton’s newsletter, and remember him talking about how much he learned about sales, persuasion, and gaining trust from complete strangers from a street con and hustler with no morals whatsoever. And, he talked about how the same principles that work for the sociopath, work for the honest man.

In other words:

The principles are neither good or evil.

They just “are.”

And just as a surgeon’s knife can save a life, it can also stab someone’s eyes out.

(Thus the importance of ethics in marketing.)

All of which brings me to the rub:

The upcoming June “Email Players” issue.

I spend almost half the issue analyzing the Ted Bundy quote I saw on Twitter, and showing you how to apply the things he did out of pure evil, to ethically sell and build your business, and in ways that will do right by your customers and make them want to buy from you.

The result is more sales in your righteous piggy bank.

More customers that look forward to buying from you.

And, more peace of mind for both you and your buyers.

Very powerful information.

And, “Email Players” subscribers will possess it next month.

That is, if you are subscribed in time.

Here’s where to subscribe to get you some:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“Email Players” subscriber Matt Rizvi recently wrote on his blog:

I’ve read so much of Ben’s stuff, that I can spot his lingo, his cadence, his Midwest charm, from the other end of this flat Earth.

But I didn’t realize how much I knew Ben’s sound until I joined the lists of lesser-known copy ‘experts.’

Then something strange happened…

I started hearing Ben’s voice EVERYWHERE.

Not just his principles, his style: from the way he spells bid’nis (instead of business), shyt (instead of shit), or ho’ (instead of whole)… way down to the granular stuff like the exact time he sends his emails in the morning (6:30am PST). I even see guys ripping off the look of his landing pages (you know who you are).

Mr. Rizvi is, unfortunately, correct about all of this.

I say unfortunately for two reasons:

1. I don’t like people who are incapable of thinking for themselves

(And prefer they haunt someone else)

2. They are only hurting themselves, and some even get mocked in many circles as frauds — including the circles they probably want to be invited in to some day.

(But won’t because nobody will trust them.)

As the great Ken McCarthy writes in his “System Club Letters” book:

“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.”

Want to excel at what you do?

Get the best customers and clients?

Make the max amount of of the green stuff?

Then think and solve problems, instead of incessantly aping and copying. (Every ad/email is a unique problem you can’t solve by mindlessly swiping someone else’s personality, writing style, ways of talking, etc).

Do that and you may be copied, but never duplicated.

Why?

Because you’ll be an original you.

(Instead of a fax of a copy of a scan of someone else.)

To learn how to write emails this way, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Few days ago, I was forwarded a screenshot from a Facebook thread asking for advice on the best list-building course.

There were several names mentioned.

Including, Yours Phony’s.

And, the person said:

“There are many good list building teachers. Avoid the charlatan Ben Settle.”

Which I found as odd as it was amusing.

Why?

Two reasons:

1. I would avoid taking list building advice from me, too.

2. I don’t sell a course on list-building.

I might have an eBook on it somewhere.

And, I have written about my “traffic snowball” in an Email Players issue and a couple of my other programs.

But, mostly, it’s not something I’m particularly good at.

In fact, my main methods for list building are:

• Being interviewed on other peoples’ podcasts
• Word of mouth
• Search engines
• With periodic paid traffic

(i.e. most of the methods I use are slow, and take time and effort.)

Anyway, the naysayer was correct about not taking list building advice from me.

I’m also grateful he spelled my name right, too.

Plus, I got some new leads from it.

How?

Because when you troll people on social media, people tend to look up said person being trolled, and if you have your act together, you’d be surprised how many will join your list and, eventually, buy from you, if you do email right.

I love my unpaid marketing interns.

They serve me well…

All right on to business:

The June Email Players issue goes to the printer soon. And, the main lesson is about (ironically) charlatans. But, not the kind you find online trolling Facebook.

I’m talking about the kind that literally kill people.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Let’s talk about the flick “Used Cars”.

It starred Kurt Russell as a shady used car salesman (complete with a plaid suit and everything) who used shady tricks to sell cars. In one scene, a guy is looking at cars across the street, at the rival car dealership. So Russell puts $5 on a fishing pole and “casts” it into the lot, right next to the guy. The guy sees it and bends over to pick it up. As he gets closer, Russell reels the $5 bill away, with the guy thinking it’s the wind. The guy then chases it across the street to Russell’s dealership, so he can try to sell him a car.

Anyway, here’s the point:

It’s not unlike a lot of today’s shady online media and email tricks.

Like, for example, putting “re:” or “fwd” in the subject line to make it look like it’s a reply of forwarded by a friend (in a broadcast/list email which is not Can-Spam compliant, the way I understand it) or “sent from my iPhone” at the bottom of a broadcast email that has an opt out link below it, tends to get negative reactions, or simply ignored (with the rest of your emails) by people who know what you’re up to.

Ever read Gary Halbert’s “The Boron Letters”?

There’s a part where he talks about ads with headlines that say something like:

“Sex!”

Or…

“A submarine that can fly?”

Only to be about life insurance or whatever.

It’s the online equivalent of the used car salesman with the fishing pole.

It’s dorky.

It’s short sighted.

And, it slowly (or quickly) destroys trust.

Yes, I know it supposedly “works.”

But, like the founding father of Internet marketing Ken McCarthy once said: Trust is like a light switch. And once it’s turned off, it’s all but impossible to turn that light back on. And it only takes one time that insults your reader’s intelligence to flip it off.

Anyway, I’m mostly preaching to the choir here.

But, maybe someone needed to hear it before doing something stewpid.

If you want to learn how to write subject lines and emails that get eagerly opened, clicked, and (most importantly) bought from, with no idiotic tricks necessary… then check out my “Email Players” newsletter right here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I haven’t done a whole lot of speaking in the past 12 months (or any, really, other than a few words (literally) at our Wine Villains event in Napa last summer), preferring to revel in my blessed reclusiveness on the Oregon coast with my aging dog.

(She gets very crotchety when Yours Grinchy leaves her at the kennel…)

But, I am going to speak this October at a couple events I can’t possibly say no to and thoroughly enjoy going to.

And, I’ve recently updated my speaking schedule with the details for anyone interested:

www.BenSettle.com/blog/elbenbos-speaking-tour

Ben Settle