Ben Settle

“Email Players” subscriber and one of my favorite graphic designers (who has many prestigious clients, such as Dan Kennedy, and comes with my highest recommendation) Kia Arian recently wrote this in her client newsletter:

I am cautiously introducing you to someone who I’ve kept safely tucked away in my Top Secret Marketing Weapons Arsenal for many months, unwilling to share his madness with anyone but a few worthy colleagues who have been trained to handle sophisticated marketing weapons without inadvertently hurting themselves.

Remember the Tazmanian Devil character in the Bugs Bunny cartoons? He’d come barreling on the scene in a violent vortex, with grunts and gasps, upending everything in sight without mercy? Well, say hello to Ben Settle, master copywriter and coach for email marketing. He teaches people not just how to sell and make money with email, he also teaches on persuasion, personality in copy, and the “inner game” of entrepreneurship and business success. He unapologetically exposes B.S. and will gleefully shame you to teach you a lesson, or just to entertain himself. His introduction always requires disclaimers of responsibility for any offense, insult, or injury to your deeply held beliefs may suffer as a result of his methods. Follow at your own risk.

That being said, I will say with no uncertainty that his teachings have easily been of the biggest influences in how I run AND think about my business, next to Dan Kennedy and Ben Glass.

Thank you Kia for finally untucking me and subjecting your clients to my mouth breathing ways.

I promise to horrify and abuse them with love…

Just like I will to those who subscribe to “Email Players” before the looming May issue deadline.

Subscription details here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Earlier today I got this email asking where the beef is:

“Hi Ben. I joined your newsletter and ever since all you are doing is marketing your print newsletter. you’re not entertaining or teaching or anything. What gives?”

Is this free content cop right?

Am I just pitching and teasing?

With nothing to sink your mighty fangs into?

Let’s find out what “gives” and get to the bottom of this mystery. It could be Yours Salesy needs to change up his game to appease the other non-buyers. Below are the 10 email subject lines that have gone out since 4/20 (when the free content cop joined my list), along with what those respective emails taught:

1. “Sociopath proof 2.0” — the dangers of basing your buying decisions on social proof

2. “There is no justice, only power” — why you should embrace your negative, down-and-dirty motivations to better achieve your goals

3. “elBenbo’s nihilistic goal lecture” — a link to last weekend’s podcast about how to “flip” being discontent into achieving whatever goals your greedy little heart desires

4. “Why I’ve been ignoring your emails” — gave reasons on why people on your list might be ignoring your emails, so you can make sure you aren’t doing those things and make more sales

5. “Brick & mortar business owner wipes the floor with his competition” — a testimonial email, and pure pitch

6. “A secret (but ethical) way to profit from gut-wrenching loneliness” — talked about why loneliness is so dangerous, and educates the reader about the existence of a way to write emails most people have never thought of before

7. “Drop shipper cleans up using Twitter and Email Players” — a testimonial email, pure pitch

8. “The king of content drinks wine from his mighty goblet” — educates the reader about why the “usual suspects” of content (value, benefits, infotainment, etc) are not the most important attributes of persuasive content, and let’s the reader know there is something better they should be aware of

9. “Yet more proof why stingy emailers have skinny kids” — testimonial, pure pitch

10. “Stan Lee’s secret to building an audience so loyal they’ll help you bury a body” — teaches the reader why they should study the life of the great Stan Lee, which is not only a powerful tip, but easy for anyone whose Google isn’t broken to do on their own

Seems to me the free content cop simply hasn’t been paying attention:

Ten emails, only 3 of which are pure pitch.

The rest have tips, lessons, and profitable (or, at least, useful) ideas embedded. But, admittedly, in order to benefit from them, one has to (1) not be a lazy thinker and (2) have a bit of motivation in them to dig deep enough to mine the value.

Such are the reasons why I don’t cater to the free content cops.

(They make terrible customers for me, your milage may vary.)

But, I will say this:

Just like mindless trolls do, the free content cops serve a Valuable function in my business as unpaid marketing “interns” giving me content.

Like for this email, for instance.

Now, onwards and upwards to the important part:

The righteous sales pitch.

The May “Email Players” issue is going to the printer Monday. It shows (amongst other things) how to not only not worry when your competition gives everything away free (prompting them to ask you, “hey! why should I buy your product, when I can get the same info free on Youtube?”), but actually profit from it.

This is rampant in certain markets.

i.e. markets that sell to vegans, fitness, dating, cooking, health, golf, etc.

Anyway, after the Monday deadline, it will be too late to get the May issue since I don’t sell back issues anymore each month like I used to. (The April issue which, ironically, you can no longer get, explained why).

To subscribe in time to get it, hustle on over to this link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

P.S. I have a pure sales pitch email promoting the May issue going out in about 6 hours that is sure to give other free content cops heartburn.

At least, I hope so…

One of the best lessons you can get on building and maintaining relationships with your audience (and by audience, I don’t mean only your email list…) is to study the life and career of the great Stan Lee.

Who is Stan Lee?

Stan’s ideas and work led to such results as:

• Marvel Comics being the #1 comic book company on the planet
• Billions of dollars in sales (merchanise, movies, comics, toys, etc that have resulted from his ideas and characters)
• Keeping his rivals (like DC Comics) constantly playing catch-up and having to resort to copying what Stan was doing (not unlike a lot of copy & paste Internet marketers these days always playing second fiddle to people who actually, you know, think…)
• Creating not just an audience, but a *family* amongst the fans

His fans where no just “fans.”

They were like super fans.

The kind of fans that would (figuratively) help the guy bury a body if he asked.

Anyway, here’s why I bring it up:

He did these things in a lot of different ways (had he had daily emails to use in the 60’s I suspect Marvel would have overtaken Disney… and would have bought Disney instead of the other way around).

And, you know what?

In the upcoming May “Email Players” issue I show you some of the things he pioneered that can be directly applied or adapted to most any business — especially if you sell on the Internet.

(Where these things are much easier to do than what he worked with.)

This issue goes to the printer Monday.

To get your hands on it, make yours Marvel and go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

In my humble (but accurate) opinion, the most profitable kind of content you can create — whether it’s email, video, social media, your products, speaking on stage, ranting on a podcast, or anything else… is not benefits, hard “how to” information, or value or any of the usual suspects.

Those are important, no doubt.

But they ain’t king, in my way of thinking.

What is king when it comes to content creation?

To answer that (and I may lose some of the tee-totalers on my list with this, the price I must pay for creating *this* particular bit of content…) let us look at a couple movies:

“Sideways” and “Bottle Shock”.

Both are supposedly movies about wine.

(Incidentally, “Email Players” subscriber Troy Broussard and I might do another Wine Villains event this year in Napa, CA — stay tuned for more info this summer).

But, I argue they aren’t both about wine.

Bottle Shock is, yes, for the most part.

It also had a heavier hitting group of celebrities in it, too, from what I could tell.

But Sideways?

I say thee nay.

It looks like a movie about wine on the surface. It even behaves at times like a movie about wine. But it’s not really a movie about wine if you unravel it.

Yet, it destroyed Bottle Shock in ticket sales.

In fact, Bottle Shock — with all its star power, like the actors who played Snape in Harry Potter, Captain Kirk in Star Trek (although it was pre-Kirk), and Dennis Farina — only did a whopping $4,628,553 at the box office.

Meanwhile, Sideways did $109 million.

It also made Pinot more popular than it ought to be.

(In my humble, but snooty opinion).

And, it destroyed Merlot’s commercial wine appeal, for many years, too. (One of the local Oregon wineries I frequent said they had to change the name of their Merlot after the movie came out — and then sales went right back up, such was the stain Merlot had on it).

The reason Sideways did so much better?

I believe it’s because it wasn’t “about” wine.

It was about something quite different.

And, it has a lot to do with what King of Content is.

And guess what?

One of the things I teach in the May “Email Players” issue is what this king of content really is. And, also, a 15-word question to ask yourself before writing any piece of content to make sure you use it to stick out like a fart in a library (but in a good way) over and above everyone else in the inbox.

It’s not about benefits.

It’s not about giving more value.

And, it’s definitely not about having the most how-to hard content.

It’s about something else altogether.

And, if there is one thing you can do in your emails (and anything else you use to sell with — podcast, webinars, speaking, social media posts, articles, books, courses, programs, sales letters, etc) to run right over the people you compete against (including people with more “star power” than you in your niche, and who have more knowledge, loads of experience, better positioning, etc) it’s this.

This 15-word question has created miracles for my sales.

And, I suspect it’ll do the same for you.

The May issue is going to the printer in a few short days.

To make sure you get it in time, grab your subscription here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of the most popular speeches/trainings I’ve ever done is my “Villains” talk. I’ve only taught it 3 times — at AWAI’s 2016 Copywriting Bootcamp & Job Fair (where I’ll be speaking again later this year, details forthcoming), to one of the great Brian Kurtz’s masterclass’s, and at Ray Higdon’s Personal Branding Bootcamp.

This talk has nothing to do with my Villains book.

It’s all about email.

And, specifically, how I use a “rogues gallery” of villains to pump out all the emails I want, on demand, without writers block, hesitation, or struggle.

Anyway, one of the ways I do it is via loneliness.

Yes, Yours Cruelly teaches people how to profit from other peoples’ loneliness.

But, not in an unethical or evil way.

Instead, it’s a way people want to read and, even more importantly, want to buy from when they read it. I don’t know of very many (any, really) other people who do it the way I do it (much less teach it). But, it’s one of those under-the-radar ways of writing emails that slips right into your prospect’s psychology, and helps them solve a problem that is not only grating to their mind, but also their bodies — as loneliness can cause all kinds of health problems.

In fact, it’s fast becoming known that being lonely is as dangerous as being obese.

And, can wreak havoc on your brain and body chemistry.

(Including neurological damage, inflammation, dementia, and even premature death.)

Anyway, here’s why I bring it up:

In the upcoming May “Email Players” issue I talk more about how to milk money from other peoples’ loneliness (in a way they will appreciate, not resent, you’ll be doing them a favor), along with two real-life examples (in two different markets — for modeling and studying the psychology, not swiping and copying or “lifting”) that both made a healthy amount of rupees.

This issue goes to the printer soon.

To get while you can (since I stopped selling back issues on the regular), go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

After our notorious “Good Cop, Bad Cop, Insane Cop” event last year, one of my favorite “Email Players” subscribers Don Lovato admitted:

elBenbo,

I have spent the weekend with you (and that Mexican chick) and I feel guilty if I don’t tell you that I appreciate your influence on my ability to diffuse my angry clients and ability to attract the RIGHT clients to the promised land, thank you! Keep up the good work and I promise to stay a subscriber; if you’ll kept me.

By the way:

Don owns a super successful carpet and flooring store.

(A brick & mortar business, not an eBook king).

If you think my wily ways can’t help with non-information (it’s all the same, only the calls to action change) products and services, think again.

It’s not about the media.

It’s about the selling and psychology.

To learn how my Email Players subscribers are using these methods to take over our respective niches, go here to get in before the May issue goes to the printer:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

True story:

Over the last 7 years publishing my Email Players newsletter, a question that has popped up over and over (and over) goes a little something like this:

“Mr. elBenbo, how can I sell in these markets when everyone emails me back asking ‘why should I buy your product when I can get it free on YouTube?’”

It’s a great question. 

And, I should have addressed it a long time ago. 

But, better late than never. 

And so, the first seven pages of the May “Email Players” newsletter shows you 4 ways (there are dozens, but you only need these 4) to use lowly, plain text emails to not only make this not a problem, but something you can even profit from.

i.e. you will make more sales because of the give-away artists.

Plus, I show you some examples of exactly how to do it.

Anyway, the deadline to get the May issue looms.

Subscribe here to get it, while you still can:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

About a month ago, I posted a list of 24 ways anyone could use to triple (not an exaggeration) your sales, income, and all-around success in a fast way.

One of the tasks on that list was:

“Ignore social proof when making buying decisions”

To which a few people asked why ignore social proof?

My answer:

By all means USE social proof in your marketing. Social proof being (basically), if “xyz celebrity/guru/credentialed person/or person like me uses/endorses/sells it, it must be good enough for me.”

Robert Cialdini wrote about this years ago.

And, it’s a very sound marketing principle.

But, like anything that works, it’s also used by the unsavory types, too.

The con artists.

The thieves.

And, especially, the various sociopaths skimming the shadows.

That’s why I didn’t say to not use it in your marketing.

I said ignore social proof in marketing before making a buying decision for your own purchases. It wasn’t all that long ago (and it still happens, it’s just more sophisticated now, more of a 2.0 version) when the exact same affiliate circle-jerk of gurus would all blindly endorse each others’ products and eBooks, etc, without even having consumed those products first, and people would buy because their favorite guru said to buy it.

A lot of people got burned in this industry back then.

And, it was because people bought solely on social proof.

I’m not saying it can’t be a factor in buying something.

But, it shouldn’t be the only factor.

That includes with anything I sell, too.

Yes, I use social proof. And, it’s there to help sell my products. But, there’s a reason I have said repeatedly over the years to assume everyone is full of shyt (including me) when reading our ads, and make us demonstrate why you should buy, first.

Thus, the power of daily emails that let you demonstrate your knowledge every day.

And (if you do it right) in a way people look forward to reading and buying from.

(You’re not a pest, you’re what Dan Kennedy called a “welcome guest.”)

That’s where my Email Players newsletter comes in.

The May issue is going to the printer soon.

I’ve got all kinds of goodies inside this one — including how to sell in markets where everything is given away free, how to do cold emails (bonus training), and a ho’ bunch more.

Here’s the link to subscribe:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Recently I saw Wes “The Sales Whisperer” Shaeffer post this ditty on Facebook:

“Does rambling and giggling for 75% of a webinar increase sales?”

Let’s face it:

Nothing makes sales and shows respect for peoples’ time like spending the first 8 scheduled minutes of a webinar constantly stopping the talk to welcome everyone on as they come in late. I hear tell some people in the coaching world actually teach doing this for “engagement” or whatever. But, one reason to study copywriting beyond the free Facebook coach’s livestream superficial level is to develop a healthy paranoia of just how low attention spans are, and how intolerant people are to having their time wasted.

Here’s my rule of thumb on such things:

Assume all it takes is one word (not even once sentence) to lose people.

Do that and the whole presentation changes start to finish.

It’s good advice for email, too.

Although, if you do email right, you can get away with a lot more slop.

(Not much, though.)

Anyway, that’s free advice nobody will take.

But, that doesn’t stop me from giving it anyway.

For the paid advice, the advice designed to be read, implemented, and profited from (and not sitting on a shelf, collecting dust, waiting for the magical email fairy to touch your computer with her magical twinkle pole and make you sales out of thin air), check out my “Email Players” newsletter.

The May issue is just around the corner.

And, it’s especially helpful if you compete with “move the free line” gurus.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle