Ben Settle

One of my least favorite kinds of people in the world are politicians.

And, what I dislike even more than politicians are tax & spend politicians.

And, what I dislike even more than tax & spend politicians are Virtue Signaling tax & spend (or is that redundant?) politicians.

And, one of my most disliked Virtue Signaling tax & spend politicians was:

Al Gore.

The reasons for that were many and not important.

But, what is important is, he does one thing better than almost anyone else when it comes to marketing. I won’t say he’s a marketing genius (he’s not). But when he does this one thing, he often gets paid like a marketing genius. And, it’s something every email marketer can apply to your emails to (in almost any niche I’ve seen it used in) make lots more sales, get lots more attention, and build a business with lots more security and stability.

It’s something a lot of smart marketers do, in fact.

In fact, one of the best at it I’ve seen is Agora Financial.

Plus, whenever I do it, I always see a bump in sales.

(Frankly, I should do it more often… and will be in 2018.)

Anyway, if you want to know what “it” is I’m talking about, simply turn to page 14 of the January “Email Players” newsletter (which I’m sending to the printer tomorrow). I not only explain what this is, but also show you an example of what I speaketh of.

To subscriber before I send it to the printer tomorrow, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A little while back, I saw an article on a right wing website talking about a left wing lesbian pagan, and a book she was promoting, and why the audience should listen to her.

Anyway, it had two extremely powerful components you can use in advertising:

(1) contrast

(2) selling against type

The lesson?

With these two persuasion tools in your hip pocket (contrast and selling against type), it’s almost impossible for your brain to ignore your marketing.

And you know what else?

This is doubly true for your email subject lines.

In fact, that article contained a perfect email subject line “template” that can be used in any market I’ve ever heard of.

So perfect, I hereby knight it the best subject line template of 2017.

And guess what?

In the January “Email Players” issue, I show you this template.

And, I also show you 7 examples for how to apply it so that people not only want to read your email when it hits their inbox before anything else they see, but be “leaning in” to read your email carefully (ignoring all other distractions) and making them far more likely to want to buy from you.

I’m sending this baby to the printer in a couple days.

After that, i’ll be too late to get it.

Here’s where to subscribe, while there’s still a little time left:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“Email Players” subscriber Alp Turan brings up something the Facebook group-addicted copywriters who think “copy is king!” when it comes to email fear worse than a visit from Krampus on Christmas:

I’ve only been doing daily emails for the last 20 days, but here is the pattern I noticed:

Consistency + email content (what I say) has a greater impact than the CTA or the copy.

For example, I noticed that inspirational and “fat shaming” emails bring in the most sales. ____ emails and ____ emails have the biggest bonding effect – they get the most replies and unsubscribes, but fewer sales. ____ + _____ emails had the greatest impact in terms of positioning me as a leader – a lot of people write in after these saying stuff like “omg you are the only person who talks about this! those gurus don’t know what they’re talking about!”

So I love your suggestion of mixing things up and rotating your themes.

Also, I think a lot of marketers underestimate the importance of showing up daily. It took me a long while to realise that even with my best customers, they are not always ready to buy when I am ready to launch. So it pays to put the offer in front of them daily.

There’s a lot of wisdom in what Alp said above.

(Yes, even with me mischievously leaving out the details of exactly what kind of emails I teach did what for his results… saving those details for the January “Email Players” issue next month.)

More:

Alp is 100% correct.

Mixing and matching themes you read in the “Email Players Playbook” and in the monthly issues will make your emails not only far better than anyone you compete against, but difficult for some loser copycat to knock you off.

Most people simply aren’t deep thinkers.

Especially in Internet marketing land.

(Where everyone wants to swipe and deploy, and not think.)

And, they certainly don’t think deeply enough to mix n’ match as Alp describes.

Want 2018 to bring you more sales from your emails than ever before? Then mix n match the themes, email teachings, subject lines, and other things I teach in the “Email Players” newsletter, seeing what works best for your particular market and product line. (For example, what Alp describes for wait loss niche does not apply to me selling Email Players, golf, prostate problems, or dating — every market is different).

Bottom line?

Mix, match, shuffle, and repeat what I teach.

The more you do that, the more interesting your emails will be, the more likely they’ll be read, and the better the chances of people buying from you.

Of course, the caveat is, you must have my system.

And the only way to get it is to subscribe to “Email Players” and read the free book that comes with the subscription, and the monthly content.

So much Value packed in the January issue.

So much of the green stuff to be made.

So much info that works, even if you’re not a “copywriter” or whatever.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

True story:

A few months before “Email Players” subscriber Stefanie Arroyo launched her new business (which launched about two weeks ago), we were hanging out at a local Irish pub here in Ye Olde Bandon, downing a few Guinness pints. And, in the span of about 15 minutes, we pounded out her front and back end business plan (all email driven, no fancy funnels, software, white boards, storyboards, or anything else needed)… on a napkin.

The launch went exceptionally well, too.

And, even with her tiny list, early indications and initial response are showing (when she starts aggressively sending  traffic to her site) she’s off to a great start towards her first goal of consistently earning $20k and more per month by the end of 2018 (with a foundation in place to go as high as she wants from there — to the  upper six figures, low seven figures, and beyond in the years to come).

So?

Why should you care?

Maybe you shouldn’t care, unless this suits your fancy:

The upcoming January “Email Players” issue contains a picture of that napkin in all its glory, as well as a detailed, point-by-point description of her business plan (based on the plan I wrote about back in the April 2013 “Email Players” issue, easily the most popular issue I ever sold) that anyone can use as a “template” for an email-driven information/coaching hybrid business, working just an hour or two per day, that can potentially pay you at *least* six figures per year. And, doing it with no employees, no assistants, and not even any VAs (unless you want them, which can be a wise move.)

This is probably one of the most valuable issues to date.

And, can put many rubles in your hot little hand if you apply it to your business.

But, only if you:

(1) Are subscribed in time to get the January issue

(2) Apply the information to your offers

(3) Get out of that comfort zone of yours

(The #1 thing holding people back from doing anything)

To subscribe in time for this special New Years edition, go ye here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“Water’s wet, the sky’s blue. And old Satan Claus, Jimmy, he’s out there. And he’s just getting stronger.”

— Joe Hallenbeck
“The Last Boy Scout”

Let’s talk about Krampus.

Krampus is the evil version of Santa Claus.

He is a half goat/half demon looking thing in chains, with a long pointed tongue and razor sharp fangs. Instead of bringing good kids presents, his job is to punish naughty children with everything from swatting them with birch branches to drowning, eating, and dragging them down to the pit of hell.

Anyway, ‘ol Krampy also visits businesses, too.

And, he dispenses the same punishment on the naughty ones.

What kind of naughty businesses?

Well, for example, businesses that:

• Don’t send exciting, fun, and persuasive emails each day to their lists (and instead only mail once in a while, with boring lectures, self propping, and that contain zero drama or persuasion)
• Spend all their time on social media, but never get around to mailing their lists
• Write boring headlines on their sales letters
• Create plain vanilla offers nobody cares about
• Spend all their time & money learning how to build “FUNNELS!” but still haven’t got their first offer up and running
• Never bother learning from the old school marketers, and get all their edu-ma-cation on social media from people who think direct marketing was invented on Facebook
• Don’t put the first hour of each day into their Mission
• And the list goes on

Anyway, Krampus is out there right now.

Skimming the shadows.

Seeking businesses to punish.

And you know what?

If you’re engaging in any of the naughty activities above, then God help you. Because nobody else will…

To tell Krampus to shove it, check out my “Email Players” newsletter.

It’s not cheap.

But, will put the fear of God into Krampus should he come stalking you.

Here’s the jolly ol’ link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of the most valuable marketing lessons I ever done learn-ed was from the great Gary Bencivenga who talked about a low price being almost a reverse form of credibility in a lot of cases.

(There are exceptions, obviously, like low cost lead gen, etc)

Not only is that useful information for marketers.

But, also, for consumers.

Take the Grinch’s case, for example:

……then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before.

What if the best business training, he thought, doesn’t come from a low-priced goo-roo’s shopify store?

Maybe legitimately high quality business training, perhaps, would cost a little bit more?

And then the true meaning of success came through, and the Grinch made more sales than ten wannabe goo-roos, plus two!

The Grinch knows.

Anyway, I will never understand why people look for cheap.

Cheap is the new expensive.

Someone who claims to be great at what they do (whatever it is) but has nothing but cheap prices should be immediately suspect, regardless of how they spin it (and a good copywriter can spin it).

My opinion.

Anyway, the needy marketers pounding their chests about how great they are, are ratcheting things up this Christmas, I’ve noticed. (You can pick them out easily enough — they have shoulder pain from constantly patting themselves on the back.)

So before buying, do your homework.

Assume everyone is full of shyt until proven otherwise.

(Yes, especially me.)

All right, that’s enough.

More info on my “Email Players” newsletter here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Not long ago, the esteemed A-list copywriter Bob Bly posted a quote from an email I wrote last month on his Facebook feed, about why I don’t get bogged down in stats, metrics, etc online, and asked what his readers thought.

And, a gaggle of copywriters chimed in.

But my favorite comment from the readers?

This doozy:

This is by far one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. I’m all for not looking at the daily #s and getting caught up in single day change.

That said… how would you ever know if you’d hit list fatigue, had a declining open rate to investigate or …a high bounce or complaint rate?! Would you just wait until your beloved ESP messaged you? By that point anyone worth their salt would tell ya it’s too late to rescue your list in most cases.

Does he have a point?

Or is he just being a bit of a drama queen?

As Mr. Owl said when asked how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop … let’s find out:

(1) Declining open rates

I could go into all the reasons I couldn’t care less about opens. Like how Android phones mostly don’t even register them. (Unless the owner turns on HTML in their email program). Or how Gmail mucks them up sometimes. Or how studies show most opens are on phones, but most transactions are on desktops.

But, I won’t bother even mentioning those things.

(I respect your time far too much to even hint at those.)

Instead, I’ll illustrate my point with this:

Last year, an Email Players subscriber told me using my methods made December (usually the lowest selling month for his client) his client’s biggest selling month. But he also said he was worried about his opens only being 9%.

I’m just not seeing a problem to worry about there…

Very few (if any) “name” Internet marketing gurus agree with me about this.

One of them even once called me “irresponsible!” for this attitude.

But who can blame them?

When all someone has is soft metrics that are about as relevant to their sales as their all time high pacman score to brag about on the livestreams and social media posts, what else are they supposed to say?

(2) High bounce or complaint rates

How do I know what mine are?

It ain’t exactly rocket science going on over here:

1. I log into Aweber

2. I slightly scroll down (half a roll of my finger on my mouse)

3. I can see the bounce and complaint rates for my last 5 sent emails. And, if I click a link underneath those, I can see as many more as I want.

Finally:

(3) List fatigue

Can’t say as I ever met this List Fatigue chick before.

But what I can say is, I’ve never needed metrics to tell me if my list is fatigued or whatever. I’ve always known what to send, what to offer, and when to do it (and how often) because I have a daily dialogue with my list. In my experience, you’ll learn far more about your list (what they want, what they want you to offer them, what they are looking to spend money on, etc) mailing them using my crude, plain text email ways each day, building a relationship with them, and paying attention to the reactions, sales, and replies (or lack of those things) than by going blind studying metrics.

I know… doesn’t sound secksy from the Internet marketing seminar stage or in the copywriter Flakebook groups.

Especially when, no affiliates profit from it being taught, since it doesn’t require any special funnel software they can pitch to do it.

But, it’s always been reliable for me.

Anyway, bottom line:

I never said you shouldn’t look at your numbers or metrics.

In fact, in the email I was quoted from, I said probably you should.

But what I also said is, *I* don’t.

I track my overall sales trends.

You, of course, can do whatever you want.

Me?

I will keep profiting from the blue light special copywriters on Flakebook flashing their K-Mart strobe light opinions about email (like I’m doing now), while they will keep grandstanding about how wrong I am.

That’s how you bring balance to The Force…

All right, enough of this.

Let’s get down to some business.

My “Email Players” newsletter hardly ever talks about things like improving open rates, getting more clicks, or measuring bounces and complaints.

Instead, I focus on:

Writing more persuasive emails.

And making more sales.

And, doing it in a way that doesn’t suck all your time away.

More info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A sob sister takes exception to my subject line last month:

“How a spelling Nazi won a $10k affiliate contest with a dinky list and only 10 emails”

She laments:

“I love reading your emails, but your subject line is very offensive.. Really? You had to use the word, “NAZI”???? Come on, Ben… Why? Why can’t you just set the example and show respect? Very disappointing… Especially because nowadays there’s so much hate and offensive comments towards Jewish people and other minorities. Every day there’s a new story related to hatred, did you even know that? Why use that word? WHY? SMH…”

[Shuffles off to slip into my comfy red kay-kay-kay grand pewba robe]

Okay, so spelling nazi is off limits.

What about spelling fascist? Millennials who don’t even know what it means (while running around in the streets after school with masks on behaving like them) throw that one around a lot.

Or maybe spelling bolshevik?

No?

Then how about spelling feminist???

Can I at least use that?

Anyway, her rationalization hamster is *tremendous* — like it’s hopped up on cocaine, and its only existence is to amuse me. I can only imagine the candle light vigil she’d lead if she saw the soup nazi episode of “Seinfeld”…

All right, enough sob sister mockery for the soul.

On to the business:

The next issue of “Email Players” would horrify all the sob sisters on my list — especially the part where I reprint what a subscriber told me about how sending “fat shaming” (oh noes!) emails has increased his sales.

Here’s the link of pure evil:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

P.S. For the insanely literal readers who don’t understand satire or context… I don’t really own a red kay-kay-kay grand pewba robe. It’s gray. You know, like Gandalf’s…

“Email Players” subscriber Paul Mort recently posted a graphic on Facebook about weight lawss that has some obvious email marketing implications if you have eyes to hear and ears to see.

The graphic had two columns.

The first column said:

“Things you’ll probably never need to worry about”

Then listed off a long list of several jargon-y things people who obsess over getting into shape read & talk about — like meal timing, “starvation mode”, GI index, “sugar addiction”, a slow metabolism, adrenal fatigue, eating “clean”, and so on and so forth.

Then, the other column said:

“Things you probably should worry about”

And then listed off a short list of things that matter most — like sleep, eating enough protein, eating enough vegetables, staying hydrated, stress, and being more active.

Followed by:

“Consistently work on these and you’ll probably never have to worry about anything else to do with getting in shape”

The point?

It’s the same with emails.

While the goo-roo fanboys spend weeks on the “fine motor” elements of whatever the bright flashing lights and fun sounds are in the goo-roo casino… like creating a complex “OMG! FUNNEL!” on a big white board that’s got more circles than an MLM presentation… freaking out if their open rates dropped by .001%… spending hours making sure they’ve inserted NLP into every sentence… weeping & gnashing their teeth comparing their opt in rates to everyone else’s… and obsessing over if they should open a loop in their copy… you can blow right by them by spending your time on the “compound” elements of what really works:

• Creating an opt in list “primed” to want what you have
• Producing attractive offers your list already wants
• Relentless daily emails designed to sell, but that also build a relationship with your list
• Selling those buyers other things they want

Rinse, repeat.

Over and over and over.

Do this day in and day out, and I don’t think it’s even possible to fail.

Now, I realize this email will not be secksy enough for the goo-roo fanboys stuck on pursuing fine motor metrics vs compound actions, and therefore cheerfully making a fraction of what they could be making. But I don’t care about them (and actively try to repel from my list).

But the above has worked since people started selling online.

It works today.

And, it’ll keep working fora long time to come.

If you want help with the email part of what I’ve just written about, check out:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle