{"id":2037,"date":"2009-05-19T15:22:43","date_gmt":"2009-05-19T15:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/?p=2037"},"modified":"2009-05-19T15:22:43","modified_gmt":"2009-05-19T15:22:43","slug":"old-farty-email-marketing-hecklers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/old-farty-email-marketing-hecklers\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Farty Email Marketing Hecklers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Been getting LOTS of email marketing<\/strong> questions.<\/p>\n

And today I figured I’d jump on my high horse and gallop on over to the computer to answer them. <\/p>\n

Ready?<\/p>\n

QUESTION:<\/strong> How long should my emails be?<\/p>\n

BEN:<\/strong> IMHO, emails should be like a woman’s skirt: <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“Short enough to get your attention
\nbut long enough to cover the details.” \ud83d\ude09 <\/div>\n

<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

So I shoot for 350-500 words. <\/p>\n

BUT… long ones can work like gangbusters, too.<\/p>\n

While back, I wrote an extremely long email about some people who tried to indoctrinate me into their weirdo cult.<\/p>\n

And you know what?<\/p>\n

Even though there was only one link (at the very bottom)… and had nothing to do with copywriting… it sold more Copywriting Grab Bag<\/a><\/strong> books than most of the shorter<\/em> ones.<\/p>\n

Interesting, eh?<\/p>\n

QUESTION:<\/strong> How do you respond to angry and nasty emails? <\/p>\n

BEN:<\/strong> When the nitwits come a-knocking, do these two things:<\/p>\n

1. Delete ’em.
\n2. Realize they’re losers — with a capital “L”.<\/p>\n

They’re just like the two old guys in the balcony in The Muppets — always heckling everyone and spouting negativities. <\/p>\n

But you know what?<\/p>\n

The farty old balcony muppets are at least funny<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The email hecklers are just pathetic<\/em>.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:<\/strong> How often should I send emails?<\/p>\n

BEN:<\/strong> I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again:<\/p>\n

The more emails I send, the bigger and faster my list grows… the more new copywriting client inquiries I get… the more people buy my products… etc.<\/p>\n

But you have to know what you’re doing.<\/p>\n

There’s an art and science to email. <\/p>\n

And like any art<\/em>… the more you practice, the better you become. And like any science<\/em>… the more you measure and test, the more predictable your results.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:<\/strong> How can I write riveting email copy?<\/p>\n

BEN:<\/strong> Write like you talk — warts and all.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, most marketers write dry, boring and (worst of all) “intellectual” emails. Always trying to sound educated and “professional.”<\/p>\n

Bah!<\/p>\n

Screw all that. <\/p>\n

Have FUN with email. <\/strong> <\/p>\n

Loosen up, and don’t worry about offending the snobs, elitists and “PC police”. Trust me, most people would MUCH rather hang with a regular person than some stuffy intellectual who uses a $5 word when a 5 cent word gets the job done. <\/p>\n

Wouldn’t you?<\/p>\n

Anyway, email is a VERY cool thing.<\/p>\n

And if you know how to wield it — like an ancient samurai warrior wielding a katana blade — you’ll slice right through your competition and make out like a bandit. <\/p>\n

In fact, eventually it’ll be like you’re the ONLY one people read.<\/p>\n

Because frankly, you WILL be the only one people read.<\/p>\n

Ben Settle<\/p>\n

P.S<\/strong>. There’s an entire appendix about email marketing in The Copywriting Grab Bag<\/a><\/strong> from email “pioneer” Terry Dean — who was cranking out profitable emails before most of us were even on the Internet. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Been getting LOTS of email marketing questions. And today I figured I’d jump on my high horse and gallop on over to the computer to answer them. Ready? QUESTION: How long should my emails be? BEN: IMHO, emails should be like a woman’s skirt: “Short enough to get your attention but long enough to cover […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-copywriting-and-sales-letters","7":"category-sales-marketing"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}