The Obama storytelling trick that almost can’t fail to get engagement

Since I yapped on about the late, great copywriter Jim Rutz yesterday: Many years ago, I read an interview AWAI did with him where he talked about a preschool teacher and a storytelling “trick” she used to get her little ones to settle down during story time. And what she did was, if the kids were getting bored, cranky, or spacing out, she would simply… Inject a ghost into the story. Then, boom — instant engagement. Didn’t matter if it was a ghost story or not, either. Inject ghost = get engagement. “But Ben! I can’t work ghosts into my emails, it’d be silly!” If you got “put ghosts in your emails” out of that, you missed the point. And if that's the case, then listen to this: Many years ago when I was flown into Baltimore to teach Agora’s writers about email, storytelling, and infotainment, one of the copywriters there told me how (at that time at least, this is when he was President) if they put Obama in a subject line it always, without exception, got that email more opens, clicks, & sales. It was almost like magic for them. i.e., they had their own version of a ghost story. This is not a checklist or swipe I’m giving you here. It’s an approach. And it’s something I talk a lot more in detail about inside the November Email Players issue, as this “ghost story” secret above is one of many ways to tap inside the "primordial" way I’ve been using for many years to get more engagement, more sales, more influence, and more market share, attention, trolls (it’s good to have trolls), profits, popularity amongst my niche, and the list goes on. And the above is simply one of many ways to tap into this powerful force. I call it a “force” because I am not sure how else to describe it. I’ve been using it in my marketing for 20 years. But it wasn’t until last year (while writing a series of launch emails for a book) that it dawned on me that it could be extracted, methodized, and then taught to others. Which is exactly what I do in the November Email Players issue. It’s going to be one helluva time for some of my best boys & ghouls, methinks. And I am looking forward to seeing how people apply it. Because, let’s face it: Most marketing is plain vanilla, boring, fapGPT’d drivel at best. Not a high bar to get over. But, I suspect and hope that the more of my Email Players of the Horde use the info inside the November issue, the higher the bar for engagement gets for everyone else, with us sitting at the top of our respective niche “food chains” lording over everyone else who look like carpet-droolers desperately doubling down on virtue signaling, chest pounding, and goo-roo parroting to get even a fraction of the engagement, sales, and influence we do. A tall order indeed. But I believe it can and will happen. But, only for those who are: 1. Subscribed to Email Players 2. Subscribed in time for the November issue 3. Take their subscription seriously, read this issue many times, and spend many hours, days, weeks, even months & years thinking about it, applying it, and thinking of ways to exploit it. I certainly have been. All right, here’s the link to subscribe before the deadline: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( Ben Settle This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2023 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this email may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from Settle, LLC. Click here to [unsubscribe]( Settle, LLC PO Box 1056 Gold Beach Oregon 97444 USA