How to be like a copywriting god amongst ants

The short answer: Just don’t be lazy. The reason I am excited about the potentiality of fapGPT and other AI tools being used by lazy copywriters to generate and ‘write’ sales copy, emails, content is not so I can use them… but because it will simply make my stuff stand out more, become more of a novelty, get more engagement, and make more sales. This was already a thing before. And, I hope it becomes even more so in the future. Fact is, copywriters have gotten extremely lazy over the last several years. If you look at the long form copywriting, short form copywriting, and especially email copywriting from 5, 10, 15, 20, especially 30+ (in the case of pre-internet copywriting, way before commercial email was even a thing) you can see it all over the place. Look at all the fancy-shmancy launch copy or even copy from big direct marketing companies today vs back then. The copy is not nearly as good anymore, is far more bloated, and just not as tight, crisp, pithy, exciting, or dramatic even if it tries to be. There are obviously exceptions to this. (Let the eager-beaver reply guy reading this take note before @‘ing me.) But the reason for this is, I believe, because copywriters as a whole have gotten lazy. And the reason they have gotten so lazy? Because, quite simply, with the internet they CAN be lazy. I’m as guilty as anyone with this. It’s both a blessing and a curse for us primarily online guys, especially when we sell mostly to our own warm lists and not ice cold leads. Because not only are leads cheaper, virtually unlimited, and even free in a lot of cases (depending on how your business is set up)… but once you’ve built & grown an email list, and have created a strong relationship with that list, you don’t have to be as paranoid as writers had to be in the 90s, 80s, 70s, and earlier — when even a small test could set you back $10,000 or more. In those cases every word, every syllable, every punctuation mark had to earn its keep. So back then, it was much harder. Now? Again, it’s essentially free with email or social media or on a sales page to connect, follow up with, and build a relationship. You also have more time to build that relationship, develop a philosophy people latch on to (and buy from you because of it, and not so much the benefits you offer, which everyone else also offers). Which brings me to the punch line with this: I never, ever study the newer guys. I don’t even study sales copy that is online at all with rare exception. I only study offline copy, written to cold leads, in extremely competitive selling environments where the true masters competed on the field of battle in winner-take-all tests (in some cases only being paid royalties — like Jim Rutz did, for example, where he could have spent months on an ad and saw nothing if he lost). And when you study them, and only them, you might notice something odd. Something they did but that hardly anyone does today. And, even when they do do it today, I don’t know if the copywriters do it on purpose. But, when it is done on purpose, you can practically see the sparks crackling off the copy on the page, seared into your psychology, and making it far harder to resist noticing and even buying from, assuming it’s an offer you want. I am talking about a powerful copywriting technique nobody really talks about. Certain old school (50’s and 60’s era) guys did. In fact, it was essential to compete on the emerging new medias at the time. But today? It’s not new, but it might as well be. I am talking about a purely writing technique — that anyone can learn, practice, and I believe get good at — used by many of the old masters, probably because they had to use it due to the expensive nature of marketing compared to today, where we get away with quite a bit of slop selling to our own warm lists and leads. And even cold traffic is nowhere near as pricey as lead gen was then. So even the cold traffic bois don’t really use it from what I can tell. But, if there are any who do, I suspect this is one of their secrets of conversion. (I cannot say for sure, this is pure speculation as I don’t even keep up with what other copywriters are doing these days other than to know I rarely see any of them using the technique with any kind of skill or seriousness.) This technique is like the true “red pill” of copywriting in my opinion. By that I mean this: Once you learn it, and see it, and start practicing it in your own copywriting (emails, long form ads, PPC ads, even your content writing) it’s like Neo seeing code everywhere. You’ll pick up a Mel Martin ad or a Gary Halbert ad or a Gary Bencivenga ad (and I never even heard these guys teach this technique — I just know they were/are doing it by reading their copy, as it is obvious, even if they are not teaching it) or any other ad from a copywriter who has competed in, or still competes in, the harsher more deadly corners of the copywriting world and see it on nearly every page, probably. That is the case when I look at it, at least. And it’s something I consciously started to put into everything I write: From emails and sales copy to even my content and fiction (I am using it every day on this screenplay I am working on now) or to random customer service replies, talks given, training sessions conducted — all of it. Eventually, I didn’t have to think about it anymore. It just became automatic. And now I do it without thinking about it — like driving a car or riding a bike. Anyway, all this is one long tease about the January Email Players issue where I talk in great detail about this writing technique, how to learn it, how to really master it, and how to approach using it. I won’t say it’s easy to pick this skill up. If anything, it’s just the opposite: It takes long hours of study, work, and practice. But the good news is, if you are writing daily emails (you are doing that, aren’t you?) then you should be able to accelerate the speed at which you learn it and start benefiting from it, since you can practice it each and every day, in each and every email you write. Very powerful information. Not “new” by any means. But, again, it might as well be considering how little you are likely hearing about it. Certainly I doubt you will have heard it taught the way I approach it. And on that note: Tomorrow is the deadline to subscribe to the triple+ sized, 150th “milestone” January Email Players issue where I teach this skill in great depth, amongst a whole bunch of other profitable (some immediately profitable, some of it long term profitable, but all mandatory, in my opinion, for 2024 and beyond especially if you want to seize the opportunities coming on the horizon amongst all the chaos) info I have been saving for just such an occasion. Plus, I’m also including another valuable bonus with the January issue: “Email Players Annual #2: Mad Men Copywriting Secrets” Something I’ve also been saving for such a special occasion such as this. You can read more about that in the P.S. if you choose. Again, tomorrow’s the deadline, To subscribe while there’s a bit of time still left, go here: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( Ben Settle P.S. About the Email Players Annual #2 bonus: This oversized (literally — in both size and page count) Annual issue I am including with January’s issue exists outside the normal continuity of the newsletter. And it teaches some cool stuff I’ve learned studying the old masters that have practically be all but forgotten about today. (NOTE: it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the TV show “Mad Men”, which I found extremely boring and overrated — it’s about advertising methods used by the actual Mad Men of the 60’s.) * The sneaky headline trick old school copywriters used to pre-test ads without spending a single dime. * Cunning advice (straight from a private, internal memo at the Leo Burnett agency back in the day) about how to trick egotistical clients (for their own good, of course) into running your sales copy “as-is.” (Old school screenwriters basically did the same thing to get scripts approved, today it’s practically a forgotten trick of the writing trade.) * A powerful Mad Men secret to making your business mysteriously attractive that can be like “catnip” to high-paying clients and others you wish to sell to or influence. * The World-Building technique all the Mad Men agency owners (the ones whose names are still on their companies today long after their deaths) used to position themselves as “the” agency to hire — with certain clients practically magnetically attracted to them, and probably even only them, and likely wanting nothing to do with anyone else. * How to exploit a dangling piece of psychological “wiring” in every human being’s brain to help make your emails and other marketing extremely hard to ignore and a whole lot more engaging. * A sneaky way to adapt Ogilvy’s enormously successful “Man In The Hathaway Shirt” ad from the 1950s into a high converting opt-in pages for your business today. * How the late Mad Man Leo Burnett would address a room of stuck up and snobby vice presidents of giant corporations to keep their egos in check and “prep” them for what he expected of them as clients. * How an old school phone salesman and high school dropout was able to ethically & legally out-negotiate & out-maneuver a room full of high-falutin’, and super educated and wealthy lawyers hired by a bank to get what he wanted. (Nothing directly to do with Mad Men — but what this phone salesman did is something that was quite common for people in the know to do back in the day to get what they wanted in contracts and deals.) * A clever way that certain bashful Mad Men copywriters used their shyness to help create far more powerful advertising. * A (admittedly bizarre sounding to most marketers today) advertising sales trick that David Ogilvy learned from a furniture salesman for turning a product’s flaws into reasons to buy. (Including tips for exactly how to turn high fees, bad reviews, and even slow service into reasons to buy.) * How David Ogilvy used good, old fashioned trolling (he was a world-class troll) to help get compliance and engagement from everyone from heads of corporations during high-pressure negotiations to his own wife in the kitchen. * A ridiculously effective door-to-door salesman technique (that, believe it or not, works even better on Facebook today, I have found) that can help you create headlines, offers, emails, and other marketing that can just seep right into the psychology and souls of your leads and customers, giving them almost no choice but to want to buy what you’re selling! (Does that sound almost like hype? Maybe so. But realize this: it was not uncommon for this technique to works so well it’d sometimes set record for product recalls for weak products.) * Just how brutal and soul-crushing old school Man Men were in their advertising campaign critiques. (One of the most respected copywriters of the day and creator of the famous Pillsbury Doughboy — Rudy Perz — said they’d make him feel like a “martyr”, and the creative director and original Marlboro Man model — Andy Armstrong — once literally suffered a nervous breakdown over one of these brutal critiques, if that tells you something.) * The little-known way the Leo Burnett Agency created such memorable and influential cartoon characters that helped sell truckloads of the products they promoted * The 7-word advertising principle that helped build one of the biggest and most respected ad agencies in human history. (And that is still around today almost 100 years later, while most have long-since floundered.) * Why fire-breathing atheist David Ogilvy was such a big fan of the Catholic Church. (Nothing really to do with copywriting or marketing, but his reasoning could be useful to anyone who runs teams or has lots of employees.) * The Mad Men attitude (almost non-existent today) that can help freelancers, coaches, consultants, and other businesses go from begging to business to having so many new leads practically begging to hire you you might even need a waiting list. (Best part: you don’t even have to be that great at what you do or, for that matter, “do” anything different — this is just a make a simple mindset shift in the way you approach your business.) * David Ogilvy’s bizarre email list-building secret (created back in the 1950’s — long before the invention of commercial email) that can also make your business stand out in an overcrowded marketplace and increase your sales. * A shrewd insurance selling method (that smart radio and magazine advertisers forced their customers to do since it worked so well) that can help drive your email response through the roof. * How an “honorary” Mad Man copywriter (who was a NYC public employee and not an ad man at all) used ANTI-direct response slogans to help create some of the most profitable and memorable advertising every penned by the hand of mortal man. (And yes, what he did can be used to write all kinds of profitable headlines, subject lines, bullets, and any other kind of direct response sales copy.) * A one-on-one interview with a “for real” Mad Man! In fact, the TV show producers even consulted this guy due to him being in the thick of the agency business back then, and who was involved with campaigns like The Marlboro Man, Fly the Friendly Skies, & industry-famous campaigns for Gallo Winery, Proctor & Gamble, Colgate, Vicks, Chanel, Max Factor, Philip Morris, and the list goes on. This interview is a rare look into the psychology behind how these guys worked. How they thought. And, yes, how they made lots of money for their clients and themselves. Here’s the link: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2023 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. 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