A 3,000 word sales pitch of Armageddon-like proportions

Today is the deadline to get in on time for the 150th issue of Email Players. This puppy is a triple+ sized issue. And it includes: * How to tell if a goo-roo you follow is a literal sociopath! (Including a real life example of a guy probably everyone reading this knows who it is, and who I believe is a sociopath. No, I don’t name names, or dox him. But there are many lessons one can learn from his story.) * A clever (and sometimes career-saving) writing technique invented by screenwriters who sometimes only have 48 hours to churn out an entire script when they’re burned out, suffering from writers block, or are simply “stuck” and don’t know what to write next. * A truly idiotic mistake (that probably 90%+ of email writers do and I caught myself making earlier this year) that can destroy your call-to-action in emails and tank your sales. * An ancient Roman attorney secret (used by both Walt Disney and Guinness Book of World Records salesman Joe Girard) for creating not just buyers… but multiple generations of buyers. (With children, grand children, and sometimes even great grand children later buying from your business — and potentially not even daring to think of buying anywhere else.) * A (admittedly bizarre) copywriting trick I learned the very first time I spoke with Ken McCarthy (founding father of online marketing, email marketing, and even video marketing) that can help almost any copywriter create far more profitable emails, sales copy, and even entire campaigns. * The psychology behind how I pick the specific times I send out emails each day. * How to draw readers into your emails and sell to them — and without giving any value or giving away any content they should be paying for. * A secret step-by-step, play-by-play guide to content creation that extroverts can use (right away) to pump out as much as ten TIMES more content, emails, and books/courses (even multiple series of books, courses, etc) than us introverts can. (I heard the late Stan Lee — one of the most prolific content creators who ever lived, but also an extreme extrovert — talk about this several years ago. And while it won’t do introverts a lick of good, it can revolutionize an extrovert’s output in ways that’ll probably startle them.) * What to write about in your emails if you want to stand out but you don’t want to be offensive or controversial. * What one of the top A-list copywriters on the planet (notorious for having not just one, but multiple controls at all the big mailers at any given time) confided in me about what he and his peers talk about behind closed doors, that you don’t really see them talk about on social media or in public. * An advanced writing tactic (invented & perfected by the late ad man David Ogilvy) that can help even the most plain vanilla of marketers attract a passionate audience that buys from, advocates for, and even spreads the “gospel” of your business to everyone they know. * A powerful writing secret I’ve been using for years (that I am now only teaching for the very first time) for writing one profitable email after another, one profitable campaign after another, and one profitable ad after another — plus lots of books, VSL scripts, short form ads, long form sales letters, fiction, non-fiction, blog posts, social media takes, and, really, anything else where you want to apply the art and craft of persuasive communication. * A sneaky way to create books that are not only far more valuable than usual but are also far more likely to solve your customer’s pains and problems than usual. * An ingenious “tweak” podcasters can make to interviews they conduct that can be like a bonafide super power for getting more engagement, more happier listeners, and, if you are selling something, more sales. * What is quite possibly the single greatest copywriting tactic for making more sales ever invented that hardly any copywriting books, courses, or gurus (especially nowadays) ever talk about. (This all-powerful writing tactic also carries over to other kinds of writing, too. And if you did nothing but this in your copywriting, emails, and other marketing I believe your business will have almost no choice but to be more engaging, make more sales, and grow much bigger.) * A simple strategy for profiting from emails you decide NOT to send. * An almost sinfully fun writing “exercise” that is like the ultimate power lesson in banging out tight, pithy, & endlessly engaging emails, sales copy, and other marketing pieces you write. (I’ve been doing this a lot lately and it has absolutely made my writing dramatically better and more profitable. I believe it can do the same for anyone else who reads this, too.) * A sleepy, “unobtrusive,” and completely innocent-looking way for newer or faceless brands to stand out, get more engagement, and compete against bigger, more cash-flush, and popular competitors. * A neat little trick for writing email subject lines that rarely ever fails. (I’ve taught more ways to write subject lines than I can count. But the subject line tip inside the January issue is literally the ONLY one I use 99% of the time anymore. And, like a baseball pitcher who throws no-hitters and shutouts with nothing but a masterful changeup… you can potentially rack up a lot of wins with just this ONE subject line technique alone for the rest of your days.) * The word-for-word email subject line (written with the above technique) I wrote that not only nabbed a lot of sales… but put me on the “radars” of everyone from people on my list who normally were only half paying attention to my emails… to a girl who wanted to date me at the time… to the late, great Clayton Makepeace who used to teach it as an example of how to write subject lines at AWAI’s copywriting bootcamps. * How nearly any freelance copywriter can potentially position themselves as the proverbial “copywriting god amongst the ants” to clients, peers, customers, and anyone else they want to influence & persuade. (Especially in 2024 and for the foreseeable future beyond that.) * A quickie “mind hack” (invented thousands of years ago by old wise men and teachers in all kinds of trades and disciplines) that can practically force your brain to concentrate better, extract more information, and better absorb lessons you want to learn. * The surprisingly simple strategy used by Steve Jobs and Fred Rogers that can help you ramp up the value, influence, & sales of nearly every course you create, book you write, video you spank out, podcast you record, sales page you assemble, and email you shoot out. (The downside to doing what the above for-real geniuses did could also lead to severe health problems and maybe even death like it did for them — so use with common sense.) * How to “ethically check” yourself when you start making lots of money or seeing lots of success. (If for no other reason than to help stay out of trouble, buying into your own PR, or even getting yourself fined, imprisoned, or worse by the government.) * Advice to flakes and airheads who have lots of talent and ambition but can’t stick to a daily email schedule or make a deadline to save their lives. * A secret litmus test copywriters can give to clients to help determine if you should work with them long term or not. (Hint: ask them this question and if they get annoyed or offended or ignore it then that means they ain’t a prospect… they’re a suspect. Broom them off, and find a better one.) * What to do if you are planning to leave a big city (which I implored my Email Players of the Horde to do back in January 2020 — before Covid, BLM riots, Antifa terrorism, etc were even a thing that year) for a small town, and don’t want to get treated like dirt by the locals who mostly hate city slickers. * One of the only legitimate uses (besides research, and even that can’t be trusted from what I’ve seen) for AI I have ever seen when it comes to marketing. * And last but not least… “elBenbo’s Prediction On The Economy For 2024 & Beyond” I have at most 1% qualifications to talk about economics. But, what I am qualified to do is show exactly what I am doing (and have been doing since the 2008-2009 financial meltdown, which I think will make this next one look like cakewalk) to prepare for, position my business for, and arrange my personal finances for the coming collapse to possibly profit handsomely from it. I say “possibly” because: (1) I have absolutely zero training in economics (2) nobody can see the future (3) I think it will suck even for the “prepared” in a lot of ways But, I also think there will be unprecedented opportunity never seen before. And that’s what I spend the last part of the January issue talking about. Including what to start doing with your email list (starting the same day you read it) and what to sell to your email list… as well as the ONE thing you can and should start doing in your emails as aggressively & ruthlessly as possible starting now that can help you take advantage of something nearly all humans do (you can see for yourself by merely studying how people behaved during the last several recessions and the Great Depression) when they are scared about money, worried about the economy, and how they spend their money (and what they spend it on). I’m not talking about milking money from misery or anything like that. What I talk about can help them — regardless of what niche you’re in or what you sell. And you can then potentially turn all those fears and pain into reasons to read your emails, follow you on social media, and, yes, buy your offers instead of them wasting in on Netflix and entertainment. In fact, what I talk about can all but make YOU their "Netflix." YOU be their rock they lean again. And YOU be (ideally) the only email in the inbox they care about. Again: I have at most 1% qualifications to talk about the hard economics side of what’s going down. But, I believe I can help businesses survive and even profit from it. Thus, I thought it fitting to end the 150th Email Players issue on that. All right, that’s that. The deadline to subscribe in time is today. Specifically when I send the list to the printer. If you want in go to the link below, read the letter carefully, and follow the instructions: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( Ben Settle P.S. Hang on. We’re not done yet. I am also giving a valuable bonus gift to those subscribed by today’s (12/31 at midnight EST) deadline: “Email Players Annual #2: Mad Men Copywriting Secrets” 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 I wrote it to both commemorate the newsletter’s 150th issue, and also to teach 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.) Some of the secrets found inside include: * 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. So that gives you a martini-sized look at what’s inside. Here’s the link if you want in before tonight's deadline: [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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