One of many things copywriters can learn by studying screenwriters: A long time ago (circa 1994) I started studying a bunch of books on screenwriting, and reading about screenwriters, and wanting to be a screenwriter. In fact, my first research paper in college was about screenwriting. And the fact it took me almost 30-years to sac up and finally write my first script is not something I will ever not mentally slap myself black and blue over⦠Still, it was immensely useful for copywriting. Especially when it came to deadlines. For example: I remember hearing about a screenwriterâs trick for meeting impossible deadlines, even when burned out, when no ideas were flowing, and when stuck half way through a story, not knowing where it was going, not being able to discern if it was any good or not, and while being pressured by studios and producers to get it done in the next 24-48 hours or not get paid anything leading to missed rent, missed meals, missed installment payments, yada yada yada. Talk about pressure. There are few things more maddening than burnout when you gotta get stuff done. Well, these old school screenwriters didnât mess around. And what some of these guys did was, they used a way to not only âleap frogâ right over all that burnout, and being stuck, and having to meet impossible deadlines, but often said it helped them crank out better stories and scripts as a result. Now âfast forwardâ several years later. Especially during my freelancing days, where Iâd sit there writing and re-writing the same first page or story or some other part of an ad, completely stuck, knowing what I wanted to write but having trouble getting it on the page right, with nothing but a big, convoluted mess, and with the clock ticking knowing I had to have the dayem thing done in a day or two. So I would use this screenwriting trick. And then... BAM! â problems solved, ad finished in time, and better than expected. Nowadays I still use it when Iâm writing anything and I get stuck â whether itâs an email, a 20-page sales letter, or even a 300+ page novel. I simply stop what Iâm doing, take a breath, and apply what I learned from these cunning screenwriters to get the job done and, in almost every case, end up with much better writing/ad copy/story than I would have if I hadnât gotten stuck. Very powerful trick. And it just so happens I teach it up inside the January Email Players issue. Specifically, on pages 46-47. It wonât take you but 60-seconds to read and learn. And, I truly believe it will revolutionize the way those who read it approach their work. With more work done, while having a lot more fun, and experiencing a lot more peace of mind. Especially if youâre the type who gets writers block and/or has to meet impossible deadlines and don't know what to do, who to listen to, where to turn. Finally: I saved a lot of my favorite writing tips, topics, and techniques Iâve used over the years just for this special 150th milestone Email Players issue. And this is just one of many inside this triple+ sized BENanza. More: Iâm also including a valuable bonus with this 150th Email Players issue. It is called: âEmail Players Annual #2: Mad Men Copywriting Secretsâ This oversized (literally â in both size and page count) Annual issue bonus exists outside the normal continuity of the newsletter. And I wrote it to both commemorate the newsletterâs 150th issue, and also to teach some cool stuff Iâve 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 âMad Menâ, which I found extremely boring and overrated â itâs about advertising methods used by the actual Mad Men of the 60âs.) 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 âas-is.â (Old school screenwriters basically did the same thing to get scripts approved, today itâs practically a forgotten trick of the writing trade.) * A powerful Mad Men secret to making your business mysteriously attractive that can be like âcatnipâ 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 âtheâ agency to hire â 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 âwiringâ in every human beingâs brain to help make your emails and other marketing extremely hard to ignore and a whole lot more engaging. * A sneaky way to adapt Ogilvyâs enormously successful âMan In The Hathaway Shirtâ 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 âprepâ 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-falutinâ, and super educated and wealthy lawyers hired by a bank to get what he wanted. (Nothing directly to do with Mad Men â 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 productâs 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 youâre selling! (Does that sound almost like hype? Maybe so. But realize this: it was not uncommon for this technique to works so well itâd 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 â Rudy Perz â said theyâd make him feel like a âmartyrâ, and the creative director and original Marlboro Man model â Andy Armstrong â 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 donât even have to be that great at what you do or, for that matter, âdoâ anything different â this is just a make a simple mindset shift in the way you approach your business.) * David Ogilvyâs bizarre email list-building secret (created back in the 1950âs â 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 âhonoraryâ 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 âfor realâ 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. Todayâs the deadline to get in on all this. If you want in, nowâs the time to gird up them loins of yours and click that link: [httpsâ¶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( Ben Settle This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2023 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. 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