Why I think about you in the shower

This email's subject line above is probably the most profitable subject line I ever done wrote. It was about how why taking a hot shower so can so often result in a downpour of new ideas for when thinking about ways to serve my customers, creating offers, ad themes, and so on and so forth. i.e., I was thinking about the reader in the shower, and, yes, still do think about you (dear reader) in the shower in this totally non-secksual way, of course.. I say it was “probably” the most successful because the value wasn’t just in the sales. It was in all the “intangible” benefits it produced and still, to this day, sometimes produces, even though I first wrote it over ten years ago, totally as an off-the-cuff subject line. I don’t say this so you “LOL! I’m gonna swipe it!” That’d be as dumb as all the idiots who swiped Frank Kern’s “bad news” subject line many years ago after he was done with it, every saw it, and the power of it had long passed, leaving them nothing but scraps while FK probably made out like a bandit from it. No, there’s much more to this subject line than the obvious. Yes, it got me sales and engagement. But it also did everything from nab the attention of a girl who wanted to date me at the time (gave her an “excuse” to contact me) to getting me on the radar of the late, great Clayton Makepeace. I remember he liked it so much that I heard him — on multiple occasions — use it as an example for how to write subjects lines when he’d train copywriters on stage at events like AWAI’s Copywriting Bootcamps. And just him using it as an example then opened doors for my business from business opportunities to sales opportunities to opportunities for strengthening my “presence” in my market/niche/industry. All from a single subject line. That I sent in a random email. Some 10+ years ago. (When Clayton had read it, it was in an email I recycled/reused from two years earlier) Anyway, it’s not the words that matter. It’s how that particular combo of words appeared in my mind, that I have replicated for many other subject lines over the years — including the best, most memorable ones that have also showered my business with new sales, new engagement, and new opportunity. There are literally thousands of ways to write subject lines. I’ve written about many of my favorites in the Email Players Skhema Book (the book I send to new paying Email Players subscribers that helps “prep” them for the newsletters). But, that book does not include this subject line secret. This one is not only the easiest of all the ones to learn that I teach, but I think the best. And it’s also, really, the only one I use nowadays probably 95% of the time. And maybe even more than that. It’s like the email subject line equivalent of a changeup in baseball. There have been many elite baseball pitchers who have I read about whose secret weapons wasn’t so much their 100+ mph fastballs or huge breaking curve balls, or knuckle balls, or spit balls… but their mastery of the “lowly” changeup. i.e., The ability to change the speed of the pitch throwing batters’ timing off. Something that can work miracles in baseball. And so can, in my experience, the subject line tip I am talking about. It is a tip I teach starting on page 17 inside the January “milestone”, triple+ sized 150th Email Players issue, it just so happens. I wanted to do something really special for this event. And teaching some of my best writing tips is a big part of that — including this bad-boy subject line secret. I’m also including another valuable bonus with this 64-page issue: “Email Players Annual #2: Mad Men Copywriting Secrets” This oversized (literally — 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 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 this bonus 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. All right this is it — the deadline to get in on time for it. I’ll speak of this issue no more. At this point you’re either in, or you’re out. If you’re in here’s the link: [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