How to influence the President of the United States to take action

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President Ronald Reagan put his index cards down and looked around the room.

“Has anybody else seen this movie?” he asked.

His National Security advisors shuffled uncomfortably in their seats. Nobody else had seen WarGames, the Matthew Broderick movie that was weighing on Reagan’s mind. So the president described the plot:

A teenage hacker randomly dials numbers using his 1980s computer modem.

He gains access to a military supercomputer.

He starts playing a game with it, not realizing that the computer is connected to the entire nuclear arsenal of the United States.

And he comes within a thumbtack of initiating World War III.

“Could something like this really happen?” Reagan was asking.

Nobody knew.

So General John W. Vessey Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he would look into it.

One week later, the general returned with the report. “Mr. president,” he said, “the problem is much worse than you think.”

Long story short, Reagan set a process in motion that culminated with the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act 3 years later. This is still the main piece of legislation on the sensitive topic of hacking.

But here’s the thing.

How did General Vessey come up with that report within just one week?

Well, it’s because a group of scientists working within the government were already concerned about the very same issue. Analyses had been done. Papers had been written. And the outcome of all this well-researched and deliberate data was:

Nothing.

Crickets.

Instead, it took a Hollywood movie, which Reagan watched for entertainment, to get anybody to act.

That’s the power of a story.

It’s become a cliche to say that our brains are wired for stories.

But that’s because it really appears to be true.

Nothing seems to convince, entertain, and move us quite like a story.

Nothing even comes close.

Anyways, if you want more on the topic of stories (and weight loss supplements), take a look at for my upcoming book.

It will talk about stories, and how to use them in your emails to sell health products.

The book is free if you sign up to get a copy now.

Here’s the link with more info:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

AI summer is here

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Back in the 1980s, artificial intelligence faced a cold, barren winter.

Funding became scarce.

Researchers started abandoning the field.

And critics piled on, saying that the big promises AI was supposed to fulfill did not and will not happen, ever.

Well, the winter is long gone.

And summer seems to be here.

I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I don’t feel like playing chess with you any more

I just read a fascinating and frightening article that confirms it.

DeepMind, an artificial intelligence lab owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, has come up with a new little program called AlphaZero.

AlphaZero plays games.

Things like Go and chess.

The thing is, it doesn’t need any human help.

You don’t have to teach it, train it, or tweak it to the specifics of the game.

You just tell it the rules.

And within a few days time, the thing learns how to play on its own.

How good is it?

Well, within three days, this Skynet embryo taught itself to play Go.

And it then beat another DeepMind program, which made history earlier because it beat one of the best human Go players on the planet. (This earlier program required months of training and hand-holding, unlike AlphaZero.)

Now Go isn’t real life.

It’s not even poker.

But just wait.

I’m sure the guys at DeepMind are already working on it.

You might think I’m bringing this up because I’m afraid DeepMind and AlphaZero are coming for our copywriting and marketing jobs.

That’s not it. (When Skynet arrives, who’s gonna care about advertorials any more?)

Instead, I think this story is a good illustration of an important and valuable principle. The idea is this:

Creating something new will often sweep away hard and narrow problems.

AlphaZero has been designed to play any game, and incidentally, it learns to play better than any human-designed program that plays just one game.

As in AI, so in persuasion. It just might be described using different words.

For example, copywriting and marketing experts Matt Furey might say, “Stop solving problems. Create instead.”

Daygame guru Jon Matrix might say, “Play to win, don’t play not to lose.”

However you say it, I think it’s an important idea to keep close to your heart at all times.

In my own experience, it seems to have a magical ability to guide you to easy (or easier) success.

Anyways, enough about Skynet.

Back to more earthly things.

Such as weight loss supplements, plantar fasciitis insoles, and kidney disease ebooks.

If you sell any of those — or something like them — you might be interested in my new book. It talks about email marketing for the health space, and it brings together some lessons I’ve learned by writing copy for those exact products above.

For more info:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

How to spoil an almost-closed sale

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“When the locomotive starts to chug from a standing start, it really works hard. The amount of commitment and energy that the train must exert is monumental. But once the train starts to move, the next few feet become easier and the next few even easier. So it is with copy.”
Joe Sugarman, The Adweek Copywriting Handbook

I’ve been writing a lot of advertorials lately.

This is for a client based out of Bangkok, who sells physical products online.

Their funnel works as follows:

Prospects first see a video ad on Facebook which demonstrates the product.

They then click through, and are taken to an advertorial (that’s where I come in).

If they like what they read, they click through once more to the sales page, where they get a chance to buy.

And here’s one recent lesson from this project:

It has to do with a first-person, story-based, blog-style advertorial I wrote for a neck brace.

The first version of the advertorial was profitable, though barely so. The client asked me to come up with another version, to see whether we could increase conversions. I told him to simply test out two small changes:

1. Swap out the current headline for a Gary Halbert-style classic along the lines of “The Amazing Direct Mail Secret Of A Desperate Nerd From Ohio”

2. Insert a new lead that immediately offers a discount, with a link to the sales page (only then followed by the current story lead)

My client tested these two things out.

The new headline seems to have made quite an improvement, and is beating the old control by about 30%.

The new lead however, is underperforming the old control.

It seems that, even though prospects already know what the product is all about (thanks to the long video ad on Facebook) and are largely sold on it, they still need to read copy, and a lot of it, to get fully convinced to buy.

It was worth testing.

Now that the results are in, however, it’s really a reiteration of some old-school copywriting principles.

Very much along the lines of what Joe Sugarman, who ran a direct marketing empire that included such classics as BluBlockers, talks about in the quote up top.

You’ve got to get people reading.

You’ve got to get the train moving.

And only once it’s full steam ahead can you break through the last bit of buying resistance that’s holding prospects back.

Anyways, enough about advertorials.

Onwards and upwards to sales emails.

If you haven’t yet signed up to get a free copy of my upcoming book on email marketing, perhaps this post has stoked the old steam engine enough to get you interested.

If that’s the case, here’s where you can sign up:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

A lesson from Widows: How to tell you’re winning a negotiation

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I just saw the surprisingly good Widows.

There are many scenes in this movie that would make for good email — or blog — fodder.

One that sticks out is the following:

Jamal Manning is a former crime boss who’s looking to get respectable, so he’s running for alderman in Chicago’s 16th district.

And in this scene, he visits the reverend of the largest congregation in his district, trying to get support.

The reverend speaks first:

“Election’s in less than a month. If I was a doctor, I’d be telling you to get your affairs in order. Three weeks from now, you won’t need a doctor. You’ll be asking someone like me to give you last rites.”

Manning is getting impatient. He thinks the reverend has already decided to endorse his opponent.

“I didn’t say that,” says the good reverend.

He then suggests he’s still keeping his options open.

Finally, Manning can’t take any more. He blurts out:

“I’m gonna cut to the chase here, reverend. I’m in the driver’s seat. I just don’t have a set of wheels. All I need is your endorsement and your contribution to help me get across the finish line.”

And there it is.

The phrase that tells you you’ve been negotiating right, and are near to crossing the finish line.

Did you catch it?

“I’m gonna cut to the chase.”

That’s not my wisdom.

Instead, it’s straight from the late negotiation expert Jim Camp, who said his students always love to hear that phrase. “Cut to the chase” means the other side is getting worn out and they are ready to agree to just about anything.

So how do you get to that point?

Well, you do what the good reverend did.

Which is something that doesn’t just apply to local politics or crime movies.

In fact, it’s another tenet of Camp’s negotiating method.

And it’s even something that’s been adapted to writing more effective sales emails by that devoted Camp disciple, Ben Settle.

You can try to glean what I’m talking about by closely reading the script above.

Or you can get a copy of my upcoming book when it comes out, where I will cover this topic in much more detail, and give several examples of emails where I’ve used this same strategy.

The choice is yours. If you want the second option, here’s the link:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

A non-plastic straw to stir up creativity

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Somewhere in the jungles and rain forests of Bali, a woman named Elora Hardy has built a house.

It’s not any usual house mind you, but something pretty spectacular and otherworldly:

No plastic

The thing is, this crazy design didn’t just arise from Hardy’s brain, or from the brain of the other designers at Ibuku, her architecture company.

Instead, it was largely a response to the demands of bamboo, the building material they chose to use. In Hardy’s own words:

“The construction industry, the design world, just relies on materials that will bend to your will. Like plastic. People love plastic because you can just make whatever shape you want out of it. You can mould it, you can color it, it’s like the ultimate vanity. […] The team and I could never have come up with this on our own. It was totally driven by the form and the shape of the material we chose to use.”

And yes, this design stuff also applies to copywriting.

Namely:

If you are having trouble coming up with a good idea, odds are you are allowing yourself way too many options.

Enforce some quick barriers, and watch the ideas pour in.

Here are a few such barriers I’ve set up for myself on earlier posts in this blog:

1. Tie in the latest movie I’ve seen
2. Demonstrate the marketing principle I’m talking about
3. Work in 2 or 3 randomly chosen and unusual phrases
4. End with a call to action
5. Tease the main idea without giving it away
6. Tell a story

You get the idea.

There are a lot more of these creative barriers or requirements.

And setting them up for yourself is not just a cute game — not by a long chalk.

It’s serious business.

Because the resulting copy that you write will be much more interesting, much more lively and unique, and will therefore sell much better.

In other words, thunderbolt city.

This is is why I’m putting together a list of such effective self-imposed barriers — including the ones above, but also many more.

And I’ll put it in my upcoming book on profitable email marketing for the health space.

For a free copy when it comes out, head on over here:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

Romancing the story

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Diane Thomas was working late one night at the Coral Beach Cantina on the Pacific Coast Highway.

Even though Thomas had a degree in business from UCLA and a background as a copywriter, she was now working as a waitress.

Tonight, she  was just about to close up.

And that’s when he walked in.

Handsome.

Confident.

Famous.

Michael Douglas.

Douglas was already a big deal in Hollywood at this point, both as an actor (The China Syndrome, Coma) and as a producer (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest).

So Thomas rolled up her apron and took her shot.

You see, just like everybody else in Hollywood, Thomas had written a movie script.

So she approached Douglas and she pitched him on it.

Long story short, Douglas bought the screenplay off her…

Produced the resulting movie…

End even starred in it.

I just watched it. It’s called “Romancing the Stone,” and it not only made Douglas an even bigger star in Hollywood, but it also transformed Thomas’s life (and even led to her death, but more on that another time).

But here’s the thing.

The above story — specifically, the late-night restaurant meetup — is most likely made up.

Yes, there is a legend that says that’s exactly how it happened.

But the truth seems to be that, in spite of being a waitress, Thomas actually had an agent, who shopped her script around town for just one week, before Douglas snatched it up .

In spite of this impressive true story, the accidental cafe meetup seems to sell better.

Now, I recently wrote how “the accidental discovery” is a powerful story motif, which seems to be stronger than whatever truth it was based on.

The “chance meeting” motif, like in the story of Diane Thomas, seems to be something similar.

It’s something to keep in mind when you’re writing to persuade an audience.

Or when you are thinking of how to present the history of your product or service.

Anyhow, on an unrelated note, I am still romancing my book on email marketing for the health space.

If you want to get a free copy when it’s out, you just have to sign up (no casting this time). Here’s the link:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

The Trojan horse of lead generation

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“And armed hosts, an unexpected force,
Break from the bowels of the fatal horse.”
— The Aenid by Virgil

How do you overthrow a city defended by impenetrable walls?

You build a wooden horse and you get the Trojans to do your work for you.

How do you get paid for advertising your own product to other people’s customers?

You write a short book and you get the Amazons to do your work for you.

At least, that’s what one very successful Internet marketer had to say a few years back.

I’m thinking specifically of Hollis Carter, who ran (or still runs) a publishing company called Velocity House.

I remember watching a talk that Hollis gave at Mindvalley a long time ago — it was one of the first things that that got me excited about internet marketing.

The basic message was this:

Whatever you want to do — build a reputation, get leads, rank for a competitive keyword on Google — then writing a book and putting it on Amazon can do that for you.

Instead of paying for advertising, Hollis was saying, Amazon will actually pay you to deliver your ad (in the form of a book) to your target audience.

Well, I’m on this horse.

I’m putting together a Kindle book right now that will serve only for lead generation.

The best part is, it’s easy to do, since I’m just repurposing emails I’ve already sent to my email list.

But there’s a little twist to making sure this book unleashes the armed hosts and unexpected force of lead generation.

It’s a small principle that I learned from Ben Settle, who I suppose learned it from Matt Furey. Outside of these two guys, I don’t hear anybody else talking about it.

If you want to find out what this special principle is, I’ll tell you. All you have to do is sign up by the end of today (midnight PST, Tuesday, December 4) for my upcoming book on email marketing, and I will send you an email explaining the rest of this Amazon Trojan horse lead gen approach.

Here’s the link to sign up:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

The Dwight Schrute school of email marketing

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“I like the people I work with, generally, with four exceptions. But someone committed a crime, and I did not become a Lackawanna County volunteer sheriff’s deputy to make friends. And by the way, I haven’t.”
— Dwight Schrute, The Office

This morning I concluded the launch weekend of my new aromatherapy book.

Spoiler alert: everything went according to plan.

I sent out a lot of emails.

I sold quite a few books — in fact, more than I had anticipated.

And I also got some unsubscribes.

It’s this last bit that I want to talk about.

Before I started this promotional launch (which spanned 4 days and involved 9 promo emails), I sent out an “email avalanche warning” to my subscribers.

I told them what the email forecast was for the weekend, and I also told them that, in case they don’t want to hear me pitching my book, they have two options:

1. They can ignore my emails until next week

2. They can unsubscribe

And sure enough, a few people (though not very many) did unsubscribe at that point.

However, once the email launch actually kicked off last Thursday, more people unsubscribed, including a few who had been faithful readers of my blog and email newsletter for several years.

And my reaction, without any bitterness or sarcasm, was Schrute-like. (In case you don’t know, Dwight Schrute is the jackhammering, hard-working, merciless alpha male assistant to the regional manager from the TV show The Office.)

You see, with a few exceptions, I generally like the people who are subscribed to my email newsletter.

But I’m selling a book and trying to make a solid business out of my Unusual Health website.

And I did not become a low-level aromatherapy expert to make friends.

In other words, when people who would never buy anything from me unsubscribe from my emails, I actually feel glad to see them go.

Anyways, if you want more details about my ebook launch strategy, including the reasoning behind the emails I sent and the schedule I used, you’ll want to get a copy of my upcoming book on email marketing for the health space.

Fact: It’s not out yet, but you can get a free copy when I do finish it.

Here’s where you can find out more:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

The secret online fountain of the truth

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“You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about in parties, you WANT me to be overweight, you NEED me to be overweight.”

Sometimes you gotta probe a little.

For example, I heard Ben Settle mention on his podcast, and maybe in a recent Email Players issue, how you get to the bottom of your market’s worst fears.

You first ask them (for example), “Why would you want to lose weight?”

“Because I don’t like the way I look and it’s unhealthy.”

“I see. Any other reasons?”

And then they think. And think. And if you’re lucky, the real story comes out:

“To tell you the truth, I was in a store yesterday and as soon as I came in, this snotty-looking sales girl intercepted me at the door and she said, ‘We don’t have anything in your size.’ I just got so humiliated and furious I decided something had to change.” (True story, by the way.)

You see, it’s that second, follow-up question which really gets the deep, dark, painful reasons why people do what they do.

It’s like the climax in A Few Good Men.

Tom Cruise’s character keeps probing and probing, asking just one more question…

Until he gets Colonel Jessup, played by Jack Nicholson, to expose himself and yell out the famous line:

“YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!”

Well, as a copywriter and a marketer, the issue is not that I can’t handle the truth.

Rather, the trouble is that I often can’t get at it.

After all, I rarely have my prospects before me.

I don’t have Colonel Jessup sitting in a courtroom either, waiting for my interrogation.

Instead, I have to go online and do some sleuthing to try to uncover THE TRUTH rather than those surface-level answers everybody is programmed to give.

The trouble is, all the typical places that you will hear recommended — Facebook, Instagram, personal blogs — are full of social posturing, and they don’t actually show people’s dark and scaly underbellies.

However, I do have a reliable way of getting that information.

In fact, just as an exercise, I tried to come up with THE TRUTH for a typical person interested in essential oils.

Within a few minutes, I had an avatar.

Yes, I found out what this person looks like, what her hobbies are, what her favorite TV show is…

But I also found out what rare disease she has, her personality type, and her insecurities around her friends .

This is NOT stuff that you will ever find on Facebook.

But it is out there, right on on the Internet savannah — if you know where to look. And though it might seem creepy, it’s a necessary part of the research you have to do if you are going to target an audience effectively.

Anyways, if you want to know what this deep fountain of personal information is, you’re in luck.

I’ll talk about it in more detail in my upcoming book.

Sign up below and I’ll send you a free copy when I’m finished with it:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

Scientists confirm the seductive power of this hidden button

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A new scientific study out of the University of Reading confirms:

Deep inside the human mind, probably shaped by millions of years of evolution, there is a hidden and very powerful button.

If you can reach in and press this button, you can seduce almost any person.

You can get them to act against their own interests.

You can even get them to willingly expose themselves to physical risks. In fact, in the scientific study I mentioned, people were willing to risk electric shocks when this mental button was pressed.

And what do people get in exchange for all this pain and misery and risk they take on when this button is pressed?

It’s not their physical needs that are satisfied.

It’s not money, or status, or validation they will get.

Instead, the gains are trivial, meaningless, and passing.

What’s more, the poor seduced person whose button has been pressed knows this up front, and still allows for the seduction to happen. That’s because — and this is what this study was all about — it seems this button activates the same brain area as physical hunger. It blocks out everything else, and focuses our motivation on just this trivial goal.

And here’s the kicker:

This button isn’t hard to press. It can be done without talent. Almost mechanically. Over and over, dozens of times a day.

If you’ve read this post carefully, you know what the button is and what I’m talking about. I’ve even written about it on this blog earlier.

And I’m going to write about it some more. As you can imagine, pressing this button is a great way to get people to buy — and to enjoy buying.

That’s why you can find out all about this big red button, and how to press it over and over, in my upcoming book:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/