The 10-word hangover jingle that doubled sales

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This morning, I was reading Frank Luntz’s Words That Work. That’s how I came across the following ancient marketing anecdote, with a very modern takeaway:

Back in the 1960s, Alka-Seltzer, the upset-stomach effervescent tablet, wasn’t selling well. And advertising wasn’t helping.

Then the company ran a new ad with a new jingle:

“Plop plop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is”

Result:

Sales almost doubled. Customers were happier. Alka-Seltzer as a business was rescued and was eventually sold to Bayer in 1977, for about $1.4 billion in today’s money.

WTF happened?

Plop plop fizz fizz…

Sure, the jingle was catchy. But that’s not what rescued Alka-Seltzer. Instead, it was simple economics.

Until this ad, most people, hung over on a Sunday morning from the Saturday night’s bender, would plop one Alka-Seltzer into some water, stare while it fizzed up, and then chug it down to feel less awful.

After all, that’s how Alka-Seltzer was sold, and that’s what the instructions on the box said.

It worked ok. Clearly not great though, considering the straits that Alka-Seltzer was in.

Then a doctor at the Alka-Seltzer labs named Dorothy Carter suggested taking two Alka-Seltzer instead of one, in order to “break through the pain barrier.”

Sure enough, two pills made the hangover more bearable. Customers were happier. And so were Alka-Seltzer execs, after the plop plop fizz fizz campaign spread the message to the public, and nearly doubled Alka-Seltzer consumption and sales.

The very modern takeaway, as relevant today as it was in the days of Madison Avenue jingles:

Educate your customers on consuming more of your product. Increase the transaction size, not by telling people they’ll save money, but by telling them how to get better results.

This ancient anecdote and the modern takeaway have nothing to do with my upcoming Daily Email Fastlane workshop.

Well, they have something to do with it, but I will save that for the actual workshop instead of giving away everything in this email.

In case you’re curious about this workshop, here’s what to know:

This workshop will cover the common elements I’ve seen in three uniquely successful daily emailers I’ve coached over the past year and a half.

These daily emailers have stood out to me — in terms of the money they make, the stability of their income, and simply in how much they seem to enjoy their business and their life.

My claim is that, once you know the common elements of three very different, and yet very successful daily email business owners, you can take what has worked for them and have it work for you. You can get to success with daily email for your personal brand, in the fast lane.

Daily Email Fastlane will happen next Thursday, May 23, at 8pm CET, 2pm EST, 11am PST.

The deadline to sign up is Wednesday, May 22, at 8:31pm CET.

In case you’d like to sign up now, so you can be sure not to miss out:

Click here, sign up, get ahead fast, never stop

Daily Email Fastlane for women

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Last night, I sent out an email promoting my upcoming workshop, Daily Email Fastlane. And for a bit, I was pleased by the number of sales that came in as a result.

I actually stayed pleased until this morning.

And then this morning, I got a reply from Adam Silver, an expert in user experience. Adam wrote me to ask:

“Did you hesitate to write ‘handsome mug’ as it doesn’t work for women? :)”

Adam was referring to the way I ended my email last night. I said there will be a recording of next Thursday’s workshop, but if “I can see your handsome mug live on Zoom, that’s even better.”

Suddenly, after reading Adam’s message, I stopped being so pleased with myself.

I hadn’t thought much about that “handsome mug” phrase while writing it. I didn’t think it mattered.

But now that Adam brought it up, I checked the stats.

It turned out that, out of the 10 sales that have come in since yesterday’s email went out, 9 are from men and only 1 is from a woman.

For reference, I normally get a healthy mix of both men and women buying my stuff.

So was this just a coincidence?

Or did that small phrase really kill a bunch of sales that women might have made?

Did I shoot myself in the foot with just two words?

Or… was it the exact opposite? Did those two words actually help me make those other 9 sales?

Because check it:

In emails and in copy more generally, it makes sense to call out your audience.

Maybe everyone in your audience could possibly benefit from your offer. But most people won’t reply unless they feel your offer is somehow uniquely for them.

The trouble is, you probably have lots of different ways to call out your audience. Lots of different ways to slice and dice your market. Lots of different ways to appeal to how people think of themselves.

So what do you do?

Daily emails offer an easy fix to this conundrum. You just call out a new segment every day, and see what works.

And so, I would like to announce I will hold a workshop next Thursday. It’s called Daily Email Fastlane, and it will help women benefit by sending daily emails for their personal brand.

Maybe you think I’m pandering. Maybe you demand to know why specifically women can benefit from this training, and from daily emails more generally.

Here’s why:

It’s my observation that, out of the hundreds of daily email newsletters I’ve subscribed to over the years, in all kinds of niches, the majority are still sent by men. In many niches, it’s a significant majority.

I’m not appealing to your sense of justice here. I’m appealing to your sense of opportunity.

In most markets today, women would have an immediate advantage by sending out daily emails. They would have this advantage by having unique positioning. By being different to what’s already out there. By simple virtue of being a woman.

And if you want more of a sexist, stereotypical reason:

From what I hear, many women are naturally good at building a sense of community, of forming relationships with others, of emotional bonding. More talented than many men in any case, and certainly more talented than me, somebody who has to relearn this kind of stuff consciously, on a daily basis.

But daily emails are all about forming relationships with your audience, and building a sense of community.

So it seems to me that many women would naturally take to sending good daily emails for their own brands… and it seems to me they would benefit uniquely from doing so.

And yet, like I said, it’s still mostly men who take advantage of daily emails.

I don’t know why that is. But I do have a fix for it, or rather a fast lane.

This fast lane is made up of the commonalities I’ve seen in three uniquely successful daily emailers I’ve coached over the past year and a half.

These daily emailers have stood out to me — in terms of the money they make, the stability of their income, and simply in how much they seem to enjoy their business and their life.

All three achieved success via daily emails, in spite of not being women. So imagine what you could do.

If you’d like to join me for this workshop:

https://bejakovic.com/daily-email-fastlane

Announcing: Daily Email Fastlane

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Next Thursday, I’m putting on a workshop which until now did not have a proper name. I’m sure you were on pins and needles because of the uncertainty. I am writing now to set you at ease.

I’ve settled on a name. That name is Daily Email Fastlane.

Hear me out:

Over the past year or so, I’ve coached a dozen or so people who write daily emails as a central part of their business strategy.

Out of that dozen or so people, three stand out in my mind — based on the money they make, the stability of their income, and simply in how much they seem to enjoy their business and their life.

I won’t name these people. But I’ll tell you this:

These three daily emailers all move fast. They write emails fast. They spin up offers fast. They go from “good idea” to “let’s see if it works” fast.

“Yeah that’s swell for them,” you might say. “But what about me?”

Well, that’s actually why I’m calling this workshop Daily Email Fastlane.

I can’t motivate you to move any faster than you normally do. That’s up to you.

What I can do, in fact what I’ve done, is to look at what else these three daily emailers have in common, such as:

– how they write their emails and make those emails good, even when they are not feeling creative

– how they structure their offers in a way that makes those offers 17.4x more likely to succeed (that’s my inexact estimate, but it’s in the ballpark)

– how they get their leads and how they think about leads

– plus what I advised them to do to take their already successful daily email businesses and make them even more successful

So that’s why this training is called Daily Email Fastlane. ​​Not because you have to move fast. But because I’ll show you the commonalities of three very different, and yet very successful daily email business owners, so you can take what has worked for them and have it work for you.

Do this, and you will get to success with daily email for your personal brand, in the fast lane, regardless of your natural speed.

Daily Email Fastlane will happen next Thursday, May 23, at 8pm CET, 2pm EST, 11am PST. It will be recorded if you cannot make it live. Though if you can be there and I can see your handsome mug live on Zoom, that’s even better.

In case you’d like to sign up:

https://bejakovic.com/daily-email-fastlane

Too busy NOT to send daily emails

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Next Thursday, May 23, I will hold a live workshop. I still haven’t decided on the final name for it. For now, I’m just using the exciting placeholder, “Daily emails for your personal brand.”

Since yesterday, I’ve been having conversations with people who expressed interest in this workshop.

Many people brought up the same problem over and over, in different words:

“I’m too busy to send daily emails.”

“No capacity.”

“Time constraints.”

About that:

Many moons ago, in the unsteady and unreliable pre-daily-email era of my career, I had to write a sales letter for an ebook about meditation.

It was a formulaic sales letter, one of those built around 4 myths.

One of the myths I attacked was, “I’m too busy to meditate.”

My claim back then was, you’re too busy NOT to meditate. If you make a habit of meditation, you will get tasks completed more quickly and you will free up more leisure time.

I’ll make the same claim for sending daily emails.

There are many days when the only thing I get done, business-wise, is to write and send an email to this list.

I write about some idea that excites me or that I find fun. Sometimes it takes an hour. Sometimes it takes 20 minutes.

At the end of the month, I’ve written some 30 emails, which I can reuse, resell, or resend as I see fit.

I’ve also inevitably made sales due to those emails, which add up to a reliable 5-figure income each month.

Plus, in the process, I’ve gotten a bit better at selling. And I have 30 days’ worth of data from my list, which I can use to inform future offers or future marketing.

These daily emails aren’t the only thing I do. But they are the one thing I do every day.

Because ultimately, these daily emails have freed up lot of time for me. Personally, I use that time to take a walk, go to the gym, meet with friends, read a book, or simply stare off into space and think.

You might have better leisure-time preferences than I do.

But if you don’t have enough time to enjoy them now… well, to me that’s just an argument for sending daily emails.

Like I said, the workshop on actually doing so will happen next Thursday, May 23. It will be quick. That’s because I aim to make it very concentrated with practical info.

The cart for this workshop is open now, and it will remain open until I close it, next Wednesday, May 22nd, at 8:31pm CET.

I’ll have more to say about this workshop over the coming days. So if you’d like to hold off from making the decision whether or not to join this workshop, you can.

On the other hand, if you know already you want to join me next Thursday, here’s where to go:

https://bejakovic.com/daily-emails-workshop

P.S. Yesterday, I ran a contest for a free ticket to this workshop. I chose the winner at random from the people who replied to express interest. The winner this time around turned out to be Tom Render, of the Southwick Renders.

Tom, if you’re listening to this message, please come down to the DJ booth to claim your prize.

On the other hand, if you’re not Tom, then the only way to get inside this workshop is via the link above.

Are you writing daily emails for your personal brand? Or no?

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I’ve been writing daily emails for myself for the past 5+ years. ​​For about 5 of those 5+ years, I’ve been regularly writing daily emails about how great daily emails are.

You know, the usual arguments. How daily emails help you:

… make sales… turn yourself into an authority… make price a secondary or tertiary issue… sort out your own head trash… build up your real and perceived expertise… yadda yadda.

You prolly know all that.

And yet, odds are fantastic or better that you’re not writing daily emails for yourself right now.

Or you’re not doing it regularly.

Or it’s a struggle. Or it’s taking way too much time. Or you’re not getting the kinds of results you’ve been promised.

Why is that?

I don’t know. ​​But I’m willing to put in time and mental energy to figure it out, and figure out a simpler, superior system for you to write daily emails and get results fast.

So here’s the nothing-down deal I have for you:

I’m gonna put on a workshop next Thursday, May 23rd. The tentative title is “Daily Emails For Your Personal Brand.” The tentative topic is daily emails for your personal brand.

I’ll have an order form set up by tomorrow. But today, I have a different offer for you, one that doesn’t cost anything.

For today, if you’re interested in this workshop based on the little I’ve said about it so far, hit reply and tell me so. But beware.

If you do express interest, I will follow up with you. One on one. Via email.

​​I want to find out your situation in regard to daily emails, where it’s aching or itching or burning, what you’ve tried before to get it to stop, how that’s working out or not for you.

I will use what you tell me to actually guide the content for this workshop, so that it’s as superhumanly useful as I can make it.

Plus I have a bit of a contest with a prize right now:

I will pick one person at random and give away a free ticket to this workshop.

The only requirement to be entered for this free ticket is that you reply to this email and express your interest by 8:31pm CET tomorrow, Tuesday, and that you engage with me when I follow up with my questions.

So there’s literally one thing to do right now. Ask yourself:

Are you writing daily emails for your personal brand? Or no?

​​And if no, could you potentially use some help or guidance or advice?

If so, then hit reply and tell me so. It doesn’t oblige you in any way. You might win a free ticket. And best of all, you may actually help me create something that makes the itching and burning stop.

Why I won’t use BerserkerMail

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Yesterday I wrote about an “unwilling unsubscribe” issue that’s been haunting me for a few years. I asked readers for suggestions on how I can keep good subscribers from getting accidentally kicked off ActiveCampaign.

Lots of people replied with lots of good ideas.

But a fair number of people also pitched me on switching from ActiveCampaign to Ben Settle’s BerserkerMail service.

From what I can tell, many of those people don’t actually use BerserkerMail themselves. Instead, they just berserk on behalf of Ben about how great BerserkerMail is.

I’ve never used BerserkerMail and have no plans to switch. I thought somebody out there might want to know why. Three reasons:

#1. Switching would be a pain in the ass.

One reader wrote me yesterday to say how easy it is to switch over to BerserkerMail “in just a few clicks.” That sounded like a kid trying to sell his parents on a weeklong trip to Disneyland by saying “it’s only a 4-hour flight away.”

Looking at the flight time only ignores all the packing… the booking of the hotel… the taking of the dog to the dog kennel and watching his big eyes as he accuses you of abandoning him… and the fallout at work after a week away and a few thousand accumulated small fires that have gone untended.

In less Disneylandy terms:

I have a few dozen automations set up in ActiveCampaign that run a large part of my product delivery.

I have a few dozen integrations with my website membership software… with optin forms in various places… with my cart software.

And I suspect that, in spite of the “just a few clicks” to switch my contact list to BerserkerMail, I would still be left with days of prep work and weeks or months of things breaking and me having to fix them.

​​And if that’s not enough…

#2. BerserkerMail has the same problems I want to run away from.

A couple people tried to sell me on how “simple” BerskerMail is to use. But I’ve never had a problem with ActiveCampaign because it’s complex.

I have had a problem with ActiveCampaign when it crashed right when I ran a classified ad and got hundreds of new subscribers in a matter of hours.

I’ve had a problem with it when I scheduled an email that never got sent out — still my one missed day of emailing in the past 5+ years.

In other words, I’ve had a problem with ActiveCampaign because of occasional reliability and tech issues.

But BerserkerMail has its own reliability and tech issues. I know, because people who use BerserkerMail have told me so, and because Ben has written about BerserkerMail’s tech issues in his own emails.

It’s kind of like that famous Disneyland commercial on TV:

“Are you tired of your kids screaming at home? Take them for a weeklong vacation to Disneyland and have them scream here! It’s only a 4-hour flight away and buying the tickets is super simple.”

(By the way, as for unsub issue I wrote about yesterday, it seems the most likely culprit is simply Gmail and Apple Mail unsubscribe features. If that’s the case, it would affect BerserkerMail emails the same as those sent from any other service.)

#3. I already have an easy-to-use, technically reliable alternative to ActiveCampaign.

It’s not BerserkerMail.

​​Instead, it’s Beehiiv, which I used for my health newsletter.

I loved everything about Beehiiv so much that I actually thought about switching this newsletter to use Beehiiv. I decided against it because of point 1 above.

However, if I do ever start any new newsletters, they will go on Beehiiv by default.

If you want to start a new newsletter, you can try out Beehiiv at the link below.

I won’t try to sell you on Beehiiv, beyond saying it’s free — not just during a 30-day trial period like BerserkerMail, but forever — as long as you’re below 2,500 subscribers, and you don’t start coveting advanced features like the referral program and the ad network.

If you want to try out just how simple it is to sign up to Beehiiv, and how pleasant, and how short of a flight it is:

https://bejakovic.com/beehiiv

Please help me staunch the unsubscribes

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Over the past 5+ years of daily emailing, I’ve trained myself to shrug as my default reaction when people unsubscribe from my list.

Most of the time, people who unsub have never bought anything from me, weren’t a good fit for what I sell in the first place, weren’t even reading my daily emails very often.

If those kinds of subscribers go, that’s ok. The world is packed full of people, and my email list is not the right fit for most of them.

But!

It sometimes happens that the people who unsubscribe from my list have bought stuff from me, did read my emails, even seemed to be fans.

Sometimes, these unsubscribes are the result of a fermentation process — people move on, their circumstances change, or perhaps they just get sick and tired of me.

Other times though… take for example what happened yesterday.

I got a message from a reader who had bought my Copy Riddles program, my Most Valuable Email program, and my Horror Advertorial Swipe File. A reader who had replied often to my emails. A reader who had given me glowing testimonials for a few of my offers.

And yet…

ActiveCampaign has this reader marked as having unsubbed 8 days ago. Last night, this same reader wrote me to say:

===

John, I’m somehow kicked off your list again. Hah! I have no idea how this keeps happening. This is the last email I got from you.

I signed back up via your opt-in form just now, but thought I’d let you know in case this is happening with other subs.

===

Normally, this would be an opportunity to say something like, “and that’s what happens when you write emails every day… it becomes like appointment TV and people seek you out if you don’t show up on time. This is why you should buy my courses on writing daily emails blah blah…”

Actually, that’s exactly what I did write the first time the reader above wrote me to say he got kicked off my list, a couple years ago.

But now, I’m actually a little anxious to root out this phantom unsubscribe problem once and for all.

Because the reader above is not the only one who has told me he was unsubbed from my list for no good reason.

I have a few real-life friends who are also subscribed to get my emails.

A couple of them have also told me they stopped getting my emails at various points. I checked, and ActiveCampaign says they unsubscribed. My friends deny it. I trust them over ActiveCampaign.

And I figure that if I already know of a handful of cases where people got unsubbed from my list without willing it, there might be more cases where it happened and I don’t know about it.

So I’m appealing to you for any help or advice you can give me.

Again, I use ActiveCampaign. That seems to be the only technical thing I can point to.

Have you had something similar happen to you? Or to one of your clients? Or do you have any advice for me on how I could start debugging this “unwilling unsub” feature?

Write in and tell me what comes to mind. I’ll be grateful for any advice or pointers. Thanks in advance.

Even criminals need a “wow” factor

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A few weeks ago, I was listening to an interview with an FBI special agent. That’s how I found out there’s an application process for getting onto the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list. Says the FBI agent:

“Yeah, there’s an application process, because the FBI knows that this is going to be on the media. Everyone’s going to scrutinize this, so they want to make sure everything is correct. You know, there has to be a little bit of a, I wouldn’t say, a wow factor is not the right word, but a factor of saying, ‘Listen, wow, I’m really interested in this.'”

The FBI agent seems to be trying to not glamorize violent crime.

First he denies criminals who get on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list have a “wow” factor.

But right after, that’s exactly what he confirms. There has to be an element of “wow.” There has to be something to set the criminal apart and to get the public interested.

Really, when you think about it, that’s not much of a surprise.

There are millions of criminals around the U.S.

​​There are probably tens of thousands of violent, dangerous, would-be-great-to-get-into-custody-today criminals. But there’s only so much space in the news and only so much capacity for attention in the public mind.

Of course, you are not a criminal. That’s good.

But I think the lesson from the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted holds even on this side of the law.

Whatever it is that you do, you are competing against a bunch of other people.
​​Maybe millions of others.

More likely, thousands do something like you do. Even a few dozen options in a market is more than the public mind can comfortably handle.

So you need a “wow” factor. Something to set you apart and to get people interested. Because simply doing your job very well — or very violently — is usually not enough.

There are lots of ways you can create a “wow” factor for yourself.

I’ve done it for myself using what I’ve called the Most Valuable Email trick.

This trick is not stories, or pop culture illustrations, or shock and controversy.

It’s something else entirely. Something that others have used profitably before I started using the Most Valuable Email trick, and still others have used profitably since I taught it to them.

If you’d like to learn the Most Valuable Email trick yourself, you can. It takes all of an hour to learn and start applying in your own emails, so you can create a kind of “wow” factor for yourself.

If that’s something you’re interested in, take a look here:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/

How to get a piano to sell itself

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Pianos are bulky, expensive, and almost impossible to use.

As a result, it’s hard to sell a piano, if you have to be the one selling it.

On the other hand, it’s easy to get a piano to sell itself. Here’s a straightforward 9-step process to do so, recommended by an expert on the matter:

1. Start with a fundamental human instinct (eg. “building a home”)

2. Tie that into a new habit or convention that serves your ultimate goal (eg. “every refined home has a music room”)

3. Organize an exhibition of music rooms designed by well-known decorators

4. Put on a gala event to create dramatic interest in the exhibit from step 3, and invite key people who influence public opinion and habits, such as a famous violinist, a popular artist, and a society leader

5. Publicize this event and these associated people through various media

6. For an even easier time, also convince influential architects to introduce music rooms into their new architectural plans

7. If successful with step 6, publicize these influential architects and their new plans through various media

8. Wait a little bit while this percolates through society, and music rooms become a thing that everybody has to have

9. Sit inside your piano shop and welcome men and women as they file in and say, “Please sell me a piano? I have this empty music room I need to fill.”

After reading this straightforward 9-step process, maybe you say:

“Thank God I don’t sell pianos! I’ll go sell my thing right now, and I’ll go do it directly, without your straightforward 9-step process.”

Of course. Do as you think is right. All I was really aiming to do is to share the following idea:

It can be very valuable to create circumstances that channel natural emotional currents into demand.

Creating such circumstances is something you can do regardless of what you sell, whether that’s your own courses… your copywriting services… or even physical products.

You can create the right new circumstances right now. Over time, you can get people to change their own minds, to demand what you have, and even to reach out and ask you for it.

I gave you the general recipe for how to do it above.

As for how to put that recipe in action, in your particular business, selling your particular offer, I’ve actually prepared a training all about that. You can find it here:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/

Flamboyant, famously homosexual football club chairman

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A few months ago, a friend turned me on to a new addiction:

BBC Archive.

Sounds… archival, I know, and as exciting as a dusty library.

But the BBC Archive can be a fascinating look into a completely different time and often into places that have now fully disappeared.

For example, today I watched a BBC report from 1979, asking the question, does English football need investment?

Was a time when football (soccer) wasn’t much of a business. Back then, a couple English First Division team owners had audacious ideas such as expanding the number of seats in their stadiums past the 10k mark, or maybe even introducing functioning toilets.

The BBC interviewed a couple of these team owners and execs, including the director of Watford FC, a guy named Elton John.

“Haha,” I thought. “What a coincidence. This football club bro has the same name as the flamboyant, famously homosexual rock and roll star.”

Except, of course, it turned out that the football club bro was actually the flamboyant, famously homosexual rock and roll star.

Elton John has been a diehard supporter of Watford FC since he was a kid.

​​After he became rich and famous, he bought his way into the club. He acted as their chairman and director between 1976 and 1987, and then again from 1997 to 2002.

It’s only in my limited, stereotyping mind that it’s incongruent for a football club chairman and a flamboyant, famously homosexual rock and roll star to be one and the same person.

Maybe you’re nothing like me.

Or maybe you’re a bit like me.

In that case, let me share something that’s really been working for me to get a fascinating change of perspective from the usual.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve gotten on Zoom calls with a half dozen or so people who have bought my courses.

I wanted to find out a bit about who they are.

Oh, sure, I knew all about them already, everything I needed to know. I knew they were interested in copywriting, marketing, and my charming and funny personality.

What else is there to possibly know?

Turns out, a huge amount, measured in tons. I won’t list everything I learned here. But let me just say much of it has been as surprising and frankly eye-opening as seeing a 1970s Elton John discussing the plight of football fans who don’t have access to clean toilets.

I’ve also gotten lots of ideas for new offers by talking to my customers over the past few weeks.

​​Not just via ideas that popped up in my mind while I was listening to people talking. No, the people I talked to gave me specific recommendations and said, “Here, this is what I like to buy.”

So if you’re racking your brains about your next offer, might be time to invest in walking around the virtual bleachers, and talking to a few of the people who are sitting there on Friday nights.

I’ll be applying some of these ideas soon. Meanwhile, I just have a few archival offers, including the best thing I sell, a flamboyant program known as Copy Riddles. For more info on that:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/