Bejakovic’s hierarchy of email marketing

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What’s the most important thing in email marketing? Ben Settle, in my opinion the top guy teaching this topic, has said that the number one thing he strives to do with email is to build a relationship.

It made sense to me when I first read it. But it seemed to click in my mind in a different way today, when I got an email from somebody in Ben’s sphere of influence.

The email had a Ben-style curiosity-drenched subject line. And yet, I purposefully chose not to open the email, because I know from previous experience that I don’t care too much for what that sender has to say.

That made me think a bit (specifically about the difference between levels 4 and 5 below). And the conclusion is the following hierarchy of email marketing.

The levels are ranked from least sophisticated to most sophisticated. For each level, I’m including a few examples of subject lines that represent that level, which I managed to dig up in my own inbox.

Level 1: Pointless

These tend to be emails from corporations and big organizations that have heard email marketing is important. However, since these organizations have no idea of what to put in their emails, they usually blast out pointless newsletters that are focused on random aspects of their own corporate existance (best case) or nothing at all (worst case). This is the lowest form of email marketing.

Example subject lines:

“New Bestcare website”
“#MakeBaobabFamous”
“What’s new in MailChimp?”

Level 2: Sale

The next level up is when the sender makes an offer. The offer can be a sale, a coupon, or a new product announcement. This works — if your readers are ready to buy and they just need to be nudged with the right kind of carrot. Unfortunately, many companies doing email marketing (especially in ecommerce) only ever send out these kinds of email.

Example subject lines:

“Your favorite mist, on us”
“Save 25% Now + Win a Trip to Maui”
“Get 33% OFF Absolutely EVERYTHING + FREE Shaker”

Level 3: Benefit

Now we’re getting into copywriting territory. “Sell the sizzle, not the steak!” This is where much of the Internet Marketing world lives. This category of emails is all about announcing (and frequently screaming) benefits — though I would also include transparent fear-mongering or urgency-based emails here.

Example subject lines:

“Higher T in 14 days”
“Boost your ranking with these SEO hacks”
“Closing: On-Demand Video Views = Sales”

Level 4: Curiosity

This is still a higher level of email copywriting, which is trying to persuade more skeptical, more sophisticated readers. At first blush, there can be overlap with emails in level 3, but these curiosity emails tend to be less direct and more broadly interesting than the benefit emails. Email courses (think Andre Chaperon) also go in this category.

Example subject lines:

“Do NOT do keto if…”
“The shocking truth about exercise”
“Why drug expiration dates don’t matter”

Level 5: Relationship

Finally, there is the highest level, relationship email marketing. That’s when readers open up your email and read it simply because they’ve grown to like and trust you over time.

This is the only kind of email marketing where you’re not living “email to email” — in other words, you can get away sending all sorts of random and personal stuff, even in the subject line, and people will still read on. In some way, this is coming full circle to the “Pointless” level — except that people actually want to hear what your opinions are and what’s new with you, because you’ve built that relationship.

Example subject lines:

“Bensplaining the importance of daily emails”
“BUSTED!”
“My new project”

“One weird trick for reaching the top of the ziggurat”

Now, there’s an important distinction between levels 1-4 and level 5.

Levels 1-4 are under your control. It’s simply a matter of what you put in the email.

However, you can’t force people to have a relationship with you. All you can really do is write good emails that will hopefully resonate with some of the people on your list.

Technical note: Being at the Relationship level doesn’t mean you only send out personal updates or rants. Quite the opposite. You can and should still frequently mix and match content from the different levels — even within one email. That’s how you get to — and stay at — the top.

The best kind of proof

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I want to give you a demonstration of spooky action at a distance
For this to work, all you have to do is read the instructions below, and then when you get to the part that says “GO” carry them out. Once you’re done, simply keep reading this article.

So here are the instructions of my spooky-action-at-a-distance:
(Read through them once before you try them out)

1. Clasp your hands together with your fingers interlocked, thumb over thumb, index finger over index finger, etc.
2. Now, stick your index fingers out straight, but keep them apart.
3. And then, simply look at the space between your index fingers until something spooky happens. It might take as long as 10-15 seconds, but it might happen sooner as well.

Ready?
GO
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Are you done?
That means my spooky-action-at-a-distance must have come through across time and space and pushed your two index fingers together until they were touching.

At least, that’s the idea
Hopefully it worked. And in any case, the point is not really to convince you of action-at-a-distance, but simply to illustrate the most powerful kind of proof. And that’s demonstration.

Product demonstrations work very well
You can take a car for a test-drive. You can try a shirt on at the store. You can walk around a home before buying it.

Then there are performance demonstrations
In his farewell seminar, Gary Bencivenga told the story of Elisha Otis, who invented the first safe elevator. Otis got in an open elevator in front of a crowd, while his assistant first cut one and then the other cable holding the elevator in place. Otis’s safety mechanism kicked in, saving Otis and the elevator, and finally convincing people that elevators are safe to use (hello skyscrapers).

This still works today
A while back, a video for the Purple mattress company went viral. The core of the video was a clever demonstration — the raw egg test:

Sometimes though, the demonstration doesn’t even have to be of the product
Like in this post that you’re reading. Or in this Bill Jayme add for Smithsonian Magazine:

This clever demonstration seems to be about engagement

So what’s the conclusion?
Always try for a demonstration. There are many creative ways to do this, and it’s worth putting in some thought to come up with one that works for you.

How to get going when you don’t know what to write

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The first part of the Big Con happens on a train. I’m talking about the movie The Sting, where Paul Newman plays Henry Gondorff, an expert con man, who’s looking to fleece a mob boss named Lonnegan. (Lonnegan killed off one of Henry’s old pals.)

So Henry is now on a train, where Lonnegan regularly runs a poker game. Lonnegan cheats. But Henry cheats better.

Of course, there’s a lot of detailed info necessary to out-cheat a cheat. That’s ok. Henry has got a whole team of tricksters and confidence artists on his payroll. One of them, a guy named J.J. Singleton, comes to give Henry the lowdown right before he goes in to join the poker game:

SINGLETON: “He usually plays with a Royal or a Cadenza. [handing him two sealed decks] I got you one of each. He likes to cold deck low, 8’s or 9’s.”

“That’s nice work, J.J.”

Armed with this info, Henry goes into the poker game.  He slaps some gin on his face, acts the fool, and cleans up the table. Lonnegan is furious — and hooked for the rest of the Big Con.

Several times, I’ve written sales emails that started out just like this post. In other words, they referenced a movie, and then tied it into what I was promoting.

Once, this was the X-Men — I talked about Professor X’s ability to read minds, and said how this would help guys who want to please their women better (this was for a “rekindle your romance” course). Another time, I started off talking about the Shawshank Redemption, and then tied this into an ebook on treatments for chronic kidney disease.

The thing is, in both those emails, I was stuck at first. I knew the movie tied into what I wanted to say, but I didn’t know how to make the link. I made several false starts that were weak or rambled on for too long. The answer in both cases was to pick a specific scene, and lead off with that. And that’s the marketing lesson I want to crystalize in this post:

When it’s hard to figure out what to write, the answer is almost always to look for more info. Sometimes, that means going out and doing more research. Other times, it simply means focusing more on the details that are already at my disposal — like picking a specific scene from a movie.

The case against steak upsells

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“Hell yeah we’ll take five more steaks if you cut the price”

Imagine going into a restaurant. You’re hungry and you’re raring for a steak. So you look over the menu, find your steak, wince a bit at the price, but decide to get it.

“I’ll have the 12-ounce steak,” you say to the waiter. He writes this down patiently in his notebook and then says,

“Would you like 18 more ounces of our fine steak at 50% off? You can always take it home with you if you don’t finish.”

Because you’re hungry and it’s a tempting deal, you order the extra slab of meat at a discount. But of course, when it arrives, you can’t finish it. You take it home, where it becomes more of a responsibility than a joy, sitting there cold and hard in your fridge. A few days later you toss it out.

Next time, you stay away from that restaurant. Somehow, you have a bad feeling. You spent too much money. You were emasculated by not finishing the steak. And you don’t need the temptation a second time.

I’ve recently heard a couple of contrasting positions on upsells. Just yesterday, I listened to an interview with successful copywriter and marketer Justin Goff. He talked about how the best upsells are often more of the same.

“Buying one bottle of supplements? How about 3 more at a discount?”

At the same time, Justin talked about the incessant need most direct response businesses have for new customers. According to Justin, new customers are the ones who buy the product, and even the ones who take up affiliate offers. That’s position one.

Then there’s Sean D’Souza. Along with a copy of his Dartboard Pricing book, I got a copy of a talk Sean did for the Ken McCarthy’s System Club. This talk is on the topic of consumption. And one of the things Sean says explicitly is that you don’t want to overwhelm your customers with product, even if they are willing to buy it.

Sean also talks about treating customers the way you would treat your kids — that is, looking out for them and charting a path for them down the line.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Sean’s business seems to rely on a much smaller number of customers, who happily keep coming back year after year and forking over thousands of dollars for Sean’s courses and trainings. It’s what Sean calls a focus on consumption over conversion. That’s position two.

So what’s the conclusion? I guess it depends on what kind of business you’re looking to run. If you want to scale quickly and max out revenue, then aggressive “steak” upsells make sense. If you want to have a long-term business, another strategy might be better.

For example, even in Sean’s way of running a business, the right kinds of upsells can have a place.

Imagine if in that restaurant, the waiter did something different. Imagine if instead of upselling you on more steak, he recommended a special beer on tap, and his favorite salad off the menu. This would still be an upsell, though it wouldn’t make as much money as selling more steak.

Your consumption experience would be much better. You’d be more likely to return. And the restaurant wouldn’t have to constantly worry about digging up new customers.

Shooting off a couple of impossible bullets

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An impossible bet

There’s a video of Ricky Jay at the end of a poker night, doing one last trick for his friends.

He fills a glass with water, puts a playing card on top of it. He then rolls up a second playing card into a little tube and puts this on top of the first playing card, and then puts an egg on top of the tube. “Here’s the bet,” he tells the rest of the guys. “I bet you that by throwing a card I can make the egg land inside the glass. Do I have any takers?”

It’s an impossible bet. The glass is covered by a card so there’s no way for the egg to get through. And all he’s got is some playing cards to throw. Of course, somebody takes him up on the bet. And yet, he throws the card, and gets the egg in the glass.

Today, I worked on a sales page for a video course on cryptocurrency investing. 80% of the sales page was bullets. Warning and danger bullets. Straight up benefit bullets. Curiosity bullets. And peppered in among these, a special breed, which I call impossibility bullets:

  • How to get an extra 10% return on your Bitcoin investment — even if the price doesn’t move one bit
  • How to take advantage of a crypto bull run — even while you sleep
  • How to safely use your cryptocurrencies — even on a computer infected with malware

Now that I’ve pulled them out, I realized they all had the same format:

HOW TO [GENERIC BENEFIT] — EVEN IF [SEEMINGLY INSURMOUNTABLE OBSTACLE]

In all 3 cases, the bullets wrote themselves, because there was an underlying mechanism which offered a surprising benefit. At the same time, I don’t think I could get away with these kinds of bullets too often — people would get skeptical instead of curious. (Unfortunately, copywriting isn’t a magic show — and people don’t like to be fooled by a sales page.) In this case, I think it will work, because the remaining 90% of the bullets are more moderate, and because there is other proof throughout the rest of the copy.

The only way to evaluate copy

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Three wise men doing a copy critique

Professor Skridlov: Father Giovanni, how can you stay here instead of returning to Italy and giving the people there something of the faith which you are now inspiring in me?

Father Giovanni: Ah Professor. You do not understand man’s psyche as well as you know archeology. Faith cannot be given to men. Faith is not the result of thinking. It comes from direct knowledge.

I started re-reading Gene Schwartz’s Breakthrough Advertising. And right on the first page, he offers this warning:

“Copy cannot create desire for a product. It can only take the hopes, dreams, fears and desires in the hearts of millions of people, and focus those already-existing desires on a particular product.”

And here’s another related quote, this from Gary Halbert:

“You know, I’m sick to death of people who can’t be bothered with the little nitty-gritty details of “hands on” experience. Of people who believe that somehow they can know a thing without experiencing it. Listen: It is possible to be “conversant” with something and really not have any kind of “gut understanding” of it at all. I’m sorry, but no matter what your Mommy and Daddy told you, men can never really understand the pain of childbirth, priests cannot comprehend the joys of sex, “normies” can never understand alcoholics, and not one speck of true advertising wisdom has ever been written by a PhD.”

And finally, a bit from a recent Ben Settle email:

“This is, btw, why I don’t do critiques anymore. (Besides the fact I hate doing copywriting critiques) As Doug D’Anna put it in the same interview: ‘How can I offer somebody a copywriting critique on a piece of sales copy for a product or a prospect that I am 100 percent unfamiliar with?'”

Here’s how this ties together in my head.

Nobody can really judge good copy unless they are a prospect and ready to buy. Nice-sounding copy can bomb. Awful copy can sell.

So how do you write good copy? Research is important. So is experience. So is intuition. Then there’s feedback from other experts.

All that stuff is great, but ultimately, none of it is conclusive.

Fortunately, direct response copywriting is one area where we don’t have to agree to disagree. We can know which appeal is best. Even if we cannot see inside people’s hearts, and even though we cannot have their problems (or faith). And that’s simply through sales.

A bizarre example of disconnected infotainment

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Photographer Leopold Kanzler worked with this beaver for two weeks hiding apple slices in his camera to get this shot. “I’m not sure who had more fun, me or the beaver, but it seemed more than happy with receiving so many tasty treats.”

I just finished reading the Dartboard Pricing book from Sean D’Souza. It’s the first of his paid products that I’ve read. And there were many things from this book, besides the content, that I thought were worth adopting.

Once upon a time I read an article of Sean’s on the topic of infotainment. He had various bits of advice, and one of them was something like:  “You can connect or disconnect the entertaining part to the information part at will.”

In other words, if you are writing an email or a blog post or a book, it’s important that the email or blog post or book is fun to read. It’s also important that it has valuable content. The entertainment and the content can be connected, but they don’t always have to be.

In Sean’s Pricing book, he has lots of what you could call infotainment. Cartoons. Stories. And then, there’s a recipe for chicken biryani, spread over 3 pages.

The cartoons and stories tie into the content of the book. The chicken biryani does not, at least as far as I can see.

To sum up, connect or disconnect the infotainment at will. But my gut feeling is — there’s value in occasionally disconnected infotainment — it keeps people surprised and gives a sense of wonder.

I don’t think it’s something to do all the time. But once in a while, it’s better to throw in something fun and bizarre, rather than fun but reasonable.

The pigeonhole principle applied to email marketing

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In mathematics there is something called the “pigeonhole principle.”

At first, it sounds immensely stupid. Something like:

“If you have 20 pigeons but only 19 pigeonholes, and each pigeon has to go into a pigeonhole, then one pigeonhole will have more than one pigeon.”

No sh– Sherlock. But with a little creativity, mathematicians have found all sorts of complex and surprising applications of this simple principle. Still, they haven’t thought about marketing.

Three pigeons, just one pigeonhole. Something’s got to give.

I recently came across a successful business owner who wanted to send a sequence of “indoctrination” emails. Indoctrination emails are supposed to build a relationship without selling. I don’t think they are a good idea for multiple reason. Today let’s just talk about one that has to do with the pigeonhole principle.

When somebody subscribes to your email list, chances are very good they have subscribed to many other email lists. Perhaps they opted in on some web page for a free PDF. Perhaps they bought some supplement and put their email in when prompted. Perhaps they signed up to get notified of a webinar or of a sale.

What happens to all the emails all those businesses are sending and will be sending? Yep, they are arriving to the same inbox you are targeting. On the same day. And vying for the same attention and time of the person who’s supposed to read them. It’s the pigeonhole principle, applied to marketing.

Only, unlike in mathematics, this pigeonhole has limited space. You can’t fit infinitely many marketing emails into a real person’s day.

Which means:

Some emails will get skipped, ignored, and passed over…

Today
Tomorrow
And forever

And here’s how this applies to the indoctrination sequence: If you send out a “good-will” or “indoctrination” email (or two or seven), it might be the email that never gets read. That means that once you do send a “sales” email, your prospect won’t be as warmed up or indoctrinated as you might hope.

And yet, there’s a worse option still. And that’s when people read your indoctrination email, they like you, but they don’t know you have anything for sale (or they can’t get at your sales page easily)… And then, when your sales email arrives, it’s the one that gets ignored for good.

Now of course, this won’t happen all the time, and with every customer. And ultimatley, you still have their email address on your list, so you can follow up.

But why shoot yourself in the hoof before you’ve even started trotting?

There’s a simple solution to this problem. When you have somebody’s attention (when they’ve opened your email), build your relationship, build good-will, and offer your products for sale at the same time.

Speaking of which, if you do need somebody to write emails for your business in this vein, get in touch with me, because it’s a service I offer.

Why you should ride the void like Indiana Jones

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Stepping out into the void

“You must believe, boy”
— Indiana Jones’s dad

There’s a scene in the 3rd Indiana Jones movie where Indy has to take a leap of faith.

His father has been shot, and the only way to save him is to retrieve the Holy Grail, which cures and heals all.

Only one problem.

The Holy Grail is on the other side of an enormous rocky chasm.

There’s no bridge.

No way across.

“No man can jump this,” says Indy.

And then he realizes what he has to do.

So he takes a deep breath. Closes his eyes. And steps out into the void.

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And yet he doesn’t fall.

Instead, he has stepped onto an invisible bridge, which, now that he’s stepped onto it, actually becomes visible, and leads him to the Grail. Father saved, evil guy defeated, the end.

I thought of this scene because I am trying to illustrate (to myself) and important copywriting lesson I heard today.

It came from David “world’s greatest copywriting coach” Garfinkel.

David was talking about the 6 main reasons that keep good copywriters from becoming great.

The first of these, however, is not limited to copywriting. In a nutshell, David is saying this first reason that holds copywriters back is a lack of confidence.

This might not sound like a great revelation, and in fact, it isn’t.

It’s what David said next that matters.

“How do you develop confidence?”

Successes can help.

So can failures, if you learn from them.

But according to David, neither of these is really the key to developing true confidence.

Instead, he says that confidence comes from knowing that you can deal with the inevitable setbacks that you will come across in any complex project. In other words, trusting that you will be able to problem-solve when the need arises.

I think the invisible bridge is a good metaphor for this.

The first time, it simply requires a leap of faith (that’s when you throw yourself into a situation without certainty that you will succeed).

From then on however, the bridge becomes visible, and you know that you can succeed — you have confidence — because success ultimately comes from handling real-life situations in real time.

And like I said, this isn’t limited to copywriting only.

It applies to any situation in which you need confidence.

For example, I’ve heard similar advice from pick-up coaches.

The RSD guys have a popular mantra, “You are enough.” To me, this  is ultimately about trusting that you’ll be able to handle yourself in the moment.

And daygame master Yad teaches something similar, except he phrases it as, “You have to learn to ride the void.” In other words, get comfortable with the tension of running out of things to say, because that’s when the best things happen.

So why ride the void?

The same reason why Indiana takes the leap of faith.

Because the Holy Grail is on the other side.

How to sell in paid products without alienating customers

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Uh oh.

My post from yesterday gave a bunch of examples of infotainment I plan to put into my upcoming book on essential oils.

But the examples I used were often taken from sales materials, rather than info products themselves.

Is this a giant screw-up on my part?

Let’s see.

Copywriting all-star Gary Bencivenga once said that sales material should be valuable enough to read on its own.

On the other hand, prolific marketer Dan Kennedy embodies the idea that paid products should also sell. (They can sell other products, or at least you as an expert.)

In other words, paid and free content can and should be quite similar. Here are a few other points to think about:

Also, former Boardroom exec Brian Kurtz talked about the kinds of premiums (aka bonuses) that Boardroom would give away with their books. What they found is that when somebody buys something, the best thing is to sell or give them more of the same. So if they are buying a health book, offer them 3 more health books as a bonus.

Finally, supplement marketer Justin Goff does something similar in the world of supplements: simply offer the buyer more bottles of the same supplement as an upsell.

And here’s how this ties back to info products or sales pages (or sales emails) that promote those products:

If somebody is “buying” your free promotional products…

In other words, if they tune in regularly to hear your personality and stories and lame jokes and whatever else you use to spice up your free promotional content, whether that’s emails, or blog posts, or speeches behind a podium….

Then it makes no sense to turn off that tap when you charge them money for an info product.

Of course, the paid product should be valuable and should close some of those loops that the free content opens. But it should continue to be entertaining (and even to sell) in the same way as your free stuff — or you will have some sore and disappointed customers.

And that in a nutshell, is why infotainment examples from sales letters — as well as more direct sales techniques — can go straight behind the paywalled curtain as well.