“Show and sell” day at Copywriting High

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I listened to another episode of David Garfinkel’s Copywriters Podcast today.

This episode was about the old writing maxim “Show, don’t tell.”

I wasn’t 100% clear what David’s position was on this idea.

But it did get me thinking of the sales letter I am currently writing, for my own book on essential oils.

The version 1.0 lead for this sales letter was a placeholder, and a lame placeholder at that:

Essential oils — Mother Nature’s miracle cure…

Or an expensive gimmick peddled by multi-level-marketing companies?

Well, a little bit of both.

Here’s the truth: essential oils can really be a wonderful help for issues like… [yadda yadda yadda]

After I listened to David’s podcast, I went back and rewrote this in a “Show, don’t tell” way:

Back in May 2017, a woman in Florida thought she was preparing a nice bath for herself.

Like many times before, she added some essential oils to Epsom salts, and let this sit for 30 minutes before adding it to her bathwater.

She then got in.

This time, however, the bath wasn’t the usual relaxing nighttime routine.

Instead, she got painful burns on her back.

“Normal brand essential oils,” she later wrote, “and coconut oil took the red burns away, but did I do something wrong?”

[it then goes on to explain what she should have done]

More effective?

I think it is.

This “show, don’t tell” approach is something I actually do all the time when writing sales emails.

For example, when I look at the 10 emails I wrote for RealDose Nutrition’s new front-end email sequence, exactly half kick off with a story that “shows” either the problem or the benefit.

Does it work?

Well, the new sequence is outperforming the old one by 30%.

So you can say it’s “Show and sell.”

Anyways, if you want to know more about the little tricks I built into that email sequence, and others I wrote for RealDose, check out my upcoming book. It’s free if you sign up for it now, $17 when it goes on sale:

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

Thanksgiving frustrates Bejako’s turkey

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I’m preparing to launch my new book on essential oils, and while I’m pretty much ready to pop this turkey in the oven, there’s a snag:

This Thursday is Thanksgiving.

The day after is “Black Friday.”

And the Monday after is “Cyber Monday.”

Which means every retailer, online and offline, will be bombarding their email lists with offers and special discounts.

Not a good time to try to vie for attention, especially since I plan to do so starting on a Thursday and ending on a Monday.

I’ll have to wait a week.

No problem though, because it will give me time to write all my promotional emails ahead of time.

And there will be a lot of them.

I’m largely following the product-launch strategy that Ben Settle outlined in his September 2017 issue of Email Players.

And it’s something I’ve applied once before, with a lot of success, for a big client, RealDose Nutrition.

This is an 8-figure company in the supplement space.

I rewrote their front-end autoresponder along the same lines I will be using for my own product launch.

The outcome was a 30% increase in sales — and that’s for a company built on direct response, and one that already relied heavily on email marketing.

If you want to get the full details of what I did for RealDose, you’re in luck.

Because this will be an ongoing case study in my upcoming book on email marketing for the health space.

The book is not out yet, but if you want a free copy when it does come out (it will sell for $17 after that), you can sign up here:

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

Roger Federer offers a bit of negotiation wisdom

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Last night, Roger Federer lost in the semifinals of the ATP year-closing tournament.

This means that Federer, possibly the greatest player who has ever played tennis, still has just 99 titles under his belt.

Asked by a journalist whether he needs that elusive 100th title, Federer responded:

“I don’t NEED it. I will breathe air if not.”

It might sound as if Federer is simply debating semantics, or that he’s even a little testy after his loss.

That’s not what’s going on.

Here’s a bit from an interview earlier in the week when he was asked a similar question:

“Personally I’m still not thinking of the number 100. I won’t let that get in my head, make me go crazy because it should be something I’m excited about and not something I should feel extra pressure about.”

This exactly mirrors what negotiation coach Jim Camp says.

One of Camp’s main rules is not to get needy. In other words, don’t trick yourself into thinking you need something when you actually don’t, and when you have all the things (like air) that you actually do need.

There was a time when I didn’t fully get the importance of this.

“There’s no difference,” I used to think, “between really wanting something and needing it.”

If that’s how you feel now, I won’t be able to convince you otherwise.

All I can do is tell you that I noticed, personally, that needing something actually seems to take place in an entirely different part of the brain than wanting that same thing. It seems to be an entirely different chemical process, and an entirely different emotion.

In short, even though it might seem needing and wanting are closely related, in truth they couldn’t be further apart.

As Jim Camp himself wrote in his book Start with No:

“As a negotiator aspiring to excellence, you must, at all costs, avoid showing need. In order to avoid showing need, you must never feel it. You do not need this deal. But what happens if we simply substitute the word and the emotion ‘want’ for ‘need’? The dynamics change. […] ‘Need’ is death, ‘want’ is life.”

I doubt Federer read Camp’s Start with No, but he seems to have learned the same lesson on his own.

And even though he only has 99 titles to his name, it’s hard to say his focus on wanting instead of needing has left him with a lack of motivation or success.

Something to think about, whatever your chosen field is.

A special note if you happen to be in the health field and you want (not need) more effective marketing:

You might like my upcoming book on email marketing in  the health space.

Along with advice on actually writing emails and structuring email marketing sequences to sell supplements and health info courses, this book will also have a section on the mindset you should adopt to be successful in today’s marketing-saturated world — such as the Roger Federer/Jim Camp lesson above.

Anyways, if you’d like a free copy of this book when it comes out (I’m planning to sell it for $17 when it is out), put your red RF headband on, and sign up at the link below:

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

The trouble with the best PR video of all time

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A very popular Reddit thread appeared today, titled

“NASA Just Published the Best PR Video of All Time”

It turns out we’re going back to the moon. This time, we’re staying. And that’s just the start.

There’s awesome adventure…

Exciting exploration…

Sexy science…

Top-notch technology…

This video’s got it all.

There’s only one thing this greatest PR video doesn’t have. It’s a small thing. But pretty, pretty important. Particularly if you’re ever looking to influence anybody, and get them to do something.

I’m talking about a call-to-action.

NASA’s video doesn’t give you a link to a webpage where you can find out more. It doesn’t ask you to support them by sending in donations. It doesn’t even ask you to study hard so you can become a NASA engineer one day.

Instead, it just leaves you hanging.

Going somewhere… just not clear where

Maybe that’s ok for NASA.

But it’s definitely not ok if you’re writing sales copy.

Especially if you do a good job pumping up your readers’ emotional juice (like the NASA video certainly does).

The thing is, including a call-to-action in your copy doesn’t have to be difficult, nasty, or salesy.

It can be clean and simple.

For example:

I’ll soon be putting out a book on email marketing, with a focus on the health space. If you’re in the health space (or you hope to be one day, if you study hard ), then it might of interest to you. To get a free copy when it comes out, sign up here:

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

The good, the bad, and the ugly of product names

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What’s in a name?

Quite a bit, my young Shakespeare.

I should know, having been blessed with an almost unpronounceable, unreadable name for all but a small part of this planet’s population (“John” is just my “professional” name).

As for people, so for products: names matter.

Yes, sometimes a great product can sell even in spite of an awful name (hello Psycho-Cybernetics).

But why not give yourself the best advantage by having both a good product and a good name?

Let’s look at some products I’ve bought in the last year to see what makes a good name:

“Quit in 6”

Buck Flogging’s course on making it with your own business. Buck says a good name will say what a product is, while a great name will say what a product will do for you. I guess he took his own advice.

“Email Client Machine”

Ben Settle’s product explaining how to get booked with clients using his email tactics. A good name in my opinion: it also says what it will do for you, and the word “machine” draws attention because it’s unusual in this context.

“Energy Blueprint”

Ari Whitten’s course on increasing your (physical) energy. There was a spate of these “blueprint” courses over the past decade. Today I think “blueprint” products have become cliche, putting this name into the good-but-not-great category.

“Dartboard Pricing”

Sean D’Souza’s product on how to set and raise your prices. It’s named after the methodology — how to set your prices — rather than the outcome. However, it definitely gets bonus points for the unusual, attention-grabbing term “dartboard.”

“Email Players”

This is Ben Settle’s monthly newsletter on email marketing. I think the “Players” bit is a reference to Gary Halbert and the way he used that word. If that’s true, then I don’t think this name is really about what the product will do for you… rather, it’s about the identity of the kind of people that Ben wants to assemble as his customers. Knowing Ben’s emphasis on building relationships, this would make sense.

So what makes a good name? I’d say you have two options:

Appeal to self-interest.

Or appeal to identity.

The decision will depend on what kind of clients you want to get, but that’s a topic for another day.

Either way, you get bonus points if you can make the name fresh (of course, without making it confusing).

Here’s why I bring all this up.

I’ve been playing around with the name of my upcoming book on email marketing for the health space (the ugly “Health Email Splash” has gone out the window).

Whatever the final name will be, the offer remains the same. If you sign up now, you can get a copy for free when it comes out. Here’s the link:

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

How a hardened criminal won over a nation in 16 minutes

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I just watched the most remarkable interview.

It was done on one of the local TV stations in Croatia, by one of the country’s most respected TV anchors.

The interviewee was one Olivera Ćirković:

The face of an unrepentant criminal

Yes, Olivera is a statuesque and handsome blonde. But there’s much more to her than just looks.

Back in her native Serbia, she was the child of a wealthy family, a straight-A student, and even a professional basketball player for Red Star Belgrade.

More interestingly, she is also a former jewel thief who has organized dozens of heists and has stolen millions of dollars worth of valuables.

And she’s also somebody who has done prison time on at least 3 occasions, and who made a daring and successful escape her last time in the hoosegow, earning herself the unusual credential of being the only woman ever to escape from a Greek prison.

Now, Olivera is a published author (an autobiography, predictably), with an eye to a big Hollywood movie deal about her life.

And yet:

All of these exceptional things are not what is most unique or impressive about this real-life Pink Panther.

Instead, it is her attitude and her way of speaking and carrying herself that is pure gold (or diamonds).

In fact, during this 16-minute interview, she managed to visibly charm and win over the normally serious and hardened TV anchor.

And by what I’ve heard from my secret contacts on the streets of Zagreb, she seems to have done the same with just about everyone who saw her on TV.

What’s Olivera’s secret?

Well, I can think of at least five separate things.

And I’ll be expanding on them in full detail in my upcoming book on email marketing.

You see, this book will contain a section about the mindset and attitude that you should have when communicating with your audience through email.

This attitude section won’t be relevant for all situations. But if you’re planning on sending out daily emails, particularly in a first-person, hello-from-the-CEO style, then there’s a lot you can learn from Olivera and her natural charisma.

Anyways, if you want to Pink Panther your way to a free copy of my book, you’re in luck. All you need to do is sign up at the link below, and I’ll send you a copy when it’s out:

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

Omnipresent and unexplained email content

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Pop quiz:

What do the following headlines all have in common?

1. How did cool become such a big deal?
2. Why it’s hard to sound like Jimi Hendrix
3. A comprehensive guide to yellow stripey things
4. Why whales got so big

(The third one, by the way, was for an infographic on the differences between wasps, bees, yellow jackets, hoverflies and dirt daubers.)

Think you have it?

Ok, let’s compare answers. Here’s what I had in mind:

Each of these headlines promises to explain a part of your world that is so obvious that it’s actually not understood. Something you’re well aware of, but you’d never really thought about before. Something that gets you saying, “Yeah, that’s right! Why is that?”

These kinds of topics can easily be modeled to write interesting emails. For example, applying them to various health markets, we get:

1. How did essential oils suddenly become such a big deal?
2. Why it’s hard to avoid belly fat past 35
3. A comprehensive guide to different types of erectile dysfunction
4. Why your joints don’t self-repair like other tissue

(Health markets are in fact a very good match for this kind of topic. We all have a lot of experience with our bodies, and yet much about them remains a mystery.)

In short: find something omnipresent but still unexplained (at least to non-specialists). Put it in your subject line, and then write a short email surprising people and opening their eyes with the answer. And then, tie this into whatever you’re selling.

Easy.

Peasy.

By the weasel, this is one of about two dozen email topic ideas I will be sharing in my upcoming book about email marketing for health products.

If you want to find out what the other ones are (they’re very exciting), you’ll need to read the book. You can sign up here to get it when it comes out:

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

How to sell UFOs to skeptical, jaded audiences

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Last Friday, a British Airways pilot spotted something strange through her cockpit window.

She was flying from Montreal to London, and as her plane neared the coast of Ireland, she saw a bright light approach her plane — before seeing it veer off at great speed to the north.

“Astronomical, it was like Mach 2,” said a second pilot about how fast this mysterious light was.

To this day, nobody knows what this strange thing was.

Maybe, just maybe, it was a UFO. After all,

“UFOs spotted off Irish coast under investigation”

was the headline this story ran with, and it’s the headline that caught my attention this morning, so I can report on it to you now.

But here’s the thing.

I’ve written before how I like to haunt tabloid websites and sex forums and conspiracy theory Facebook groups.

That’s not how I found this particular story, however.

I actually came across it on Hacker News.

This is a news website where serious and professional nerds go to do intellectual battle with each other, submitting serious and professional stories (mainly about programming and business), and showing off their intelligence by writing comments that illustrate how nobody can make a fool of them.

And yet, the above story, flimsy UFOs and all, made the front page of Hacker News, alongside articles about new programming languages and $8 billion company exits.

What explains the success of this clickbaity story?

Well, I believe it was a combination of two things.

The first clearly being the curiosity-evoking power of UFOs.

But you have to remember that this story bubbled up among an audience of very left-brained, logical, skeptical engineers and computer programmers.

So there’s a second, more subtle, but equally crucial element that allowed this story to go viral.

And it’s something that can be used to sell as well as to simply draw clicks.

In fact, if you’re in a crowded, jaded marketplace such as weight-loss supplements, this second element is absolutely crucial.

I’ll discuss this second element in full detail in my upcoming book on email marketing for health products.

This book is not out yet, but if you want to get a free copy when I do finish it, you can sing up here:

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

How to use Disney movies to sell health info courses

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Below you’ll find a Pinocchio-themed email I wrote a year ago for a new course on essential oils.

This email is short (I wish I could always write such short emails).

And yet, it has all the elements that I normally put in to promote a health product:

1. Something cute/funny/interesting
2. Something informative/useful
3. A related call to action

Here goes:

SUBJECT: Essential Oil Pleasure Island

In Disney’s fantastic 1940 film Pinocchio, there’s a place called Pleasure Island.

Pinocchio winds up there on the advice of a sly fox called Honest John.

At first, Pleasure Island appears to be every boy’s dream.

You can do whatever you choose: play pool, smoke cigarettes, even get drunk.

However, the place hides a horrible curse.

The stray boys who end up there eventually turn into donkeys and are sold into slave labor.

That’s exactly what happens to Pinocchio’s friend Lampwick, while Pinocchio manages to get away with only some donkey ears and a tail.

This is the cute part — simply telling a cautionary tale that’s clear, easy to understand, and is likely to draw a smile. Continuing:

Now I’m sure this Pleasure Island can be a metaphor for many things in life.

But if you’re curious about essential oils, then I just want to warn you about the many “Honest John” characters out there on the Internet.

They’ll tell you to do whatever you want with essential oils: drink them, massage them onto your skin undiluted, even cook with them.

Beware.

There’s a price to pay for listening to that misleading advice, usually in the form of a rash or a burn or an allergic reaction.

This is the informative part. Nothing super heavy here, but useful to essential oil newbies — the target audience for this course.

The fact is, safe and reasonable use of essential oils might not seem as exciting at first, but it’s a lot more sustainable and useful in the long run.

My new EO Pioneers course tells you how to avoid Essential Oil Pleasure Island, or if you’ve already landed there, how to get away without donkey ears or a tail.

If you don’t want sly foxes leading you by the nose, here’s more information on this new course:

www.unusualhealth.com/essential-oil-pioneers/

Finally, this is the call to action. Again, nothing complex here — simply a brief explanation of what the course is about, and how it can help you if you’re new to essential oils (along with a bit of call-back humor).

And that’s all it really takes.

As easy as 1-2-3.

If you want more examples of how I’ve used this simple template to sell supplements as well as health info courses, you might like to sign up for a free copy of my upcoming book on email marketing:

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

Jim Camp and the desert kite

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Somewhere in the Middle East, there’s an area called the Black Desert.

Apparently, it’s a horrible place, dry and barren and inhospitable to life.

The Bedouins who knew this area best even called it Bilad esh-Shaytan — the Land of Satan. (It rather sounds like Mordor.)

Anyways, deep inside the Black Desert, there are these strange formations:

Low walls, made up of loose stones, which stretch out for miles at a time.

They were first discovered about a hundred years ago, by aviators flying overhead, who named them “desert kites.”

An ancient sales funnel in the Black Desert

For a long time, nobody knew who made these desert kites, or when, or why.

Scientists now believe they were used for hunting large herds of gazelles and antelopes.

The gazelle herds would come upon these walls.

And unsuspectingly, they’d keep walking along.

And walking.

And walking.

And eventually, they would fall into a man-made enclosure, where the locals would have their grisly way with them.

So what’s the point of all this?

Well, let me explain it with an anecdote from negotiation expert Jim Camp:

“According to family tradition, my great-grandfather used to say about one of the mules on his farm, ‘To get his attention you have to hit him between the eyes with a two-by-four. When you have his attention, he can see what he ought to do.'”

Jim Camp taught people how to win negotiations.

And one of the pillars of his approach was the idea that you have to create a vision of pain in your adversary’s mind in order to get a real decision or action out of them.

The trouble, however — according to Camp — is that people are not mules.

Meaning you can’t just blind them with the pain, the way his grandfather would do to the mule with the two-by-four.

Instead, you have to guide them along gently, allowing them a little bit of emotional respite, while still using pain to move them along to your intended destination.

So to sum up:

Yes, people aren’t mules.

But they might just be gazelles.

And in that case, your sales copy becomes a desert kite built out of your target audience’s pain, gradually leading them where you want them to go.

If you want to see how this can be done in practice with email, specifically for the grisly goal of selling health products, here’s where to go:

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