Direct Marketing

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

by

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/

The Trojan horse of lead generation

by

“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

by

“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 worst aromatherapy book Broadway has ever seen

by

“Tonight, essential oils. Tomorrow…”

The Producers — a brave and brilliant comedy from back in 1968.

The basic plot goes as follows:

A Broadway producer named Max Bialystock meets an accountant named Leo Bloom.

Together, they realize that a play that flops could earn more money than a big hit.

So they set out to produce the worst play in the history of Broadway. It’s titled:

“Springtime for Hitler”

It’s shocking, it’s campy, it’s offensive, and it’s guaranteed to fail. Except, against all odds, it becomes a hit.

Well, I am currently having my “Springtime for Hitler” moment.

You see, once upon a time, I got into the aromatherapy niche. This was mostly a marketing exercise, and the main reason I chose aromatherapy was the big interest I saw among Amazon best selling books on the topic.

In other words, I expected it to be a quick cash grab or more likely a flop.

Fast forward a few years, and I am genuinely interested in essential oils (I use them myself), I’ve spent hours upon hours researching and writing about the topic, and I’ve even become a low-level expert on the matter.

And now, I have my very own book to prove it.

As of today, my first book about essential oils, Essential Oil Quick Start Guide, is live for sale.

And while it’s not a Broadway hit yet, I do have my first sales trickling in.

Anyways, you can see the sales page at the link below.

If you have zero interest in reading about essential oils, it probably won’t make you buy. Still, it might be worth looking at just to see how I weave in valuable information (suggestion: Gary Bencivenga) with a non-stop barrage of bullets (suggestion: Gene Schwartz). Here’s the link:

http://www.unusualhealth.com/quick-start-guide/

What’s the frequency, Brian?

by

Did you know a group of ladybugs is called a “loveliness”?

Entomologists might not use this term, but it is what former CBS anchorman Dan Rather seems to call a ladybug congress. I found this out from a Tweet that Dan posted today.

He seems very chipper these days, does old Dan, enjoying being retired and spending time with his grandson. But it wasn’t always so.

As you probably know, poor Dan got beat up on the streets of New York back in ’86 by a guy who kept yelling, “Kenneth, what is the frequency?”

The “Kenneth” phrase became a kind of 80’s meme and inspired the big R.E.M. hit, “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?”

The song’s lyrics are opaque and also include the line, “Richard said, ‘Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy.'” This in turn comes from a scene in the movie Slacker, directed by Richard Linklater, in which one of the characters offers Oblique Strategy cards to a passerby, and the “Whithdrawal in disgust” card is what the guy picks.

Oblique Strategies, by the way, are cards designed by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt. They hold short, cryptic instructions to help with creative work.

This links back to the R.E.M. song, which slows down at the end. Apparently, the bass player had appendicitis as the song was being recorded, and they had to stop playing and rush him to the hospital. They never finished the recording properly. I don’t think this was one of Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies, but it runs in the same vein.

You may think this is aimless rambling. And it is — but there is a point to it as well.

A while back, Ben Settle linked to a video that he said was very influential in how he wrote emails. The video is titled “Admiralty Law: Word Controlled Humans & The Law of Money” and it’s the recording of a presentation of one Jordan Maxwell, a world-famous conspiracy theorist.

The video is kind of mind-bending to watch, and the email marketing lesson I drew from it is the power of stringing two ideas together in surprising ways. Each idea has to be somewhat interesting on its own, at least to you. The way you string them together is also up to you — it doesn’t have to make too much sense.

Why do this?

Well, one reason is that surprising people is always a good thing. It wakes them up and makes them pay attention.

But there’s a second, and possibly more important reason. And that is:

Because these are your curious associations between different facts and ideas, they give your unique flavor to what you write. It’s this unique voice that helps you build a relationship with your readers. And ultimately, building a relationship is the highest level of email marketing.

So developing your own voice can be done consciously, like I did with the “Kenneth” stuff above.

The thing is, this association game is not the only way to develop a unique voice for your copywriting.

There are several other strategies. I’ll go over them in similar detail in my upcoming book on email marketing. If you want to get a free copy when it comes out, sign up here:

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

The mere puffery of sales pages

by

Back in 1997, Pizza Hut sued Papa John’s Pizza.

They claimed that Papa John’s slogan — “Better ingredients. Better pizza” — was misleading advertising.

After all, who’s to  say that better ingredients do indeed make for a better pizza? It sounds like some kind of tomato-industry propaganda.

Anyways, the initial ruling was in Pizza Hut’s favor. On appeal, however, Papa John’s won out.

The court decided that Papa John’s slogan was mere puffery — meaning an empty exaggeration that didn’t influence buyer behavior.

I thought of this today because I finished up the sales letter for my new book on essential oils.

And as usual, I sent it over to my trusty proofreader and copy editor.

AKA my mom.

“It’s good,” she said, “I just feel like it might be a little too broad.”

“You mean it’s too long?”

“Yes,” she replied. “It reads nicely, I’m just not sure that anybody would read all this.”

And she’s definitely got a point.

Even though this sales page features some valuable information (thanks Gary Bencivenga) and a bunch of curiosity-baiting bullet points, I’m not sure I would read it all myself if I were my own potential customer.

No surprise there.

In fact, for many of the online purchases I’ve made in the last year or so, I did not read the sales page. I was already sold long before I got there, and I just scrolled straight to the end to the “BUY NOW ” button.

I expect the same to happen with my customers — because they can only get to this sales page from my emails, and I expect them to be pre-sold thanks to those emails.

So is the sales page mere puffery in that case?

In other words, is it just empty advertising that doesn’t influence buyer behavior?

It might well be.

After all, several respected marketers I follow have had successful product launches by sending people straight to the checkout, no sales page in sight.

It’s something I might try in the future, as I get more experience selling to this particular audience.

For now though, if you want to get an idea of the kinds of emails I will be writing to actually sell this course, sign up below to get a free copy of my upcoming book.

It deals with email marketing for the health space, including for info products like the one I’m launching. Here’s the link:

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

Thanksgiving frustrates Bejako’s turkey

by

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/

How a hardened criminal won over a nation in 16 minutes

by

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

by

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 use Disney movies to sell health info courses

by

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