Insight Marketing

Skipper trump card test

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“I was walking on the dock. Alan was walking towards me. There was a girl in between us, maybe around 15, walking towards him and away from me.

“All of a sudden, the girl seemed to lie down. She hit the stern line, rolled around it, and fell into the water.

“I didn’t understand what was going on. But I saw Alan take off his shirt and throw his cell phone on the ground and dive in after her.

“The girl was sinking. He pulled her up to the surface and I pulled her back out on the dock.

“The girl had had an epileptic seizure. Since she was walking towards Alan, he saw her and realized what was going on in time. She would have drowned in a few moments more.”

A few nights ago, I found myself in the company of a bunch of sailboat skippers.

At first, it was like they were speaking a different language. But after a while, in between the industry jargon and the inside jokes and the unfamiliar names, I slowly began to grasp what was going on.

They were playing a game. Like a card game, but with stories.

One skipper would tell a story — for example, a terrible experience working for a charter company. Then somebody would tell another story on the same topic.

“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” was the implied criterion.

Eventually, one of the skippers would pull out the trump card — a story so good that nobody else could top it.

There would be a few moments of quiet appreciation. That skipper had won the round, and his standing in the group seemed to rise a bit.

Then a new round would start, with another topic. (The story above of the girl and the seizure was part of the “near-death experiences” round. It wasn’t the trump card, it turned out.)

Of course, skippers are not unique in playing this game. I was an outsider in this group, so it was easy to see what was going on. But we all do this, all the time.

Stories, jokes, explanations… they are social currency.

They help you play the game. Maybe even win a round. Get a few moments of appreciation… and have your standing rise a bit.

So in case you’re wondering where this is all going, let me give you some industry jargon and maybe a familiar name.

If you want free traffic, then this same process can work in your favor.

From what I can tell, all you have to do is put something new out there… and make sure it’s big enough to beat the cards that came before it.

As an example, take Rich Schefren in the Internet marketing space. That space is full of outsized claims — “How an Oklahoma farm boy cracked the online code to earn $1,123,234.23 in 0.1221 minutes.”

Eventually, no such claim becomes any bigger than any of the others.

So Rich created a new story, which could beat all the cards that had been thrown down on the table till then. “You are an opportunity seeker,” Rich said, “and you will never get where you want to go by continuing on that path.”

Result?

Millions of downloads of Rich’s Internet Business Manifesto. Not through ad spend. Not through SEO. Not through the manual labor of going on stage to speak the gospel. But entirely through the efforts of other people, playing a game like I described above.

This is not how-to advice. You can’t take this and use it to come up with an idea that will get shared.

But it is a test you can apply to an idea you’ve already got.

Maybe your idea doesn’t pass the skipper trump card test. It can still be successful. You’ll just have to push it out into the world, and you might have to spend money on ads.

But if you don’t like pushing, or you got no money for ads, then you can come up with more ideas. And more. Until you find one that does pass the skipper trump card test. Because…

You want to give your market value?

This is value. Not how-to advice. But social currency they can use to benefit themselves… and indirectly, to benefit you also. After all, you’re the house. And the house always wins.

By the way, I’ve got casino. Wonderful games, free to play. Bring your friends Would you like to join for a few rounds? Here’s the secret door in.

INSIGHT

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“Will you accept this opportunity to learn at my expense absolutely, how to be rid forever of all forms of stomach trouble — to be rid not only of the trouble, but of the very cause which produced it? Write today.”

Or rather, read today. Read the rest of this post. And then maybe do what I say at the end, which will take you at my expense absolutely to the ad which I quoted above.

The headline for the ad was INDIGESTION. The offer was a patent medicine called Dr. Shoop’s Restorative.

The copywriter may or may not have been Claude Hopkins, author of Scientific Advertising. He cut his teeth writing for Dr. Shoop’s. Right around the time this ad came out.

Or maybe the copywriter was John E. Kennedy, author of Reason Why Advertising, and inventor of the concept of “Salesmanship in print.” Kennedy also wrote copy for Dr Shoop’s.

Whatever the case is, this ad shows you the future.

Yes, it was written more than 100 years ago, and it ran all over the country starting in 1905.

But trust me, it shows the future.

I’m writing a book right now on insight marketing. This is a new concept that only a few smart marketers, like Stefan Georgi… and Travis Sago… and Rich Schefren are using consciously right now.

​​But if you look at this ancient patent medicine ad… it’s like an insight fossil. It shows you the moment where the insight fish crawled out of the sea of promises and onto dry land — and even grew some legs to start walking.

I resisted sharing this ad with anybody for a long time. But I guess the time has come.

​​So if you can read between the lines, and you want to see the future of direct response advertising, then sign up to my email newsletter. That’s my condition for sharing this ad with anybody. And once you’re signed up, reply to my welcome email and ask for the insight fossil ad. I’ll send you the link.

I’m good enough… I’m smart enough… and doggone it—

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I used to watch a lot of Saturday Night Live back in the 1990s. There was an ongoing skit with Phil Hartman playing Stuart Smalley, ​a sappy man with a lisp and a non-Duchenne smile.

Stuart is working on improving his self-image. So in each skit, he looks at himself in the mirror, smiles his fake smile, and repeats:

“I’m good enough… I’m smart enough… and doggone it, people like me.”

This was funny in the 90s. I guess this affirmation stuff was in the water back then.

It might be less funny today because today’s water contains a lower ppm of affirmations. In part, that’s due to party-pooping scientists like Joanne Wood from the University of Waterloo.

​​Back in 2009, Prof. Wood took a bunch of undergrads and had them repeat affirmations.

“I’m good enough… I’m smart enough… and doggone it, people like me.”

This had a positive effect — on people who were already pretty happy with themselves.

​​But with people who had low self-esteem to start with, it had negative effect. It made them conclude the opposite and feel worse.

“I’m defective somehow… I’m too stupid… and doggone it, nobody likes me.”

My point for you is to be careful if you are a naturally gung-ho marketer, making empowering claims at your prospects.

“You’re amazing! You can do it! It’s not your fault you failed until now!”

If you resort to claims like this, you might have the intended effect on the people in your market who were born yesterday… and who haven’t yet learned to doubt themselves.

For the rest of ’em, the ones who have become disillusioned with both the offers in your market and with themselves, you’ll need another approach. You’ll need to raise your prospects’ self-esteem so they believe they are unique… smart enough… and competent enough to succeed.

How can you do this?

​​Well, I’ll write more about that down the line (you can get it in my newsletter if you like). For now, let me reveal the obvious secret that self-esteem rises not because you say so… but indirectly, because you make people feel it inside them, without any affirmations.

G is for Gavin mauled by a wild cat

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Once upon a time, there lived a human being named Gavin.

One day, Gavin was walking through the jungle. Suddenly he froze. His eyes got wide. His mouth hung open. Blood drained out of his face.

What was that in the bushes ahead? It looked like a tiger’s shifting green eyes.

But a moment later, Gavin relaxed. He realized what he was seeing. It was just berries, hanging from a branch.

A bit later, it happened again. Gavin stopped mid-step. He thought he saw tiger eyes in the shadows. But his own eyes and his brain were better adapted this time. It was more fruit. He chuckled at himself and kept walking.

And a few moments later, it happened yet again. Gavin thought he saw a tiger’s eyes in the bushes. But this time he just shook his head and didn’t even slow down. He walked right up to the bush where the tiger was hiding. Gavin died, age 13, victim of a tiger mauling, never having sired any children.

Today, I want to give you a design and branding and maybe copywriting tip.

It’s based on idea I got from cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman. Hoffman says our brains and eyes quickly get used to most stimuli. That’s why I often stand for ages in front of the fridge, trying to find the olive jar I know must be in there… which turns out to be right on the shelf in front of me, in full view.

This is a feature, not a bug. It makes no sense to keep noticing familiar things. Except…

There are some things we never get habituated to.

One of these is animals. Or even animal bits are enough.

An eye. A tail. A tooth.

Hoffman says our brains never get fully habituated to these stimuli. Well, in general that’s true. There were people like Gavin whose eyes and brains did get habituated to seeing animal bits… and we never heard from these people again.

So that’s the design and branding tip Hoffman gives.

If you want to design packaging or create a logo for your brand, find a subtle way to trick the eye. Make it think it might be seeing an animal hiding on the shelf or inside the computer screen.

However many times people see your design or you logo, they will notice it, yet again.

Because animals are hard-wired into our biology. And so are people. Which is my copywriting tip for you for today.

If you have something important — but abstract — to teach people, make sure you wrap it up in a person. For example, here’s how Edward Gorey helped kids learn their ABCs — and how you can too:

A is for Amy who fell down the stairs
B is for Basil assaulted by bears
C is for Clara who wasted away
D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh
E is for Ernest who choked on a peach
F is for Fanny sucked dry by a leech
…

Want more marketing ABCs, wrapped up in a person-sandwich? Then hold back your habituation to being pitched, and follow my lead here.

Top Gun and the future of marketing

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“You know what one of the greatest scripts ever written in the history of Hollywood is? Top Gun.”

There’s a 90s movie called Sleep With Me. I know just a single scene of it, but I know that scene well.

The scene shows a party where Quentin Tarantino (real-life Quentin Tarantino) is talking to some other guy. They are discussing Top Gun — my favorite movie of all time – and they give a new interpretation of it.

“The whole idea is subversion,” Quentin says. “You want subversion on a massive level.” That’s why Top Gun is so great.

“What is Top Gun?” Quentin asks. “You think it’s a story about a bunch of fighter pilots.” He shakes his head.

“It is a story about a man’s struggle with his own homosexuality.”

The other guy in the scene chuckles. He thinks it’s a joke.

But no. Quentin hits him with the proof…

… which won’t mean much to you if you’ve never seen Top Gun. If you’ve been deprived like that, you might want to take a 100-minute break right now to watch it (highly recommended) so the rest of this email makes sense.

You’re back already? Good to have you. So here’s what Quentin says about Top Gun:

Maverick is right on the edge.

On the one side, Iceman and his crew represent the “gay way.”

On the other side, Kelly McGillis represents heterosexuality.

But Maverick won’t have sex with Kelly. Halfway through their first date, he rides off on his motorcycle, leaving her frustrated.

So in the next scene, she dresses like a man — in a fighter pilot jacket and baseball cap — to pull Maverick back through subterfuge.

But it doesn’t work, not long term. By the end, Maverick joins Iceman and all the other fighter jocks.

They are fighting the MiGs. “They are this gay fighting force,” says Quentin. And then the movie ends with the climactic exchange between Maverick and Iceman, which Quentin caricatures only slightly:

Iceman: You can ride my tail any time.

Maverick: You can ride mine.

Do I hear you groaning? Maybe you think this whole scene is just tasteless 90s humor. Maybe you’re right. But get this:

I first heard about this scene some 20 years ago. It gave me a kind of thrill, and completely changed the way I see Top Gun. That’s why I often share this scene with other people. And many of them get a kick out of it too, and they remember it and they pass it on also.

So you think there’s something there?

I think so. At least that’s my takeaway for you — a check you can cash:

You might have heard that stories are powerful in marketing. And it’s true.

But like I’ve written recently, people might consume your story-based marketing… and still not want to buy your stuff. It takes a lot more than just fancy storytelling.

Because after your story, your prospect might feel like you tricked him into your pitch…

Or maybe he made up his mind long ago he won’t respond to any advertising, not even if it’s subtle…

Or he might have this stubborn belief, that even though your story tells him differently, your product can’t help him, not really, not him.

So I’d like to suggest that the future of marketing is going to be something like that Quentin Tarantino scene above.

Maybe you’re curious about the details of what I have in mind.

That’s classified. I could tell you… but then I’d have to kill you.

But it might be something I share in my top-secret newsletter. And soon. If you’d like to sign up for that, click here and fill out the form.

Deadline in the air tonight

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“You know the song by Phil Collins, ‘In the Air of the Night’
About that guy who coulda saved that other guy from drownin’
But didn’t, then Phil saw it all, then at a show he found him?”
– Eminem, Stan

I just found out that Phil Collins’s famous hit In The Air Tonight is not about a drowning that Phil witnessed. I thought it was for years, apparently like Eminem and millions of other people. But no. It turns out to be just an urban legend. Says Phil:

“So what makes it even more comical is when I hear these stories which started many years ago, particularly in America, of someone come up to me and say, ‘Did you really see someone drowning?’ I said, ‘No, wrong.’ And then every time I go back to America the story gets Chinese whispers, it gets more and more elaborate. It’s so frustrating, ’cause this is one song out of all the songs probably that I’ve ever written that I really don’t know what it’s about, you know?”

I know, Phil. It’s gotta be frustrating. Still, it’s a hell of a story… and maybe you should have kept quiet about the bland real origin of the song.

But whatever. Phil can’t hear me. Maybe you can. So let me admit why I bring all this up:

In The Air Tonight has been playing in my head all evening long. In part, because it’s getting late. In part, because I don’t want to be accused, like that mysterious person in Phil’s song, of standing by and not lending a hand to a drowning man.

So here’s me, making a last effort to help you out:

The deadline to enroll in my Copy Riddles program is nearing. The cart will close in a few hours, at midnight PST.

Maybe you couldn’t care less and you’re just fine, right where you are. But if you have any interest in enrolling in Copy Riddles, consider this a lifebuoy I’m throwing you. To grab it and use it while there’s still time:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

How copywriters can avoid ham-handed segues that get them eaten alive

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Here’s one of the greatest (and for copywriters, most instructive) scenes in Hollywood history:

“Now then, tell me,” says the doctor behind the glass. “What did Miggs say to you? Multiple Miggs in the next cell. He hissed at you. What did he say?”

The young FBI agent on the other side of the glass adjusts a bit in her chair. “He said, ‘I can smell your cunt.'”

“I see,” the doctor says with a slow blink. “I myself cannot.”

That’s from the first meeting of Dr. Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter and FBI agent Clarice Starling, in The Silence of the Lambs.

Hannibal Lecter is a genius psychiatrist who happens to be a serial killer. ​​

Clarice is a young FBI trainee. She’s been sent to get Lecter’s help on a case of serial murders.

In those first few moments of the meeting, Clarice does lots of things right:

She makes a damaging admission (“I’m a student”). She flatters Lecter (“Maybe you can decide whether I’m qualified to learn from you”). She makes the embarrassing admission about Miggs. And she shows interest in the drawings of Florence on the walls of Lecter’s cell.

“All that detail just from memory, sir?” she asks.

“Memory, Agent Starling, is all I have instead of a view.”

So far, so good. And then comes the rupture:

“Well,” says Clarice with a nervous smile, “perhaps you’d care to lend us your view on this questionnaire, sir.”

Lecter tilts his head and smiles. Like he’s talking to a 3-year-old girl who just fell and scraped her knees.

“Oh no no no no no,” he says. “You were doing fine. You had been courteous and receptive to courtesy. You had established trust with the embarrassing truth about Miggs. And now this ham-handed segue into your questionnaire. Ts-ts-ts… it won’t do.”

And that’s exactly what can happen to you, and what will happen, unless you take care.

Because your prospect reads your value-laden content or watches your entertaining video. And then comes the pitch.

“Oh no no no no no,” your prospect says with a sympathetic tilt of the head. “It won’t do.”

If you don’t believe that that’s how it is, then let me make a damaging admission of my own.

A while back, an A-list copywriter sent out an email.

I’d been on his list for years, but he never ever emailed anything.

And here he was, writing, and with an interesting personal story. He got me sucked in.

And then, with a ham-handed segue, he switched to an offer for a course he was selling.

I’ll tell you this. I wasn’t as cool and courteous as Hannibal above. I might have cursed at my laptop. And that’s even though I make my living doing the same thing as this guy… and though I should be immune to being pitched.

So my point for you is this:

Indirect selling works. But you have to be better than Clarice was in that opening scene.

Your indirect lead is not just about building a bit of relationship, good will, and rapport.

In the indirect-selling bait, before you get to the switch, you have to do something critically important.

What exactly?

You can find out about that inside my Most Valuable Email training. Because the above email is an email that uses my Most Valuable Email trick.

If you want an explanation of how and where this email uses the Most Valuable Email trick, you can find that in the Most Valuable Email Swipes, which is something I give you along with the core training of the course. Look up #10 in that swipe file, and you will see the trick in action. Plus as a benefit, you will learn how to avoid ham-handed segues that get you eaten alive.

To get it now:

https://bejakovic.com/mve

How to diffuse a witch hunt and nothing else

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Do you want an ultra-powerful persuasion tool?

Well, you’ve already got it. But you might not be using it to the full. Let me show you why, with an example from The Crucible.

The Crucible is a play about the Salem witch trials. A bunch of girls in Salem turn hysterical and start accusing people around town of being witches.

The local reverend, Samuel Parris, is all for the witch hunt.

John Proctor, a farmer and humanist, is all against it.

Proctor knows the girls are lying. He’s even got one of them to confess in private. And now he’s trying to reason with Parris. How could the best people in town, who have been respected and trusted their whole lives, suddenly be in league with the devil? But the Reverend cuts Proctor off:

PARRIS: Do you read the Gospel, Mr. Proctor?

PROCTOR: I read the Gospel.

PARRIS: I think not, or you should surely know that Cain were an upright man, and yet he did kill Abel.

When I read this line, I thought Proctor’s goose was gandered. How do you respond to that? For one thing, it sounds like solid logic. For another, arguing against it means you’re arguing against the Bible. And not respecting the Bible is a sure sign of being a witch… along with weighing the same as a duck.

But then in the very next line, I was shocked and awed. Because Proctor does respond, and in a way that gets him out of the mess he was in.

PROCTOR: Aye, God tells us that. But who tells us Rebecca Nurse murdered seven babies by sending out her spirit on them? It is the children only, and this one will swear she lied to you.

I thought this was brilliant. In fact, I thought I had hit upon something like the reverse philosopher’s stone. A way to turn gold back into lead. A way to diffuse analogies in general.

My greed glands started working. I could use the Proctor technique both to dismiss other persuader’s analogies… and to make my own persuasion stronger. I’d be rich!

Aye, but no. I tried to generalize what Proctor did above. And after thinking about it a lot, the best I came up with is, “Look close at the analogy and figure out where it breaks down.”

Bah. That’s about as useful as telling a kid to lick faster because the ice cream in his hand is melting. It’s too little, too late.

Because most of us aren’t as quick on our feet as John Proctor. And if you try to engage your System 2 brain in diffusing an analogy, well, good luck. The analogy is already in your head, and it’s done its work.

At least that’s my claim. An analogy is an ultra-powerful persuasion tool that’s almost impossible to resist when used right. It lights up your prospect’s brain from the inside. And it’s above critical judgment.

Perhaps you don’t agree with me. Fine.

So look at what Proctor did above. And figure out how you could do the same in general. And then take your new system… and let me know how well it diffuses the following related idea:

“Most people are like automobiles. They can be pushed or pulled along, or they can be moved to action by starting their own motive power within.”

Have I got your own motive power going? Then steer your automobile towards my email newsletter, because I have many more powerful persuasion ideas to share there.

The copywriting knack that so many lack

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“Thousands of sales have been lost, millions of dollars worth of business have failed to materialize, solely because so few letter-writers have that knack of visualizing a proposition — of painting it in words so the reader can see it as they see it.”
— Robert Collier, The Robert Collier Letter Book

This entire week, I’ve been promoting my “Win Your First Copywriting Job” workshop, which kicks off tomorrow. This is the last email I will send to promote it before I close the cart down tomorrow at 6pm CET.

So rather than letting a single possible sale fly out the window like a loose dollar bill in a gust of wind, let me paint a few pictures in your mind:

First, the picture of you nodding with understanding as I explain how I regularly won 4- and 5-figure copywriting jobs… with a 3-sentence application… and a few targeted samples of my work.

Then the picture of you sitting at your laptop… crafting your own targeted samples… having a lightbulb moment… and working it into your copy.

Then me looking over your shoulder in virtual space, and saying, “I like this part a lot, and here’s how to make this part even better.”

Then you nervously clicking “Send” to email your application and samples to this amazing-sounding copywriting opportunity, which seems out of reach, but you never know…

And finally, your heart beating as you read a reply that says, “Hey thanks for applying to my job. I loved the samples you sent in. It seems like you could be the perfect fit. Do you have time to get on a call tomorrow to talk in more detail?”

That is, imagine all of this IF you choose to take me up on my workshop offer.

Or of course, you can choose to do nothing at all.

In that case, the word paintings will be different.

So imagine walking the streets alone, trying to keep warm while cold wind blows inside your jacket to your ribs and then it starts to rain… scrounging around for loose change in your pockets so you can maybe collect enough for a single coffee… and wondering to yourself, “Had I only taken up John’s workshop offer that one Friday, would I have a well-paying copywriting job right now, instead of being cold, lonely, and without the change for a coffee?”

Ok, maybe that’s a little melodramatic. But dollars are at stake for me… and a momentous life-changing proposition is at stake for you.

So if you want warmth and a jumpstart to your copywriting success… rather than loneliness and cold, empty streets… then have the knack of acting in time, before this offer disappears out the window:

https://bejakovic.com/win-your-first-copywriting-job/

Free business idea: 9 Chambers of Pain

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Here’s a free business idea for you to run with, if you so choose:

Just a little over a week ago, a new study was published by scientists at the University of Pittsburgh.

They studied over 21,000 patients who came for treatment at pain management clinics around Pittsburgh.

The scientists measured these poor people… probed them… interrogated them… and then fed all this data into a large tube-based computer.

And then they waited.

36 days later, the computer printed out a result:

There are exactly 9 types of chronic pain.

Such as group F (lower back pain radiating below the knee)… and group D (upper and lower back pain).

Each group varied in the location of pain… the severity of pain… as well as in the severity of other problems that went with the pain, like depression and anxiety.

So here’s my business idea for you:

You create a quiz. “Which unique type explains your chronic pain?”

People go through the quiz. You categorize them into one of 9 groups, based on their physical and emotional symptoms. For extra points, you can give it a Wu Tang flavor, and call it the 9 Chambers of Pain.

And then what?

Then you sell them something that helps them. It can be your own offer or an affiliate offer. For example:

Any kind of anti-inflammation supplement…

Or a course on meditation techniques…

Or a visit to a chiropractic clinic or some kind of other physical restructuring.

And here’s the incredible thing:

You can sell the same thing to all 9 groups. Of course, you say something like,

“Based on your unique scientifically-proven pain type… we recommend a free + shipping bottle of our doctor-formulated turmeric dust.”

As I’ve written before, this quiz => same offer funnel works like magic.

Because people like to feel unique… because they want a new understanding of their chronic problem… and because they aren’t very skeptical or critical when they get this new understanding.

Which is why RealDose Nutrition, the first big-name direct response company I ever worked with, built an 8-figure business in record time on the back of exactly the model I’ve just described to you.

And now, if you like, you can start doing the same. You already have the entire marketing concept. All you need is to decide which helpful product you want to sell… and to be quick, so other people don’t swipe this idea from right in front of your nose.

To end:

If you’d like more Wu Tang-flavored business idea, you best protect ya neck and sign up to my email newsletter here.