Persuasion

Torture-free deadline for Copy Riddles is near

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Perhaps you don’t care that the deadline to sign up for Copy Riddles is approaching in a few hours. Such is the society we live in.

But it wasn’t always so. For example, Julius Caesar once wrote about a curious urgency tactic used by his enemies, the Gauls:

“By Gallic intertribal law all adult males are obligated to attend the muster under arms; and the last to come is tortured to death in sight of the host.”

Ah the good old days… when a deadline really meant something.

But again, we live in a modern and a civilized society. So the only torture I can inflict upon you is to say:

Come 12 midnight PST tonight (Sunday), I will close the doors to Copy Riddles.

And no amount of pleading about how your car was in the shop, or how the kids were sleeping, or how you only had cash on hand (all excuses I’ve gotten before) will make me crack those doors open a single inch.

​​Not until some uncertain future date, at least a few months down the line, when or if I decide to reopen Copy Riddles.

Again, perhaps you don’t care. But if you do, there’s still a bit of time. Here’s the link:

https://copyriddles.com/

Knock twice before you open this email

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Welcome. First, let me share the traditional greeting:

“Email is great! Yes it is.”

And now, you and I can get started with today’s content:

A few weeks ago, I was rea​ding a New Yorker article. In that article, I came across an interesting idea that’s stuck with me since. ​​I’ll share it with you in today’s email and then we can wrap up this part of our lives and move on to other things.

The article I read was about how good technology is getting at reading our minds, in a very literal sense.

You can now scan people’s brains and have a good idea of how their brains are lighting up in real time.

Combine this with a lot of data of other people’s brains and a lot of fancy software… and we are nearly at a point where somebody can know exactly what you’re thinking… even if you’re just sitting there, eyes closed, doing nothing but smirking.

Anyways, the idea that stuck with me had to do with “event boundaries.” From the article:

He had the class watch a clip from “Seinfeld” in which George, Susan (an N.B.C. executive he is courting), and Kramer are hanging out with Jerry in his apartment. The phone rings, and Jerry answers: it’s a telemarketer. Jerry hangs up, to cheers from the studio audience.

“Where was the event boundary in the clip?” Norman asked. The students yelled out in chorus, “When the phone rang!” Psychologists have long known that our minds divide experiences into segments; in this case, it was the phone call that caused the division.

In other words, neuroscientists now know something that writers have known for millennia:

Our brain loves to create scenes, snapshots, and scripts as a way of making sense of the immense complexity of the world.

This is so obvious that it might not sound like much of a breakthrough. But it has some interesting consequences. Again from the article:

Walking into a room, you might forget why you came in; this happens, researchers say, because passing through the doorway brings one mental scene to a close and opens another.

But perhaps more interesting is the basic influence idea of exaggerating what people already want and respond to.

​​For example, is it any wonder so many religions have strict rules for entering and leaving a place of worship?

When entering the church, dip your fingers in holy water and make the sign of the cross… do not enter or leave the sanctuary while the ark is open… leave the mosque using your left foot while reciting the dua.

And the point of this sermon is:

People want scenes… clearly marked beginnings and endings… so give it to em. Create doors, entrance rituals, dramatic event boundaries.

You will be helping your audience make sense of both you and of their world. They will thank you for it, with their attention, trust, and perhaps even money.

And that all I wanted to say. Except of course the traditional farewell:

“This email is finished! You can sign up here to get more. Yes you can.”

Why do scammers say they are from Nigeria?

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According a site that tracks online fraud, 51% of all scam emails mention Nigeria.

It seems self-defeating. Everybody knows it’s a scam. The “Nigerian prince” has become a stock joke.

So what gives? Are scammers so dumb? Don’t they know that everyone is on to them?

Well, we now have the answer, thanks to Cormac Herley, a researcher at Microsoft.

Herley came up with a mathematical model of the scammer’s dilemma.

And after a lot pencil sharpening… crumpled-up papers… and banging his fist on the desk… Herley finally solved his mathematical equations.

The answer to “Nigerian scammer” riddle is this:

1. Sending out spam emails is pretty close to free.

2. But “selling” the prospects who reply to those emails takes time and effort.

3. And so scammers want their front-end marketing to repel everybody but the most gullible. Because…

Those are the only people who the scammer can hope to profit from. That’s why scammers say they are from Nigeria… exactly because it sets off warning sirens to almost everyone except real prospects.

Ok, maybe this isn’t the kind of mind-blowing conclusion that required a bunch of fancy math.

But still, it sounds like a solid second argument for what Ben Settle calls repulsion marketing.

The first argument is psychological:

By saying things that repel the people you don’t want… you create a tighter bond with the people you do want. Because if you’re not saying anything to piss off a few people, you’re not saying anything to make anybody bond with you, either.

But the Microsoft research gives us a more practical reason to repel.

Because these days, there are a bunch of ways to get a bunch of free prospects. For example:

You can implement Daniel Throssell’s “Referral Magnet” strategy to create a kind of flywheel for new email subscribers…

Or you can post your stuff on your blog and let Google serve it up to the world forever…

Or you can go into popular Facebook groups, and spread your peacock tail for all to admire.

Free. All of it. But then comes the second step:

Fielding questions/requests/offers from prospects… dealing with customer service… handling refunds if you offer them.

All of these things have a real cost, whether in terms of time, actual work, or simply your psychological well-being.

So my takeaway for you is:

Start repelling people. Or get off my list.

Because as freelance forensic consultant Sherlock Holmes once said:

“When you have eliminated all who would be impossible or improfitable to sell, then whoever remains, however improbable, must be your prospect.”

Are you still reading?

Damn. I tried so hard to repel you. In that case, the only thing left for me to do, even though it hurts me to do it, is to offer you a spot on my email newsletter. Click here and fill out the form.

The success secret that successful people won’t tell you

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Today I want to tell you about the quarter game. Hypnotist Mike Mandel wrote about it a few days ago:

You imagine you will find a quarter somewhere today, as though it’s been left deliberately for you. And Mike says, more often than not, it turns out to be true.

Now, as you might have noticed, I’m a sucker for magic and magical thinking.

I mean, over the past month alone, I’ve sent emails about blindsight… the illusory nature of reality… my own tendency to see mystical significance in trivial events… and even a religious epiphany I experienced at age 20.

And here I am today, telling you to manifest quarters into your life.

I wish I could control myself better so I could look a little more serious and professional… and stop myself from morphing into the male, copywriting version of Rhonda Byrne, the Australian TV producer who made that movie The Secret.

But what to do? Here’s my story:

Yesterday, I went out for a walk. And I played the quarter game for the first time. I told myself I’d find a quarter, as though it had been left deliberately for me.

After a few minutes of walking around, I didn’t find a single quarter.

But then I told myself, “You know what, quarters are fine. But what would be really great is if I found that missing license plate.”

Because this past Sunday, I went to my car — actually, my mom’s 20-year-old white Audi, which I have been using for past six months — and I found the front license plate was gone.

This is a huuuge hassle.

Where I am right now (Croatia), it means I have to go to the police, report the license plate as missing, apply to get a whole new set, then update documents, insurance, the vehicle inspection. It’s such a pain in the ass that I have been ignoring it and instead just not using the car for the past few days.

That’s why it would have been great to “manifest” that license plate back into my life.

It would save me hours or days of sitting around in government offices, filling out paperwork, driving around town… or alternately, stressing that cops will pull me over and fine me and harass me if I don’t do all that.

So there I was yesterday, with the sudden idea to play the license plate game. And the darnedest thing happened.

Within five minutes, I had the missing license plate in my hand. I found it over a wall and down a ditch, in some bushes, close to where my car — well, my mom’s car — had been parked.

I’m not sure how the license plate got there. And I’m not sure exactly how I had the idea to check there.

All I know is that, had I not read Mike Mandel’s email… and had I not half-jokingly played the quarter game… I would not have thought to play the license plate game, or search for the license plate where I did find it. As though somebody had deliberately left it there for me.

But let me wrap this up. Here’s a quote from Eric Hoffer’s book True Believer, about the psychology of revolutions, religions, and other mass movements:

“The remarkable thing is that the successful, too, however much they pride themselves on their foresight, fortitude, thrift and other ‘sterling qualities,’ are at bottom convinced that their success is the result of a fortuitous combination of circumstances. The self-confidence of even the consistently successful is never absolute.”

Hoffer’s point is that people only attempt real change when they feel they have their hands on some “irresistible power.” And this irresistible power is almost always something outside themselves… or at least outside the limits they feel to be their own identity.

Such, it seems, is human psychology. You can fight it. Or you can work with it.

If you can work with it in a socially acceptable way, good for you.

But even if you end up at risk of looking like a male Rhonda Byrne, it’s still a pretty good deal to make.

Because if you just rely on your own “sterling qualities,” odds are you end up sitting around government offices for days… pulling your hair out… and cursing the stupidity and injustice of the world.

The alternative is to effect change in your life without all that stress. And all you have to do is believe — in magic if you have to — and play the game every day.

Last thing:

Every day, I write an email about copywriting, marketing, or woo-woo topics like manifesting quarters. If you’d like these emails to magically manifest themselves in your inbox each day, you can sign up here.

MIT scientists shocked to rediscover ancient direct marketing fact

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Yesterday, a friend forwarded me a trending news item:

“A Nine-year-Old Girl Has Disappeared After Using Moisturizer That Makes You Look Ten Years Younger.”

Unlike me, my friend has a kid, so the fact that he forwarded me this story might just be a symptom of early-onset dad humor. But maybe not.

Maybe it’s a sign of something much deeper… much more sinister… and much more significant… at least if you are interested in persuasion and sales.

​​Because check it:

I read another news item yesterday. It was about a study that came out this past December, from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

These MIT management experts were studying the spread of misinformation online. The question they were studying was this:

Are people who are more digitally literate — for example, who know how Facebook recommends stories — any better at coping with online misinformation than unwashed digital illiterates?

Answer:

People who were digitally literate were much better at gauging accuracy. They could tell apart which stories (about politics and corona) were true and which were fake.

But…

That had nothing to do with which stories the digital literates ended up sharing.

​​In other words, these digital Steve Urkels were just as likely to share fake stories — which they knew to be fake — as the digital illiterates — who believed them to be true.

So there you go. Maybe that explains why my friend, who is very digitally literate, shared that obvious hoax about moisturizer with me.

But more seriously:

The researchers concluded that “measuring digital literacy might be useful for identifying social media users who are vulnerable to believing misinformation.”

That seems naive and shortsighted to me.

To me, this study just shows that the apparent truthfulness or fakefulness of what you say… doesn’t matter much in whether people engage emotionally, and in other real-world ways, with your ideas and content.

Maybe you find that shocking. Or maybe you find it obvious. Because it’s really just a re-statement of the ancient direct marketing truth:

All decisions are made emotionally, and are only primped and preened afterwards with a bit of logic.

Maybe remembering this truth will help you when you try to convince people to buy from you… or just to share some of your content.

For example, my Copy Riddles optin page. One last time, I’d like to invite you to share it.

Maybe by now I’ve stirred up sufficient shock, outrage, or perhaps amusement in you that you want to share this page just because.

But maybe you need some logic. In that case, I also have a bribe for you. For the full details, take a look here:

https://bejakovic.com/free-offer-niche-expert-cold-emails/

The Playboy cartoon of A-list marketing truth

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When I was 12 years old, I had an accidental run-in with my first-ever, real-world copy of a Playboy magazine.

Along with the usual titillating stuff, all of which I’ve forgotten, I saw a cartoon that’s stuck with me for years. It had three panels:

Panel one showed a guy at the office, sitting at his desk, looking over a bunch of papers. But a thought bubble above his head showed what he was really thinking about:

​​Being out on the golf course.

Panel two showed the same guy at the golf course, about to take a swing. But there was a thought bubble above his head again.

​​Now, he was really thinking about being at home and having sex with his wife.

And maybe you can guess panel three.

It showed the same guy in bed with his wife. And the thought bubble was there also.

​​It showed — of course, the papers back on the desk at the office.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an email about how the best DM sales copy is not selling what it appears to be selling on the surface.

So financial copy is not really selling stock gains… but a feeling of vision and foresight.

And Boardroom’s Big Bastard Book of Secrets is not really selling clever ways to save on car insurance. Instead, it’s selling clever ways to feel smarter than your neighbor.

For a while, I wondered if there is one deep need that could be made to fit all sales letters in all markets.

One option is something that A-list copywriter Parris Lampropoulos said once. Parris said that, once you ask the “so what” question enough times about any feature or promise… the ultimate benefit always turns out to be, “So I can feel better about myself.”

So that’s one option.

Option two is not to worry about going deep. Instead, just keep the Playboy cartoon above in mind. And just subtly suggest something other than what’s on your prospect’s mind at the moment.

For example, all bizopp offers are upfront about selling big money now. But more subtly, many also suggest a new level of attractiveness that money will make possible.

On the other hand, pickup gurus are directly selling a new level of attractiveness. But on a deeper level, many also suggest the self-acceptance that will come from success with women.

And finally, many meditation programs are selling instant self-acceptance. But on a deeper level — and not even very deep — they are also promising the money that more self-acceptance will bring.

And so it goes, like a kitten chasing its tail. As another A-list copywriter, Gary Bencivenga, said once, “Desires are infinite in variety… and desires are replaced as soon as they are fulfilled.”

So there you go:

Remember the Playboy cartoon above. And you will have a subtle new spell hidden under your wizard’s cloak, which you can cast whenever you want to make money appear out of thin air.

But perhaps you don’t want money out of thin air. Perhaps you just want a spell to drive away doubt and career insecurity, on demand.

Right now, the closest I can give you to that spell is my Niche Expert Cold Emails training. It’s my bribe in case you help me get the word out about this newsletter.

By the way, this promo event I’m running seems to be close to saturating the copywriting world with links to my site. So I won’t keep it going for much longer.

But in case you’re interested in still joining while the joining’s good, here are the details:

https://bejakovic.com/free-offer-niche-expert-cold-emails/

The Law of Reflection

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I expected some blowback to my email yesterday.

For one thing, I was writing about loaded topics — corona, Novak Djokovic, government lockdowns, Prince of Persia.

For another, in the hours after I wrote and scheduled yesterday’s email, the story I was writing about blew up. It went from being something only tennis fans and Australians might know about… to the number one international news items, with the predictable outrage and memery and fixed opinions.

So yes — I was expecting people to write in and tell me how stupid, flippant, and just clearly very wrong my email is.

I should have known better. Because what happened was this:

A bunch of people did write in. Some liked the email and the point I was making. Some offered to be my nemesis (the takeaway of yesterday’s email). Some told me personal stories of their own from the ground in Australia. Some disagreed with the email, in reasoned and civil tones.

But not one person was insulting, aggressive, outraged or seeking to outrage me.

In fact, the last time I can remember getting an outraged response to my emails was over six months ago. The same guy who wrote that outraged response had written me a few inflammatory emails before. So I unsubscribed him from my list, and wrote an email about it the next day.

Like I said, no outrage since. Maybe there’s a lesson in there. In any case, there’s definitely a lesson in here:

“The adversary mirrors you”

That’s from master negotiator Jim Camp. The adversary in Camp’s system is the person you are negotiating with, but it could just as well be a prospect you are looking to sell… a reader you are looking to influence… or a girl you are trying to get on a date.

In fact, Camp’s advice is almost the same as the advice of the late and great pickup coach Tom Torero. Tom used to tell guys that “the girl is your mirror.”

If she looks startled or scared when you approach her… if she won’t stick around to talk to you… if she doesn’t trust you with her phone number… then take a step back. And figure out exactly what you’re projecting into the world, and how you should change it.

In other words, this mirroring stuff isn’t my plea for the world to be civil and boring.

I’m just telling you to figure out how you want your adversaries to feel and act. Relaxed and confident? Fun and playful? Scared and outraged? Then you know what to do. Feel and act that same way yourself.

Or vice versa:

Figure out how you want to feel and act in your life and your business. Just be aware that those are the kinds of prospects you will attract.

If there are enough such prospects, then you’re well in the saddle. But if you don’t have enough prospects who want to feel and act the way you do…

Then you might benefit from the following referral advice from Jim Camp. It is a kind of corollary to Camp’s Law of Reflection above. Camp says:

“What’s the key to getting referrals? It’s simple. Give them.”

The real Djokovic problem

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If you’re a tennis fan or an Australian or a non-Australian, you’ve undoubtedly heard the smouldering news:

World tennis #1 Novak Djokovic is being deported from the Land Down Under.

Djokovic arrived yesterday to play in the Australian Open, which he has won 9 times already. But…

Djokovic is not vaccinated against corona and was not willing to get vaccinated to participate at the Australian Open.

So the organizers had to finagle (“rigorous review process”) a special medical exemption for Djokovic to be allowed into the country, which has strict vaccine mandates.

And then the folks at the Australian Open had themselves a “good news, bad news” situation:

“Good news! We have the world no. 1 coming to play at the tournament!”

“Bad news! The people of Australia seem genuinely pissed about the medical exemption… since they’ve been forced to live under lockdown for the better part of two years!”

And so, while Djokovic’s plane was in the air, and the smoke from the wildfire on the ground was rising thick and heavy, the Australian PM went on TV to take a tough stand. On arrival, Djokovic would have to prove his medical exemption is legit — or “be on the next plane home.”

The tension was immense. But thankfully, it seems to be getting solved in a nice and clean way.

It turned out somebody on Djokovic’s staff had fumbled the visa application, and had ticked the wrong box somewhere. So Djokovic’s visa is invalid. The Australian government refused to make an exception — “rules are rules” — and so here we are.

At this point, I could switch and talk about direct marketing, and the kinds of prospects you want to sell to, and more importantly, the ones you want to avoid.

But instead, I’d rather talk tennis. All right, not really tennis tennis, but what this Djokovic situation can teach us about personal branding, in tennis and more broadly.

Because I feel this entire situation could not have happened — not with this level of scrutiny, outrage, and interest — without the animosity that has built up against Djokovic over the years.

Let me make it clear:

I personally like the guy. I’ve been a tennis fan for a long time, and I root for Djokovic whenever I see him play. Plus, I find his public appearances charming and funny.

But the tennis media will tell you the world hates the man. His corona stance is just the latest reason why. Before that, it was that he is a cult-minded kook… before that, that he is arrogant… and before that, that he is a whiner and malingerer who takes medical time-outs as a game strategy.

To me, all these seem like surface justifications for something deeper. So I kept asking myself, why do many tennis fans hate Djokovic, and why does the media keep making him into a villain?

I’ve had my own theory about this for a long time. And today, I read a very interesting article, which put my theory into a bigger context. The gist of it is this:

There is a difference between having an enemy and a nemesis.

An enemy is just somebody in your way to getting what you want.

But a nemesis is much like the “Shadow Man” in the Prince of Persia video game — an eerie, bizarro version of yourself, who can match all your skills, who keeps foiling you at key moments, and who ultimately forces you to learn, develop, and grow in order to win.

A true nemesis makes for peak levels of drama, a story we instinctively respond and cling to.

And that’s what made Djokovic so offensive.

My theory for all the Djokovic hate is that he ruined the greatest rivalry tennis has ever known, the one between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Federer and Nadal had a true nemesis storyline, which fans and media loved.

Djokovic ended that. And in his dominance over the past 10+ years, he has had no true nemesis of his own. People never forgave him for what he took away and failed to replace.

That’s been at the core of why he’s been made into a villain. And now it’s coming back to bite him, at the tournament which was his best chance to break the biggest record in tennis — the number of Grand Slam titles — for which he is currently tied with Federer and Nadal.

So here’s my takeaway for you:

If you want a personal storyline that people eat up, get emotionally involved with, and fight to defend, then find yourself a worthy nemesis. Somebody who matches your skills and who can genuinely defeat you.

Because if you don’t, the consequences are clear. Over time, you’ll face growing resentment at your success… hostility at your attempts to be friendly and open… and eventually, a long and lonely flight, “on the next plane home.”

By the way:

The article on the nemesis I mentioned above, by a guy named Ted Gioia, was both interesting and well-written. So in case you’re curious about nemesizing your life or your business, here’s where you can read more:

https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/you-dont-need-a-mentorfind-a-nemesis

Variety is the spice of copywriting failure

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Variety is the spice of life. But don’t you believe it.

The person who first wrote this idea was William Cowper, a poet. That makes sense. Creative types like poets love variety. When they evaluate their own work, they love to see variety in it.

Trouble is, markets often say different. Marketing copy is often better if it repeats the same message, in predictable ways. It reduces mental load. It makes up for the lack of attention readers give to advertisements. It creates belief by repetition.

I went to a restaurant last year when I was in Baltimore. I hadn’t been there in a long time. “Meatless muffalleta,” I said with expectation. “Oh, we’ve changed up our menu!” the waitress chirped back. “Try something else, we don’t have the muffalletta any more.” I won’t ever go back there.

Marketers often use baseball analogies. “That promo was a home run.” But you don’t see baseball players trying to introduce variety when going up to the plate. “Put a pure swing on it.” Don’t get creative.

Won’t readers get bored? No. They will thank you. The TV show Friends has been playing non-stop for 25 years. Same episodes. And if you say that’s because Friends is entertainment, then you haven’t seen Friends.

But maybe you say I’m breaking my own rule. Why all these arguments to prove one point? Isn’t that too much variety?

You’re right. It’s a weakness on my part. I’m trying to beat it out of myself. And if you’re also a “creative type” in the business of marketing, maybe try it too.

And now for something completely different:

Every day, I write an email about marketing and copywriting. I’m trying to reduce the variety and to say the same thing over and over. But I fail often and I end up saying new and unexpected things.

If you want to come watch me fail, and maybe learn something in the process, you can sign up here.

The Rule of One applied to online communities

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A few days ago, copywriter Stefan Georgi sent out email with subject line,

“Hang out with me in Scottsdale on Jan 29th?”

Stefan was promoting an entrepreneurs’ event in Scottsdale, AZ. So what’s the primary benefit to anyone on Stefan’s list in attending this event?

Well, it’s right there in the subject line. Getting to hang out with Stefan.

This made me think of series of ideas I got exposed to a few months ago. They came from a certain Stew Fortier.

I don’t know Stew, but online, he bills himself as a “former technologist, current writer.”

Anyways, Stew wrote a bunch of interesting and valuable tweets — a horrible format in my opinion — about online communities and why they die or thrive. The answer:

“A purpose is the primary value that members get by participating in the community.”

Stew gives the example of a community of designers. Designers might want many different things. But a purpose is one specific thing, such as:

* Mentor each other
* Help each other find work
* Invent new typography together
* Give feedback on each other’s work
* Lobby Congress to replace the English alphabet with Wingdings

Stew then gives the hypothetical of somebody in this community of designers proposing a book club:

“If the community exists to help designers get higher-paid work, you’ll know to pick books about design careers. Your core utility isn’t diluted, it’s amplified.”

You might recognize this as the Rule of One from the Mark Ford and John Forde’s book Great Leads. And if you ever decide to create an online community, then as Mark and John write,

“Put the Rule of One to work for you in all your communications, especially in your promotions and their leads. You’ll be amazed at how much stronger — and successful — your copy will be.”

And by the way, as Stefan’s email and most online copywriting communities show, gazing at the guru is a completely valid purpose.

Because purpose in an online community is much like value in email copy. Hard core, practical stuff is ok on occasion and for a while. But more illogical, entertaining, emotional stuff is both more powerful and evergreen.

And now:

Would you like to join the community of readers who gaze at my entertaining and fluffy marketing emails every day? Our purpose is simple — to expose you to the most subtle and powerful persuasion ideas out there. If that’s a community you’d like to join, then click here and fill out the application form.