Yesterday I read an article about an American named Ryan Neil, who spent 6 years living in Japan, apprenticing to become a bonsai master.
During those 6 years, Neil was beaten, humiliated, exploited, and encouraged at every step to quit. In between the abuse, he didn’t even get taught anything, not directly. From the article by Robert Moor:
“Neil learned that an apprentice is rarely given overt lessons; he is expected to watch out of the corner of his eye and ‘steal’ his master’s secrets.”
This reminded me of a curious thing I had spotted recently by watching Ben Settle out of the corner of my eye.
Day after day, I noticed the same pattern. Something Ben was doing, probably consciously, to make his emails easier and more fun to read.
But maybe it was all in my mind. So I went back this morning and checked the past 30 days of Ben’s emails.
It seems elBenbo has been busy recently, because the past two weeks of his emails have almost all been reader questions or testimonials, leading quickly into an offer. Those emails didn’t show the pattern I had spotted.
But the two weeks before are where I noticed the pattern. I spotted it in 8 out of 14 of Ben’s emails during that period.
Now as a matter of transparency, let me say:
1. Yes, you can really call this a secret, because it makes content much more engaging and easy to consume, and yet most marketers don’t use it nearly as often as they could or should…
2. Yes, you can even call it a trick, because it’s quick and easy to do…
3. No, it will not sound particularly sexy or revolutionary when you hear it. But such are most of the things that Ben does. And yet he’s still really the master of email copy.
And in case you’re wondering:
I’m not talking about teasing, trying to get a no, or writing bullet-inspired subject lines.
I’m talking about a specific trick to do with infotainment. It’s more subtle than any of the techniques above, and probably more powerful as well, at least for getting people to come back and consume more of your writing.
Also, it’s something I’ve never seen him talk about in any of his paid products, or for that matter, anywhere else.
So here’s the deal:
If you’ve bought my Most Valuable Email training already, and you have a hunch of what trick I’m referring to, then write me and make your best guess. I will confirm if you’re right, and I will spell it out otherwise.
And if you have not yet bought my Most Valuable Email training, and you’d like to know this trick, then can consider this secret an extra bonus, live for the next 24 hours.
Buy the Most Valuable Email in the next 24 hours, until Tuesday Dec 6 at 8:33 CET, and along with the other bonuses I offer with the training. I will then write you separately, explaining Ben Settle’s infotainment secret and giving examples from his emails.
Of course, after the deadline tomorrow, you can still buy the MVE training. But if you buy after tomorrow, I won’t share this extra bonus with you.
To get a jump on that deadline: