How to use bullets to seduce your customers’ wives

Email Players subscriber Shane Reuter writes: === I just received the August issue of Email Players. I immediately took out the freestanding insert, threw it at my wife, and said: "Here's another super expensive book you can convince me to buy if you're interested." Backstory - My wife happened to glance at the July Email Players insert and said she just "had to know" what Marvel Comics did to turn haters into fans. I was going to buy Infotainment Jackpot anyways, but her interest made it more fun. The book arrived. She flipped to that page, read it, chuckled, then handed it back to me. === One of the best pieces of advice I ever read about copywriting was probably over 20 years ago, in the great John Carlton’s print newsletter he used to publish (The Marketing Rebel Rant) or maybe it was one of his other courses, where he said your copy has to not only convince the guy you’re selling to, but his wife as well. Good advice. And so it is… Here’s another true story about the power of bullets: Earlier this year I cracked open a bunch of ads to read, study, get ideas from. And one of them was from the 90’s written by Email Players subscriber and the man still universally considered to be the World’s Greatest Living Copywriter: Gary Bencivenga. It was a long magalog that was compulsively readable (as his magalogs were). And buried somewhere deep inside the ad was a bullet about how your pet can give you cancer. Now, I don't have any pets since Zoe died, and offer has obviously long since retired. But I still found myself looking for how to order… Bullet writing a helluva skill indeed. If you think my bullets suck then you can safely ignore the rest of this email. But, on the other hand, if you want to learn how I approach bullets, write bullets, profit like gangbusters from bullets in my own ads, then see the September Email Players issues which you only have a little more time to get in on before the deadline tonight hits. The issue breaks down one of my bullet-intensive ads. And, yes, I comb through nearly all of them, one at a time. Insights explored, psychology explained, words chosen discussed. The entire ad is analyzed like this. But since it’s an especially bullet-driven ad, there’s quite a bit of bullet lovin’. Again, tonight’s the deadline. When I send the list to the printer, that’ll be that. Here’s where to subscribe while you still can in time: []( Ben Settle P.S. Here are some of the secrets inside the September issue: * A bit of a strange copywriting writing trick I learned from an attorney that can help (1) make your sales copy more legally compliant and (2) increase your sales at the same time. * A bizarre secret (found all throughout the Bible) that can help automatically give your ad copy more credibility, more drama, more intrigue, and, yes, more sales. (And no, it does not matter if you’re writing to anyone religious or even "turning on the rotisserie" atheists — does not matter, this tweak of human psychology works across the board.) * What the great retired A-list copywriter Doug D’Anna told me on a Twitter Spaces call about what would have made his world class copy even better, stronger, more responsive had he focused on it more early on in his career. * The sleepy-looking “S-word” you can add almost anywhere to your sales copy to snatch more attention, nab more engagement, and grab more response. * An ingenious way of writing bullets in a way that feels like you are teaching something but, in reality, you are only making the reader hungry to buy what you’re selling. * A Hollywood screenwriter secret that can not only make your ads more persuasive, but can also make the experience of buying as fun and enjoyable as child opening Christmas presents. (Not even exaggerating either — this is the exact same psychology that makes it so a child can’t sleep at night before Christmas but applied to your advertising. Powerful stuff. And most copywriters never think about it.) * A writing secret used by Stan Lee (when naming the fictional country of Wakanda that sounds so real many people literally have admitted to looking for it on a map) that can add lots of drama to your sales copy. (The secret is also “baked” into the mega selling book title “The South Beach Diet”, if that tells you something.) * A neat little twist you can put on your ad copy bullets that can help make them automatically (the brain almost can’t help itself but focus on what you’re selling when doing this) get more attention, more engagement, and more sales. * One of the best places to learn how to write powerful headlines that practically nobody look at anymore. * A “quickie” guide (you can see on display in one of the late Gene Schwartz’s most infamous ads) to writing persuasive pre-headlines for your ads and sales letters. * A trick I learned from the late, great copywriter Robert Collier for writing longer (even entire paragraph-sized) bullets without losing peoples’ attention. * Why it can be a big, fat, even business-fatal mistake to write to, pander to, and sell to “hyper buyers.” (I doubt 1 in 1000 copywriters will agree with this controversial — but absolutely proven in my 22+ years in the game — take on copywriting. I even had to explain this to one of the world’s top direct mail guys recently, but he understood after I showed him my side of the story. Yes, hyper buyers are easy to sell to, and yes you can get a lot of buyers, and yes that is who probably 99% of copywriting books, courses, teachers tell you to focus on selling to… but if you are the business man who has to deal with the fallout of catering to them, I suggest reading this very closely and carefully. Most copywriters take a mercenary approach and only care about “response” — which is a big mistake, imo. Anyway, more about this inside.) * A clever way to write deck copy (the copy under the main headline) that takes away some the “bite” people feel when reading a sales pitch — potentially making it more likely to be read, consumed, bought from. * One of the top 10 copywriting courses I posses that isn’t even about copywriting. (Admittedly I do not know where you can get this today, except maybe on eBay.) * How to choose the perfect photo for your sales letters. * How to structure your ad copy opening sentences in a way that has “built in” believability and credibility. (Probably even if you say something totally crazy.) * 3 magic transition sentences (based on what the late, great A-list copywriter Jim Rutz did in his ad copy) that can help make your sales letters, emails, and other marketing compulsively readable. * A delightfully sneaky way to get rid of “sticker shock” when selling high ticket offers. * A shrewd (but gutsy, almost nobody will even test it, they’re too scared) way of writing sales copy that can help open the reader’s mind, automatically lowers his sales defenses, and sometimes completely removes price resistance. * Why so much sales copy written by zoomers (that has nothing to do with the quality of their actual writing) gets ignored or even mocked by prospects they are attempting to sell to. * How to “recruit” celebrities to help write your ads without paying them anything. * An unusually persuasive way (that, I think, was invented by Gary Halbert) for writing bullets that add a thick persuasive layer of interest, intrigue, and engagement to nab sales you probably would not get otherwise. * How to shamelessly (but legally and ethically, no stealing or plagiarizing required) use the work of experts (even famous experts) about whatever you are writing about to help better sell your offers. * What to say when you get to the last third of a long sales letter to help keep readership higher, more engaged, maybe more likely to buy. * A surprisingly effective way to use yellow highlighting in sales copy to nab way more readership and sales than you probably would otherwise. * 3 tried-and-true sentences (you can swipe “as is” if you want, I don’t care, and don’t even know who first invented them) to segue into your close — whether in long sales copy, emails, or any other kind of advertising. * And a ho' bunch more. In fact, I am also including a special 8-page bonus report called: “The ‘Get off my lawn!’ Zoomer-Friendly Direct Marketing Cheat Sheet” I don’t, as a rule, cater to Zoomers, pander to Zoomers, or have much to offer Zoomers. Not even necessarily through any fault of their own, either. Usually when they come at me I’m like the old fart in the lawn chair telling them get the hell off my property. But a couple months ago a guy asked if he could interview me by email. His questions were coming from what sounded like a Zoomer perspective. I cannot say he is a Zoomer for sure, though, as I have never seen him. The questions just come off as Zoomer-ish. Good questions though. And he came at me with respect, and not with any idiotic entitlement like a lot of the youts do. Anyway, I thought my answers might be useful for all generations of Email Players subscribers. Especially since they are quick, raw, and curt. Just like my temper when I see Zoomers on my lawn… All right, that’s what awaits you in the September issue. To subscribe in time for tonight’s deadline go here: []( This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2024 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this email may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from Settle, LLC. Click here to [unsubscribe]( Settle, LLC PO Box 1056 Gold Beach Oregon 97444 USA