Shameless advice about creating lead magnets

An Email Players subscriber (not sure he wants me naming him) asks: “What's your opinion on lead magnets? At the moment, I'm not growing my list fast and I was thinking to use lead magnets to do so.” He also asked about how to structure a lead magnet. My take: 1. I am all for the shameless bribe to help grow a list. It's about as tried & true a direct marketing tool as there is. It's been around for 100 years, and has never stopped working, and if it is done right makes for much better quality leads. That is why I am amused by guys hiding behind cartoon avatars on social media saying you should not use or even need a shameless bribe, etc. You can tell they still live in mommy's basement still and do very little, if any, actual sales with email. Or maybe think they do not need to because they have a social media following. Who knows? All I will say is, ignore anyone telling you not to do a shameless bribe. 2. As for structuring a lead magnet … Find an urgent problem or desire your market has, then solve or grant it. Make it short, something that can be consumed in one sitting. Ideally make it in the media (audio, video, or text) your market tends to prefer. If you have an offer people love, you can just break off a piece of it that solves a hot, urgent problem and use that as a lead magnet that also works as a free taste of what is to come if they buy that offer. Do not complicate it or overthink it beyond the above. To overthink it is to miss the point. Just create it, put it out there as quickly as you can, then adjust if/when needed over time. That is the game. This is, incidentally, an example of the kind of Q&A’s you can read about in the October Email Players issue. The above is a demonstration of the type of questions inside and the type of answers I give — raw, real, and curt, to the point. It is get in, get out, get paid kind of info. The entire issue is nothing but Q&As this month. So anyway, the above is a taste. The October issue is a meal. If you liked the above, you can read more about the October issue in the P.S. To partake of my hearty bounty of info, time is short. The deadline to subscribe in time is tonight when I send the list in to the printer. Here’s the link: []( Ben Settle P.S. Here’s a taste of what is inside the October issue: * A clever way (I first heard back in 1998 in an MLM training from a sales genius) to ‘hack’ your brain into becoming more successful, having a bigger business, being more influential, or whatever your goals are. * The case for purposely looking like an asshole to all your friends, loved ones, and business peers. (Especially useful and profitable if you’re a hopeless people pleaser, and you know it’s hurting your business, your income, and peace of mind.) * A powerful merchandising secret (used for decades by the billion dollar retail store industry) that the late, great Gene Schwartz used to create some of his most memorable and profitable ads. * A “crash course” on how to set up your merchant accounts on rotation… with no one account getting all the sales, staying off radars during launches, and protecting your business from being shut down by a nervous Nellie bureaucrat if you make too much money too quickly. (I also show you the exact services I use… a guy you can contact right away to get the ball rolling who also can help coach you through chargebacks… the ideal number of merchant accounts to have… the exact best time to shop for a new merchant account… and where to find people to help you with the tech side if you are not comfortable doing it yourself. This one part of the October issue alone can potentially be worth 100... maybe even 1000 times the price over time — not only in lower fees, but peace of mind, time saved, and the list goes on.) * Best place to put a link in an email if you could only put one in and HAD to make the sale. (I put all mine in the same place in 99.9% of my emails — but that does not mean YOU should, or that I even would put it there, in every case. See inside for my take on this.) * A NON-email goo-roo approved fact (whether they like it or not) about placing links in emails to help your business get the best inbox deliverability. * How Steve Jobs and Walt Disney approached their content and product creation for maximum engagement, sales, and user-experience. (That you can apply to your emails just like they did to computers and animation.) * A clever method of crafting emails (found in The National Enquirer in all places) that can help get more of your emails delivered, opened, read, and clicked. * A geopolitical insight (straight from a respected Israeli military historian’s work about what causes wars and genocides) you can apply directly to your emails to get more sales, have more influence, and seize more engagement in your niche. * A little known insurance salesman trick from the 1950’s that can help give qualified prospects on your email list almost no choice but to buy your offers. * A sneaky way to use email to know what people on your email list want to buy before they even do! * Advice for whether or not you should sell something right away after someone buys or wait a week or two. * Why I recommend avoiding probably 99% of copywriting books, courses, programs, or training created post 2005. * The paranoid copywriter’s 10-word secret that can help make your copy as engaging (and, thus, as responsive) as you possibly can from headline to close. * An insider look at what Gary Halbert taught one of his #1 students about what the most important part of advertising is. * My uncensored opinion (probably nobody wants to hear) on the latest bit of jargon used by copywriters: ‘dimension’. * The “Faustian” secret to getting zero (or, at least, nearly zero) opt outs and spam complaints. * The world’s greatest living copywriter’s secret to more than tripling your skill level at writing sales copy within a year or less. Here’s the link: []( 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