Mr. Metrics guy misses the point
Published: Tue, 10/20/20
A while back, I got an email out of the blue from an old school, presumably very successful, and clearly very knowledgeable, print newsletter publisher in the finance/investing market who had inquired about subscribing to “Email Players.”
He said he was trying to subscribe, but my shopping cart kept rejecting him.
Eventually, he asked what was going on?
So I did a few seconds of investigative work.
And it turns out he had subscribed a couple years earlier, then cancelled his subscription. When I told him my policy of not letting people back who cancel, he sent me a long, rambling email about what a mistake my policy is, and that he didn’t even know he was subscribed before, and it must have been someone else at his company who enrolled him.
Short story long:
He did not seem like a bad guy or anything.
But, he was all about doling out the unsolicited advice — none of which applied to my business model or long-term plans, or even short-term plans, or product line, or branding goals, or customer curation strategy, or anything else I do with my publishing model whatsoever. My favorite part was when he offered to let me use/swipe an email he used to "reactivate" canceled subscriptions, when I not only don't want to reactivate canceled subscriptions, I block them from coming back for life after they leave. Something, ironically, he should have figured out considering that's what I did to him.
Anyway, the point?
Not once did he ask a single question.
It was all “ratchet-jaw, ratchet-jaw” about what his metrics say.
And boy did he know his metrics!
Down to the smallest integer.
Which amused me for two reasons:
1. Mr. Metrics Guy knew every nook & cranny of his business’s metrics… probably down to what each customer wears each day of the week and what time they go to the bathroom… but didn’t even know who was using his identity to order $100/month newsletters.
2. His results are 100% irrelevant to my business, in every possible way, as I don't build my business in the typical psychological way he and virtually every direct response marketing book/course/guru does or teaches to do.
For example:
I stopped using paid media a long time ago and I am 100% referral based.
I am also very much a 4 quarters vs 100 pennies kinda guy, preferring low numbers of high quality vs high numbers of low quality in all areas of my life (customers, friends, whatever). And, most importantly, what all these “tEsTiNg!!!!” guys — few of who even do what they preach — always miss is how much more longterm profitable & sustainable the non-tangible & non-testable parts of a business & marketing plan can potentially be if one knows what they are doing and can think outside the box in a more ambitious way.
Which brings me to my new “elBenbo Press” book launching this week.
It is about my book & newsletter publishing model.
And that model is NOT and never has been based on a series of tactics and parroting marketing gurus about asking what people want, taking surveys, caring about vanity metrics like open or opt-in rates, running PPC ads to probe marketplace demand, or paying even the slightest attention to what other business’ selling in my market are doing, saying, buying, swiping, or crowing about in masterminds.
Incidentally:
There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing any of that.
And I will admit, the psychological approach to marketing vs what I do is a much “safer” way to go.
But it probably won’t build the kind of culture or experience I’m striving for.
Think Apple vs Microsoft or Disney World vs Six Flags.
Apple & Disney were built very differently, marketed very differently, and created customers very differently than Microsoft or Six Flags. If you want to know the difference, simply look at Disneyland’s multi-generational customer base. Or read the neurological studies on how Apple customers’ brains literally “light up” when seeing new Apple products in the exact same way a religious person’s brain lights up when thinking about God.
That ain’t no accident, Spanky.
Just like it ain’t no accident that Apple and Disney zoomed right past all their competitors to currently being two of the biggest companies in the world (for now — this will change for completely unrelated reasons, another tale for another day...)
Which brings us back again to “elBenbo Press”:
I have never claimed my way is the “best” way.
Or even necessarily a smart way of doing business for everyone.
A lot of it depends on you, your goals, your work ethic, your tolerance for being “on call” during your every waking hour, your comfort level with having your entire business rest upon “you” (i.e., if something happens to you, your entire company goes down), and so on, and so forth.
What I will say though is this:
My publishing model has allowed me to create a 7-figure per year business over many years (it did NOT happen “overnight” or whatever), working completely on my own terms, with no debt or crushing overhead, without any employees or assistants or VAs… and be able to live a very content life doing what I love each day. And I figured out many years ago that in order to do this, I had to ignore a lot of what even some of my marketing “heroes” insist on people doing. I also realized many of those heroes don’t exactly practice what they teach & preach. In fact, I had to ignore a lot of what they say about business building, and observe what they DO instead.
And so it is.
Whatever the case, if this book is of interest to you, then a word of warning:
“elBenbo Press” is very much a “Ben Settle 400-level” book.
That means it is not at-all newbie-friendly. And while I’m not saying you have to have all my other books or be an Email Players subscriber to use it… I will say the longer you’ve been reading my emails, the more of my books you’ve read, and the more of “me” you are familiar with, the more suited you are for this information.
It’s also my most expensive book yet, too.
But, during the launch this week I am offering it at a thick $300.00 discount off the price listed on the sales page until Friday, October 23 at midnight EDT.
Here is the link:
https://www.EmailPlayers.com/press
Use code SIZZLE at the checkout.
And make sure you see the price change before entering any info.
Ben Settle
P.S. If you are interested in buying this book, read the sales letter very carefully before pulling the trigger. Don’t be a fool and purchase on blind impulse. This book is not only expensive, but the information inside requires substantial amounts of effort, ambition, patience, time, and discipline to learn, master, and profit from.
Don’t say you weren’t warned.