Do you want to know what a marketing cult looks like? Search out your closest Apple Store and go take a look.

The latest version of the iPhone was plagued by severe problems that would cause customers of other products to abandon ship and look to another company with a better product. But, even the most dissatisfied customers are keeping their phones because they are the ‘best designed’ phones available and ‘Apple makes the best products.’

They forgive a massively defective product because they love the company and they love being part of the hip and cool crowd that pays a premium to own the ‘best designed’ products on the market.

That is a marketing cult operating in high gear.

What Is a Marketing Cult?

Cult style marketing is about selling the experience of owning the the products and the aura of being a member of a ’select group’ once you own them. It’s not about price, or features, or value - it’s about belonging.

Now, I don’t use the word cult to imply that these marketers are evil or don’t deliver valuable products, but rather to demonstrate the intense passion the customers have about being a customer in the first place. (And, of course I’m using a ‘loaded’ word to sound controversial and pique curiosity to get people to read this article.) In the case of and honest to goodness cult, you’d be asked to sell all your worldly possessions, leave your family, move to some compound in the middle of nowhere and chant songs about the benevolent leader all day

Cult style marketing is effective because it uses some of the underlying psychology that gets manipulated by the people who start cults. This style of marketing focuses on the leader of the group, the lifestyle of those on the inside, and an attitude that people on the outside ‘just don’t get it!’ They have their own language that is only understood by those on the ‘inside.’ When you market to a cult you don’t sell a product, you sell a ‘lifestyle choice.’

I Am a Cult Member

Turns out that I’m a member of 2 ‘marketing cults’ - who knew?

Fortunately, I have been paying attention to how this happened and studying the tactics and techniques that lead me to join in the first place.

I didn’t set out to become an expert in cult style marketing, I just wanted to learn how to build an online business and I started seeking out people who were succeeding and then studying what they did.

Recently I joined Frank Kern’s Mass Control program to learn how this ‘evil’ marketing genius can get people to fall all over themselves trying to give him money. Guess what, Frank knows the psychology behind building a cult and uses it to build a devoted group of people who want to buy things from him (like me - happy member of the club.)

The cool thing is that you don’t have to be a marketing genius like Steve Jobs or Frank Kern to build a profitable group of passionate followers. The first marketing cult I joined is run by a very nice guy from New Jersey and grew very organically from an ebook he wrote called “5 Bucks a Day.”

How A Nice Guy From New Jersey Built A Passionate Group Of Followers

Dennis Becker is an incredibly nice and generous guy. He wrote “5 Bucks a Day” to help other marketers develop a more focused approach to applying all the knowledge they were aquiring about Internet marketing. The book helped many people just like me start to break down their big dreams into small goals that would add up to a real business over time. Dennis shared his personal story and some ‘common wisdom’ that we just don’t think about enough.

Now, Frank Kern says that one of the first things you should do to build a ‘cult’ of your own is to tell them something they already know, but present it as though it is a gospel revelation.

“5 Bucks a Day” taught people to stop hopping from one trend to another and focus on one small project that could make you $5 per day until it was up and running. So the revelation was, “you are not succeeding because you don’t focus on one thing long enough to make any progress.”

Dennis shared his story because this shift in thinking really did change his business and make it much more profitable. But, it also had all of us who read it nodding our heads in agreement. We knew this, he validated what we knew deep down, and he showed us that this was a path to real success.

The seeds were planted.

Bonding The Group And Inventing A Language

Dennis was a bit surprised at how well the “5 Bucks a Day” ebook was received. He had a nice list of email addresses from customers and one day he announced that he was starting a free membership forum for owners of the ebook. Now the group had a place to hang out and we could talk to Dennis on a regular basis.

Very quickly we started to develop a list of special abbreviations like 5BAD as we spent hours discussing how we were applying our newfound focus on our Internet marketing efforts. We were creating our own language.

Dennis participated every day in the discussions and gave us tons of free resources to help us improve our success. He encouraged members to ‘get out there’ and start doing things instead of just talking about them. He personally welcomed every new member and celebrated every success on the forum. He also pulled up short whenever someone asked him for details about exactly how he was making his major income - and we asked!

Secret Knowledge Is Revealed To The Elite Members

Then, one day, things got even more exclusive. Dennis started a new paid monthly membership forum called “Earn $1k a Day” where he ’spilled his guts’ and gave us a step-by-step blueprint for making money using his (until now) secret process. He invited a small group of his most active members to join first and lay the groundwork for the rest who would follow.

Now, all us freshly minted E1KAD members began to follow our leader and the community grew. Dennis had built himself a passionate community of people who looked to him for inspiration and who now paid him a monthly fee to be part of the group.

The “Earn $1k a Day” membership site is a great place and I’ve learned - and earned a good bit of money - since I joined up. The other members have supported my projects and I’ve benefited from the reports and software that are regularly posted for the members.

Dennis Becker ended up creating his own private ‘cult’ around the notion of focusing small for big results and by nurturing a community of others who see the world in a similar way. And now, it’s turned into a valuable business for him and spawned the successful careers of several other marketers.

It is safe to say that Dennis Becker did not set out to create his own E1KAD and 5BAD ‘cults’. They grew organically from his success publishing the ebook and from the community he nurtured around that core idea. He gave a lot of time, energy, and content to his members and it grew into something pretty amazing.

The Greatest Cult-Building Evil Genius In Internet Marketing

Frank Kern sets out on his cult building efforts very intentionally.

The psychology behind the process is the same for both of these marketers, but Frank uses a much more focussed and accelerated plan to get a cult going overnight and to fire up his followers and get them to fight for a chance to throw large sums of money at him.

I didn’t know anything about Frank Kern 12 months ago and ended up giving him 10 times more money in one day than I have given to Dennis over nearly 2 years (and Dennis has actually spent a lot of personal time and energy helping me build my business.)

Fortunately, I have yet to give one dime to Steve Jobs. I listen to my Sansa Fuze MP3 player and talk on my Nokia phone while typing on my Windows computer! Now, you’ll have to excuse me. I’ve got to start running before the Apple fanatics start flaming me.

Who Is Following You?

If you want real success for your Internet marketing business, you need to start thinking about building your own cult. You don’t have to swing for the fences to have real success that will fatten up your bank account. A few hundred devoted followers will go a long way.

If you are listening to the podcast version of this article, please visit us at www dot go to guy enterprises dot com for more Internet marketing insights and to sign up for our free e-course, “The Secret Weapons of Persuasion.”

Jeff Walker is launching the 2.0 version of his “Product Launch Formula” and you can be sure that he is employing the principles of “Mass Control“.

One of the things that has become appearant to me as a student of Frank Kern’s “Mass Control” course is that he is very closely connected with the biggest names in the Internet Marketing world and people like John Reese (Traffic Secrets) and Jeff Walker (Product Launch Formula) come up frequently in the conversations. These guys all seem to work with each other on their launches and their personal marketing processes are interconnected. As a matter of fact, one of the bonus videos I got as a student of “Mass Control” is of Frank Kern presenting the core concepts of “Mass Control” at one of Jeff Walker’s “Product Launch Formula” seminars.

So, you can be sure that Jeff Walker will be using “Mass Control” techniques during his launch (he’d be crazy not too!)

You can learn a lot from watching the launch sequence he uses and then reverse engineering the process. I recommend you sign up for his lists and save any emails he sends you in a swipe file (one of the training resources that Frank Kern uses in the “Mass Control” course are the email sequences he used for some of his big launches - very enlightening.)

Like a lot of launches you have seen recently, the first public communication in the process is a free video designed to stimulate your desire for the results promised by the “Product Launch Formula” course. His core affiliate/JV network (I’m an affiliate myself) quickly blasted emails out to the Internet Marketing community driving visitors to the video and encouraging them to sign up for the mailing list to get more case studies and free info about the “Product Launch Formula.”

In all honesty, I was disappointed with this first video. The Stomper launches and Frank Kern’s “Mass Control” launch all gave very practical and actionable content in their desire building videos. Jeff Walker mostly focussed on case studies and talking about results. I was waiting for him to drop a big insider tip and it never came.

Watch the first video in Jeff Walker’s launch promotion and sign up for the mailing list. Then, study the emails and videos that follow. There is a very specific and well thought out sequence happening. Every email and video has a specific purpose. As you watch and read the launch information, ask yourself what Jeff is trying to do with this email. Is he stimulating your desire for the product, is he revealing his personal side so you feel like you know him (and get to like him), is he reminding you how many people are waiting to get the few copies available, is he giving proof that his system works? Each communication is designed to stimulate a psychological sales trigger and move you through a decision making process that leaves you making up your own mind that you ‘must have’ the “Product launch Formula” course.

This is precisely what Frank Kern did during the “Mass Control” launch and it was the reason why I felt I ‘must buy’ the course when it went live. This stuff works.

If you are a fellow “Mass Control” student, Jeff Walker’s “Product Launch Formula” launch will give you a chance to see the process in action. If you are not a student, I recommend you purchase a copy of the “Mass Control Revealed” interview that I have for sale on this site. Listen to Frank Kern explain the core concepts behind “Mass Control” and then study the “Product Launch Formula” launch sequence and look for the techniques that Frank Kern talks about at work. Chart out the sequence and what each email and video is doing. Then, when the launch is over, you’ll have a good outline to use to build your own launch sequence.

Be sure that there is much more to the “Mass Control” training and Jeff Walker’s “Product Launch Formula” than what you will learn through this reverse engineering exercise - but you will experience a massive shift in your marketing knowledge just the same.

So, go watch the “Product Launch Formula” free video and sign up for the mailing list so you start getting the emails. Then, study what you get. Remember, no matter what the emails say, nothing ‘just happened’ and nobody ‘just thought of something’ to tell you. Every communication you get is part of the plan.

If you are listening to the podcast version of this article, we invite you to visit our website at www dot go to guy enterprises dot com for more valuable Internet marketing insights.

Product Launch Formulas

My 4 Day Cash Machine experiment has run its full course and I’ve got the results.

Much to my disappointment, Frank Kern’s 4 Day Cash Machine is not magic. The cold, dead, untargeted list I used it on did not suddenly start beating new life and buying products as fast as I could process the payments. But, there were some surprises that give me confidence that it will be useful in the future when I am better prepared to take advantage of it. (My list building efforts are underway!)

Before I give you my detailed assessment of the 4 Day Cash Machine in action, let me break down my results.

Mailing # 1:

• 377 emails sent in total
• 34 emails bounced giving an effective delivery of 343 emails delivered
• 7 people unsubscribed from the list
• 2.6% open-up rate based on delivered emails* (open rates are highly unreliable measures these days, but I decided to go ahead and include them)

Mailing #2:

• 361 emails sent in total (I did not remove bounces but did scrub out some duplicates I found)
• 35 emails bounced giving an effective delivery of 326 emails
• 2 people unsubscribed from the list
• .6% open-up rate based on delivered email*

Mailing #3:

• 359 emails sent in total (I continued to leave in the bounces)
• 40 emails bounced giving an effective delivery of 319 emails
• 2 people unsubscribed from the list
• .003% open-up rate based on delivered emails*

Mailing #4:

• 356 emails sent in total (I continued to leave in the bounces)
• 39 emails bounced giving an effective delivery of 317 emails
• 0 people unsubscribed from the list
• .0% open-up rate based on delivered emails*

Final Results after 4 mailings:

• 1305 total emails delivered
• 11 unsubscribes - 3.2% based on initial deliverable list size of 343
• 6 page views on the special offer sales page - 0.46% based on total emails delivered
• 0 orders
• $0.00 earned

My Evaluation of the Results

While I was disappointed not to make any sales with this promotion, I was not surprised by the result. This was a very cold list that hadn’t heard from me in many months and wasn’t particularly responsive in the first place. The vast majority of the names had come from JV Giveaway events where everyone is signing up for dozens of lists in order to get freebies. A significant portion of the names you get during these events are either temporary accounts setup for the event, or secondary accounts that don’t get checked very often (and usually just mass deleted.)

Surprising Positive Outcomes

I was braced for massive unsubscribe rates with every email. This list was full of people who probably had no idea how they ever got connected with me. Before I even said hello, I hit them with a bunch of sales pitches. I was sure the number of unsubscribes would climb with each mailing (specially the last one with a ‘FINAL NOTICE’ subject line), but that didn’t happen. As a matter of fact, the unsubscribe rates went down over the course of 4 days. I’m confident that a promotion like this will not have much negative effect on my list sizes (I always worry that intense promotions will scare off the subscribers, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue. Other markets may have different results.)

The other thing I noticed was that the page views for the sales page tracked with the first and last mailing. I got a couple after the initial mailing in the promotion (as one would expect) and then the rest came on day 4 after the ‘FINAL NOTICE’ email went out. This demonstrates that the urgency created by the promotion’s deadline does have an effect on response rates.

Overall Analysis

I think that the ‘4 Day Cash Machine’ approach would generate a spike of sales in a well targeted and maintained list. The persuasion tactics employed are founded in the fundamental principles of human decision making - reason why, urgency, scarcity. The materials provided would certainly help to assemble one of these promotions quickly and the training provided helps you to resist the urge to ‘fiddle and fine-tune’ the promotion and just get it done.

The sample webpage content was provided in HTML and was relatively easy to modify. The sample emails, however, were provided in a PDF file. That made them a real pain to cut and paste. I wish they had come in a simple text file - I have them that way on my hard drive for future promotions.

If you have any specific questions about my experiment with ‘4 Day Cash Machine’, leave a comment below and I’ll post a reply.

If you are listening to the podcast version of this article, please visit us on the web at: www dot go to guy enterprises dot com.

Today is the second day of my ‘4 Day Cash Machine’ test promotion. ‘4 Day Cash Machine’ came as a bonus module when I purchased Frank Kern’s Mass Control course.

The second email in the 4 email sequence went out just after midnight last night (eastern standard time.) More on Mass Control - 4 Day Cash Machine Experiment Part 2

In an earlier email I mentioned that I planned to put the ‘4 Day Cash Machine’ bonus module, that came with Frank Kern’s Mass Control training program, to a hard test. Well, that test started in the early hours of this morning. Anyone who has signed up for the updates list on this website should have already seen the first email in the sequence (the sign-up box for the list is in the right hand side of this page.)

I’ve made this a very hard test. I’m mailing to a small list of people and the majority of them are from a ‘very cold’ set of names that I haven’t contacted in months and who have already received a promotion for the featured product about 8 months ago. These leads came mostly from a couple ‘Fire Sale’ events (not sources of high-quality email leads.) To give you a sense of how cold they were, I had 34 hard bounces out of the main list of 360 - that’s a bounce rate of 9%.

Part of the reason I went with this list is that I wanted to really test the capabilities of this technique to motivate sales. If it works with this group, it should be a huge success with higher quality lists that I have a better relationship with. The other reason is that the primary list I’m building right now is for my first big product launch. I’ve had successes with the pre-launch and I don’t want to hit this list with tangential promotions until after the launch.

It took me a few hours to set everything up. Even though there is a cut and paste template to use for the sales page and the emails, I still had to pick 5 bonus products and write blurbs about them, and customize the emails before loading them into my email broadcast cue. In addition, I had to do some maintenance work on the older list to make sure that everything would go out smoothly (I have switched to Aweber for my email marketing since the list was created, but didn’t move this list due to the low quality of the leads.)

My immediate results are 34 bounces, 5 unsubscribes, 1 page view on the special sales page, and 0 sales. But, it is important to remember that the email only went out a few hours ago and many people have not had a chance to open it yet. I’m expecting that a significant number of the people on the mailing list gave a secondary email address to begin with - so they might not check it as frequently. There are 3 more messages in the email cue ready to go out before the end of the promotion.

My ‘4 Day Cash Machine’ promotion ends at midnight EST, February 14, 2008. Given the quality of the list, I’ll consider the experiment a success if I get even 2-3 sales. More than that and I’ll be stunned!

Look for a full debriefing when the promotion ends and additional updates when I have more results.

If you are listening to the podcast version of this article, visit our website at: www dot go to guy enterprises dot com.

My experience with Mass Control got off to a bumpy start because of server problems they were having on launch day. I couldn’t log in right away because the payment system didn’t automatically update my membership account to give me access. I sent off a note with my email payment receipt and, within a few hours, Frank and company had me up and running. There were still intermittent connection problems that first day as they rolled everything over to a new server, but I was able to start looking around at the content. More on Frank Kern’s Mass Control - Initial Impressions of the Course

Okay, technically John Reese hooked me first and then handed the fishing pole over to Frank Kern to reel me into the Mass Control boat!

If you hang out in the Internet Marketing world at all, you’ve heard about Mass Control (over and over again!) More on Mass Control: Frank Kern Got My Wallet