My passion for direct sales began before the web even existed. Back then, I studied the mail order business and came across a master of direct sales, Joseph Sugarman. He wrote an amazing little book called “Triggers” that examines and explains 30 powerful persuasion techniques for marketers. He also wrote a classic training manual for copywriting called “Advertising Secrets of the Written Word”. Continue reading “4-Day Special Offer Sales”
Category: Mass Control
First Look: Frank Kern’s Crowd Control Course
I purchased Frank Kern’s Mass Control course back in early 2008 when he did his first big launch of the course. As I sat in my living room – American Express card in my hand – after charging nearly $2000, I felt a twinge of fear. That ‘little voice’ in my started talking…
…”you just wasted a huge amount of money – sucker.”
We’ve all been there at some point after making a big purchase – wondering whether a fast-talking salesman just picked our pocket or if we actually made a smart investment.
Fortunately, the little voice was WRONG this time. Mass Control turned out to be an amazingly good investment in my marketing education…
…and my investment just got a whole lot better! Let me explain.
The latest relaunch of Mass Control is a new physical version of the course (the original was delivered online.) One of the new bonuses added to the package to ‘sweeten’ the deal is a 3-DVD course called Crowd Control. I was starting to regret investing in the first version of the course (because I wanted this bonus), but that was a short-lived feeling…
…One of the great surprises that has come with being a Mass Control customer is that Frank Kern continues to add value to my original purchase well beyond anything I was initially promised.
Shortly before the latest Mass Control promotion, I got an email from Frank Kern announcing that all original customers of Mass Control would be getting a free copy of the new physical version of the course when it came out (he didn’t even charge for shipping the 10 pound box of materials.) So…
…I also got a copy of Crowd Control!
As I write this, I just got through watching the first DVD in Crowd Control and I am completely blown away.
The primary objective of this course is to teach you how to use powerful (and subtle) psychological persuasion techniques to sell to people in live environments and through online video.
The teaching method used in the course involves Frank showing a presentation he gave as an object lesson. He outlines what his persuasion goals were for the presentation and then breaks it down by explaining exactly what he does at each step of the process and why. He describes a technique, explains how it works, and then you watch the next part of the presentation where he uses it in front of an audience or in an online video.
If there was ever a doubt in my mind that Frank Kern is a brilliant marketer, the breakdown of the Core Influence presentation that he uses as his first example would have killed it.
I remember the first time I watched a recording of the Core Influence presentation. It looks like Frank Kern is giving a loose and (somewhat) rough presentation to the crowd at a marketing seminar. But, it turns out to be an intricately engineered experience. Every gesture, every story, every question has a specific purpose for being there and the Crowd Control course explains it all.
The next DVD in the Crowd Control course focuses on translating those live event techniques to online videos – which figure prominently in the Mass Control system.
Previously, I had seen another impressive video where Frank broke-down a sales letter and explained how and why each component worked. This presentation followed the same process as that earlier video and I found it to be a powerful teaching approach.
After watching this DVD, I am completely loaded-up now with an understanding of concepts like anchoring, pattern interrupts, and trance inductions and how to use them to create powerfully persuasive videos.
Crowd Control is an impressive educational resource that could easily stand on its own. It does not provide the same type of step-by-step systems as the Mass Control course, but it explains some incredibly powerful concepts in a way that lets you see how you can put them into action yourself.
Frank Kern continues to add huge value to the Mass Control investment I made (he just started a ‘List-Getting’ video course online as well that’s equally impressive). Every new training course he releases pulls back the cover on the techniques he actively uses.
Learning exactly how Frank Kern persuaded me to make that $2000 investment in Mass Control back in 2008 makes me glad he is so good at what he does (and that I don’t always listen to that little voice in my head!)
Mass Control Feedback from a Satisfied Customer
The hype for the Mass Control 2.0 launch is hitting a fevered pitch, and lots of people are searching the Internet for honest feedback about whether this product is worth the 5 figure price tag.
I am a member of Dennis Becker’s Earn1KaDay marketing forum and was recently asked by one of the other members about my opinion of the course. I think the response I gave would be helpful for anyone who is on the fence trying to decide whether to buy this product.
Continue reading “Mass Control Feedback from a Satisfied Customer”
How To Build An Internet Marketing Cult of Your Very Own
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.’
Continue reading “How To Build An Internet Marketing Cult of Your Very Own”
Mass Control In Action: The Product Launch Formula
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.
Mass Control – 4 Day Cash Machine Experiment Part 3
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 (my results might have been better if I had implemented it like this!) 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!)
Download The Exact Email Sequence That Generated $8260.51 in 5 Days…
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 – a 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.
Since first learning the details of this promotional strategy, I discovered someone doing an amazing version of the process. He automates everything (so each new visitor gets their own unique ‘mini promotion’) and ties in some powerful tactics to amplify the psychological tactics used. Check out this video – it explains the whole process in detail.
The sample webpage content I got from Frank Kern 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.
Mass Control – 4 Day Cash Machine Experiment Part 2
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 (check out this video of a wicked automated implementation of the 4DCM).
The second email in the 4 email sequence went out just after midnight last night (eastern standard time.) Continue reading “Mass Control – 4 Day Cash Machine Experiment Part 2”
Mass Control – 4 Day Cash Machine Experiment Part 1
In an earlier post I mentioned that I planned to put the ‘4 Day Cash Machine’ bonus module (check out this video of a wicked implementation of the 4DCM), 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.)
Download This Email Sequence That Generated $8260.51 in 5 Days…
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.
Frank Kern’s Mass Control – Initial Impressions of the Course
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. Continue reading “Frank Kern’s Mass Control – Initial Impressions of the Course”
Mass Control: Frank Kern Got My Wallet
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!) Continue reading “Mass Control: Frank Kern Got My Wallet”