Case Study: We Test Out Frank Kern’s Mass Control Marketing on 200K People
February 10th, 2008 by Vishen Read more about Email MarketingFrank Kern’s Mass Control marketing was one of the best product launchs I’ve seen in Internet Marketing history. His videos were brilliant but can the idea of “building a relationship with your list” really be that big a profit multiplier?
Our lab put the idea to the test and here’s the result. Now this is not meant to be an endorsement of Mass Control Marketing - the product is off the shelves. But hopefully, you will learn a ton from reading this post and observing the experiment we did.
The idea itself, is quite simple.
People get on email to see what’s new with their friends and colleagues. People do not check their inboxes to shop. The ‘frame of mind’ they’re in is about communicating with friends.
Yet most list owners send out annoying, salesly crap that their subscribers have no desire to read. There’s a frame of mind mismatch here. You’re trying to sell to people who are seeking a completely different experience from email. And this is why open rates and CTRs in emails have been falling for years.
So Kern’s advice is simple. Build a relationship with your list. Treat them as a ‘friend’ and write to them in the language and style they would expect from a friend or acquaintance.
The Experiment
We own a site that has a subscriber base of 200K. A bi-weekly newsletter goes out to this base. The promo pattern looks like this: The newsletter contains a short announcement of a special offer valid for 5 days. Then, just before the 5 days are up, the subscribers get a reminder email reaffirming the offer and reminding them of the promo end date coming up.
We took our regular reminder email (below) and swapped it with an email inspired by Frank Kern’s lessons.
Email 1: Regular Reminder Email
Subject: {FIRSTNAME}, a Special Reminder
Hi {FIRSTNAME}
This is just a quick reminder..
The XXXXXXX Promo we told you about ends
Tomorrow Feb 5 2008
We’d like to invite you to take part in this promo and
master more advanced XXXX techniques - those that make up
the core of the XXXXX Product.
It’s going to take you miles beyond what you’ve studied so
far…
In case you missed the first email, here’s the deal..
You had downloaded our complimentary XXXXX
Training Program from our web site on Dec 5 2007.
I hope you have enjoyed our program and that it helped you
become more aware of your true potential.
Yet, what you just studied is only a fraction of what XXXX
involves…
So we have a Special Offer for you…
Visit the link below to see full details of this offer…
Full Details Here…
www.XXXX.com
This offer is only valid until Feb 5 2008
Go Ahead, View the Special Offer..
And Do Email Me if you Have Any Questions.
Sincerely
Rachel Curt,
Your Customer Communications Manager
www.XXXXXXXXX.com
Email 2: Mass Control Marketing inspired Email
Subject Line: {FIRSTNAME}! Rachel here, don’t forget about it…
Hi {FIRSTNAME},
Rachel here. I just wanted to remind you that I have this super cool bonus surprise for you if you order th1s week (I sent the announcement in the newsletter… I hope you saw it!)
Why am I doing this? Well, I know this product really works and I want you to develop yourself as much as you can (I have been working with {Product X} for a few years now and I have seen lots of incredible results… so lets say I know what I am talking about!) Plus I like to spoil my customers and I have a lot of material to share anyway, so why not?
This link is only going to be available until next Tuesday February 5th
Check it out here!
I hope you like my surprise I have chosen some awesome material which I personally adore
Cheers!
Sincerely
Rachel Curt,
Your Customer Communications Manager
www.XXXXXXXXX.com
The Results (Drumroll Please!)
You’ll notice that the friendly email cuts away the usual sales message and instead makes the subscriber feel that they are being written to by an enthusiastic friend.
We expected positive results - but not these kinds of results.
The friendly email beat the control by approximately 250% percent more sales.
So this stuff does work. And as for us, we’re cutting back on salesly emails and investing more time in building a relationship with our list.
PS - our previous post on Frank Kern and Mass Control Marketing is here.
About the Author
Vishen is a co-founder of MindValley.
Before MindValley, he was an exec in Silicon Valley and New York for several internet and technology firms. He turned bedroom entrepreneur at 27 and by the time he was 31 had founded 6 web businesses and never had to work a conventional job again.
Check out other posts by Vishen
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- Case Study: We Test Out Frank Kern's Mass Control Marketing on 200K People
- Email Marketing Redefined -- Is Frank Kern God? Or Just a Minor Deity?
- A New Way to Think about Social Proof
- The Startling Secret of Eight-Figure Product Launches That Jeff Walker Never Taught You (Yes, It's Not Found in PLF2)!
- The Death Grip Method
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Vishen Lakhiani
[…] Case Study: We Test Out Frank Kern’s Mass Control Marketing on 200K People - A “must read” post from the weekend. I am a firm believer in building a good relationship…this is a very small glimpse of the potential this method has. […]
hi Jason here,
I just wanted to say thank you for this blog posting. I have received many an email about mass control and if the above listed email changes are just a brief example of what is in the mass control package then I would have to say that it is extremely impressive.
Just by reading the changes in the email examples, I have already thought of some ideas about changing the way in which I email about my jv events that I consistantly contribute to.
Thank you again.
Interesting…and I don’t doubt your results one bit…but how does the MC approach differ from the traditional “hey dude” style of emailers we’ve seen for years?
Lee, I think the essence of what’s going on here is that the second email speaks to the reader as a friend and not a “person to sell too”. It’s the frame of mind the writer is in when composing the email.
This just proves there is nothing new under the sun.
I first started in direct sales nearly 40 years ago. I was trained in a technique called “The No Objection Sale”
Basically you spent a large proportion of your call getting to know as much about your potential customer as possible, you asked lots of questions to find out what they needed and what they wanted and then you closed your book and chatted to them like a friend.
You then told them that you would go away and look at everything that was available and return when you found out the best possible product for them as a friend. You then confirmed with them what they were looking for and returned a week later and presented your findings in the manner of one friend to another.
I followed this faithfully and for five years had 100% sales to calls ratio.
Unbelievable, I hear you cry. Well it is gospel.
How did it finally go pear shaped. The company I worked for sold out to new owners who reckoned they knew how to sell “properly”. ” None of this two call nonsense!”
I had previously earned more in a month in direct sales than I had as a senior manager in industry in 12 months.
From the day I was told to follow the new sales style until I finally let two years later my sales to calls ratio fell from 100% to 23% and I barely made a living.
I tell this tale because online direct sales has very much in common with off line sales. Except on line sales is where off line sales was 20 years ago.
So it is nice to see that someone has finally realised that if you treat a potential customer they way you would treat your best friend you get superior sales results.
Who would have believed that?
Brilliant! I couldn’t agree more; building relationships always brings greater success. Our list members are highly responsive, because we cultivate relationships with each of them. When they write with questions, we respond quickly, with delight at the opportunity to serve.
Each of them knows we are deeply concerned about their success, and they can be confident in that ’supportive’ element in the relationship.
I love that you’ve been able to quantify the obvious benefit of relationship marketing in such a dramatic way. Thank you!
Guys, I think what’s funny is this…
This is so BASIC, but I believe that once you start monetizing from your lists, you lose site on what works to keep people trusting you…
I know that List Building was one of the last things I learned in Internet Marketing, and Mass Control is just a simple tactic that you’re taught in the beginning… yet, you completely forget about WHY those people will actually purchase from YOU, anyway.
When I was a Car Salesman (sales associate), they wanted us to practically attack any “up” (someone who walks onto the lot) and make sure they did NOT leave before the Sales Manager got their shot at them… I eventually got fired because I respected people and knew that they didn’t want to be treated as a Commission, but rather a person. The veterans of that Business DO make money, the same way as the vets in this business… but they lose people on their way up.
When I was fired from that lot, I ended up at another smaller dealership selling USED cars… FOREIGN cars, and my old “leads” found me there and purchased from me. They still trusted me… I treated them as a human and not a commission.
Unfortunately, too many people are worried about the best months ever, rather than the best years down the road.
I’m definitely not impressed with what I watched on Mass Control. Does it work? Well, yeah! It’s completely logical, but basic. It’s not magic. It’s not science… it’s simple psychology.
While we were being trained by ex-FBI agents who were teaching us what a Customer was really thinking when they were rubbing their ear lobes, scratching their nose, the way they stood, etc… I was learning about HOW TO TREAT THE CUSTOMER the right way… guys like Joe Girard were OLD SCHOOL and didn’t care about how customers acted… he cared about what they WANTED.
A list is the same way as a set of leads… you can cold call all day, but where is it going to get you? Build a Rapport, then send them what they’re looking for.
It’s not expensive or too time consuming to give away your own Special Reports that WILL help the people on your list. They signed up because they’re looking to fix the problem they have with _____. Give it to them, and don’t stop just because they haven’t purchased once, or haven’t purchased 100 times. If they’re on your list, treat them with respect and give them what they want.
Mass Control is just another product that you’ll waste money and time on, in the end, in my opinion.
Clint
Your example email is excellent. I’ve been noticing a few marketers trying to put Kern’s lessons into action. Some are successful, and others are coming off creepy.
Yeah, creepy like the half-drunk, complete stranger who puts his arm around you at the bar when he asks if he can buy you a drink.
Maybe they’ll get it with a little more practice. But, do those half-drunk guys at the bar ever learn?
Kern is spot-on about folk’s email mindset and how changing your approach can change the quality of your landing from bumpy to smooth as silk. Your email inviting me to this blog post is another good example… and look, I’m here… and I’m doing what you asked me to do… as a friend!
Another thing about the #2 Email is that it makes me feel more as if the time I might spend investigating the offer is intended to benefit ME, rather than the sender. I receive these tome-like, salesy emails and just shake my head and hit Delete. Don’t these folks realize that if you’ll waste my time and/or attention it only follows that you’ll probably waste my money, too? That hits on a couple more Kern-nals of Wisdom: 1) rise above the noise and be different; and 2) help folks decide they want your stuff instead of convincing them.
Some of those Mass Control techniques are the best thing since warm, fresh-out-the-oven, unsliced bread, don’t you think?
Thanks for the invite!
Debi
I had tried almost the same thing, writing in a more friendly manner. Just for records the company I work with is a manufacturer of Agri products and I am working in the Marketing team.
On and off we send these mailers to companies in other countries with our companies introduction, leave apart replies I hardly got any read receipts. Later I started writing the same facts in a more friendlier manner or so to say in the Mass Control Marketing manner, but then my boss did not approve of it and told me to stick to basics. Instead what I did was I changed the 1st para which is the key that decides if the buyer is going to read further or not and bang on I could see the change in the number of hits and replies.
Looking forward to learn loads of new things from you guys.
Cheers,
Payal Mulchandani
I enjoyed the article. Now, internet people are talking fundamentals. I felt happy to know the value of a small coherent list.
Relationship is a function of two people, their expectations, situation,needs, and capacities. It takes time to start, build and continue relationship. In any relationship, both have to grow. Otherwise, one find another interesting and stimulating partners.
If some one writes really from heart, then people respond more favourbaly. However, once again, the fundamental aspect comes into picture- the trust factor. Can I trust my marketing guru? He sees me( I have not seen many female gurus) as a present buyer or potential buyer. How would I see him- he expects me to see him as a guru, expert etc, not a seller, although the intention of selling is there all the time.
If I don’t trust my marketer, can I trust his message. Results are function of many factors, and how just one factor takes away all the credit.
If my marketing guru is rich, why is he keep selling different products to all people, including me? If my guru is really a guru, he thinks about me first, later him, and later the product or service. How many self labelled gurus genuinely think like that? I don’t have statistics and I don’t feel many are outright there.
Language is just one part of the communication. Now, we may get products of Copy write like Frank Kern- using his own emails as examples. One fine morning, we might get the templates, the software, the audio course etc.
In trust building, actions count more. Changing the expectations count more. One member of the relationship should be more willing, open and sharing. We all love real life stories, the sorrows, the failures and victories. Almost all internet marketers show me that they are successful, and earns in millions. None of them really tell the pain, agony of failure, learning and getting once up and getting the sweet taste of money, recognition and respect and above all satisfaction of publishing a book that withstand the fads and time.
In the end, we are all human beings. We respond to the personality more than the copy. If I like him, I like his message most of the time. If I don’t like his messages, at some point I may respect him, and at some later point of time, I may even hate it.
Many of the gurus are not really interested about the world also. Some of them give offers for 12/24 hours- to increase the so called urgency- and by the time some one in India opens the mail, the offer is gone. I could not understand one thing- is is just plain ignorance or I don’t care attitude because I have many members in my list. The ultimate test is- How one treats one who is far and entirely different from you?