MindValley Labs Internet Marketing Blog

I was going through Mass Control over the weekend, nerd that I am, and I came across something Frank Kern called the Death Grip Method. Frank Kern says that this is the most valuable thing you can learn from Mass Control. In that $2,000 course, this is the million dollar formula. It is specifically applied to the last 4 or 5 days of any launch process, and immediately after this you usher in the "Buy Now" button. The Death Grip Method is to be used in the last 5 days building up towards the launch. Frank Kern says this is a form of pressure stacking, piling pressure upon pressure, and he gives this formula:

S + IC + OT = BF

where,

Scarcity + Increased Coolness + Outside Threat = Buying Frenzy

What Frank Kern says is this: when it comes to the last 4 or 5 emails of your launch process, you incorporate all three of the above-mentioned elements.

S = Scarcity:

Like all product launches, you must have scarcity in some form. However, you must make sure that it is implied scarcity. Don’t say, "If you don’t buy it by this time you’ll be miserable," but rather say something like, "I don’t mean to put pressure on you, but here’s the facts: we’ve got 5,000 people on our prelaunch list, and we only have 200 products to sell so it will be sold out fast. So again, I don’t mean to put pressure on you, but please buy my product."

IC = Increased Coolness:

This is one of the key factors, and it’s basically a form of reverse psychology. Well, not really psychology, but it does flip the whole scarcity thing on its head. Most direct marketers, and these days, internet marketers as well, play this up a lot. It’s always in the negative ‘if you don’t buy this product there will be consequences’ kind of way, but this is different. He says, ‘if you buy this, there’s cooler and cooler stuff you can get’. What Frank Ken suggests is taking the cooler bonuses and putting them aside only to reveal them in the last 4-5 days.

To illustrate, Frank gave the example of marketing a product to a fraternity, where they can ‘buy a date with Paris Hilton’.

Scarcity is obvious, because Paris can only go out with one guy per night, and you have only 40 packages.

Increased Coolness is announcing in one of your last emails -only days before your launch - "By the way, Nicky Hilton is coming along too, so your date is with both Nicky and Paris." Remember, it is important that the unexpected, perceived added value or surprise bonus is something you have not previously revealed in your sales letter or anywhere else.

And the very next day, to increase the implied scarcity and to increase the coolness even more, you would say, "Not only do you get to go on a date with the 2 sisters, you also get a complimentary champagne Jacuzzi to round off your night". What you are simply doing at this point is literally stacking up the ‘cool’.

Outside Threat:

This outside threat is something that will increase the scarcity even further. For example, in these last 4-5 emails you could write that you ‘just got off the phone with the NY Times and they are very interested in this…and as you know, this publication is read by a few million people…’ As a result, the implied scarcity increases at the mention of more competition for the already limited supply. The key secret in this is –you put the blame for the scarcity not on yourself, but on other people.

Let me give you an example of using the Death Grip in the more generic internet marketing field.

Scarcity: You are only supplying a limited number. For example, you have 50,000 people on your list but only 500 products are available. E.g. when you are doing something personally, you can say ‘because you only want to give quality consultations and want to be available for people around the clock, there’s really only so many people you can take on’. You simply lay out the facts, and come straight out and say that it’s scarce because it just really is scarce. Don’t mention misery and consequences if they don’t buy, only imply scarcity.

Increased Coolness: In the last few emails, you say that you have a really cool product that can do A, B and C for them, and you’ve just decided to give it away with the first 100 sign-ups. But, in order to trigger the psychological desire to buy when you launch your product, it has to be a very desirable bonus that people actually really want.

For example, on the third-last day of his launch Frank Kern said he was going to give a live seminar, free. The thing is, he normally charges $5,000-$10,000 and suddenly he says that if you buy his product you get his live seminar for free. It definitely increases the ‘coolness’ of the product .

Alternatively, you can also slip in a few small bonuses if you don’t have any really big ones but, obviously, the cooler the bonus the better. This is evident when there’s a big launch going on; you’ll see the gurus suddenly give out a video for free and they’ll say something like, "I’ve just come up with this, it’s supposed to come with my new product but I just couldn’t wait for the launch, you’ll find even better and more in the new product itself."

What is really great is that Mass Control actually comes with all the swipe files for the Death Grip –i.e. the whole series of emails, among other things.

Outside Threat: You say you’ve just got off the phone with Mike Filsaime, and he’s going to email his list first thing this morning, and he has a list of about 200,000 people. And you say that there are other affiliates are coming in as well and it’s going to be a melee, so you are going to open the doors 10mins earlier for your list before your affiliates’ lists buy out everything. All your information has to be true, of course, so don’t name Mike Filsaime if you don’t know him.

The trick is, it’s not one-by-one but it’s all three coming at once. You layer on all three (Scarcity, Increased Coolness and the Outside Threat) in every single email so that every email hits these psychological factors.

The last email literally reads, "Click here to buy now".

This method may seem subdued, but Frank Kern really puts on pressure + pressure + more pressure in his emails…and then he says, "I don’t mean to put pressure on you,…" then he adds more pressure, and then, "But don’t worry, it won’t sell out in 2hours…" and then even more pressure. Another diffusing line follows, and he goes on like that in his emails.

In summary:

Just before a launch the Death Grip Formula states that
Scarcity + Increased Coolness + Outside Threat = Buying Frenzy

Recent posts by Kenneth

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About the Author

Kenneth Yu is a tormented artist, but he was determined not to be a starving one. This is the primary reason why this D&AD award-winning advertising creative has plunged into the world of Internet entrepreneurship, and the rest -- as they say -- is history. Straddling both the creative and business realm, Kenneth combines bullet-fast ideation and his vast experience working with the big brands to alchemize marketing gold as the Head Copywriter and Marketing Strategist in MindValley.

Check out other posts by Kenneth

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