Is Forced Continuity Good Or Just Downright Evil?
The latest internet marketing phenomenon is really here with a bang! It all started with the always innovative Mike "The Guvnor" Filsaime and his product launch of The Seven Figure Secrets. Essentially he gave away some really excellent content, well except for a minuscule shipping charge, in return for getting anyone who ordered it to sign up for a recurring monthly newsletter. This has been known as "forced continuity".
Now in the past this method of marketing had a really bad rap, mainly due to the fact that it was used by disreputable marketers who would give away a "Free" product, usually a physical product like dvd’s. Now as you have to pay for shipping you have to fill in your Credit card details. Then without you realizing it you card would then be charged a monthly fee for a membership or newsletter. Now these devious marketers would have this mentioned in the small print somewhere and I mean tiny, hidden somewhere that was easily overlooked.
However Mike took great pains to let any customer know exactly why he was giving away his valuable content. Infact he put it on every page of the purchase process and you would have to be eitherblind or deaf or both to miss it as he also reiterated this several times in his videos. As a side note if you want to see how to set up an awesome sales process then this was the best I’ve ever seen. A really innovative new use for video.
Following Mike’s launch Frank ‘The Messiah" Kern launched his own version. He gave away 8 dvd’s, an excellent manual listing all the ‘aha moments’ he has had in his remarkable marketing career. He did this to get people to sign up for his monthly "Mass Control" program. Like Mike he made the ultimate effort to make sure everyone knew why they were getting this incredredible product for free but did it in his own style………. shall we call it "Adult Language"!
In todays terms this give away was probably worth in the thousands and here it was for free, well again just a minimal shipping charge. Now Frank’s monthly membership is high end and not cheap but from the "customers" point of view so what! If you don’t want it you cancel before the 30 day trial is up and you keep the lot for free!
It remains to be seen if his "experiment" as he calls it, works from his, the marketers point of view. But consider this he had 2000 units created and ready at his shipping company adn 18 mins after launch they were gone and he had to take down the page!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only Frank will know what his overheads are and how many people he needs to stay a member for him to make a profit but considering the monthly fee is $250+ I ould imagine he will do it comfortably, even taking into account the fortunes his JV partners like me will be taking back from him!! Thanks Frank I’ can now by gas for the boat!!
He has assured me he will be reopening this again in the future, I guess once he sees whether it is profitable enough for him. It is worth remembering that even if people do not stay memebrs they will still be on his list and ripe for making money from, sorry, ‘with’ in the future. My advice when you see it order it the dvd’s are really worth it not to mention the stuuf on paper.
Anyway I guess you can guess my opinion about forced continuity. As long it is done ethically as is the case with Mr Filsaime and Mr Kern then as far as customers are concerned it is a no brainer, it is definitely a great thing. As for the marketer’s side of things I guess it remains to be seen but lets face it if FK and MF are doing it, it’s going to work. In fact considering how regarded these guys are watch for future big product launched being done in this style. In fact you will not have to wait long, the Stomper Boys are following suit with their Stomping The Search Engines 2. Don’t miss it!
Disclaimer: I did not intend for FK’s nickname to imply any biblical qualities on his part, its just the hair and beard dude!
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I think the concern of auto charging can be resolved by the chargeback feature of credit cards. You can always file a chargeback if you think you have been tricked to pay.
Nice read. I actually never understood exactly what the catch was on the recent Frank Kern launch, (I had trouble enough just with initial video) but am now glad I never followed through on it. $250/month!!! Gimme a break Frank.
Thanks for the good analysis
The ‘catch’ as you put it is not really a catch as you have 30 days to cancel and pay nothing and you still get to keep everything, you don’t even have to return it
I am always suspect of anyone who charges my card on a monthly basis by using a roundabout method. It sounds sort of sneaky to me to capture the cc details for shipping and then applying a monthly charge….
Russ I agree if that was the case. It is not sneaky, they are totally upfront and explain that you will be enrolled in a monthly membership for a separate product and that you can cancel it whenever you like and if you do it in the first 30 days then you will not be charged anything.
Russ .. to me the funny (and weirdest) part of these IM funnels and then stuff like Kern and Filesame put out is that they are explaining how to get people to keep buying – buy getting you to keep buying. It’s such a weird industry. When they speak at conferences about putting people throw the sales ringer, 3/4’s of the audience is actually in the ringer .. just weird.
And the bottomline on these deals is that nobody is forcing you to do anything.. plenty of people will pay Frank and Stompernet, with or without you.
Mike Filsaime is one of the best Internet marketers in our time..so I guess for me, business techniques such as these are not really that bad..and you still have an option to stop or continue your subscriptions after the trial period ended..^^
I don’t see anything wrong with it as long as it is fully disclosed. It’s a pretty clever way to get a captive audience and lots more money from the throngs of subscribers.