Lessons Learned from Frank Kern & Mass Control Marketing

I admit it.  I get sidetracked very easily, especially when it comes to learning new stuff that can make me more effective in what I’m doing.  This time, however, I didn’t have to invest in another high-priced course, since I had a friend who had purchased Frank Kern’s Mass Control Marketing package and gave me a chance to watch the videos and read through the manual.

Even with limited access, I now understand much of what Jeff Walker tried to teach in his Product Launch Formula package I purchased last Winter.  Specifically, how to craft your “marketing character” and develop a storyline for your marketing.  I also learned some really nifty ways to add scarcity to a launch without coming across as manipulative.  Furthermore, I learned how to prove your system works even if you haven’t actually used it yourself.

And what may be even more significant, I finally understand what the “magic bullet” of the LOA field really is.  (Hint:  controlling the uncontrollable)

Here are some of the core principles Frank Kern teaches.

First, he fully believes in what I’m calling “Karmic Marketing”, where you give away good value to attract interest and sales.  He recommends you create 4 content pieces to use in your marketing.  One to spark interest and desire to know more, one to bond with your prospects, one to prove your product works (or at least the principles behind your product), and a sample of your product to demonstrate the quality of what you’re offering.  Of course, each of these pieces is designed to promote your product and inspire your prospects to buy from you, but since you’re giving good content, this is okay.

Knowing Your Market

In relating to your market, you need to fully understand the fears and desires that motivate your ‘average’ prospect.  The more you understand your market, the easier it will be to provide them with what they want, and the more profitable your business will be.  Sounds logical, right?  You’d be amazed how many people charge into a market with a product THEY think is good without ever considering if anyone else even wants it.  Although Frank doesn’t talk about doing surveys in his Mass Control material, he mentions them from time to time, and it’s clear that using them is important.  Luckily, the material I have from Glenn Livingston provides extensive information on using surveys to gather market intelligence.

Once you understand your prospects’ fears and desires, you can note down the parts of your own life that relate to them.  There’s a saying that people will buy from those they know, like, and trust.  People tend to like others who are like themselves.  When you can show your market that you are like them, or at least you used to be, then it’s easier to win them over and get them to trust you.  This was something I focused on when creating the home page for the new PowerKeys Publishing website.

Your Marketing Character

According to Kern, you want to define 5 main things for your “marketing character”.  These are, your backstory, your beliefs and values, your “magic powers”, your fables and stories, and finally, your “secret language”.

Your backstory is simply that part of your past which shows that you are (or were) like your prospects.  Show how many mistakes you made, how bad your life was before finding the secrets you want to share with them, your own fears and desires and what you did to try to work through them.  For me, my backstory includes the fact that I was a good student in school, but still failed in life.  I couldn’t hold a job, couldn’t maintain a relationship, tried reading every self-help book I could find, and had absolutly no control over anything in my life.

Your beliefs and values, at least in this context, must relate to what your prospects want in their lives.  As an example, my values include things like, “perfection is possible”, “principles are more valuable than recipes”, “quality for a low price”, and “everyone can have what they want in life”.

“Magic Powers” relates to the things you (or your product) can do that your prospects want to be able to do.  In marketing, this is usually something like making a million dollars in 30 seconds with no work.  With LOA materials, it’s usually about controlling the uncontrollable, getting results where no physical process will work.  In our field, “magic powers” really is about having magic powers.  However, for some in our field, “magic powers” is about finding peace in a hostile world, or living in joy no matter what may be happening in the world around you.

Here’s one of the major breakthroughs I experiences when going through Frank’s Mass Control materials.  YOU don’t have to have the magic powers.  As long as you can demonstrate that SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE has done amazing things with the principles, system, or technique you’re selling, you can reference THEIR success in your marketing.

And this gets into the proof element mentioned above.  The more examples you can show where people have had success using your product (or the key elements of your product, such as affirmations, visualization, etc.) the more of a response you’ll get to your marketing.

Fables and stories are just the stories you can tell that demonstrate the effectiveness of your product.  If you’re selling an ebook on using affirmations, then you want to have a set of stories on hand that demonstrate how you used affirmations to create change in your life, or stories about other people doing the same thing.  If your product is based on a new technique, then you want to use stories about how this new technique has been responsible for significant and dramatic results, either in your own life or in the lives of others.

And finally, secret language refers to the terms and phrases that bond you with your audience as a unique community.  For example, online marketers use a secret language that includes words and phrases such as PPC, CPM, Google Slap, co-reg leads, broadcast, autoresponder, landing page, and so forth.  Our field uses a secret language when we talk about affirmations, visualization, creating a thought-form, centering, grounding, and in my business I have things like “belief scale”, “belief archeology”, “pacing and leading affirmations”, and so on.  When you use your secret language in your marketing, you give you prospect the feeling of being a part of something important, something special.

Marketing Storylines

Jeff Walker talks a lot about using storylines in marketing, but I never quite understood what he meant.  It seemed like he was suggesting we write the equivalent of a movie script to entertain our prospects as we move them through the sales process.  Framk does a MUCH better job of explaining how stories are used in marketing.  It’s not that we’re trying to entertain our prospects, but more that the story is the backdrop behind the marketing messages we send out.

Here’s an example, using the storyline most often talked about – the reluctant hero.

  1. You discover something (affirmations, meditation, using pyramids, a magic formula, whatever)
  2. You try it and find it works
  3. You tell a few people you know, they try it and it works for them
  4. News gets out and now everyone wants to know what you discovered
  5. Although you’d rather be doing something else, you will go ahead and go through the work to record your discovery in a way that others can learn about it.
  6. Because you want to be doing something else, this product won’t be around forever, and people need to buy it quickly while they can.

Frank talks about 2 other storylines, “us versus them” and “hometown boy (or girl) makes good”.

Mass Control Formula

The next thing I’ll talk about here is what Frank called his “Mass Control Formula”.  It’s something that was in the Product Launch Formula materials, but is defined in more detail in Frank’s course.

Here’s the formula:  Magic Bullet + Proof + (Low Self-Esteem Success Chance) = Lots of money

Magic Bullet – this means that your product must be perceived as the answer to your prospects’ prayers.  It must be as close as possible to pushing a button and getting everything you ever wanted.

Proof – Jeff Walker harps on this when he says, “no proof, no launch”.  If you can’t prove your product works, then who in their right mind would buy it?  Fortunately (or not), in our market, few people actually demand proof.  If it sounds good, a lot of folks will give it a try.  However, the more proof you can show, the more people will buy your product.

Low Self-Esteem Success Chance – I’ve watched myself using the logic Frank describes here.  “If I could get even 10% of the results they got, I’d be happy.”  For most people, this comes from having low self-esteem, where they believe it isn’t possible for them to get the same level of results.  Essentially, the examples and case histories you share with your prospects must be significant and dramatic.  If you can only show that buying your $10 product will produce a $10 result, no-one will buy it.

Using GOOD scarcity

And finally, here are a few ideas I got about using scarcity in a product launch.

Only 400 copies of this will ever be produced because the agreement I signed with ______________ limits me to this number.

Only 1 copy will be sold in any one city to limit the competition you’ll have with other customers.

I made enough for our list, but now I found out that _____________, who has 200,000 people on his/her list will be promoting this, so I don’t think there will be enough.  Better get yours quick!

If I sell this for any less, _____________________ will be very upset with me.  (similar to the “my accountant is out of town this week” kind of sale)

Similar Posts