Mike Filsaime just realeased his 7 Figure Code Report as a completely FREE gift along with his process maps from this 16 DVD seminar and a printed copy of the Butterfly Marketing Manuscript normally sold at $97.

All 3 products are excellent Mike is actually giving them away in exchange for shipping and handling costs.

You also get a free copy of Mike's MarketingDotCom magazine.

And as soon as you take up Mike's free gift offer you're automatically subscribed for monthly billing to his magazine for $29.95 a month starting 30 days after you first order.

This is a powerful marketing method called "forced continuity".

It's a method I explain and recommend in the product Offers Unleashed but I believe Mike has made a marketing error in the way he's promoting this offer.

Why?

The gift offer is fantastic.

A great new report $297 value plus process maps plus a printed copy of the Butterfly Marketing Manuscript all for the modest cost of shipping and handling.

That is exceptional value but here's the mistake.

The real product being sold immediately is the magazine and it's not made perfectly clear in the sales page that you'll be subscribed to the magazine if you take up the gift offer.

Worse still there is no real attempt to sell you on the exceptional value of this magazine.

If you want your paid subscribers to stay paid subscribers they really need to be sold in advance on the idea.

You want them sweating blood over getting every issue of your magazine.

You want them checking their mailbox three times a day waiting eagerly for it to arrive.

With Mike's current promotion you barely know what's in it and it plays second fiddle to the bonuses.


Finally one issue is unresolved in the sales copy for this offer...the reason why.

If Mike sold you on the fantastic information in his MarketingDotCom magazine and said the reason he's giving you these great gift offers is to entice you to try the magazine at his risk that's believable.

You can see what is in it for him.

But the way the offer is framed now it almost seems like he's pulling a fast one on you.

He doesn't tell you in the video or the initial sales letter that there's on ongoing subscribition.

It is clearly outlined in the order form though and to Mike's credit he tells you exactly how to cancel your subscription too.

But why not feature this?

Sell the magazine. Tell prospects they get a free issue.

Tell them they can cancel any time in the next 30 days without paying a cent if they don't think the magazine is exceptional value.

Tell them all it takes is a simple phone call. In fact they can cancel any time even after they're paid subscribers. Again just a simple phone call.

Tell them you know they're not going to want to cancel after they read the first issue and that's why you're willing to give them all these fantastic products free.

You know they'll want to become a paid subscriber.



Now I know Mike has a strategy for upselling the people who order this special 7 Figure Code gift and I know that strategy could conceivably make him more profits than his magazine subscription.

But I also think if you're going to put your clients in a forced continuity program you need to sell that program to them so they'll stay on it and so they don't feel like you were trying to hoodwink them.

I should also say in summary that I think Mike's products are outstanding and he is a marketer of honesty and integrity.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Mike's made some changes. He writes about it here:

http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/to...OPIC_ID=251044

And video's about it here:

2008-06-07_0215

Mike cleverly changed the offer and made a video describing why. Matt Bacak could learn a few things from Mike, though Mike should have known better than to launch the way he did. I give him kudos for changing it.

2008-06-07_0215

Thanks for the tip. I went through most of the order process, if that's what they call it these days, and I look forward to reading his material.

I now know why I'm not built for online only businesses and marketing.

I can appreciate how much time and effort he put into his order process and it seems to serve him well but WOW, that actually hurt. Somewhere in my mind, memories of my childhood have been squashed, synapses broken and I think some fluid is missing...all to make room for everything that just flew at me. Educational to say the least.

It's still true, there is no such thing as free. It was interesting but I never want to go through that again. Cheers.

Does he give you the phone number to call to cancel?

I took the bait for one of these offers recently, and hesitated for a couple of minutes over the requirement to "make a simple phone call" to cancel.

I wondered, first, what kind of hoops I have to go through to FIND the phone number. It would have settled my mind to have the phone number provided right there in the sales letter.

Second, I wondered whether the phone number would be answered and/or taking messages. We've all called numbers and not been able to get through.

Third, I wondered whether in calling I would be subjected to a high-pressure sales pitch and kept on the phone for ages, having to insist on cancelling the deal. (Remember what happened to people who tried to call and cancel their AOL account?)

Fourth, I wonder why Internet marketers - who know all kinds of web tricks - wouldn't make it easier to cancel a deal and resort to the telephone for this crucial step in the process.

Seems like this part of the forced continuity process either has something going on below the surface (and what is that?) or is needlessly complicated and causing doubt in people like me.

Any thoughts on this?

Marcia Yudkin

Er it is actually...free.

You can order and cancel your subscription to the magazine and all you pay is shipping for the two reports and the process map.

And yes he tells you very clearly exactly what phone number to use to cancel.

I actually highly recommend you use a phone number for cancellations for a forced continuity deal of this kind if you're offering it online.

It has nothing to do with using high pressure sales.

We found from testing it eliminates the fraudulent buyers....people who have no intention of buying anything from you and are just taking advantage of you.

This is not a warning against getting the free reports.

They are a genuine deal.

I just believe Mike could be doing a whole lot better long term if he actually promoted the heck out of the magazine subscription so he gets people excited about being subscribers.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

One more thing. I think Michel pointed this out with respect to Matt's foray into forced continuity, but it's very clear that what these marketers do has effects on all of us who don't: Anyone who knows about people being hit with charges they didn't realize they were in for may rush to cancel another subscription right away rather than give it a chance.

I know I have done that several times recently - gotten the freebie and clicked on the unsubscribe link in the very email delivering the download address.

Marcia Yudkin

And yes there is something going on under the surface with this deal but
it's nothing fraudulent or misleading.

I expect Mike will have:

1. Multiple online upsells after you order.
2. A downsell once you turn down one of the upsells.
3. Many people will buy his butterfly marketing system after reading the Butterfly
Marketing manuscript.
4. Many people will buy the full DVD set after reading the 7 figure code report. (Didn't
you wonder why he paid a copywriter $25,000 to write it?)

I also suspect he'll use the mailing addresses to send more offline sales letters.

All in all a good marketing strategy which you'd expect from Mike (and there's
a good chance I've missed a few things he'll be doing).

I just think he'd be doing better still by promoting and explaining the
benefits of the magazine subscription more effectively.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Andrew,

Would you mind explaining this a little more:

Do I understand you correctly that someone who accepts the freebie with no intention at that time of buying anything else is a "fraudulent buyer"? I'm not sure of the logic in your thinking here.

And why does the phone number serve as a filtering mechanism for this?

Thank you,
Marcia Yudkin

You need to put it in the perspective of different offers.

If you're offering a substantial incentive or a free 30 day trial there are
people who will order multiple copies of your physical product through
different addresses and then cancel any payment online.

They keep the product (even though in some cases they're meant to
return it) and sell it on ebay or through other channels.

We've found that having to cancel by phone pretty much eliminates
this kind of fraud (a very happy discovery indeed).

I'm not 100% sure why but it does work.

Perhaps the people who perpetrate this kind of fraud don't like the
idea of talking to a real live person who might ask questions.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh