My last post certainly caused a storm. A big thanks to all of you who have taken the time to comment or email me – your feedback is much appreciated.

You’ve probably noticed all the ruckus that has been traveling around the Internet with regard to the tactics I spoke about. The subject in question is called ‘Hidden Forced Continuity’ and there’s nothing new about it.

In fact if used correctly it’s a legitimate marketing tactic that relies upon a clients inertia to generate sales. As an example:

Joe Bloggs has a really great newsletter that he wants people to sign up for, but he feels that a free trial for 30 days would give his prospects a chance to experience it and see how good it is. So he writes an ‘ad’ that states you can have free access for thirty days and if you feel it’s not worth the money then you can cancel without paying a cent.

What he states very clearly, however, on the sign up form is that you must enter your credit card details but won’t be billed for thirt days. If you don’t cancel before then you will be billed monthly until you cancel.

From a marketing point of view this is a good tactic because more people will be inclined to sign up for the free trial than if they had to pay up front. And a lot of those people will stay on as members, also a few will simply forget to cancel – I’ve been there and kept a membership running when I didn’t bother canceling in time. That was my fault though because I knew what I was letting myself in for at the outset.

I think this is a legitimate and ethical tactic don’t you?

However, what I have a problem with is when this is forced upon one without ones knowledge; either by simply omitting to tell you or by hiding the wording in the copy, and this is what has caused the ruckus.

This is what has been brought to light recently…

Matt Backack initially didn’t mention that subscribers were being put on auto-bill until after they had already signed up for his offer. As mentioned in my last post he has now changed it but when I complained to him about this ploy there wasn’t an apology, only a curt email stating that the membership had been canceled.

Now another well-known marketer has been accused of employing a similar tactic. This time however the wording was stated on the sales page but was ‘hidden’ in the copy so most people didn’t know about it. The offer was for Joel Comm’s new adsense book, it caused quite a storm and many people had a lot to say about this tactic.

Here is a quote from an email that Joel received:

… Did you seriously believe people would read every word at the top of your shopping cart page? It’s invisible real estate. It passes for a logo or a header, especially the way you have it set up. If you were being as transparent as you claim, the reader’s eye would not travel from “Yes Joel” (in bold red) to “I am ready to take action” (in yellow highlight) and skipping down to the next yellow highlighted phrase in bold and larger type (after the paragraph about the newsletter) : “I am ready to get started,” completely bypassing the information about your continuity program…

Later in the email she writes:

… Nice try. This is about FORCING us to have to cancel to get out of something we didn’t ask for to begin with and might not be able to afford…

As you can see the writer is, quite rightly, vociferous in her objection to the tactics used, it’s a big email and Joel has published it on his website – more about that in a moment…

This was obviously not the only complaint he received and, to his credit, Joel decided to make a ‘public apology’ and offer to give the profits from two weeks sales to charity.

Now, I’ve nothing against someone apologising for a mistake, in fact that is the only thing you can do. But, I have a sneaking suspicion that this was not a genuine mistake – this is only my opinion as I’ve no way of proving otherwise.

Why do I feel that way?

Well there are several reasons:

• Joel Comm is a seasoned marketer with several years successful experience under his belt
• The copy on his website is professionally written
• The ‘public apology’ has been turned into a sales letter for the product
• There is an image on the ‘apology sales letter’ that I’m dubious about the use of. Tell you about that in a minute…

Understand the Psychology of Selling

To be successful in business you need to have an understanding of the psychology of selling… that means you need to know what motivates people to buy. This is quite a complex subject and warrants an article of it’s own but suffice it to say someone who is successful like Joel surely understands this subject.

He also has a good understanding of sales letters and how people read/react to them. (The majority of people do not read a sales letter in it’s entirety a fact that John Carlton proved when his mailers inadvertently mailed a sales letter of his with nearly half the pages missing. He was not happy when he found out but astounded when the conversion rate didn’t change on a subsequent mailing of the COMPLETE sales letter.)

So I suspect that Joel either knew or had a strong feeling that many people wouldn’t notice the fact that they were being signed-up for a newsletter subscription when they bought his book.

When the complaints started coming in thick and fast he writes an apology but turns it into a high-powered sales letter and cleverly publishes one of the most damming testimonials in it. Then, to gain even more social proof and credibility for himself, he gets that testimonial giver to review his new sales letter and give a favourable report about him and his new sales letter!

Outcome

The result is that Joel has turned a lot of negative criticism into credibility by stating that he’s human and makes mistakes. He’s turned a big critic into a fan and will probably get great mileage from it.

My question to you is…

… “Do you think this was a genuine mistake or a clever marketing tactic?”

Take a look at Joel’s apology website, he’s even included a link on it for you to see his original letter, and see for yourself. http://www.adsense-secrets.com/apology.html

I’d love to hear your feedback on this one – post a comment below.

Worried…

What worries me now is that we’ll see a whole string of less ethical marketers trying to use these or similar tactics and that will cause havoc for the rest of people online; especially newer marketers who may not be as aware of the underhand tricks some people stoop to in order to steal their hard earned cash.

Dubious Image…

When you look at Joel’s ‘apology’ website (I’m not advocating you buy his product, I haven’t so can’t comment on it’s quality.) see if you can spot the image I mentioned earlier on. I’m busy researching this topic now and will talk about that on my next post. Add yourself to my feed or email list to make sure you get notification about it.

Speak to you soon,

Stuart.