Frank Kern says, 90%+ of subscribers Wont even read your free Report?

How many people know for a fact what's read and what isn't?

Speculation and sweeping statements aren't factual and therefore aren't useful.

The overall idea is right. In other words, a lot of people won't even bother to read it. Out of those people, a small % might be responsive to follow up emails, but you're really after the small % that actually read the report AND are responsive. Every list is going to be different. Depending on your methods of tracking, you can eventually get a sense for how your list fits into different buckets.

no necessarily the 90% may not read your first email but then later read subsequent emails that you send out and even buy if they like what you are sending out. The challenge is to turn those people into customers without subject lines that will catch their eyes and email body that will do the rest.

It is Simply like Optin in into a squeeze page and then not confirming to get their free report, not sure why they bother optin in onto the squeezepage in the first place, why would they bother optin in if they do not bother reading their free report or taking action that is perhaps something i will never understand!

I think he was talking about the open rate as there is no way you can spy on your subscribers to know if they managed to read your report unless you survey them , actually he was talking about his "customers", most of them offline businesses who believe that if only 10% open their emails (10% is good open rate if you ask me), the 90% are not interested in their offer which he explained is not true....bla bla

I think 90% is the right number

You can track who reads your free stuff. But most people don't really value free stuff. Only what they pay for. And most of that free stuff if crap anyway.

Nobody even opens emails anymore! Do you know how I know this to be true? Because I heard it on the internet.:rolleyes:

haha joseph.

Yes, the interwebs is collaspsing, anyone who makes money on the interweb is bound to fail now.

Frank kern is smart, I have leart and earnt shit loads from just watching the guy.

Who cares if they do not read your report, if its good they will, and pass it on.

But frank, he is smart, how did he tell you people do not read PDF files, he sent you an email, so stop trancing around saying this and that does not work, and see what people like frank kern do, they consistantly use email to tell you what to do, or look at. There is a lesson in this for all. EMAIL is big, and EMAIL marketing is alot bigger than any crappy $97 ebook, if you disagree I would like to hear it. LOL.

It's no wonder we have the 1%. 99% are wannabees and don't take action.

I can't speak for anyone other than myself. I recently did an experiment in which I gave away a free report and built an email list of over 400 subscribers. Only 4 from this 400 bought anything from me down the road. At the same time I built another list of 100 subscribers using the same method but this time selling the same report rather than giving it away. The first list cost me $400 to build ($1.00/subscriber). The second list (actual buyers) cost me $0.00 dollars to build because they were all buyers and the initial revenue paid for the advertising. The second list is also more responsive and I have zero unsubscribers vs 10% for the first list. Needless to say, the quality of the second list is far superior to the first list. Not only is that list composed of 100% buyers but it cost me nothing to build and took less work. So I can honestly say, you should go after quality not quantity. It will definitely make your life easier and certainly more profitable!

Ask yourself this.

How many .pdfs do you have on your harddrive, and how many of those have you read?

:]

Frank is known for his rectal extraction method of pulling numbers out of his rear end.

With that said, that number probably wasn't a test result, but more to make a general point...which I agree with him on.

Results can easily vary. A product that I'm doing well with may not work for you. And this is based on my experience with internet marketing. The best way to find out is to test it yourself by collecting data.

90% probably isn't too far off for franks common lead that is stuck in the perpetual info gathering stages of internet marketing.

It's easy for leads in this niche to stay buyers for years until they become a real "doer". It's really not hard for me to believe that 90% don't read the PDF and are downloading it solely for the potential energy contained in it, where they will procrastinate it's consumption for a rainy day that just never comes.

I think the reward for most of these serial down loaders is the rush they get for the potential acquired knowledge. In the end, if they read it or not, the exchange still happened and served it's cause to begin a conversation and ultimately a relationship with the new subscriber.

Whether they read it or not is irrelevent...

The real question is did you hold up to your end of the deal?

This is really true, there is a very less Percentage of people who actually reads the free guide they download, but it doesn't mean that they are the only one to target, if non-readers are still on your list so you still have better chance to get good response for you emails.

I guarantee you that a ton of people who download free reports never get around to reading them but that doesn't really matter too much in email marketing.

The main advantage you have is that you can keep following up until your marketing message is finally heard unless you alienate your potential prospects with aggressive marketing tactics. I think too many of us over think things when the answer is just to keep following up in a friendly way.

Heck, I would write a second emails saying "99% of the people who opened this email are too busy to read the ebook they downloaded yesterday so I took the time to summarize some of the most important points here... yadda... yadda... segue into product pitch.

The only time it matters if only 10% (or whatever amount) of readers are responsive is when you are paying more money to market to them. This can be a big problem if you have a list of 50,000+ subscribers and 95%+ aren't even opening the emails regularly.

I don't know if that is your problem. If that is, then you should start measuring the tracking links in your emails and ignore random internet advice.

I would say that most problems in email marketing can be solved by looking at your numbers instead of guessing.

Hi,

You'll never know until you go out and try things out for yourself.

PERFECTION = POVERTY.

Just get something out there and then judge by your own results.

No one I repeat NO ONE gets it right the first time anyway.

Make a start and see for yourself.

Have a great day
Gavin

Don't over-complicate the email marketing process. Just focus on getting good leads, emailing them with good content, and giving them the opportunity to buy from you. I'm confident another famous marketer will make another "stat" saying that his/her squeeze page is the only kind of squeeze page that can generate 70% opt-in subscribers... even from spam bulk leads.

I would not be surprised by the 90% being in the right ball park.

Over the years the effectiveness of the free giveaway has diminished - since just about everyone is giving away something (often claiming a value of $10 to $1000) the freebie has lost all credibility and perceived value.

Agree with the comments above that say whatever you release for free, make it damned good - you'll win a prospect and someone who will take you seriously in the future.

I'm sure most people read at least some of a free report they download. Maybe they have little appreciation for it because it's free, but 90% download and never read any of it? Nah.

I get much better results giving away a free "video series" than a report. Reports even sound boring. Or give away a "product" even if it is just a report. I have split test list building with giveaways and offering a report alone doesn't cut it anymore.

I wouldn't doubt it. I remember Dan Kennedy I believe, or someone he was interviewing, saying they know people don't even go through the material they pay for. They knew because they were shipping CD's or DVD's... ( don't hang me if I don't remember exactly ) and the duplicator made a mistake: The media was blank, nothing on it but a label.

No complaints.

IT DEPENDS!!

Basically the pool Mr Kern and the rest of ""The Syndicate" fish in tend to be serial product-buyers, and the ones that aren't tend to be "serial free-product downloaders"!

I was Ops Manager for a 9,000 unit Clickbank launch and I can promise you that over half of the people who bought did not use the product.

As another poster said: how many unread reports have you got on your hard drive? LOL. When I was in that mode I had tons.

The thing is to forget how many are reading your stuff: and the subset of those who are taking action on what you say. It's too depressing!

Instead, focus on results. Give people great value: be "real", keep in touch, and build yourself a business. The deal with IM is not to get distracted onto another tangent.

Don't think of copying Mr Kern - else you'll end up on the Salty Droid site

Do your own thing at your own level; be nice to people and build yourself a nice, profitable business using a method you enjoy. And stay super-focused.

And maybe stop reading emails

Malc

Frank Kern isn't in every market so no one can really calculate what value the statement holds. The only thing as marketers we should be focusing on isn't numbers but the quality of value we give. Don't get me wrong it is a numbers games but that's just a tiny spec of what a whole business model is. Give value, GIVE VALUE and statements won't matter until you look at your own metrics. Just take what he or anyone else says not as a fact but a basic trickle of education.

I"m pretty sure it's more then 90%. I did a few tests to see a few years back the number is somewhere around 97%

I think what Frank is eluding to is to put your marketing material in front of your market. Email Marketing is a business and a numbers game. We follow the numbers. For instance, if Frank tracks his email open rate and the only link to a page with his report is in that email then he can easily track the number of hits from the email to the report.

Lets say that his email campaign for the report was sent to 100 people. Out of the 100 emails sent his tracking shows that 90% to 100% of the emails were opened. Also, his site with the report received 90 visitors. That is where he probably got his numbers. Of course he could have thousands of subscribers from a much larger campaign, but you get the idea.

Speculating about his actions is futile in my own opinion. However, simple tracking and simple numbers are not speculative unless you compare the marketing behind the action. For instance, if I sent out an email to giveaway a free report.. my email may not be as good as Frank's email and my own numbers will probably be much lower than Frank's numbers.

Since there was a difference in emails wherein I achieved lower numbers does that mean I should hold to my business that free report giveaways are good or bad for my business? I don't think so.. actually I know so.. because I have had my share of failures and success.

One aspect of email marketing is to put your marketing in front of people and try to convert them to subscribers and the whole point is sales.

Jeffery 100% :-)

The most difficult part of list building is building a relationship with your list. If kern's numbers are right or wrong it definitely shows how difficult it is to build a relationship with your list and why very few become hugely successful in the IM niche.

Steve

The percentage is reasonable, I have clients who even bother downloading the products he bought from me, because I need them to submit their e-mail after they paid, and some didn't submit e-mails, and I have to re-send the e-mail contains download links to them manually.

It doesn't matter if 90% subscribers won't see your e-mails, but the 10% who read are enough for you to generate lots of sales if your list is big enough.

And the 90% can buy something too after they become familiar with your name or your list name, because one name appears before them so often, they may think you are their friend, and they will trust you. LOL

Also, many viewers will read the first chapter and quit reading from then on. Like if you have a video series... thousands of people will see the first one. However, very few the last one. Most are all pump up. All excited to view your mini movie. Well, then their phone rings. Distractions rob you.

That's 90% of HIS customers - I wonder why?
...perhaps they Googled Internet marketing syndicate

The only way to know if your list is responsive is to test them out with offers. then you want to setup and automate the process of removing your buyers and putting them onto the respective buyers list with your autoresponder.

The worst thing one can do in this industry is always ask but never test to find out for themselves.

Remember mistakes are not failures, and failures are not the end just learning lessons.

I think that's why some folks make cheat sheet shots...they take less than 10 minutes or less to consume, which is ideal for our A.D.D. shiney object addicted society.

Either way, at least you got'em on the list.

Regards,

Los

That means that around 10% will actually read it, right? So perhaps the free report wasn't wasted after all!