Continuity Programs

Continuity Programs:

We don’t use forced continuity.  Now everybody does forced continuity.  What do I mean by that? “When you buy the kit, we’ll also put you in our ____ of the Month Club.” It could be a coaching club, success club, gold club, platinum club, masters level club, success track club or fast track club. Everybody has a club.

Everybody puts people into the club when you buy the kit. Usually you get one or two months free. I’ve seen forced continuity going anywhere from $29 a month on the low end to $500 a month on the high end. I’ve seen them work at all those prices.

Some licensees have tested all those prices over the years. Some have settled in at lower prices like $97 a month. I’ve seen some settle in at $500 a month.

Some people remind people that they signed up for forced continuity the first couple months. “A month from now you’ll be charged.” “A week from now you’ll be charged.” Then they charge them. I have some clients and licensees who don’t remind anybody about anything.  They just charge them then deal with the fallout.

I’m not saying one way is better than the other. We didn’t add continuity in our business until the third or fourth year as a front end continuity.  We always added it in as a Back end product. If we had added it in as a front end product, we would have made millions of dollars more than we did.

We never thought about it. It never occurred to us. Nobody else did it. There was no model to follow. I was making this stuff up as I was going along. Then somebody suggested, “What if you did continuity on the front end?” I said, “I don’t know.”

One guy did it and was successful. Then all the other gurus copied it. We started doing it. Everybody else started doing it. Now it’s become standard. That is a huge thing.

Don’t forget that.

A lot of times you’ll buy something online like an ebook or audio and video course. You’ll get a 30-day trial into a membership. At the end of 30 days, you’ll be charged $9.97, $19.97 or $29.97. I’m in one that’s $197 a month for the online version.

people have to opt out.  You force them into continuity.  If they want your stuff, they have to agree to the continuity. It’s just part of the product.  You’re not doing anything deceitful.  If they don’t agree, they cannot buy or opt out of the continuity.

They can opt out and still keep your kit.  They just won’t get all the stuff each month that comes with the continuity, like newsletters, updates, new marketing tools, conference calls, mastermind calls or coaching calls.  There are all kinds of stuff you can throw in.

That’s an important part of what you’re doing.  That also makes your numbers work a lot better.  You can have lower conversion rates now because of the forced continuity which raises your revenue per member.