How To Create A Great Offer
As I outlined in my previous blog post “What is Good Advertising?” The main purpose of your advertising is to help make a sale, or directly make a sale in the ad itself.
For this to happen, you’ll need an attractive offer that makes it nearly irresistible or easier to say “yes” than “no”.
The offer is where you explain to the reader what you are selling them, for how much and what they are getting for their money. You need to make this as appealing as you can in order to maximize response.
There are so many ways to structure just the offer:
– Free trial or free with auto-renewal
– Buy one get one free (BOGO)
– Volume discount
– Discount for prepayment
– Money-back/Risk-free guarantee
– Bonus with purchase
Some may disagree with this, but the word FREE is one of the most powerful words in sales and marketing.
People can’t seem to resist it’s magnetism. No matter how much money they have.
This is a great offer to use as a customer acquisition campaign or lead generation device. Especially when you have a low cost, high perceived value item, or something that is best sold by the power of demonstration.
Think about the guys in the food court at the mall… handing out free samples of Bourbon Chicken, and ice cream flavors to taste.
It creates a very low barrier of entry for people to take you out for a “test drive”.
And, as long as what you’re offering is of good quality, you’ll almost always get a decent percentage to convert to paying customers.
You may have to put some protective barriers in place to prevent the abuse of habitual
freebie seekers… consider creating some type of low-level parameters they have to meet to get the FREE offer.
Providing their contact information for follow up communications is one I think should be a bare minimum in almost every case… Except for small impulse purchases, like the food court.
This may not appropriate for every market, but most markets can find a way to use the power of free.
Can you give away a free: Report, interview, CD/DVD, video, audio download, in home demonstration, sample, estimate, consultation, analysis?
It may be the fastest way to get a flood of new long-term business.
Here’s a few additional examples of ways you can use to structure a solid offer…
BOGO
Buy one get one free
Buy 3 suits, get the 4th for $1
Buy above a certain quantity, get a free bonus.
The trick with bonuses is to always go for high perceived value, and low cost bonuses.
The actual item may only cost you a few dollars to fulfill on, but the added value to the purchase, or the “suggested retail value” is so high, it makes it appear like an incredible bargain.
Free Trial Offer
Try our stock investment program for 30 days risk free. Track my stock recommendations in a dummy account and watch it grow. If my recommendations don’t make you money, cancel your subscription and we will not bill you a single cent.”
Free Trial Offer With Purchase
Sign up for a 1 year gym membership, and get a free 30 days supply of our muscle building supplement “Super Growth”. After the 30 days, we’ll automatically ship you a new 30 day supply for just $19.95. If you are not satisfied with the product, simply call or go online to cancel conveniently.
Gift with purchase
Free $50 Prepaid Visa gift card with purchase of any 4 tires…
Gift with appointment
Get a Free Road Atlas with appointment to speak with one of our Life Insurance Consultants
Bold Guarantee
If you don’t lose at least 15lbs, feel more energetic and youthful than ever before, or experience an increase in total body strength and endurance after 90 days on our workout and meal plan… you may contact us for a full refund, and keep your free gift of XXX just for trying us out.”
These are just a few of the most common, but you can use your imagination and tweak and combine many of these to make your own unique offer.
Sometimes just changing how the offer is presented can make a huge difference.
For example, in a test the same offer was presented 3 different ways.
– Half off
– 50% off
– Buy one, get one free
Half Off! Did better than 50 percent off. The exact same offer, but it is easier for the human mind to compute half, than it is 50%.
Buy one get one free, did even better. Even though that is essentially the same as buying 2 at half off.
Human psychology can be a very strange thing at times, but you make the big bucks when you take the time to do so.
Another point to remember in making your offer is don’t make it hard to do business with you.
Try to make it easy to order, pay, and be on their way.
Take all major forms of payment, let them pay online, PayPal, ApplePay, over the phone… whatever they want.
This will lower the barrier of resistance to making a purchase from you.
However, as with all rules, there are some times when they all can be broken.
If you are selling “Exclusivity” or high-end products and services, making it “harder” to do business with you can actually increase sales.
I call this the “American Express” effect.
If you are too easy to get to, they can take you for granted and not have any sense of urgency around your offer.
But if you have a waiting list, application and approval process, or just be a little more selective about who can do business with you… that drives up the desirability and value of your offer.
It is easy to get a quick oil change at Jiffy Lube, but at many Mercedes-Benz or BMW dealerships, it is by appointment ONLY. No Walk-ins accepted.
This adds a touch of exclusivity and makes it easier to justify the dramatic price difference.
After all, who do you want working on your $80,000 car, a kid fresh out of technical school, or a Master Certified Mercedes Benz Technician?
You should spend a good amount of time and thought on coming up with your lead offer.
(For an example of this strategy in action, check out “Case Study: How A Salon Owner Got 16 Times More Customers While Spending Less Than $1,000/month”)
This will be the chief way you drive new business and you should be sure to make your offer does the following:
- Qualifies your audience (does this appeal mainly to the type of people you want to do business with?)
- Make it easy for them to establish a buying relationship with you?
If you can create an offer that accomplishes these 2 objectives, and get enough eyeballs on it from your target audience, your business will have no trouble blasting through to the next level and beyond as you distribute this offer via every available traffic source.
To get additional free training on this process and how you can set it up for your business, download my FREE Report “Customers on Demand”.
Click Here to get the FREE Report sent over right away.
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