Powerful offers that drive your audience to take action can be used in your business to do a myriad of things. They're great for moving old or overstocked product, overcoming buyer objections, eliminating purchase risk, or even just building your customer database.
Well-crafted offers are also fantastic lead generators - which is what we're going to focus on in this E-Class. In this case, the offer is designed to get potential customers to identify themselves, not to close sales. Once those potential customers have identified themselves - they've taken action to redeem the offer - they enter the formal sales process and you can convert them into a loyal customer.
Offers designed to be lead generators drive more qualified prospects to your business. They weed out the buyers who would take advantage of your offer, but who are not otherwise a part of your target market.
I'm going to show you how to speak to your target market's "hot buttons" and emotional motivators, instead of simply crafting an offer based on financial savings or bonuses. Let's get started!
A powerful offer is irresistible to your potential customers' emotional motivators.
In simple terms, a powerful offer gets people to respond, or take action. It will provide enough motivation for the reader to pick up the phone, visit your website, or walk into your store.
Often, powerful offers are called irresistible offers because they seem too good to pass up. They make your target audience think, "Wow! This is the chance I've been waiting for!" or, "I'd be nuts not to take advantage of this opportunity!"
Using emotional motivators in your offer (and in your headlines and copywriting, which we'll review in upcoming E-Classes) will drive qualified prospects to your business, and will make the job of converting customers into repeat business easier and more cost effective.
A powerful offer will feature an element of urgency or scarcity as a key motivator for action.If I offered "2 for 1 Mother Daughter haircuts" every day of the year, chances are I wouldn't have a stampede of prospects at my door. I would likely draw a few new clients a week, but the majority of those who saw the offer - even if they were interested - would probably put it off for later.
When you create an offer for lead generation, you want your prospect to take action as soon as possible. Now, let's face it, we're all procrastinators at heart, so you have to give your audience a reason to take action without delay.
So, instead of just "2 for 1 Mother Daughter haircuts," I could offer, "2 for 1 Mother Daughter haircuts, Mother's Day weekend - 20 spots available, book your appointment today!" This offer has an element of urgency - the offer is only valid for a two-day period - and scarcity - there are a limited number of appointments during those two days.
Let's walk through an easy step-by-step process for creating powerful offers that will generate qualified leads for your business.
1. Establish who you are trying to target, and what you want them to do.
Like all of your lead generation efforts, you need to establish who your target market or audience is before you can attempt to reach them. In most cases, this will be the target market you originally identified. In my salon example, the target market is middle-class women aged 18 to 65 with an interest in the latest trends in fashion and beauty.
You may also wish to segment that group of people into a more specific category. I could limit my target audience to those women in my target market with daughters.
Secondly, you must be clear about what you want your readers to do, and ask them to do it in your offer. Since you're creating an offer to generate leads, in this case you want readers to identify themselves in some way, and make contact with you. In my example above, I asked customers to call and reserve their appointment today. You may ask your readers to come to the store for a free trial, or place an online order.
2. Identify the emotional motivators or "hot buttons" that will get your target to take action.
Using the categories below, decide why your target market needs or wants what you have to offer. How do they feel in general about your product or service? What problem does your offer provide the solution to?
Safety and financial security for self and family
Convenience and time management
Freedom from worry
Self-improvement
Acceptance and recognition from others
Basic needs, including food, shelter, love, personal maintenance, etc.
In my example, I'm targeting the emotions associated with the bond between mothers and daughters, especially on Mother's Day, and their common interest in beauty services. The offer alludes to an opportunity to spend time with each other, an activity for Mother's Day, and a way to save money while doing so.
3. Once you have identified the emotions you will try to target, determine which type of offer will work best.
Free Offer
Ask your potential customer to act immediately for a free reward. This is a great lead generator if you can offer a solution to a common problem for free. Examples would be "Contact me now to receive your free 10-page guide to financial freedom," or "Act now and get your first month of home security for free - a $99 value!" Try to include the dollar value of what you are providing for free to increase the perceived value.
Guarantee Offer
Guarantee the performance of your product or results of your service, and you'll take away the fear many customers feel when making a purchase. This is a great way to overcome barriers when a customer is making a large or important purchase, or when safety and security are involved.
Money-back guarantee: full refund for unsatisfied customers.
Double-your-money-back guarantee: double refund for unsatisfied customers.
Long-term guarantee: one year, multi-year or lifetime guarantee.
Free Trial or Demonstration Offer
Another great way to reverse purchase risk is to offer a free trial (7, 14, or 30 days) or to provide a free demonstration. This works with all kinds of products or services, and allows the customer to convince himself that he needs what you have to offer. Those customers who are concerned about making the right purchase decision will be put at ease by this offer.
Package or Value-Added Offer
This offer appeals to customers looking for convenience because their needs are met in one place or one purchase, like start-up kits and special packages. Packaging products also increases the perception of value, often without adding costs. For example, offering a free printer with computer purchase.
Premium Offer
Always offer premiums over discounts, as they will better serve your bottom line. Reward purchases with bonus products or services, and you'll give new customers an incentive for choosing your business over the competition.
4. Draft several hard-to-refuse offers based on these motivators.Brainstorm as many different types of offers as you can, using emotional keywords or hot buttons. Depending on the type of business you have, and the products or services you offer, you may wish to focus on a single product or service, or open up the offer to all the items you have in store.
Are there any freebies you can throw in? Any overstock that can be handed out as a free gift, packaged with a complementary product? What about bonus services that you can add on to products for a limited time (with limited costs)? Will a simple guarantee make a big difference?
Remember that when you are describing your offer, be as specific as possible and avoid lengthy description of product details and benefits. Your goal is to sell the offer and motivate readers to take the next step, not to sell your product.
5. Evaluate the financial viability of each of your brainstormed offers.Even though you're using these offers as lead generation tools, you need to make sure that each transaction will turn an acceptable profit - or at least allow you to break even. The last thing you want to have happen is a store full of leads redeeming an outrageous offer that will leave you broke.
So, for each of your brainstormed offers, calculate your break-even point. If I were offering 2 for 1 Mother Daughter haircuts, my calculation would look something like this:
A. Costs: Determine the costs involved in your offer (hard costs - product or service, and soft costs - advertising or marketing).
Service costs:
Adult Haircut: $20
Junior Haircut: $10
Marketing costs:
Advertising: $200
Flyer Drop: $100
B. Profit: Assess how much profit you'll generate per sale (price minus hard costs).
Adult Haircut: $40 (price) - $20 (cost) = $20 profit
Junior Haircut: $0 (offered free) - $10 (cost) = $10 expense
Profit: $20 - $10 = $10 profit per transaction
C. Break Even Point: Calculate how many transactions you'll need to break even (how much profit will you need to make to cover soft costs).
Advertising (total): $300
Profit: $10
Transactions: $300 / $10 = 30 transactions required to break even.
From here you can assess whether or not you can realistically break even, and if your offer is financially viable. In this example, 30 transactions is a reachable target for my salon over the course of a weekend. I may also consider extending the offer over the course of a week, maintaining an element of urgency, but allowing more time to recover my costs.
Keep in mind that their initial purchase in response to your offer may only allow you to break even, but if you are able to convert them into repeat customers, the profit of their subsequent purchases may make up the difference.
6. Select two of your financially viable offers, then test them to measure which works best.I like to test two offers at a time when I first start to use this lead generation strategy. This will tell me what emotional motivators really work with my target audience, and then I can continue to build on that knowledge.
Use your lead tracking system to measure which offers generate the highest number of leads. If coupons are a part of your offer, put a tracking code on each of them, or make sure that your staff are asking every inquiry which offer they are responding to.
Remember, testing and measuring is a vital component of your lead generation efforts, and it elicits some really valuable information. Once you know what works with your audience, you can use that information on emotional motivators to influence decisions you make when writing headlines and other copy.
Get creative and put together new and exciting offers for your potential clients on a regular basis.Remember - you'll need to keep improving and revising your offers to ensure you continue to draw leads from them. Otherwise, your audience will get used to seeing the same offer, assume it is always available, and it may become stale.
Use opportunities like seasons, events, anniversaries and other celebrations to change and renew offers. When you bring in a new product line, feature a new service, or try to go after a new segment of your target market, check-in to see if you can create an offer around the news and bring in some new leads.
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