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How to Create an Offer Your Prospects and Customers Can’t Refuse

Guest post by: Stacy Karacostas

Article Overview: When it comes to making sales with your marketing or advertising materials (or even live and in person), a big part of your success hinges on the offer. Because if you don’t offer something people want, they’re not going to buy. And if you don’t give them a good reason to take action now, they probably won’t!

How to Create an Offer Your Prospects and Customers Can’t Refuse

Do you know what the two most important parts of any marketing or advertising piece are?

The first one is easy—the headline. But the second one is tougher. Because unless you’ve studied copywriting, you’d be hard-pressed to guess. Yet it can make or break your entire promotion…

The second most important part of your marketing and advertising is the offer.

Think about it. If you want to tons of sales, you really do have to make people an offer they can’t refuse. Because even the most powerful call to action won’t work unless your offer is practically irresistible.

Let’s look at a few examples...

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Which one is the better offer?
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OFFER A – Sign up for our Free newsletter.

OFFER B – Sign up to receive your Free copy of “The 7 Deadliest Small Business Marketing Sins…Are You Guilty?” and have Bright Ideas for building your business sent to your inbox each week.

OFFER A – Call 867-5309 for your complementary consultation.

OFFER B – Be one of the first 10 business to call 867-5309 and receive a no-cost “Smart Business Tax Strategies Review” (a $500 value) that shows exactly how you can save up to $5000 on your federal taxes.

OFFER A – Just click on the button below to buy your very own Garden Mole today.

OFFER B – Try the Garden Mole for FREE. If you’re thrilled with the results, keep it and we’ll bill your credit card. If not, just send it back within 30 days and you won’t be charged a penny.

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Anatomy of an offer they can’t refuse
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Regardless of what you’re selling—and even if you’re giving something away—there are 3 things that go into creating a really effective offer. If your offer doesn’t have any one of
these, chances are it’s not going to generate the results you’re after.

1) You need to offer something your client wants, not just something you think they need (or something that’s easy for you). Keep in mind, of course, that what people want and what they need are rarely the same thing.

2) Prospects must to be able to understand, right away, why they would want it (This is that “What’s In It For Me?” or WIIFM factor us marketers talk about all the time). After all, if there’s no clear benefit to them, why would they bother taking the time or spending the money?

That’s why just offering a free consult or a free newsletter isn’t very effective anymore. We’re all far too busy to go for those generic offers. You need to promise something more compelling (see #1).

Besides, these days most people think ‘free consult’ means ‘time-sucking sales pitch’ anyway. So that offer is pretty much a waste of space.

3) It has to have more value then risk. Part of this is price. But this is also where bonuses, free reports, cost comparisons, free trials, and money-back guarantees come in. They all either add value or reduce the risk. And they’re all part of the offer.

4) They need a good reason to take action now. People are super busy. So if they don’t take action right now, they’re likely to procrastinate then forget all about your offer. That means you need to give folks incentive to act immediately. Think limited availability, limited time offer, early bird rates, special bonuses, emphasizing why waiting would be worse, etc.

Just make sure if you do a promotion with limited availability or a limited time offer that it’s true. If you don’t stick to the promise made in your offer your credibility will go out the window. And the next time you say you only have 5 available it’ll be like the little boy who cried wolf.

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A classic example of a highly effective offer...
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Remember the old Ginsu knives commercials? Those knives seemed like a pretty good deal all on their own…But wait, there’s more. For one low price you also get the knife holder, the sharpener, the insta-chopper, and the kitchen sink.

And, if you act right now, they’ll even throw in a special salad spinner as a special bonus.
As if that wasn’t enough to convince you, they also included a money-back guarantee.

Talk about a lot of value for little risk, and a good reason to act now. If you were in the market for a new set of knives, how could you resist?

So next time you get ready to promote a product or service, don’t just stick your contact info in there and hope for the best. Make ‘em an offer they can’t refuse!

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Article Tags: 3 things, anatomy, bright ideas, business tax, complementary consultation, credit card, federal taxes, free newsletter, inbox, mole, small business marketing, smart business, tax strategies



Related Forum Posts
Simple way to avoid Cold Calling - Gary, A chiropractor I work with hates cold calling (me too!) and he uses a technique to warm people up to using his services - it's so simple! In Sales your dealing with 3 pools of people: 1. Strangers 2. Prospects 3. Returning Customers You need to move people from one pool to the next. We'll concentrate on #1 and #2 as it's most relevant to your question. My Clients does the following (you just have to tailor it to your situation - be creative). My Client (we'll call him Bob) Bob leverages his time and resources to only get people that need his offer (pain relief) to put their hand up. Dealing with Strangers can get expensive and they don't like to be told what to do as they have no trust or relationship built with him. So to get Strangers to put their hands up he writes up an offer with a free report on a particular pain relief - let's say lower back pain (note: he can simply just change lower back pain to neck pain and have a new report). and uses multiple marketing vehicles to promote the Free report - magazines, newspaper, forums, postcards, private clinics etc. The only people picking up this information are the very people Bob would like as customers as they have Lower back pain. Bob's Free report ends with him stating his services and includes a Free in-house Consultation with no obligation. You'd be surprised at how easily Bob converts Strangers into Prospects. Note: They become prospects when they ask for the Free Guide and in exchange provide their contact details. This gives Bob unlimited opportunity to contact them for the Free in-house consultation with no obligation to continue using him. At this stage Bob's ability to close the sale lies in his office providing good customer service, Bob's ability to help the prospect and provide value at the free in-house consultation. Notice, he hasn't had to pick up the phone to COLD-CALL his Stranger pool or his Prospect pool. Hope that example helps to increase your prospecting!
Re: Two Useful Books To Help You Focus On The CLIENT - Hi David, To add to your thread, I'd like to recommend Jonathan Tisch's "Chocolates On The Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience". Tisch's book includes content on "Welcoming Customers", "The New Art of Customization", "The Challenges of Customer Diversity" and "Offering Something Extra to Your Customers" to name a few.
Re: Finding AND Keeping Good People - Employee retention or as you mention “Keeping the Good People” is one of the biggest challenges for any growing business. It takes a huge effort from the entrepreneur’s end. I can come up with the following when it comes to KEEPing the good people- 1. Motivation of the employees 2. Recognition of the needs of the employees 3. Activities to make the employees feel valuable towards the organization 4. Make benefits more accessible 5. Offer profit sharing incentives 6. Create clear career paths at the company 7. Consider telecommuting, job sharing and other flexible working arrangements 8. Incentives are essential and they don't have to be huge 9. Have other managers praise an employee's work 10. Be sensitive to the balance between work and private life
Re: Ideas on Using Twitter for Business - I would like to add: Provide support through Twitter Offer giveaways + contests
Re: Email Etiquette - [quote="jvprosperity":24jznj58] The P.S. suggestion is good but it depends on the type of communication (e.g. Autoresponder series verses one off emails to Clients or Prospects)[/quote:24jznj58] Andy, You are right. I was mainly referring to Auto Responder emails. To end a normal email, I attach signatures. Takuya


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