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3 Rules for Making Offers

June 2, 2008

You probably notice at times I run special offers here in this blog and my email lists. I run limited time specials when each new product is released. I’ll also run other limited time specials at times.

If you’re not doing the same, you’re missing out on a good portion of your blog and list profits.

There are always at least three parts to any special offer.

If you don’t have all three of these in place, your offer won’t produce the results you’re looking for.

Here are the three key areas:

1. Big Additional Benefit

You might offer a discount off the normal price (most of my product launch specials are this type). You can also offer additional extra bonuses, payment plans, package deals with other products, etc. What is the big incentive people will receive now that they can’t get later?

Most of my product launch specials are 50% or more off the normal price which is obviously a huge benefit to jump in then. Other specials I’ve run have included several products together for the price of one and add-on bonuses (such as a web review along with the product purchase).

2. Scarcity

If people don’t have to take action now, they won’t. They’ll think about it. And eventually they’ll forget about it.

There has to be some deadline to make them take action now. I’ve spoken to many workshop promoters who’ve said the largest number of attendees sign-up within 2 days of a price increase. You’ll also notice the majority of the blog specials here are 1 to 3 days in length (and the shorter ones have often done better in my tests).

You have two options for scarcity. You can limit the time frame of the special or you can limit the number of packages available at a certain price. Or you could combine the two as I did when I released the Internet Lifestyle Retirement System.

I limited elements of the special to the first 200 customers and then we also had a hard deadline of one week for the next part of the special. It worked extremely well for each part. After the first 200, the price when up. At the end of the special period, the price went up again.

Are you limiting your special offer by time or by number?

3. Reason Why

Why are you offering this incredible deal?

I learned from Jay Abraham a long time ago to always tell your customers why you’re offering a special. In the case of a new product, it’s because it’s a new product release you want to share with your loyal subscribers and customers. Or it may be because you want more testimonials. Or it could be because you’re celebrating a birthday.

Maybe You had 15 returns that you can’t sell as new so you’re going to release them at a deeply discounted price in a scratch and dent sale. In fact, I know of a couple of businesses which had such success from their scratch and dent sale they dented a few more items.

Or perhaps your friend gave you 100 books, coupons, bonuses, etc. that you are including with the package (obviously you only have 100 available if that’s all you received).

Other Elements

There are other elements we can add in as well such as risk reversal (full money back guarantee completely spelled out) or social proof (testimonials, endorsements from well known authorities, etc.).

I would recommend these in a majority of your promotions, but the BIG 3 are the basics you must always have in every promotion. You have to give people a big benefit for purchasing now. You might give them a $100 discount or a 25% discount. You might give them an additional bonus not available at any other time.

If you’re doing an affiliate promotion where you’re promoting someone else’s product, you may be giving an additional bonus you add in with the package. No matter what you’re offering, there needs to be some benefit customers receive for purchasing now that they won’t receive normally. They can’t get this if they wait till next week for example.

Next, there has to be a scarcity to what you’re offering. You may only be making this offer for the next 3 days OR it might only be for the first 50, 200, or 500 who take
advantage of it. Whatever special you’re offering needs to be limited or else it doesn’t provide people any incentive to take action right now.

Finally, there has to be a reason why you’re offering this incredible deal. It may be because you purchased too many of the product and need to get rid of this excess inventory. It could be because an affiliate negotiated with you until you ran the special. It may be because it’s tax time and you have inventory tax coming up. It could be a scratch-and-dent sale where you’re offering a special discount because the merchandise has blemishes on it. No matter what you use…there has to be a real reason why you’re making this incredible offer.

This post is an excerpt from the “The Beginner’s Step-By-Step System to Building and Profiting From Your Own Email List” Are You Sick And Tired of All the Internet Marketing Hype?
Finally Discover the Truth About Building a List, Growing Your Relationship With Your Subscribers, and Turning It Into Instant Money-On-Demand at http://www.myemailmastery.com

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Written by Terry · Filed Under All, Conversion 

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Comments

7 Responses to “3 Rules for Making Offers”

  1. Matthew Castro on June 2nd, 2008 8:14 am

    I completely agree with you. Whenever you’re done creating a product, special offers are almost mandatory when you launch them.

    I’ve seen much more success from my own products that I put on special discount offers, or a specific price for the first 100, etc. Like you said, it creates a scarcity with your customer, and gives you a higher chance to make a sale.

    Thanks for putting up this post. I recommend that anyone who’s reading this blog…does what this post says!

  2. Amri on June 2nd, 2008 9:56 am

    I have done this before, my product price before is $765 , after I create a huge discount with time limited, sale is increased.

    it’s work..!!!

  3. Sharon Bray-McPherson on June 2nd, 2008 10:30 am

    I agree with all of the points listed. However; a problem that I’m now seeing is that people are becoming so jaded by some marketing methods, that they aren’t believing the scarcity technique anymore.

    1. OTO’s that they’re supposed to only see One Time, but instead can be seen over and over again if they bookmark or refresh the page.

    2 “Limited time offer” scripts used to update the cutoff date of an offer. Most people know that a script is being used and that they can go back to the site a year later and the same offer will still be there, only the expiration date will be changed.

  4. Bryan Reed on June 2nd, 2008 10:55 am

    I completely agree, but I always have trouble with the technical aspects of incorporating the sense of urgency into the autoresponder follow-up messages. How have you been able to use the autoresponder to say something like, if you buy in the next 3 days, you’ll receive 25% off with an autoresponder? Different pages? Cookies? I still haven’t found the best solution.

  5. Scott Taylor on June 2nd, 2008 9:51 pm

    I agree; good points. One thing I see as very important is to build a solid relationship before sending out offers.

    Give enough for free and the sales will come in…throw the sales pitch too soon; and you will lose members.

    Just my 2 cents…

  6. Tal Fighel, Building a MLM business on June 3rd, 2008 1:42 pm

    The one thing that I learned is that if you give your readers a free thing that is beneficial to them, they will more likely buy from you and what you are offering.

    I learned from Terry that when you give your email readers a free and useful article that you wrote about any subject, they are more likely to like you and your newsletter.

    Once again Terry, great article and very informative.

    Tal

  7. Edward Lomax on June 11th, 2008 11:27 am

    Great article. Creating a great offer is something marketers should spend a lot of time on. “Buy my product” is not an offer.

    I really like what you said about coming up with “reason why”. Most customers will understand the reason why is so the marketer can make more money, but if you give them a credible reason it can be enough to break down the skeptical barrier potential customers put up.

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