Offers that Turn
Lookers into Buyers
by Marcia Yudkin
If you're
getting only a sluggish response for a
product or service that people genuinely
need, wake buyers up by spicing up your
offer. I've seen losing propositions
become winners with these kinds of
changes, which in most cases cost you
nothing:
1. Guarantees. With a strong,
simple guarantee, you can overcome the
doubts of people who have not done
business with you before, and calm down
worriers who don't act when they can
think of too many "what ifs."
The
guarantee does not have to promise a
refund. Someone hiring an
exterminator service wants those darned
critters out, not their money back. "We
guarantee you'll be pest-free for a
year, or we'll come back and spray again
for no extra charge" is the thing to
promise them.
Direct-mail professionals tell us that a
one-year guarantee sells better, with
fewer refund requests, than a thirty-day
guarantee, and a lifetime guarantee does
even better.
2. Package deals. If you sell
office supplies, you might think that
folks going back to school know how to
select what they need. Perhaps, but why
not make things easy for them -- and
more profitable for you -- by
shrink-wrapping three spiral notebooks,
two packets of pens, a pocket
calendar and several semi-necessary
items together in a Back to School
packet? This often persuades people to
spend more than they would on separate
items.
The same principle applies to services,
where you can mobilize people who shy
away from hourly fees with fixed-price
bundles: only $350 for a will and a
consultation on estate planning. A name
makes your bundle more appealing: $150
for the "Get Organized Special."
3. Premiums. Try rousing sleepy
customers with bonuses -- spend more
than $100 and receive a free
whooziwhatsit, which isn't available any
other way. One mail-order company
offered a free booklet with any order
from that catalog, and received 13
percent more orders from that catalog
than previously.
Similarly, frequent-buyer programs have
now spread far beyond airlines, because
they work. If convenience-store patrons
have a card to buy nine cups of coffee
and get the tenth free, they're more
likely to consolidate their coffee
buying rather than buying sometimes here
and sometimes there.
4. Payment terms. When you let
clients know they can spread payments
out over two or four months, you'll snag
some wavering over the money issue. But
changing payment terms doesn't
necessarily mean you get your money
later. I know speakers and consultants
who offered a 2 or 5 percent discount
for payment in advance, and received
their money a whole year before they
would have otherwise!
With any new offer, test, test, test.
You can't know any other way whether
"Buy one, get the second one free" works
better or worse than "Buy two and each
is half price." Human beings are
illogical creatures, and unexpected
offers can turn this fact to your
advantage.
Marcia Yudkin is the author of 11 books,
including Persuading on Paper and Web
Site Marketing Makeover. The above is
adapted from her copywriting manual
"Secrets of Mouthwatering Marketing
Copy," available from Secrets of Mouthwatering Marketing Copy |