Why have an offer? Offers (or incentives) are imperative because they make people sit up and take notice. Offers should stop the reader dead in their tracks and make them say “I want that!” If you don’t have an offer, it’s too easy for the reader to turn the page and move on. Even if they’re interested in your product, they won’t stop to do anything about it because they’re just too darn busy. They’ll probably say, “That looks interesting – I must get around to getting one of those.” And of course, that day never comes. So how does it actually work?
The principle behind ‘Offers’ is very simple:
1. Offers stop people from moving on.
2. Offers force the reader to take action.
Once you have intrigued your reader enough to keep them reading until the end of the ad, you need to get them to DO something.
This could be any one of the following:
Fill out a coupon/form
Make a telephone call
Click on a website
Send an email
Go to a store
What they all have in common is that they involve an action. That’s our objective – to get our reader to do one or more of these things.
But the big question is:
How do we get the reader to be sufficiently inspired to want to take action? Well, we need to motivate them.
How do we do that? It’s simple. We think about who they are, what they need, what’s important to them and come up with an idea that’s relevant, timely, interesting and genuine.
Here are some examples:
A carpet cleaning business may offer a 4th room cleaned for free
A fitness centre might offer a free dietary consultation or a free personal training session upon joining
A florist may offer free chocolates with every Valentine’s Day purchase
A hairdresser might offer a free 15-minute head massage with every colour
A hotel might offer a free meal in the restaurant with every weekend package purchased
An interior designer could offer a free booklet about colour co-ordination for the bedroom
The secret to creating great offers is to offer the reader something interesting and relevant to their needs.
There’s no point offering a free carpet cleaning with every gym membership sold, or a free 15 minute head massage with every bunch of flowers sold. Neither of these offers are targeted or relevant to the consumer.
You’ll also notice that all the offers listed above cost very little to provide, yet have great intrinsic value to the customer.
How to make a customer choose your product over the competitors:
In many cases, what we’re trying to do is convince the customer to come with us; to buy our product. There are other competing products out there, bursting to get noticed, so all we have to do is offer something that they’re not offering, and we’ve won our customer over.
Sometimes it doesn’t take much to convert a customer over to another supplier but there always has to be a reason for them to do so.
Providing a great offer can help bring that customer over. What’s more, it doesn’t have to cost a lot to create a compelling offer.
Example:
Including a few chocolates with the Valentine’s Day flowers may cost under $5 but the value of the entire purchase of flowers could be well over $100.
The gym membership offer of a free dietary consultation may cost up to $30 but the gym membership could be worth well over $500 per year, or more.
People love to get something for nothing, no matter how small the offer might be.
If you haven’t already got an offer listed on your Home Page, have a think about something that’s inexpensive, relevant and provides great value you can provide your readers. It’ll be the best investment you’ve made in generating new leads and building your all-important database.
Contributed by
Bernadette Schwerdt.
Bernadette Schwerdt is the Founder and CEO of The Australian School of Copywriting. She is a professional copywriter and Australia’s leading Copywriting Coach. She is the author of Copywriting: Writing for Profit, is a contributor to Australian Business Solutions Magazine and features regularly on ABC radio as a marketing commentator. To download your free ebook: “How To Write Headlines That Sell” visit www.copyschool.com/courses.html. To hire a copywriter or to enroll in one of Bernadette’s courses, visit www.copyschool.com
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