No Deadline, No Offer

We finished off the last post with “reason why” marketing in your offers. To recap, see the blog post below. Now we’re on to number 6 in our series of 7 tip for crafting an offer. This may be the most important of the 7 tips you’ll get, so pay close attention.

For an offer to really be irresistible, you MUST have a reason for immediate action. In direct response marketing, we call them deadlines.

If you don’t have a deadline, you don’t really have an offer. Most importantly, you don’t want to hide your offer. You can to make it big and clear. A headline is not something to hide from the client, hoping they don’t see it. It’s the complete opposite. You want them to know the deadline, make it big and clear to create urgency and an immediately response, NOW, not later.

Here’s an insider’s tip most don’t know. Multiple deadlines, especially if you’re deadline is not for a few weeks, can work very well with an additional bonus for a fast response. Here’s an example:

This offer expires on June 30, 2009. But if you respond by June 10th, you’ll get ________________________.

And fill in the blank with your incredible bonus gift, Free report, additional savings etc.

Having a reason why for the deadline is also key. Its can tie right back to the reason why you’re making the offer in the first place. If we use our vendor example from last week (see it here), we can easily say our vendor has only allowed us this offer until a certain date. This may not be the best reason, but it’s a BELIEVEABLE reason, which is all we’re really concerned with.

Here are just a few ways to create deadlines in your marketing:

• Within “X” Number of Days
• By “X”-Date
• By Date stamped in RED in the letter.
• Limited to the first “X” number
• There’s a Waiting List! You can’t even get it right now!

www.3DMailResults.com

You Need a Reason

We ended last week with a spirited talk on using premiums and discounts in your marketing. For a review, see my blog below. I also asked your help in a survey. Again, see my blog below, I’m giving away some cool gifts just for doing it.

Now, on to the meat-n-potatoes portion of todays tip. We’re going to talk about number five in our series of seven tips for crafting a compelling offer.

When you present an offer to clients, you must have a logical reason for the offer. Notice I didn’t say a great reason, or even a good reason, certainly nothing earth shattering, but a reason nonetheless.

Here’s why: People are naturally skeptical and suspicious. They’ve been told their entire life that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. I think we’ll all agree that there is some truth to that.

Here are a couple specific examples. First, our vendors in both 3D Mail and American Retail Supply (our ’main’ business) will often extend special pricing to us, that we can pass on to you. We’ll then say our vendors are helping us make this happen. Remember, good is certainly good enough!

Glazer-Kennedy runs a yearly “Scratch and Dent” sale. They discount the items that have been slightly damaged during production or shipping.

Recently, at 3D Mail, we ran a sale on the trash can and bank bag (see below) because we found a new supplier.

You can have an ‘Anniversary Sale,’ or a ‘New to the Neighborhood Sale.’ Truly, any logical reason will give you a bump in response. Stay tuned for next week, we’ll discuss the power of deadlines in your offers.

Discount, Premiums, or Both?

Earlier in the week we talked about your clients favorite radio station, W.I.I.F.M., or “What’s in it for Me?” Today we’ll talk about the third of the 7 tips for crafting a compelling offer. To review, see my previous blog posts below.

The question is often asked of me, “Travis, should I use a discount or a premium.” A premium is something you give your client as a free gift for taking the action you want. It can include placing an order, accepting a cross-sell or up-sell or even just opting into your marketing and your prospect giving you their contact information.

I say the only real way to know for sure is to test your offers and see which one wins. However, if time is of the essence, I can make a pretty good argument for premiums over discounts.

My mentor, Dan Kennedy, has said many times that, ”Premiums can, and do drive sales, and that a change of premium, with no other changes, can dramatically alter the results of a promotion.” The primary reason of offering a premium is to give ’fence-sitters’ a push over into immediately buying
action.

Good premiums can be of practical value to your clients, for example, a free report on 3D Mail. However, sometimes ‘vanity items’ or things that people just want to have can drive sales, and can often out-perform the practical item.

Don’t think people care about a free gift? Are you clients just too sophisticated for such ploys? Estee Lauder Cosmetics is generally credited with creating the “gift-with-purchase” strategy we now see often with cosmetic sales today. Some of the richest, most sophisticated women in the world flock to such offers at malls and retail outlets daily.

Finally, multiple premiums often out-perform single premiums. How you present them is also vitally important. “Choose any 3 of these 5,” is just one way. I personally love this because its moves the prospect from a “yes/no,” buying decision to, “Which do I want?” A subtle, yet very powerful sales technique.

As you may know, we offer some premiums on our website. However, we’re really looking to increase both they quality and quantity of what we offer. That’s where I need you’re help, and I’m willing to bribe you to do it.

I’ve got a quick survey I’d like you to complete on some of the new premiums we’d love to have available. If you complete the survey, I’ll send you my free report, “Why Premiums Out-Perform Rebates & Discounts,” plus I’ll send you your choice of one of the free gifts pictured below:



Here’s the link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=SFUdVirTmpBy7g3_2bnkrYXg_3d_3d

All you need to do is complete the short, 4-minute survey by Friday, May 29th and I’ll send you the report and free gift of your choice!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=SFUdVirTmpBy7g3_2bnkrYXg_3d_3d

Don't Confuse Your Clients

Last week we talked about your clients favorite radio station, W.I.I.F.M., or “What’s in it for Me?” Today we’ll talk about the second of the 7 tips for crafting a compelling offer. To review, see my previous blog post below.

First and foremost your offer must be clear. Confused people do nothing, and nothing is the last thing you want from prospect or client.

In general, “half off,” is better than 50% off. Further, “two for one,” in general, is better than “half off.”

I say in general because it all depends on your target audience. The words and phrases you use will get better or worse response based on your chosen target audience. Review segmenting your lists here at my blog.

Second, you must get in the habit of offering only one thing with each piece of marketing. Here’s an online example. In most cases, you want to collect your clients contact information right when they first visit your site. Everything should be concentrated on that one goal. You wouldn’t want to sell them your widget, try to get their contact information, and have them come by and visit your shop all at the same time!

Here’s on off-line example. If you’re running lead generation advertising for your dental practice, you want the only offer to be to call or visit a website for more information. You’re not selling them on the dental work itself, just a call to action to get more information. It would be foolish to try and sell a root canal in that situation, wouldn’t it?

Finally, the offer must be a good (perceived) value. Going back to our dentist example, to validate our offer, we may want to put a value on the information we are providing, thus giving our information a high perceived value.

Be wary of using percentage off for your offers. As a society, we’ve become increasing skeptical of these offers. We have ingrained in our minds that they’ve simply over-inflated the original value of the product or service, and then cut down to the “real” price with the percentage off. However, this can work when there is a widely known “published” price of an item.

Later in the week we’ll talk about the value of offering discounts, premiums (free gifts) or both. See you then.

www.3DMailResults.com

Tune into Your Clients Favorite Radio Station, WIIFM

We’ve been discussing the elements of crafting an irresistible offer for your clients. So far we’ve discussed what an irresistible offer is and how they must match your prospects or clients interests in terms of Geographic’s, demographics and psycho-graphics. To review, see my last blog entry here. Today we’ll start on the first of 8 tips for crafting your offer.

The biggest factor in crafting an offer is to set your radio dial to your clients favorite station, W.I.I.F.M. or “What’s In It For Me?”

It’s vitally important to remember that your clients are NOT interested in what you are selling. However, they ARE interested in the results of what you’re selling and what it does for them at a personal and emotional level.

You must ask yourself, are you selling the camera?

Or are you selling the memory?













(Yes, that’s really Venice. A picture my wife took from a gondola in the Grand Canal in July, 2007. It doesn’t even look real, does it!?!)

The easiest way to turn what you’re selling into what your clients want is to take your features and turn them into benefits. So if I’m selling my camera, I’m not selling the fact there’s 23 different settings for day, night, low-light, objects in motion, a car setting, train setting etc.

I’m selling that when you finally get to take that dream vacation to one of the world’s most beautiful cities, you can rest assured that you’re pictures will be so stunningly beautiful, that every time you look at them you’ll be transported back right to where that photo was taken, every time you look at it.

www.3dmailresults.com

Segment your List to Match your Offer

We are picking up our discussion on offers after a brief hiatus. To review where we’ve been, see my blog post from last week.

When you’re crafting an offer, you MUST take your target audience into consideration, but their demographics and their psychographics. We’ll start with the basic on demographics,

Demographics are characteristic that make-up your target audience. In Business-to-Consumer markets they include (but not limited to):
• Age
• Gender
• Occupation
• Income
• Martial status
• Children
• Rent/own home

And many others not listed here. You must consider each of the common characteristics of your market when crafting an irresistible offer.

For example, if you’re selling adjustable beds, and you’re offering a free video with testimonials, demonstrations etc your main demographic is more than likely people over a certain age. You’d probably want to offer the option of a DVD or VHS. Whether you drive them to a website is also a consideration. Driving them to a phone call may be a better option. Careful consideration must be given towards biases that exist in any list.

In business-to-business some common demographics include:
• Industry or SIC codes
• Job title
• Annual sales
• Number of employees
• Public or private
• And others

Whether working in the B2B or B2C environment careful consideration must be taken in examining the demographics of your list. Next week we’ll start with the first of 8 tips you can use to craft your next irresistible offer. See you then.

www.3dmailresults.com

Stand out with Outrageous gifts for your clients

If you were at the GKIC SuperConference over the weekend, Bill Glazer introduced me to you. Watch the vdieo below on You Tube, and then get them from 3D Mail Results.

This is the Outrageous Advertising “Thank You Pen ” that Bill Glazer showed you at the SuperConference. Howard Anderson from Long View Consulting got this pen from us.

This is your cost per pen.
200ea. @ $2.25 per pen
500ea. @ $2.15 per pen.
1000ea @ $2.00 per pen

This pen is 7” x 2” and it comes in the color shown. There is a $50 set up charge. Reorders will have an $18.75 set up charge.