How to design offers that convert prospects into customers.

Offer for your customer? Ok, here we go.

Whether you are asking people to buy something from you, to register and leave you their contact details or simply to read an article on your blog, in short you are making an offer. The way you make these offers, and more importantly, the order or sequence in which you make your offers, will define the success of your offers.

This time I will talk about the right way to design your offers, I will tell you why you are not selling with that one ad, you will understand the importance of offering value first and the 3 types of offers you can create to increase your conversions exponentially.

The way we manage our relationships with friends and family should be the same way we manage our relationships with our customers or prospects.

Whether your business is Business to Business (B2B) or Business to Consumer (B2C) it doesn't matter, in the end, it all comes down to Person to Person sales... Real people sell to and buy from real people.

We've talked about this before, but it's the perfect example... Imagine meeting a girl in a bar and less than 5 minutes after meeting her you're already asking her to marry you.

Many businesses do this very thing. They offer a "cold prospect" their final offer, the most expensive membership or the full package when they are not ready for that offer.

On the other hand, a customer who has received a good dose of value from a certain company over a certain period of time is much more likely to buy your core product - your more complex offering.

The importance of delivering value first.

Doing business online is very different from doing business over the phone or face-to-face. In many cases, prospects have no information about the business other than what they have found online. To acquire new prospects and new customers, you need to create trust and provide value to build a relationship with your customers.

A successful relationship is a 2-way street. Both sides should benefit from the relationship, if we are the ones who want to start a relationship with our prospects, therefore, it makes sense that we are the ones who offer value first.

Your prospects won't become customers, and they won't show loyalty if you don't provide value and build trust from the start. This value can come in the form of a blog post, a podcast, a guide or information that somehow helps them solve a specific problem.

This value should be offered free of charge and without gimmicks in order to start the relationship in a healthy and mutually beneficial way.

These concepts go hand in hand with what we said about conversion funnels, in fact, each of the offers presented here are an entry point for your prospects in any of the phases of your project.

In a relationship like the one I mentioned earlier, an introductory offer would be equivalent to offering this person to have coffee with you.  When your goal is to acquire a customer, this offer of entry allows your prospects to get to know, trust and relate to your brand naturally.

Let's look at 3 different types of offers we can create, try to adapt each of these to your product or service.

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The 3 types of offers.

1) Open Offers: This type of offer is usually presented as a blog, podcast or video, and does not require any registration or purchase in exchange for the value.

2) Closed offers: A "gated" offer if it requires contact information (email, phone number, address, etc.) to receive the "valuable content".

3) Extreme discount: This type of offer represents a significant discount, we are talking about 50% or more. (The goal of this type of offer is to gain the trust of your prospects, let's look at it as a long term benefit).

Designing Open Offers.

Offers that require no "risk" to prospects are a powerful way to start cultivating a relationship with your customers, for example an informative blog post or video, offer value without asking for contact information or any kind of purchase... and still, they are offers.

You are offering value to your prospects in exchange for their time. Remember that for many people, time is one of the most valuable resources there is.

The value that a business can bring can be a blog post, relevant social media posts, videos, podcasts, etc. Ensure that your content provides at least one of the following types of value:

1) Entertainment: People pay a lot of money to be entertained, content that makes people laugh, you can be sure will be easily remembered. Another way to entertain your audience is to teach them a quick and easy way to solve a problem.

2) Inspiration: People are driven by content that makes them "feel" something.  The big players in the sports and fitness industry know how to do this very well. The weight loss industry also makes good use of inspirational content, using testimonials of success stories or the famous "before" and "after" images.

3) Education: Surely you have seen cooking videos on how to make homemade recipes, or "Do It Yourself" videos... it is very easy to find educational content on the internet. Providing value through knowledge is a way to build trust.

Just because the content is free, doesn't mean it doesn't deserve the time and energy you can devote to the other offerings.

An open offer is, in many cases, the first interaction a prospect may have with your business, so you must take the time and effort to get it right.

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Designing Closed Bids.

To move a prospect from the discovery phase to the consideration phase, you need a closed offer that requires your prospects to give you their contact information in exchange for what you are offering.

A sealed bid offers a "piece of value" that solves a specific problem for a specific market and is offered in exchange for contact information. This information is, at a minimum, a mailing address.

Going back to the relationship analogy we mentioned earlier, a sealed offer would be the equivalent of a first date 😉.

Such an offer can be:

• Report
• Guide
• Webinar
• Check-list
• Price list
• Etc.

When someone gives you their information and permission to contact them, the exchange of value is reciprocal. They have given you their attention and their data (something that is normally private), therefore, you need to return the value with relevant material in order to build and nurture the relationship in the long term.

But remember, your offer must solve a specific problem.

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How can we create this targeted yet relevant content for our audience?

A specific promise: Think about how you can highlight the benefit. Focus on communicating the benefit your prospect will get from the offer. In short, what is the desired outcome your prospect is looking for?

A specific example: A great way to generate a specific example is with a case study. If you have examples of real customers who have solved a specific problem with your service or product, you can use this information to make sure you highlight how that particular problem is solved.

A specific shortcut/trick: Any offer that has the potential to save a person's time usually converts well. Let's think of a closed offer where a "Basic exercises you can do from home in 15 minutes" is offered.

A specific solution: In this case, what we propose is to ask and answer a specific question. If the answer to this question solves a specific doubt, then your prospects will leave their contact information to get that answer.

If you answer this question properly, it will help you position yourself as an authority on the subject and, at the same time, it will help you build trust and bring your prospects closer to becoming customers.

A specific discount: Discounts can be a great way to incentivize a sale. Instead of simply offering a discount, you can ask your prospect to sign up for this discount.

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Design extreme discounts.

The general objective of the above offers is to acquire prospects, but... How do you acquire buyers?

Remember that the key to online success is the sequence in which you present your offers to your prospects and customers.

The best way to get buyers is to make an offer with an extreme discount that is irresistible and hard to refuse. This is the best way to convert cold prospects and registrations into customers.

The goal of this type of offer is not to make a large profit, in fact, you may be offering a product or service at cost. Remember, the goal of this type of offer is to get buyers.

In this way you convert a prospect into a customer, and this is not just any old thing.

After a prospect makes a purchase from your business, they are much more likely to buy again.

Extreme discounts get you closer to achieving the goal of converting a prospect into a repeat customer and possibly a fan of your brand.

Well... and now that you know the 3 types of offers that you can integrate in your marketing campaigns... Which one are you going to design first?