Compelling offers are the fifth key factor in our marketing blueprint for business success. Learn how to create irresistible offers using proven psychology, avoid common mistakes, and implement the 7 essential elements that separate you from competitors.
The fifth key factor to our blueprint for business success is something that will completely transform how you think about attracting customers and generating sales. I have a better way to explain this concept, and it goes something like this...
"If you act right now, we'll include a Ginsu knife which slices, dices, cuts through cars and tomatoes with ease. And right now you'll get two for the price of one. That's right... two Ginsu knives for the price of one. If you act right now, just pay shipping and handling on the second Ginsu knife."
You know what I mean. That would be considered something in the industry called a compelling offer. And the reason it's a compelling offer is because it sounds irresistible. The guy was talking really fast, and everybody needed to get their knife.
For those of you old enough to remember what I just said, if you don't know what a Ginsu knife is, go to YouTube and type in "Ginsu Knife infomercial."
I had the great honor and ability of growing up in a time when this is what we used to watch at 2:00 in the morning on television. You could get food dehydrators, you could get all kinds of stuff, you could get spray-on hair. Some of you remember, some of you don't. If you don't, don't worry about it.
The concept was they became so successful because of phrases like "if you act right now, we'll include" and "but wait, there's more." Those key phrases are some of the best marketing phrases ever created.
I grew up in an infomercial world. What that means is I am pre-internet. I am television at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, and I bought my share of Pocket Fishermen and food dehydrators. I never got the spray-on hair, but I guess now I actually might need it. I'm not going to get into it.
The point being is compelling offers are the only way you're ever going to sell things on a continual basis.
I'll give you an example. How many times have you ever gone into a store and they say, "We're having a sale right now and it's 10% off"?
Everybody does it. I mean, literally every furniture store, every appliance store, everybody's always constantly having sales. Sales are not necessarily going to generate money for you. And the reason why is because it's been done so much and so often.
Everyone tries the same stuff. One of the things that always drove me crazy... still drives me crazy, as you can tell in the marketing industry... is if you're copying everybody else and expecting different results, this is the definition of insanity.
For those of you old enough to remember, there's a guy by the name of Zig Ziglar who would get up in the middle of the stage and go, "The definition of insanity is doing the same things and expecting different results." He did it much better than I did, and I hope I did him justice.
I spent 17 years learning why people do what they do, why they go through the process. The specific science and psychology of the sale is you got to connect the dots. And if you connect the dots for people to make it easy, they'll do it.
But they also have to have a compelling reason to come in the first place. And that is one of the most missed opportunities that most companies like yours face.
Let's say for sake of argument, if you do this right now, we'll include this. This becomes a part of the deal. Some companies say, "Hey, well listen, if you do it now, we'll pay the tax" when really that's just a discount on the price. But it sounds better than 10% or 12% or 15% off.
You've got to use words and phrases that connect with the audience at the same time, make real value out of something that you're doing. Gift with purchase is one of the most powerful techniques because if you use a gift with purchase and a compelling offer, then you're adding value but not discounting your price.
There are two schools of thought on this. I come from the school of thought that says whatever works for your company is what you use. It doesn't have to be one or the other. It can be both. It can be either.
Usually it's either giving a discount or breaking something down so it's less costly. What you do in that scenario though, is you run the risk of training your customers to always ask for a discount.
The more powerful approach is if you give something of value with something of value, because now it increases the value and actually the price seems reduced. It's the most powerful psychological move you can make.
I'm not going to tell you which one to use, and I'm not going to tell you which one's better. I'm going to say to you, if you don't have either one of them, it doesn't matter, because your competition is going to do it.
"If we floor three rooms, we'll give you one room for free" is better than discounting by 25% every time. "Buy one, get one free" is better than "buy one at 50% off" 100% of the time.
Because the word "free" is the most powerful marketing word you can ever use.
Let's go back to your website. You have a lead capture, and we'll talk about how that works in a second. In that lead capture, you're basically initiating the law of reciprocation between you and a potential customer. You give something of value. They give you their name and email in return.
That piece generates more leads, the more valuable and compelling that it is.
Prime example... we set one up for a particular customer. Our customer uses a lead capture and gives away a free something. I'm not going to get into the details because I can't give away trade secrets for everybody. But if you want your own, you just contact us. We'll do it for you. We'll build it for you.
If you want to understand it, it's this: if you give something for free for giving their name and email address, you have a higher chance of grabbing the lead.
If they give you their information, they're telling you they're knocking at your door. They're knocking and saying, "I'm interested in your product and service. In fact, I just signed up for your free thing."
This allows you to implement what we're going to talk about in one of the next sections, which is the most powerful back-end marketing blueprint success strategy there is.
You've got to give them something of compelling value. One of the customers we had used to take out ads the same way as every other company in the industry, every week. I restructured the entire marketing approach to go, "Okay, here's something different to try."
"Oh, I don't know if we can do that. This is what everyone does." And that's the whole point.
The easiest way to give you an example: Go into the classified ads section of a newspaper. If you still have newspapers in your town or city, go to that classified section. Go quickly and it doesn't matter what you're looking for. Ask yourself... do all the ads look the same and then see the one that gets your attention?
It's usually something that stands out about all the ads, but all the other ads look the same. I say to clients, "If your ads look the same as their ads, you get lost in the noise because the classified ads section is just noise unless you're looking for something specific."
If you want to get someone's attention, you have to have a grabber... something that goes, "Hey, pick me, pick me, pick me." This could be something cute, can be something cheeky, can be something... I don't care. Because the minute you get their attention, you get a 90% higher chance of them looking and reading and contacting and connecting with your information.
If you don't, you have almost a 0% chance.
For those of us in the home services business arena, think of it this way. If you've got a specific type of specialty, then amplify that with a specific headline and then give them a compelling offer... an irresistible reason to do business with you.
"If you act right now, we'll include a second service for free. All you do is pay for materials." What you need to understand is you're not going to give away something that you're not going to be able to generate back in return, but the customer feels compelled... the potential customer feels compelled to engage because of the law of reciprocation.
Based on our experience helping businesses across industries, here are the seven essential elements that make a compelling offer work:
1. Must Get Attention
I don't care how great your business is, how great your product is. If you don't get someone's attention, the rest of it's irrelevant.
2. Must Be Irresistible
One of the great irresistible things you can use is add value instead of offering a discount. That way, you actually keep the value of your product and service. By adding value, people think they get more for basically the same price.
3. Must Be Direct
Do not beat around the bush. Do not change topics. Do not go back and forth. Be direct. Be specific about what your customer is looking for.
4. Must Get Potential Customer Excited
Something's got to get them in the excited mode. They're already looking for it. Give them a reason to buy.
5. Must Be Easy
"Click here. Be done." Do not make it complicated. Because even if the most compelling offer is complicated, no one's going to do it because they don't have time to figure it out.
6. Must Make Sense
If you're going to give a compelling offer and be irresistible, "Hey, we're going to give you this for free when you buy this"... it's got to be connected. You can't say, "I'm going to give you a free pillow" for someone who's looking for a computer. Doesn't make any sense.
7. Must Have Purpose
When someone's coming looking specifically for your product or service, there's a reason why it makes sense.
All these seven things combined make a compelling offer that separates you from the herd and generates more clients, more customers, more leads, and therefore more sales.
The law of reciprocation is what we're triggering in everyone. If you go back to the beginning, if you go all the way back to understanding your business story and this blueprint for success, we're connecting the dots and we're doing this constantly.
Law of reciprocation is a pendulum and people love pendulums. People hate running into walls.
Think about the Ginsu knife example again. What you never understood about that ad was the shipping and handling cost covered the cost of the second Ginsu knife. All you need to understand is you're not going to give away something that you're not going to be able to generate back in return, but the customer feels compelled to give you something because of this psychological principle.
If you've been following our marketing blueprint series, you understand that compelling offers work in conjunction with your authentic business story, your website strategy, social proof systems, and compelling content creation.
In a nutshell: compelling offers + grabbing attention = success.
For you, all you have to do is figure out how you separate yourself from the herd and generate more clients, more customers, more leads, and therefore more sales because of it.
Your compelling offer becomes the bridge between someone discovering your business and someone taking action to work with you. When done correctly, it creates an irresistible reason for potential customers to choose you over every competitor in your market.
The power lies not just in the offer itself, but in how it connects with your authentic story, builds trust through social proof, and creates a seamless experience that makes it easy for customers to say "yes" to working with you.
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