Six Tips for Increasing Revenues: Creating a Killer Offer

These six tips for creating a killer offer will greatly increase the success of your marketing campaign - and your revenue.

Written Jul 07, 2008, read 204 times since then.

You already know that the offer is the second most important success factor of any direct marketing campaign, either online or offline (the most important factor is your prospect list). What you may not know is that the difference between an "okay" offer and a "killer" offer can translate to many thousands of revenue dollars. The best use of your marketing time and money, therefore, is to develop a killer offer and make sure you have a great list.

Here are six tips that will raise your offer to "killer" status:

Figure out exactly who you are going to send the offer to. Follow just this one tip, and your campaign will be more successful than at least 90 percent of your competitors. Most businesses come up with the offer first, then decide who to send it to. This is nowhere near as effective as deciding who you want to attract, then fashioning an offer that will appeal to that particular group of people.
Make the value of your offer a no-brainer. Consumers today, whether businesses or individuals, are inundated with all kinds of sales pitches that include a multitude of offers. As a result, they are fairly suspicious and short on patience. Your offer must be so clear that your recipients understand it instantly. If your offer is some kind of discount for example, half off is easier to understand than 50 percent off, which in turn is a heck of a lot easier than 35 percent or even 60 percent off.
The offer should involve either a discount or a bonus or, even better, both. A bonus is something you will give free to someone who takes the action you are asking them to take. Offering a bonus will increase your response rate by as much as 30 percent .
Have a reason for the offer and make sure you say what it is. If you make a great offer for no reason, you will raise suspicion flags in your readers' minds; after all, we've all been told that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Therefore, you need a reason for your offer—we are new to the neighborhood, it's our business's anniversary, it's customer appreciation week at our company. Be as creative as you want, but be sure to have a reason.
Create urgency. There must be a reason for your readers to take immediate action. This could be an expiration date on the offer, an extra bonus for fast response, or some other element that will cause your client or prospect to take action.
Make the call to action another no-brainer. In the same way that the value of your offer needs to be crystal clear, so does that call to action. Tell your prospects exactly what you want them to do. Ask them to go to your web site and click on a particular word, come in to your store on a particular date or in a certain time range, whatever action you want them to take. Be very clear.

Incorporate these six tips into your next direct marketing campaign and watch the results. You will see killer-level improvements!

Learn more about the author, Eric Snyder.

Comment on this article

Posted by Basil Shadid, Seattle, Washington | Jul 13, 2008

Fantastic article Eric.

you need web video. we have the tools.
Posted by Mary Bryan Roberts, Asheville, North Carolina | Jul 14, 2008

Great tips Eric.
Posted by Tammy Redmon, Olympia, Washington | Jul 14, 2008

Excellent tips Eric,

I really appreciated the piece and clarity on the discount. I have personally tripped up on that one I know. They idea you present that you should offer a discount every time and be clear on the language is interesting. My question on that is that doesn't the value of your services become less if you constantly give things away? What are your thoughts.

Deepen Your Learning...Forward Your Action
Posted by Eric Snyder, Dublin, Ohio | Jul 18, 2008

Hi Tammy,

Thank you for this wonderful question! The answer is: you should make a habit of "constantly giving things away." One of the rules I live by is "give without expectation." I am constantly giving and I don't know anyone who doesn't appreciate it.

Let me explain how this works without cheapening your brand...

Your ideal client has specific wants. Unless you are attempting to be the low-cost leader, you do not want to attract customers whose "I want..." statement is "I want to save money." This is why value is tip number two. Provide value to your clients. People expect to pay more for more value - so when you discount a valuable product, it gives people an opportunity to try your business for a "bargain." Also, you will only offer discounts on products that you have a high enough margin on that you do not send your company into ruin. So, high value and high margin.

If you are a service provider - such as a massage therapist, medical professional, etc. - your time is valuable to the client, and you have a high margin. That being said, your offer would be "for first time customers" or "limit one per customer per year" or something along those lines.

The purpose of creating offers is to attract new customers - your ideal clients. You can provide other incentives for existing clients to increase their lifetime value, and it is relatively easy to keep marketing offers separate from these affinity programs.

If you need additional clarity, I would be happy to speak with you. Send me an email at esnyder@onecoach.com.
Posted by Darrah Courter, Columbus, Ohio | Jul 21, 2008

Love the article. Simple - yet thought provoking. Also love your follow-up to Tammy's question.
Posted by Criss Meligro, Seattle, Washington | Aug 13, 2008

We are in the process of putting together a news letter/offer and your six points couldn't have come at a better time! Thanks so much we will incorporate them into our promotion and hopefully see a great return.