Before you ever write a word of actual online copy, it’s essential that you develop a powerful offer few customers in their right minds could resist.
The offer that you make can have a tremendous impact on your sales. We’ve seen tests of the same copy with different offers where one offer pulled two 2 to three times as many cash orders.
In fact, one of the key services we perform for our clients is creating powerful offers to go with their existing copy. By changing just their offer, we can almost always increase their sales by a minimum of 30% – and often much more.
The best offer to suggest to our customers is one that eliminates as much of the risk on their part as possible. We’re always amazed by offers of a 15 day guarantee, especially for information products.
Who can possibly do a thorough evaluation of something in just 15 days, with the type of schedule most people lead?
When we see a company offering a 15-day guarantee, it tells us two things. Either they don’t understand how to write maximum profit sales copy or they have so little confidence in the quality of their product, they want to keep the guarantee period as short as possible.
While we’re talking about guarantees, let’s look at the effect of offering a much longer guarantee period for your product. The first thing a longer guarantee does is shift the majority of the risk from your customer’s shoulders to your own shoulders.
This gives you a powerful selling advantage. Your customer wants to be certain that they can buy with complete confidence – and know that if your product doesn’t live up to your promises, they can return it without any aggravation.
Second, a long guarantee period gives the message that you believe in your product. If not, you’d be offering a shoddy 15-day guarantee just like all your competitors do.
Third, and most importantly, it signals to your customer that you put their interests ahead of your own. You’re not just in it to make a quick buck, you’re there to make sure they gain every last benefit you promised.
Here’s a list of powerful components that can go into an exceptional offer:
- Guaranteed lowest prices
- Guaranteed satisfaction
- Liberal payment terms
- Discounts for special groups
- Discounts for larger quantities
- Time-limited discounts
- Bonuses. Especially bonuses that the customer gets to keep even if they return the item they ordered
- Free trials
- Free samples
- Free shipping, or express shipping for a minimal charge
- No obligation
- Toll-free number
- Generous quantities
- Free or inexpensive upgrade to another product at a later date
- Free credit for a specified period of time
- No money down. Pay nothing for a specified period of time
- Limited availability
- Exclusiveness
Alright, now let’s look at some examples of actual offers that rocketed sales through the roof.
Here’s an offer from a space ad of mine that ran in a direct marketing trade journal. The offer is contained in the headline and validated by the sub-header. The ad is written as a testimonial from one of my satisfied clients.
How To Get A Maximum Profit Copywriter
To Kick Your Sales Into High Gear – Risk Free!
….I should know. His concepts and copy
increased my income on one project by 917%!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
What elements are at work in this offer? First of all we’ve eliminated all of the customer’s risk. They’re promised a risk-free deal.
Second, there’s the tantalizing offer of huge rewards – verified by our endorser’s actual experience. This is a powerful offer that worked extremely well. We were overwhelmed with a barrage of new clients wanting us to create a winning package for them.
Here’s an offer we promote for one of our clients. The challenge was to pump some life into a very mundane product – a home equity line of credit.
Announcing READY EQUITY
As a Preferred Customer
You Can Get A Substantial Line Of Credit
Based On the Equity In Your Home
– and You’re Pre-approved
up to $50,000 with no fees!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
There are quite a few powerful elements at work here. First of all, there’s the appeal of exclusivity. You’re part of a limited, select group of people who can get this.
The terms are easy. You’re pre-approved. It can’t get any easier than that.
The fees are discounted. No fee at all. That’s as deep a discount as you can get!
Plus, generous quantities. The customer is promised a substantial line of credit based on the equity in their home. The minimum they can count on is $50,000. A very generous figure that puts real teeth into the promise made by the offer.
And finally, an implicit promise of no risk. That is, you don’t have to risk being embarrassed. You can’t be turned down. You’re pre-approved so all you have to do is sign on the dotted line for a minimum of $50,000.
Your offer will often determine the flow or the tone of your copy. Plus, knowing how you’re going to position your product (by means of your offer) can have a major effect on the key points you highlight in your sales copy.
Cast this rule in stone: ALWAYS write your offer at this stage in the process. Don’t even think about jumping ahead. If you do, you’ll seriously compromise the quality of your sales copy.