Today we're continuing our Offering Offer series. If you've missed any of the previous posts in this series, you can go back and read them here:
Part 1: *This* Is How We Keep Our Clients' Leads (And Our Own!) Rolling In
Part 2: Why You Should Think About Offering Offers On Your Website
Part 3: “Offering Offers On Our Site Wouldn't Work For Us” Excises 1 -5
Part 4: “Offering Offers On Our Site Wouldn't Work For Us” Excises 6 – 9
It’s easy to read about a new online marketing or website improvement technique that promises to increase the number of leads your site generates.
It’s easy to get excited about new techniques.
It’s easy to think “We're going to do that for OUR business website this year!!”
But when it's time for the rubber to meet the road, the crickets start chirping.
Let’s make this easier for your company.
First, know that we empathize: Coming up with creative, effective ideas for offers typically feels challenging—if not downright overwhelming at first.
The good news is that your business can learn from and be inspired by all those who've come before you.
Before you begin thinking about what your company could offer, make sure to first spend time seriously thinking about your company's ideal customers.
What are your ideal customers' biggest and most pressing concerns, fears, and questions?
What types of information are your ideal customers typically looking for when they initially call or email your company?
The concerns and goals of your ideal customers should be what guides your efforts of creating effective, lead-generating offers.
Remember: no website offer will ever appeal to all your website visitors.
Oftentimes, the more a company tries to create an offer that appeals to everyone, the less compelling the offer ends up being.
That's why, after time spent considering your company's ideal customers, you should next map out the main (and most profitable!) sub-segments into which you can divide those customers.
For example, let's say you're a high-end appliance company. Most of your ideal customers live within a 75 mile radius (so you can easily deliver and install purchased products) and have a lot of extra money to spend on your premium products. Within your target customer profile, you might have…
If you were to place a general “All About Appliances!” report or offer on your company's website for visitors to download, it would likely not appeal very much to any of these 3 ideal customer sub-segments.
So instead, (over time, of course) your company could post 3 different website offers, each one appealing specifically to the interests of just one of the 3 sub-segments.
These offers would be based on your expert knowledge and past experiences regarding what these 3 types of customers are most concerned about and interested in before they buy from you.
Here are a few examples (disclaimer: I don't know what people purchasing appliances *actually* care about, so this is a best-guess, off-the-cuff stab at some ideas…):
Skim through this list of offer possibilities below. Do any appeal to you or generate additional ideas?
Which ideas jump out at you?
Which ones make you think “Oh, we could do that…”?
Which ones would be most fun for your company to consider?
Which ones might be most attractive to your best potential customers?
Please keep in mind!! –> Your offers should NOT be…
Remember that offers should not feel like blatant advertisements or promotions for your products or services.
And good heavens, remember that offers should not be fact sheets that simply describe your business.
By now you should hopefully have some ideas (or seeds of ideas) floating around about what your company could offer its ideal potential customers. (And all you overachievers reading this will likely already have multiple ideas for each of your sub-segments, don't you?)
If you're serious about moving forward, it's now time for your company to start planning how you'll turn ideas into reality, so your business can begin experiencing more website leads ASAP.
Take baby steps. Break the process into chunks.
Many people use some combination of the following actions when working on offer creation:
What steps will make the process feel more manageable to you or your team?
If you're still struggling, not to worry.
Next week we'll wrap this series up with a variety of real-life examples that might be the exact thing you need to jump-start your offer generation efforts.