Are you offering enough? 

Special offers entice your prospective and current customers to buy from you. But just what is meant by an offer? And how much is too much?

The real purpose of any marketing strategy is to elicit a response. An offer can be simply described as a proposition you make to customers to obtain a response from them. Often this can mean the difference between success and failure of a marketing strategy such as advertising. Depending on the offer, the number of responses can increase by 25, 50, 100, 300 even 1,000%. The good news is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money or effort to achieve these kinds of results. The increase in sales traffic will more than make up for the free items you give away. Better yet, these new customers are in an excellent position for you to upsell other items and can be added to your mailing list.

Seven types of offers to put a glimmer in a prospect’s eye

1. The special offer. Offering something extraordinary for free if potential customers respond or take a certain action. For example, buy one and get one free.
2. The free item with purchase offer. Giving something to a customer for making an inquiry, for testing or trying, or for buying your product is one of the most commonly used incentives. An example is the classic bag of coffee beans with the purchase or testing of a new coffee maker.
3. Host-style relationship free offers. Here you use each other’s products or services as the offer to both your customer groups. For example, free oil change at Company A when you get your car washed at Company B and vice versa.
4. The early bird incentive offer. An incentive or reward is offered to the customer for getting in early. It can be either a reduction in price or a free item with purchase. For example, the first 50 customers get a cosmetics gift set with the purchase of perfume. This works especially well when the free item is a sample of something else that the customer is likely to want to buy later.
5. A time limit offer. By creating an offer and placing a legitimate time limit on that offer, you create a sense of urgency and force a response—either positive or negative—NOW. This doesn’t let readers think, “Hmm, I’ll do that some day.”
6. Find slow-moving inventory to use for free offers. One way to find an item to give as an offer with purchase and keep your costs down is to look to a supplier or other businesses for slow-moving inventory and buy it from them at low cost.
7. The referral or bring-a-friend offer. Here you make an offer to your customers based on their referring people to you. Referrals are an invaluable source of inexpensive leads. And when your existing customers recommend your business to their friends and associates, you’ll build a customer base of more of the type you want to serve.

The items you give away do not have to be extravagant to be effective—everyone likes to receive a gift. But the more value perceived in the offer, the more buzz you’ll generate about your business.

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• Made Simple Group