Make Them an Offer They Can’t Refuse!

Make Them an Offer They Can’t Refuse!

by: Denise Hall

Every netrepreneur knows that the most important aspect of building a business is responsive leads. Whether you publish an ezine or just send occasional sales letters via email, if you don’t get a good response, you won’t have a profitable business.

The old saying, กYou can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drinkก applies here. You can send offers to your prospects, but you can’t make them buy.

So how do you turn those prospects into buyers? How do you get them to read, not just skim or delete, your ezine or sales letter?

Make them offers they just can’t refuse!

Offline businesses frequently have กBuy one, get one freeก specials. Or กBuy one, get one 1/2 off.ก Or ‘today onlyก sales.

Online businesses need to use those same marketing principles. While the rules on the internet are a bit different than offline marketing, many of the same concepts can be applied with the same results.

How many times have you seen an item on sale that was tempting, but you wanted to think about it before handing over your money? By all means, think about it, especially if itกs a large purchase. But if the special is only for ‘todayก or ‘this weekendก, youกll have to decide a little faster, won’t you?

Have you noticed that the checkout area at stores always has candy bars, magazines and other inexpensive items on display? Those candy bars sure look good, don’t they? The headline on that magazine makes you want to read the article, doesn’t it?

Those items are put there on purpose so youกll buy something else while you wait in line to pay for your other purchases. Itกs called กimpulse buying.ก Retailers have used it for years.

Another offline marketing tactic is กloss leaders.ก Retailers advertise an item at or below cost to get customers into their store. Once the customers are there, theyกll normally buy more than just the advertised special.

So the retailer takes a loss on one product to sell other products that will bring profits. Pretty clever, huh?

These concepts can, and should, be used for online businesses. Offer your customers a freebie or second item at half price with their purchase of any product at regular price. Or 25% off ‘today Onlyก on one or more of your products.

Customers like to shop for bargains, but on the internet your website, ezine or sales letter can get lost in the vast array of reading material potential customers see everyday.

Make your offer stand out. Your customers will want that candy bar if it comes with a second one for half price. Theyกll need your newest product if they get one of your other products for $10 off the regular price.

So dare to make them an offer they can’t resist! Your customers will get a great deal and youกll have more sales.

About The Author

Denise Hall is the publisher of Home Business on a Budget Newsletter. She specializes in free and low cost tools and resources to help netreprenuers start and build their businesses on a tight budget. To subscribe to her newsletter

mailto:[email protected] or visit

http://www.homebusinessonabudget.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 25, 2003

by Denise Hall

How My Friend’s Poor Hygiene Exploded My Sales

How My Friend’s Poor Hygiene Exploded My Sales

by: Jason Tarasi

My friend had not had a bath in over three days, there where pizza boxes littered across his apartment, and a funky odor filled the room.

As I walked into his apartment, I quickly became disorientated and started to feel myself losing consciousness. I felt my eyes starting to roll back into my head, and staggered to the window to get a breath of fresh air.

กJohn,ก I mumbled to my usually hygienic friend, กwhat happened to you?ก

He then gave me a wry smile and his eyes became as large as Bill Gateกs bank account.

My friend led me over to the TV where he had on ขThe Home Shopping Network.ข

John needed to take some time off work to relax, but within three short days, had become a กHome Shoppingก junkie.

My normal, levelheaded friend had become hypnotized by one of marketingกs most powerful techniques: Time sensitive offers.

If he didn’t order กPeppi the singing fishก within the next 15 minutes, the offer would be gone forever.

The Yoda phone that exclaimed, กMay the force be with youก when it rang would disappear into a galaxy far far away if he didn’t act now. They only had 100 left in stock.

As I sat there watching my zombified friend order useless items he would never use, I decided I would apply this same technique to my own business.

I care deeply about all of my customers, so I wanted to make sure of two things:

My offers would only be for useful products and services.

The offers had to truly be time sensitive.

The results where astounding.

The first time sensitive offer I brought to my customers almost tripled my sales. I was immediately hooked.

Now I never make an offer unless it is time sensitive.

For my offers I use a customized script that keeps track of my orders or counts down the time left until the offer expires. When my product is sold out, or the offer has expired, the script then removes the order page.

I rarely make exceptions and extend the offer, unless someone had a problem ordering the product.

So how can you implement this strategy into your business?

To have a successful offer you should generally follow these two simple rules:

Make the offer truly special (give a discount, extra bonuses, etc.)

Make sure the offer is pulled when you say it will be.

I have tested 72, 48 and even 24hour offers with impressive results.

These kinds of offers usually pull much better than if I limit the offer to 2030 packages.

However, each list is different. So don’t be afraid to test various offers until you find the right formula for maximum sales.

The kiss of death, and quickest way to lose credibility with your customers, is to make an offer that insults their intelligence.

Don’t make a 48hour offer, then run it for a week, just to make extra sales.

Your customers will quickly catch on to this, and you will see your response rates fall drastically.

Treat your customers with respect, and they will return the favor by making your bank account balloon to new levels.

Copyright 2005 Jason Tarasi

About The Author

Jason Tarasi publishes the reciprocal links newsletter กElite Linksก

Learn HOW thousands of other Elite Links members generate FREE traffic and increase their search engine rankings by swapping links. Grab your free lifetime subscription now at: http://www.freeclassifiedlinks.com/enter

This article was posted on February 09

by Jason Tarasi