Daily Marketing Ace

Since I’m interviewing Rob Toth on Tuesday night at 9pm EST about creating urgency in offers, It’s been on my mind a little bit.

What I’ve really been thinking about is the role of urgency in creating an irresistible offer, and it made me remember an article I wrote for my (now closed) small business marketing membership site.

After going through the article again I realized that there was a piece missing — URGENCY.

IMHO, an irresistible offer is incomplete without a sense of urgency.

Read the article and my addition at the bottom and see if you agree:

As I said before, there is nothing more valuable in business than a customer.

Everything you do is aimed at this one single point is space — the point at which a Prospect becomes Customer. Ask 100 business owners of any size business in any industry and anywhere in the world if getting new Customers is important to them, and you would hear 100% of them say “YES.” Is there anything more important in business than getting Customers?

Let me ask you. Is getting Customers (clients, subscribers, or buyers) important to you? Of course it is. But here is the crazy part: If getting Customers is THE most important aspect of business, why do we (all present) spend so little time on our Customer Recruitment Offer?

What you offer to your Prospects to try to get them to become Customers and the way you communicate that offer deserves a LOT of careful consideration and ongoing refinement. Just focusing on this one aspect will, without a doubt, increase your sales dramatically. How do I know this? Because if you had a killer offer — an irresistible offer — you wouldn’t be reading this.

So what exactly is an “offer?” Your offer your part of the value exchange that you are proposing to your Prospect. You say I’ll give you _____ in exchange for $______. That is the core of an offer.

An Irresistible Offer includes a few more components. In his book “The Irresistible Offer,” Mark Joyner clearly and simply breaks down the elements of an Irresistible Offer into the following three:

A High ROI offer

This component is obvious, but deserves a lot of consideration. In order to present an Irresistible Offer, you must be asking much less of your prospects money than the value that they perceive they are getting. We are not necessarily talking about lower prices here. Think more in terms of the value that you can deliver for equitable or premium pricing. Oftentimes, you can add value to your offer for little or no cost and greatly increase its perceived ROI.

A Touchstone

This element is all about how you bundle your offer into a brief statement that communicates the value of what you are offering clearly and concisely. The Touchstone is the communication vehicle that carries your offer to the brains of your prospects. According to Mark Joyner, a great touchstone includes as many of the following four components as possible:

Here is what we are selling

Here’s how much it will cost

Here’s what’s in it for you

Here’s why you should trust us

If you can incorporate all four components into your touchstone and deliver it clearly and concisely, then you will be way ahead of most other businesses, including your competition.

Believability

If you’ve created a high-ROI offer and communicated it with an effective Touchstone, then your prospects will WANT to believe you. But they will know (from past experience) that they should be skeptical.

Believability addresses the skeptic in us all. An Irresistible Offer is eminently believable. It leaves no shadow of doubt in your Prospects mind that what you say about your product, service, etc. is true.

There are lots of ways to ensure the believability of your offer. Past experience, proof, credibility, risk reversal, and logic are the most common and effective elements of believability.

Past Experience

This is one reason why a Customer is your most valuable business asset. Someone who has purchased from you before, and whose expectations were met or exceeded, is already in the believing mode.

Proof

You can offer proof through presenting testimonials and case studies (social proof) or providing independent test data about your product’s performance (technical proof) or you can offer research-based facts that support your claims (factual proof).

Credibility

You don’t have to be the largest, oldest, or most well-known company around to be credible. One way to build credibility is to get an endorsement from a celebrity or well-known expert in your field. High-profile customers also act as a tacit endorsement. If you have, or can get, a very high-profile customer many others will follow simply based on that fact.

If you market products or services that are based on your personal expertise (consultants, professionals, consultants) then your qualifications can help lend an air of credibility. Be sure to communicate your degrees, certifications, or industry credits in your offer messages.

Logic

Finally, logic can be a very strong way of increasing the believability of your offer. If your offer seems “too good to be true” then make sure you tell your prospects why you can make such a strong offer. Letting people know that you “need to clear some space in your warehouse due to an overstock situation” can lend a lot to the overall believability of a high ROI offer.

Step-By-Step Instructions

The following steps will help you work through the process of creating an Irresistible Offer. For each step, I provide an example to help illuminate how the step might be accomplished. The examples are from a real product that one of my MPaX coaching club members has created. It is a book about dealing with obesity called “My Cats Have Seen Me Naked — How I Resolved Self-Acceptance and Bodily Issues While Obese.” At the time of this writing the author, Pat Matson, is still writing the book, but she wisely has started to build and implement her MPaX system. To learn more about the book, try visiting http://www.theworldofwithin.com . By the time you read this, she may have her website up and running.

Onward to the steps you need to take in creating your Irresistible Offer.

1: Document Your High ROI Offer

How much are you asking your Prospects to invest?

What is the value that they will receive in return for their investment?

Example:

In return for your small investment of $19.95, you will receive an eBook that will show you how to free yourself from the negative self image that being overweight has created in you. You’ll learn to love yourself and get more comfortable in your own skin, regardless of its size. You will gain a sense of hope and expectation as you become skilled at using transformational tools to cultivate joy and happiness in your life.

2: Develop Believability

Why should your prospects believe you?

Example:

Credibility

I struggled with obesity for most of the 64 years of my life until I learned the secret of believing in my own “goodness.” Through personal experience, I have used transformational tools to develop a Mind Model that set me free to finally enjoy being me. Like any guide, I can show you the way because I know the path intimately.

Risk Reversal

If you aren’t completely satisfied, inspired, and set free by My Cats Have Seen Me Naked, send me an email and I will promptly refund your purchase price at any time within 90 days of your purchase.

3: Create Your Touchstone

Clearly spell out what you are selling, how much it costs, what’s in it for your prospects, and why they should believe you.

My Cats Have Seen Me Naked is an eBook that shows you how to break the link between obesity and negative self image. This $19.95 eBook provides you insight, support, guidance, and tools to make positive transformational changes in how you view your Self and your innate goodness.

I have found self-acceptance and emotional freedom after spending the better part of 64 years struggling with obesity, and I have developed practical tools and insight so that you too can learn to love yourself. I personally guarantee that you will be inspired and transformed by this book.

Building a strong CRO is hard work. But with these steps and some time and sweat equity, you will be able to craft an offer that is truly irresistible. The time you spend on this component will pay off in the long run.

The Missing Piece: Urgency

There’s one element of an irresistible offer that Mark didn’t emphasize, but that I think is critical. The strongest offers also include an element of Urgency. I’m not sure why Mark didn’t include urgency into his elements of an Irresistible offer, but I know he uses it in his own offers.

For example, when he launched his Amazon campaign to reach best seller status, Mark did a joint venture promotion with a bunch of other marketers who offered a pile of bonus information products for people who bought the book on a specific day. A masterful use of urgency — a limited time special offer.

Spend just a little time in sales or marketing and you will quickly understand something about human nature: we tend toward inaction. Even if we know something is in our best interest, and we know we can easily afford it, the majority of us will still tend to put off the decision to buy or not to buy.

Let me make a clear distinction here. When I speak of introducing urgency into an offer I’m not talking about manipulating people who don’t need or can’t afford the product into buying anyway. I think most ethical marketers (which is MOST marketers) are very sensitive to the fact that manipulation is a bad thing and a bad business practice.

In my book, using urgency as a way to motivate qualified prospects (prospects who need and can afford your product), is a good thing. If urgency can help someone improve their business, skills, or personal life, how could that possibly be a bad thing? As long as you tell the truth, urgency can bring significant value to both your business and your customers.

If you would like to listen in as Rob and I explore both the strategies, tactics, and technology that you Infopreneurs can use to improve their offer conversions, click here to get the call in details for our live teleseminar on Tuesday, November 13th at 9pm Eastern Standard Time.