12 Types Of Bonuses For Your Next Offer

Welcome to Million Dollar Grit, the podcast that dives deep into the world of entrepreneurship, where tenacity meets strategy and dreams meet reality. My name is Julie, and I explore the raw, often overlooked truths of what it takes to succeed in business and in life. It's not just about the glossy success stories, it's about the grit it takes to get there.

Hey everyone, Julie here, and today I want to talk to you about bonuses. Bonuses specifically in courses, programs, and sometimes even services. A lot of people know bonuses as like, hey, this is the thing you throw into an offer to sweeten the deal. But in this current, you know, buying climate, they are really, really important. And so I want to dive into sort of 4 different buckets of bonuses and then the subtypes inside of them. Specifically as it relates to the buyer psychology, what you actually need to get people to get off the couch, get their credit card, and buy. So let's start with the 4 sort of big buckets of bonuses, and then we'll dive in. So the first type are the overcoming objections bucket, and we know this bucket pretty well. I've taught on this many times. Bonuses that are used to overcome objections or hesitations around on buying. So that's one bucket. The second bucket is the perception of the deal bucket, and these are, you know, classic cost savings type bonuses that make people feel like they're getting a deal. The third type of bonus is the risk reversal bonus, and this is one that sort of makes the purchase that they're making today less risky because of something you're offering for tomorrow. And the fourth bucket are the attention-getting bonuses. And these are bonuses that are attached usually to free content to try to get attention. So let's talk about the first bucket first, because we know this one the best: overcoming objections bonuses. So the first type of objection that someone's going to have when they're thinking about making a purchase is like, I'm not sure I can do it. Right? I'm not sure I have the capability. And so bonuses that are shortcuts, classic shortcuts, like here, take my swipe file, take my calendar, take my whatever, will help them overcome that objection of like, I'm not sure I can do it. Another type of overcoming objection bonus is a bonus that solves a peripheral issue, right? So if I'm selling a class on funnel building, I might do a bonus on Facebook ads. It's not covered in the course, but it's on the periphery and people are thinking about it. A third type of overcoming objection bonus is a next step plan. So you build your funnel, but now you don't know how to, you know, sell 365 days a year. It's an ongoing evergreen social media program that teaches you how to sell, right? It's the next thing once you've completed the course. And the fourth type of overcoming objection bonus would be a plot twist. A plot twist is an unadvertised bonus that shows up at the end of a launch, sort of surprise. Hey, we decided to do X, Y, Z. And so that shows up and that gets people who are, you know, on the fence to take action. Okay. The second bucket of bonuses were the perception of the deal bonuses. So here are a few types. The first is an early bird. An early bird is usually limited in number. So the first 10, the first 20, the first 50. And these bonuses are scarce, logically scarce, meaning they're usually time bonuses like, hey, a coffee chat with me, or hey, I'll look at your stuff, or they are actually limited in inventory. So physical products, the first 50 people get a microphone for the podcasting course, something like that. The second type of perception of the deal bonus is a fast action. This is a time bonus live on the webinar. Buy while the webinar is going, or in the first 24 or 48 or 72, even 96 hours. Depending on how long the launch is, your fast action can actually be long if you have a long launch, right? So if you have a 10-day launch, you can have a 4-day fast action. And this is oftentimes either some extra courses, some extra things built in, or just a good old-fashioned cash discount. The third type of perception of the deal bonus is a 0% upcharge on pay plans. This is where you are not going to charge them a fee to use the pay plan. This is free money, right? Most pay plans have a 20% premium upcharge to deal with cancellations and churn and all that kind of stuff. But if you do a 0%, you are incentivizing people to say, hey, like, it also kind of works a little bit as a risk reversal. Like, you don't have to take as much of a risk today, and we're not going to penalize you for not taking as much of a risk. And the last perception of the deal bonus is the unlocked perk. And we love this type of bonus. It is a sort of a country club throwback. You know, once you've done this, you have unlocked alumni status or you have unlocked a permanent discount in our shop or on another program. The third bucket that I was discussing were the risk reversal. And the two most common I see are rebates and applied savings. So the first is a rebate, which is, hey, we will give you X amount of dollars, or we will give you X amount off of XYZ if you complete this, right? And so it creates this sense of, I'm gonna take action, I'm gonna purchase, I'm gonna complete it, and then I'm gonna get a reward for completing it. It reduces some of that risk, especially if it's a rebate, like a cash rebate. Then they feel like it's also sort of perception of the deal. The second is applied savings. This one we use all the time as well. Hey, purchase this program today. Hey, sign up for this VIP day today. And if you decide to do the bigger product later, we will apply everything you paid to that bigger offer. Okay, so those are the two most common risk reversal style bonuses. And the last bucket, which is probably one of the most important buckets right now, but the least used, are the attention-getting bonuses. You may have heard of these. These are the show-up bonuses or the stay-till-the-end bonuses. Think timeshare pitches giving you a free gift card for dinner, right? We haven't talked about those, or I haven't really talked about those that much because it feels weird to have to give a bonus for something free like a webinar or a challenge. But right now, what we're seeing in the market is that it is very hard to get attention, and attention is at a premium. And so if you are struggling with attention or traffic, which may be, you know, just digging into your numbers to see, well, are my products converting? Yeah, I just have really small amounts of people paying attention. You may want to look into the show-up bonuses or the stay-till-the-end bonuses. And the ones that are stay-till-the-end bonuses are the ones that kind of feel like a tell-all, right? Like, I'm going to show you this thing that I wouldn't necessarily show people. Okay. So it's behind the scenes, it's over the shoulder, it's a tell-all. Think curious, right? Um, show-up bonuses could be things like get an extra swipe or get entered to win this cool thing or a goodie like a swag. But using those will be important if you are struggling to get attention. So obviously, as I go through all these different bonus types, you want to look at your offer stack and make sure you're not just throwing everything in the kitchen sink because that doesn't really feel good to the customer. It feels like loading up a donkey with more baggage than they need for a long journey, and it just creates more for them to organize, more for them to sort through. But very strategic bonuses that have different psychology attached will help make the sale. Talk to you soon.

And there you have it, folks, another dose of Million Dollar Grit. I hope today's episode has left you feeling inspired, equipped, and ready to face your own entrepreneurial journey with resolve. Remember, until next time, embrace the struggle, harness your grit, and keep pushing forward. You're stronger than any challenge you face. I'm Julie Chenell, and this has been Million Dollar Grit.