MBA1764 What Makes a Great Special Offer

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You've made it on time for the McDonald's breakfast menu. You think to yourself. Finally, I could start my day with my perfect breakfast. But what if breakfast could be even more perfect with the hot honey sausage egg biscuit? It finally is. This won't last forever, so go to McDonald's and get it while you can.

Why do people will buy an offer? Why do people go out, pull out their wallets and give up their hard earned money to some products, to some services, to some companies and not with others? It has a lot to do with understanding human needs and human fears because that's what drives human behavior. So for the sake of today's lesson, I'm going to use an example. Let's say you're going to be selling a course on how to start a podcast. The course alone could be amazing and deliver great results. But if you want to push this as a special offer, if you want to move as many units as possible, if you want to promote it, if you want to get people over the edge, you need to craft a special offer that compels people to take action. So what are the things you need to do to create an offer that does that, that actually gets people to buy now, not later? First of all, let's make sure that we don't undersell the core product, the core thing we're selling. So in this, an online course on how to podcast or start a podcast, too many people talk about what's in the course, the modules, the lessons. That's fine and all, but that's not really what people really care about. You have a limited time and a limited attention of your audience. You know, you can't just waste it on going on and on, on things that really don't move the needle. What really moves the needle is the change the customer is going to go through, the result, the after picture. People really care about what they're going to get, what they're going to experience afterwards. Even if you're selling, let's say for example, two tickets to Disney World, the smiles on the people's faces, the memories, the feeling of being an amazing partner or family member or parent, these are the real reasons why people go to Disney World. It's not because they have X amount of rides or themed restaurants. These are nice and that's cool and everything. By the end of the day, people are chasing a feeling, they're chasing a result. So with the online course example, with podcasting, people want to have a successful podcast. They want to be able to launch their podcast, see it on itunes, show their friends and family. That's what you need to sell. So Starting with a product, make sure you don't undersell it and sell the results. Now, if you're going to be doing a promotion, let's say for example, you're doing a launch promotion and it's a special that's going on, you need to make it time bound, okay? You can't just have it open ended and say, hey, if you buy during the launch, well, when is the launch and when does this expire? What happens after you expire? What do you get if you buy during this time? What do you miss out on if you wait? So make sure that it's time bound, okay? Some people call this scarcity, but in reality you're just letting people know that you can't wait forever, okay? You have to buy as soon as possible. So what many people do is that they add some sort of bonuses if they buy the product, whether it's if they buy the product during launch or during the time period or on the webinar or within 24 hours, things like that. What I like to do is like to stack the actual time limits, meaning that let's say, for example, you're doing a promotion for three days, there's an offer and some great things you're going to get if you buy during this time. But there's something extra you'll get if you buy during even a shorter period of time. Whether it's right on the webinar or within the next 24 hours. People that sign up immediately that take action will get this extra thing that's included in the offer. So let's talk about bonuses and these extra things for a moment because that's the other component that we need to have in a great offer. If you're going to offer bonuses, you need to offer things that people actually want. Let me say that again. You need to offer things that people want, not need. You might think they need a couple extra interviews or a couple of extra guides and it might help them get the result, but that doesn't compel them to buy. Bonuses should be about what people want. What do people want? People want to experience pleasure. They want to feel important, they want to feel significant, they want to feel special. So if I were going to do a podcast course, let's say, for example, this podcast course was $1,500. One of the big bonuses I would offer is to ship them a podcasting mic. In fact, I would ship them a whole set, like the mic, the boom arm, the pop filter, the shock mount. Why? Because I want to show them a picture of what they're going to get as a bonus with me podcasting, because at the end of the day, they want to feel pro. That's why they're taking this course, because they don't feel pro. And what's going to help them attain that feeling? Well, looking pro, okay? And I want them to say, hey, I want to look pro with that mic. That's a great bonus. That's something they want. So think of your product, think of your service. What within the realm of what you offer is something people actually want. I'll give you another example. A couple years ago, I went to a music concert before COVID I went to see James Morrison, one of my favorite musicians out of the uk. And when you buy a ticket to the concert, there's different kinds of tickets for different seats, but there's also a VIP ticket that includes, you guessed it, a photo with James. Okay? Now, photo with James actually means you're just standing next to James and you can take the photo with your own phone, okay? It's not even a glossy photo where somebody takes it and it costs some money to produce. There's no overhead for them. It just takes a few minutes, not even a few seconds of James time for those VIPs. But why do they offer that? Because it's actually what people want, okay? They want a photo with him so they can share it on social, feel special, tell their friends, make them feel jealous, right? That's really what people do. That's what they're craving. So people are given what they want with a special offer. Now, what they need. Too many people offer things that they already can get. If I go back to the concert, a ticket with a free drink or free popcorn is not really special. Why do I care about that? I could just buy that when I'm there. Why would I pay for this ticket that has the popcorn or drink included? They're going to offer me something I just can't buy separately. I can't do this without their help. So don't try to bundle things that people can buy separately. It doesn't work. Trust me. I've tried where I'll throw in an extra course or throw in an extra product where they can buy separately outside of this offer. If they want it, they'll buy it. You want to offer things they can't buy outside the offer. Now, with the podcasting mic bonus, the reason why that's special and they can't buy it outside is because I'm actually curating a whole set of different pieces to the mic. Setup. It's my recommendation for what they should use. It has kind of my expertise embedded in it. My recommendation. So people see that, like, oh, I don't have to go through the headache of figuring out which mic I should use. Omar is actually going to just send it to me when I buy this course today. The next thing a special offer must have is convenience. It has to be convenient for them to buy this offer, meaning that when they buy, they don't need to jump through hoops to get all the bonuses or get the special offer or get whatever discount or whatever special price you have. Okay? You should be doing all the legwork. One of the easiest ways to fulfill a special offer is through automation. Okay. You can actually with your email marketing provider like Mailchimp or ConvertKit or AWeber or ActiveCampaign, whatever you use. You could say, anytime somebody becomes a customer, between these dates and times, send them this particular email. And it's just an automated email that works for you. What I do is in that email I say, congrats, you got the special offer. We need a couple pieces of information from you so that we can send out whatever bonuses. Click this link to fill out a form. And it's just a Google form where they fill it out for me. It takes two seconds on their end and I have a whole database of all the forms completed inside of Google forms where I can fulfill all the bonuses. Nice and simple. Okay? Simple for you, simple for the customer. There's nothing for you to do. They just get an automatic email. And you could say that on the webinar, in the email, wherever you're making this offer. Hey, when you sign up, you're going to get an automated email. It's going to ask you to fill out a form, a special form to get the bonuses. Super simple. Too many people make it too complicated, meaning that they don't automate the system. They don't create a form. What they do is they email the buyer and say, hey, I saw you bought the special offer. Can you give me this information? You're going back and forth on email three or four or five times. This is fairly inconvenient for the customer. It's super hard work for you. Don't do it. Make it easy. The last thing I want to warn you about, or maybe have you keep in mind when you're creating your special offer and you're giving away bonuses, especially if you're shipping something physical, is to have rules around your special offer when it comes to refunds. If somebody is going to refund their purchase and you've already sent out the bonuses, especially if it's a physical thing like a microphone, you're out of pocket here. So there's two ways to do this. Number one, you could say there's no refunds with a special offer because we're giving away all this great stuff and we're going to be sending things to you directly immediately, and they agree to that. Or you do have a refund policy, whether it's two weeks or 30 days, and you don't ship things out until that period is over. In my experience, if your policy is two weeks for refunds or a trial period, that's usually not that long. And customers are okay for waiting for that to get their bonuses, especially if it's a physical thing. But beyond that, I think the first option is probably better. It's better for them to just agree to not have any refunds or not to refund the product and get it immediately. Because 30 days is a long time to get your bonuses and you want to make sure that they get what they actually signed up for that special offer.

You've made it on time for the McDonald's breakfast menu. You think to yourself, finally, I could start my day with my perfect breakfast. But what if breakfast could be even more perfect with the hot honey sausage egg biscuit? It finally is. This won't last forever, so go to McDonald's and get it while you can. Ba da ba ba ba.

All right, to wrap up today's lesson, you want to make sure that your special offer really focuses on the results that people want from the product, from what you're offering. This should be the highlight of what they're buying. They're buying a result. They're buying an experience, a feeling. Number two, make sure it's time bound. Make sure that scarcity is clear when these bonuses expire, when they will not get the special offer or special pricing. I like to tier it so they get something that they act immediately and they get some other things if they buy within the window of the sale. Number three, make sure you give them something they want. Okay, this is the big one. A lot of people forget this. Whatever the bonus is, whatever the special offer is, include things that they want that make them feel significant, special. They can't get elsewhere, they can't buy separately. They need you, they need this offer to get it. Have some rules when it comes to refunds, especially if you're giving out bonuses, whether it's waiting to give out those bonuses until that window of refunds is over or simply saying there are no refunds for the special offer. Guys, thank you so much for listening to the $100 MBA show. Do you know that if you subscribe to this podcast on whatever podcast app you love to use, you get access to over 1700 business lessons in our archives? It's absolutely free to hit subscribe, so go ahead and do that right now on whatever you use to listen to podcasts, whether it's Spotify or Stitcher Radio or Apple Podcasts or Himalaya or on every single platform. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Don't be afraid to promote proudly, okay? Be proud of your product, your offer, okay? Whether it's on a webinar or email, spend some time talking about the offer, talking about what people are going to get. Get them excited. Be proud of it. Show your enthusiasm. Enthusiasm. Have fun with sales. Because if you're not having fun, it's going to show and you're going to have to sell in your business to make money. So get used to it. Have some fun. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode Q and A Wednesday. I'll see you then. Take care. Of.

They put hot honey sauce on the snack wrap. McDonald's outdid themselves again. The classic snack wrap we all know and love paired with the sweet heat of hot honey sauce. Just what we needed to make it even more perfect. You know the drill, so go to McDonald's and try it today.