MBA907 Do Bonuses Increase Sales?

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We are so pumped for this because we love the show in this format and we know you're going to love it. So make sure you hit subscribe if you haven't already to make sure you get all these episodes automatically come January 1st. In today's episode you will learn do bonuses help you increase sales when you're running a promotion? When you're selling your products or services by offering some free bonuses that come along with it, does that help you make more sales? We're going to be answering that question. I'm going to be sharing with you some stories, some examples from my own business to show you when bonuses do help increase sales and when they don't. We got a lot to cover so let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Bonuses, bonuses, bonuses. Do these things work? A few weeks ago, we had Black Friday Cyber Monday and a lot of different businesses were sending emails in your inbox with offers. A lot of these offers had buy this and get all these bonuses with your purchase. So we're all familiar with this as consumers. What about as business owners? Do these things work or are they a waste of time? Or maybe a better question is when do these things work? How do we make sure that we use bonuses the right way? First of all, full transparency. I've used this strategy, giving out bonuses with an offer with a product for sale to make more sales. And we've had a lot of success with it, but we've had times where it wasn't successful. So I want to kind of lay out what works and what doesn't. First of all, in order for this to work, you got to make sure your bonuses are relevant to your product or service. So, for example, we offer bonuses from time to time on webinars and things like that for those who purchase our webinar software, Webinar Ninja. So. So all the bonuses we give with that offer are useful things for the audience, useful things for the person that's going to buy this product. The best bonuses are the ones that people can use immediately with your product. So, for example, one of the bonuses that we give is a $500 course that we sell called Easy Course. This is a course that I built with my buddy Jason Zook, and it's a 30 day, 30 video course. Every day you watch a video to build your online course in 30 days. And this course took a ton of time to build because it's very specific and it shows people from A to Z the three phases of creating an online course, from planning to building to launching. Now, this is perfect for somebody who's interested in running webinars. Why? Because one, you can create an online course and sell it via webinars. So if you don't have a product to sell but you think webinars are powerful, you can create a product with with this bonus. So beautiful. They can create an online course and sell it with webinars. Number two, they can actually deliver the course if they want via webinars. They could do live webinars to deliver the course or recorded webinars. We have a series type of webinar inside of Webinar Ninja and they could be recorded or they can be live. So you could definitely utilize this course along with our product. So you see how it goes hand in hand. It also solves problems. A bonus needs to solve a problem. Or maybe an objection somebody has to your product. They say, like, hey, I think this is really, really powerful. Webinars are amazing. But hey, I don't have a product. I don't even know what I should do. And by saying, hey, you can make your first product an online course. And here's a bonus to show exactly how to do it in 30 days. So the bonus has to align with the product you're selling. And again, if they can utilize it with your product, even better. Number two, the bonus should have real intrinsic value. So, for example, this course, Easy Course, it's a real course, and we sell it for $500 outside of this, you know, offer. People buy it all the time. And they can go to the sales page, they can go to Easy Course's website and see, oh, people actually pay $500. It's for sale right now. So it's not just some bonus that I created for the actual webinar. This really is effective. When somebody says, wow, this is worth $500. And they're not just saying it's worth $500. Cause they created this kind of bogus bonus so they can sell me their product. It's an actual thing that's for sale on the market. And Instead of paying $500, I'm gonna get it for free with my product, with my purchase of this other product. So it has to have real value that they can see. So number three, they need to understand the value. So I talked about has to be aligned with your product. I talked about that it has to have real value, has to be for sale somewhere. But if they don't really understand the value or you didn't explain to them how they can use this bonus to help them, then it's kind of useless. So you need to explain it. You have to actually sell the bonus as well. Whether you're doing that in an email campaign or on a webinar live or on a video or even in a blog post. The point here is that you have to sell the bonuses as well. And when I say sell, you have to show them how it aligns with your product and how it's useful. And the last point is that you have to make it incredibly easy to attain the bonus. And you're going to show them how they will attain it. So, for example, with us at Webinar Ninja, when we sell Webinar Ninja on a webinar and we're giving a bonus, let's say for example, like Easy Course, we explained to them on the webinar, hey, you'll get this bonus automatically when you sign up for a new account. When you sign up for any plan on Webinar Ninja and you just tell them number four, you need to explain in clear language what's going to happen, how they will receive this bonus. And you got to make sure it's super simple for them to understand and to receive. So for example, on a webinar, if we're giving Easy Course as a bonus, I explained to them, hey, when you sign up for any plan with webinar Ninja, after your 14 day trial and you're charged on day 15, you're going to get an automatic email from us to give you all the info to access Easy Course. It's going to come right into your inbox. There's nothing you're going to need to do in that email. It's going to tell you exactly how to log into ezcourse, how to claim your free account. So right then and there they understand that there is no ambiguity. I know exactly what's going to happen. I know when I'm going to get this course, how I'm going to get it, and the expectations are clear. This gives them a sense of security and a feeling that, okay, I'm going to get my bonuses. I know the bonus is valuable. I know that it aligns with my product. This gives them a sense of security and it sets up their expectation. It makes them feel like, okay, I know when I'm going to get this bonus, how I'm going to get it, how I'm going to have access to it. There are no mysteries. So those four points are very important. The product has to align with the values of the customer. They have to be able to use it. They have to see that it's got intrinsic value, that you can actually buy it. They understand the value of the actual bonus, they're sold on it. And number, number three, they understand what's going to happen, how they're going to receive the bonus. So they feel a sense of security. When you have these four in play, bonuses are incredibly attractive with a sale. People say, wow, I'm getting all these great bonuses or bonus. Even if you just give one bonus, I'm getting this bonus with my purchase. This is worth more than the purchase itself. I should jump on this now. Now I always like to keep our bonuses time sensitive, meaning that we cap it. You know, you have to buy within, you know, 24 hours or 48 hours or on the webinar right now. Why? Because I want to war people that take action. In fact, I want to attract people that take action because those who take action will use the product and be ambassadors of my business. I don't want somebody who's going to buy my product and not use it. That's not good business. I need people to use my product so they could talk about it with other people. So I want to attract action takers and I want to reward those who take action quickly. So that's really the formula of making sure bonuses work for you. Now, I highly recommend that you always remind your customers throughout the sale period or through the bonus period. So say, for example, you said, you know, this bonus is going to be available for the next 48 hours. Make sure you send out a few emails to remind them. They might not have gotten that one email. Send them three or four emails, especially like, you know, the last day or the last hour before this offer is over. If you keep your emails to the point, valuable and concise, people won't mind, you know, three or four emails if they're spread out throughout the 48 hours. And if they're getting your emails about this offer, they're probably interested in the first place. If they're not, maybe they shouldn't be on your email list. Again, we mentioned this on previous episodes. You're paying for every single person that subscribes to your list. So you want to make sure you get the best people on your list, the people that are actually interested in what you do. Now, obviously you don't want to spam them constantly, but this is a special promotion you're doing at a special time. So it's not like you're going to be sending them your, you know, four or five emails every single day for the rest of the time they're on the list. This is just a brief time. So when do bonuses not work? It's actually pretty simple. In the past when I've done any kind of bonuses with a purchase, they haven't worked if the bonus is just not valuable to the customer. Let's say, for example, you're a voice acting coach and you say, hey, when you enroll in my voice acting coaching program, I'm going to give you eight sessions of coaching. I'm going to give you a Amazon hundred dollar gift certificate to buy first mic that you're going to use to do your voiceovers. Now, even though this is not like super valuable, like they can do this themselves, but it is valuable. Okay? It's $100. It's on Amazon. You're going to show them where to buy that mic. There is some value to it. They can see the value. At least it's worth $100, right? Versus saying, hey, join my coaching program and I'll give you my ebook on voice coaching. And that ebook is not for sale anywhere. It's not on Amazon. You can't buy it on your website. And you may say this book is valued at $100, but really they don't know about it. How do they know it's worth $100? Are you selling it for $100? There's less value there. So even though you know the Amazon gift certificate is not like a perfect alignment with that coaching program, there is value and therefore it's more likely to do well. When I say there's value, it's immediately apparent to the customer, like, okay, I see that this is worth something, but when somebody has to think about it for a while, how much is this ebook really worth? Is it worth it? It's not tempting. It's not attractive enough for people to say, hey yeah, sign me up. What else? When bonuses don't help you succeed or sustain your success, they don't make sense to the customer. If you give them a bonus that really doesn't help them get to where they need to be with your product. Just doesn't help. For example, we give out a bonus with Webinar Ninja that directly helps them get started to be successful. And that's our PowerPoint and keynote presentations. The actual presentation slides they can use for their webinars or a template that they can use and they just fill in the blanks with their own logos and own information. Makes it super simple for them to get started. Even your product is not about people getting started. It's just that people getting better or maintaining their success or even maintaining the product itself. For example, your car companies or car dealerships are great at this, where they'll offer like a free year of service with the purchase of your car or the lease of the car. So you'll get like a year of oil changes for free. Something that you would have to pay out of pocket for. You immediately see the value. I don't have to think about service for a whole year. Awesome. Most people don't think past a year, so it seems like forever to them, right? Wow. I can't believe it. I don't have to worry about service anymore. You get the point. The point here is that there is a value I could see immediately to Maintain my product, retain my purchase. This is not that prevalent anymore, but it used to be prevalent back in the day with cell phones, back when flip phones were a cool thing. We're talking about 10 years ago, maybe even more than that, maybe like 15 years ago. I'm aging myself here. But when you used to buy a phone from, you know, a telecom company, at least in the us they used to give you all these little bonuses like a phone clip and a phone charger, an extra battery. These are things to help your product be more useful or sustain itself. So don't throw bonuses that don't make sense in that way. Another bonus that does not work, and I feel like it's really a slap in the face of the customer is when it's similar to what they just experienced. Let's say, for example, I am a basketball coach and I have an email course on how to improve your free throw shooting. And they go through my email course, maybe let's say it's seven emails or detailed emails and it shows them all these great techniques on how to improve their free throw shooting. If I'm going to invite them to make a purchase of my basketball product, you know, my complete training on how to become a better basketball player. If one of the bonuses I throw in there to make it more appealing to buy is free throw shooting 101, it kind of makes it redundant, kind of makes it feel like, well, what was the email course all about? Why do you have this other product about free throw shooting? How much different will it be to what I just, you know, consumed or went through? So automatically it kind of cancels out, it kind of makes it feel like, oh, that's kind of useless. I just learned about free throw shooting. What else you got? Any other bonuses that are useful and so they get a negative feeling? It's not a good way to kind of approach your customer. So make sure your bonuses are new, fresh things that they haven't experienced yet. Skills that they haven't experienced yet. So maybe a bonus would be like how to increase your vertical jump in this example or how to increase your endurance. That's different from free throw shooting, but it has to do with basketball training. There's so much more to enjoy when you fly in Emirates Economy. More legroom, delicious regionally inspired meals, complimentary free flowing drinks. And with the latest movies, TV shows, music and live sport, some of the best entertainment in the skies and our family services, make your journey simple and fun. Plan your next trip and start the vacation early in Emirates Economy. Fly Emirates Fly Better. At Capella University, learning the right skills could make a difference. That's why our business programs teach you relevant skills you can take from the course room to the workplace. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at Capella Edu. To wrap up today's lesson, bonuses can increase sales if done right. Follow the advice I gave you today about making sure it's valuable, it's a good fit, that you sell the bonus, that you explain the bonus. All these things are going to help you increase the sales using bonuses that work for your customers. And when in doubt, always ask yourself, when do bonuses work for me? Reverse engineer it and use it in your business. Now, the last thing I want to add is that bonuses is just one marketing technique to help increase sales. It's not the only technique. And if you don't do bonuses, it doesn't mean that you're leaving money on the table. You can increase sales by doing free trials, by, you know, lowering the cost of entry in some way by having an incredible product. I mean, if you look at Apple, for example, they never discount their product. They don't have bonuses yet. They're the most profitable company on the planet. But not all of us are Apple and we need to get in front of other customers and we want to convert our customers. So we use bonuses to help us do that. But I'm letting you know that it's not the only way to increase sales. So if you can't do bonuses immediately, that's okay. Make sure that you can do it right and then do them. All right, that wraps up today's lesson. I hope you loved it. Don't forget to hit subscribe. Come Monday, January 1st. We are going daily, five days a week. It's going to be amazing. We're going to have all your favorite episodes. Must reads, guest teachers, Q and A Wednesdays where we answer your questions right here on the show. And free ride Friday, we would give away a free ride to one of our programs for anybody who's left us an iTunes rating and review. Lots of lots of fun coming up. So hit subscribe. All right, before I go, I want to leave you with this. Happy holidays. Merry Christmas. For those who are celebrating at this time of year. I know it's family time. It's a slow time. New Year's around the corner. If you're going to take some time to rest now, rest up because you want to go full force come 2018. You want to make sure you claim it as your year and not just 2018 every year. Okay. But I want you to be motivated to get going and make things happen. And we're here to help you with that, with this show, especially with us going daily from the first. We got your back. Every day of the week. All right. I'll check you in the next episode. January 1st. I'll see you then. When the flu is keeping you up at night, don't try to tough it out. Knock out your flu symptoms with NYQUIL Intense Flu. You got this. It provides powerful relief of your flu symptoms so you can sleep well through the night. Nyquil Intense Flu. The nighttime sniffling, aching, aching fever. Best sleep with a flu medicine. Use as directed. Keep out of reach of children.