The Direct Marketing Offer is the second most important aspect of developing a direct marketing campaign. After identifying and targeting the right audience, it is 2.5 times as important as the least important factor. It is the whole proposition and incentives that you offer for response.
What is an "Offer"?
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- It's more than your product or service. It's your total proposition to the prospect or customer.
- Besides product, the components of an offer might include a free gift, introductory or discount pricing, low finance rates, free shipping, to name just a few. Offers have a major impact and they can positively or negatively impact your programs response.
- The more generous your offer, the greater the response. If you're after really large response, then make a really generous offer. If your goal is to attract qualified leads from very interested prospects then a lesser offer will be more effective.
- Make sure your offer is relevant to both your target audience and the product you are selling. If you mismatch the offer to the audience, it won't be attractive and you can discourage interest on the part of potential buyers.
- Before working up your offer, check to see what your competitors are doing.
- If you can make an offer without reducing the price of your product, this is the best path to follow because customers acquired at reduce margins or special pricing generally continue to respond only to these kinds of offers and are very hard to convert to full pricing offers.
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| Why is the "Offer" so important? |
- Because the right offer can sell almost anything.
- The offer is one of the simplest and most dramatic ways to improve direct marketing results.
- All other things being equal, it’s the most crucial of the three parts of response creativity.
- It’s important to think of your market as you are structuring your offer.
- What’s their sex, age, educational level, special interests, and social-economic status?
- How you state the offer counts.
- It both selects and involves the prospects.
- It determines the quality of the customers who respond.
- It’s an important aspect of creativity to find new ways of stating an existing offer.
- It’s important to find new offers.
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| What makes up an "Offer"? |
- The products/services
- The price of the product/services
- The payment terms
- The way the offer is worded or pictured
- Any incentives, bonuses, extras, premiums
- Any time limitations or restrictions
- Any free literature or booklets
- Any special fulfillment options – e.g., free shipping
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| What types of "Offers" are there? |
- Basic offers
- Right price
- Free trial
- Money-back guarantee
- Cash with order
- C.O.D.
- Charge card privileges
- Bill me later
- Installment terms
- Free gift offers
- Free gift for an inquiry
- Free gift for a trial order
- Free gift for buying
- Multiple free gifts with a single order
- Your choice of free gifts
- Free gifts based on size of order
- Two-step gift order
- Continuing incentive gifts
- Mystery gift offer
- Discount offers
- Cash discount
- Short-term introductory offer
- Refund certificate
- Introductory order discount
- Trade discount
- Early bird discount
- Quantity discount
- Sliding scale discount
- Selected discounts
- Sales offers
- Seasonal sales
- Reason-why sales
- Price increase notice
- Auction-by-mail
- Sample offers
- Free sample
- Nominal charge samples
- Sample offer with tentative commitment
- Quantity sample offer
- Free sample lesson
- Time limit offers
- Limited time offers
- Enrollment periods
- Pre-publication offer
- Charter membership or subscription offer
- Limited edition offer
- Guarantee offers
- Extended guarantee
- Money-back guarantee
- Double-your-money-back
- Guaranteed buy-back agreement
- Guaranteed acceptance offer
- Build-up-the-sale offer
- Multi-product offers
- Piggyback offers
- The deluxe offer
- Good-better-best offer
- Add-on offer
- Write-your-own-ticket offer
- Bounce-back offer
- Increase and extension offer
- Sweepstakes offers
- Drawing type sweepstakes
- Lucky number sweepstakes
- "Everyone Wins" sweepstakes
- Involvement sweepstakes
- Talent contests
- Club & continuity offers
- Positive option
- Negative option
- Automatic shipments
- Continuity load-up offer
- Front-end load-ups
- Open-ended commitment
- “No strings attached” commitment
- Lifetime membership fee
- Annual membership fee
- Specialized offers
- The philanthropic privilegeBlank check offer
- Executive preview charge
- Yes/no offers
- Self-qualification offer
- Exclusive rights for your trading area
- The super dramatic offers
- Trade-in offer
- Third party referral offer
- Member-get-a-member offer
- Name-getter offers
- Purchase-with-purchase
- Delayed billing offer
- Reduced down payment
- Stripped-down products
- Secret bonus gift
- Rush shipping service
- The competitive offer
- The nominal reimbursement offer
- Established-the-value offer
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