Direct marketing requires that you have an offer with an end goal. That end goal could be to gain their information to make them a lead, or it could be to get a sale. Regardless of the initial goal that you want there are several offerings that have worked incredibly well in America to attract people into converting today. Keep in mind that often there is a larger percentage of people that will gladly become a lead and buy later than people who will buy today. However, the following offers can be used for either goal.

Discounts

Offering a discount is one the the most common ways in America to get conversions. Offering a percentage off the original price or offering a deal like buy get 1 free are great tactics to get quick conversions. There are 2 main reasons why these tactics work. Number 1 it creates a sense of urgency because you don’t want to wait and miss the deal. Number 2 it makes people feel like they are getting a deal on an item. This is a powerful psychological factor that affects people’s buying habits. What is a good discount to give? This depends on a few different factors. One is what margin can you afford? Keep in mind repeat customers and Lifetime value in a given time. For some lower end products that are frequently purchased you may be able to do a higher percentage and take a loss, because you know 15% will rebuy and make your profit up in the next 6 months. The key to the ones that hit your profit margins heavily is to ensure you have a nurturing system that encourages repeat purchases. The initial purchase needs to have a natural repeat purchase associated with it with a large enough percentage of customers taking it to cover initial losses. Another option is to pull from retail companies like Kohls, Macy’s and JC Penny who “artificially inflate” their prices because they know they will be placing the item on sale often. The sale amount varies to keep people coming back, if they miss, and it encourages immediate buying in the future. They also tend to have it set at full price during non peak buying times, and during major sales placing the item by neighboring items that are not on sale. This has worked extremely well for them for decades. Consumer trends have led to people being impatient and not appreciating the constant price variability and lack of trust created by this method. So do be aware of your customer and their perception. For higher end less frequently purchased items, it becomes a little trickier. Some companies like Apex Windows make almost all their money by offering discounts to their “retail price.” The vast majority of Apex’s sales involve offering varying degrees of discount. That allows them to have competitive pricing, and people assume it’s a high quality product. Now it works well for a company like there’s that is all salespeople selling, and they do s0me paid advertising. It wouldn’t work well for a gym who always says they are offering a discount. People would become numb to the deal. This is why doing limited time ads and trying to not constantly have the same discount is needed. However, companies with extremely infrequent purchases like car companies tend to have offers around historically associated dates. Think memorial day, labor day, MLK day, and 4th of July as some of the common ones used. They use their discounts to ensure that people check out and buy from their lot that weekend versus their competitors. They understand that certain consumers mainly buy during specific times, or use sales during traditionally slow times to keep sales up.

Free Trial

Most of us have seen the offering for a free trial. Whether it was from a software company offering a free 30 day trial, or a vendor at Costco offering a free sample of their product. These are done for 2 main reasons. First off, it lessens the unknown of buying from you. Getting to try the product or service allows the end consumer to know if they would like it or not. Taking the guesswork out of the decision is crucial. Now they can concern themselves with one less metric. Secondly, It gets them to interact with your brand. The more someone interacts with your brand on a regular basis, the more it becomes a part of them. Consider if during the 14 day trial they only use your app once. They are unlikely to continue the membership unless they forgot to cancel. However, if they utilize your app 2 or 3 times per day for those first 14 days then there is a higher chance of them wanting to add it to their personal ecosystem. Free product trials are most beneficial when they are in alignment with your consumer’s normal shopping patterns, or happen in front of your ideal customers. For example, offering free samples for a health bar at a tough mudder over time can lead to tough mudders considering your protein bars as a part of post workout nutrition. Free sampling should be done with intention to collect information or a sale. Don’t forget to have a way to follow up with them.

Limited Time Offers

This can include a plethora of things. However, for this particular section we want to focus on it referring to a specific product or service. Consider Taco Bell with their limited time offering of nacho fries. You also have Pepsi with their special drink collabs, or Little Caesars with their specialty pizza. These all create a sense of urgency to buy today before the promotion is over. It also creates excitement for something new to and different to enjoy. I got to see first hand the powerful affect that these LTO’s had at my restaurants that I used to manage. I saw which ones drove an increase in traffic and repeat buyers, and which ones didn’t have any affect at all. The goal of each of these is to bring a renewed excitement to come back to the business to buy or to create a reason to repeat buy. One great way to apply this to service industries is to consider what add-on services you could offer to encourage people to want to buy today. Also consider common add ons that you could combine into one new price slightly cheaper than normal. Consider how a carpet cleaning business could add a pet grooming service in addition during the spring time to save their house from dog hair.

MIFGE

This is a steal from Dan Kennedy and Russell Brunson the Most Incredibel Free Gift Ever, is the idea of what free thing can you offer that will be so amazing to your customers that they will want to pay for it, and the act of getting it for free is amazing. Consider free training, free consultation, or free books. These are 2 great things behind this type of offering. Foremost, it creates a sense of care from your brand to them. It makes it feel like you must care about the end consumer to freely give something that they would expect to pay for. Consider the guru’s on YouTube who would say that they normally sell this course for $199 and they are offering it to you for free. Just feel in your contact information and receive this $199 value offer for free. Secondly, it creates a sense of urgency to take action now before it’s too late or you have to pay. This is crucial in increasing the amount of conversions today. You don’t want to wait for people to buy from you, and having a MIFGE can move people to action instead of waiting until later. It also works well because it gives people something they were looking for before they buy. What is holding your consumer back from buying should be one of your focuses when trying to come up with this gift. Some common things to consider is knowledge, experience, and trust. Offering a gift that solves one or more of these will allow your brand to grow in reputation, and it will give them a reason to buy from you.

Determining the right offer for you depends on your brand, what you need, and what your customers want. As you better understand your customer, you should be able to understand which of these different offerings to use in your direct marketing promotions. Success is found in a full strategy not just executing a tactic.