The offer is the most important things in a marketing campaign. If you’re not communicating what you’re offering, if it’s not clear and if it’s something that no one wants, then no one is going to buy it or respond to your marketing or advertising. It’s that simple; it’s the most critical part of your campaign. So the big question is, where do you start in creating that irresistible offer? First you have to know what your objective is. Effective selling solves problems, so your objective should be to turn the solution into a killer offer. Think about some of the best offers you’ve seen, when an ad compelled you to buy something that you didn’t think you’d buy. Those are the best examples of irresistible offers. Creating an irresistible offer that converts prospects to buyers is integral to any marketing campaign. In this article we’ll examine what a compelling offer looks like and share our top 20 favorite lead magnet ideas.‍

What Makes A Really Good Offer?

‍The short answer is simple: A really good offer has to be a no-brainer. What you’re offering is of such tremendous value that it creates desire, which turns into action of some sort (download, purchase, register for an event or webinar, schedule a consultation).If you were creating an offer for a SaaS product, first list some of the problems people have when on-boarding a client for SaaS:

• Don’t know the product
• Training is a barrier
• Implementation
• Ease of use – not user-friendly

Knowing this, an ideal offer would touch on all of these things, the barriers become part of the offer. If you’re thinking about something and it’s a pain for you, then there’s a good change it’s a pain for prospects, too. To address the problems listed above, an offer might include a free trial (or $1 for the 1st month, then full price), free data migration, free training, free in-person training, etc.The goal is to give someone an offer they can’t refuse. Keep in mind, this is only going to make sense if someone is in the market for a solution. You can only solve a problem if someone actually has that problem. But then again, someone is probably not going to be searching for a product or solution if they don’t need it.

‍What Does a Compelling Offer Look Like?‍

In order to show some concrete examples, we’re going to focus on compelling offers for SaaS companies here. In general, some of the most effective offers are ones that give prospects a chance to test a product – a 14-day free trial, 30-day free trial, free demo, even a scaled-down version of the full product. In order to find an offer, take a look at what the competitors in your niche are doing. One tactic to use to learn this is to Google the company name and see what their Ad Words offer is. Let’s take a quick look at what some of the top SaaS company offers are. In the screenshot below, you can see when we type in Salesforce, we also immediately see an ad for their competitor, SugarCRM.

Salesforce – A powerhouse in the SaaS industry, they have made an art out of the offer with this simple page. Their headline addresses the goal of almost every company – Grow Faster. Then they get right to the heart of the matter by showing a list of results relating to common customer pain points – things that would convince people to change their solution provider. That leads to a simple form to fill out that grants access to free demos, with the call to action (CTA) button saying, “Watch it in action.”

It’s a very effective formula leading to the offer:

Pipedrive – Shows a clear headline with a subhead that simply speaks to pain points. A free trial of the software is available in exchange for only an email address. There is also a “Try It Free” button at the top and a chat bubble automatically appears with a CSR ready to answer any questions.

SugarCRM – This headline again speaks to pared-down simplicity, emphasizing a “cure for CRM bloat.” There is a written CTA to watch a demo or learn more. The interesting thing to note here is there is a form similar to Salesforce’s, but it all rests “below the fold,” meaning the user needs to scroll down to see the entire form and CTA button.What all three of these examples have in common is they are offering you something in exchange for something valuable – time, information (email, contact information) or money. Your promise is that you’re solving their problem to help boost their revenue and profits, streamline their business, make their life easier because of the benefits your product will bring.A company’s landing page may change based on the Google search being done. If it does, that means they are doing a lot of testing to see which variation (maybe the headline changes, or the benefits, CTA button, the actual offer) converts best. One way to check this is by looking at their Ad Words offer landing page, then looking at their website home page directly.

Awareness Is the Difference

‍Sticking with our SaaS example, someone who is googling Salesforce may not have any idea about Pipedrive until they see the name come up in the search results. Then when they go to search Pipedrive, they already have an awareness about the brand. Awareness is the difference.In 1966, Eugene Schwartz outlined the five levels of awareness in his book, Breakthrough Advertising.

When someone already knows the name of a brand, are still in the looking around phase and are not sure whether a product is for them, they are considered Product-Aware. However, when they are looking for a competitor, they are considered Solution-Aware. Your challenge is to move prospects up the chain from 5 to 1 as efficiently as possible, which is why the pressure lies on your offer.

‍Our Top 20 Favorite Irresistible Offers

1. Guides & resource kits
2. Templates & checklist
3. Video or audio download
4. Calculator
5. Cheat sheet or handout
6. Quick start kit
7. Free trail (software)
8. Quiz or survey
9. Vault, library access
10. Physical giveaway
11. Gated content
12. Webinar
13. Event tickets
14. Email course
15. First/sample chapter
16. Free coaching session
17. PDF version of something
18. Transcript
19. Mind map
20. Free shipping

Which of the ones listed above will work for a SaaS product? Almost all of them, depending on the product. You need to invest the time to understand your prospect and their biggest pain points, then develop an irresistible offer that best addresses them. Some of our favorites are:

• Webinar – Low risk, free education or training, can be evergreen (automated); the difference between webinar and watching a video – a webinar is more of an event so people will have more respect for the event, resulting in higher attendance and participation.
• Template & Checklist – This is an easy way to collect email addresses; for the example of SaaS as CRM, you could create the Ultimate Checklist Before Switching To A New CRM. The prospect can download it, it is easy and inexpensive to create; depending on client LTV, can send as direct mail (laminated).
• Physical giveaway – This is the Dan Kennedy “bulky mail” approach. Do something that makes you stand out and you’ll gain attention. Ship a relevant book for free, the prospect pays shipping (the “free + shipping offer). LTV increases because people end up buying the software.
• Quizzes – “Could you increase efficiency by doing x, y, z? Take this quiz and find out.”
• Cheat sheet – These are easy to create, and a prospect can look at in a couple of minutes. It is a MVP = Minimal Viable Product; create it, put on a landing page and see if people will bite.
• Live events – People have multiple browsers open on multiple devices at the same time, but if you offer a live event, people are forced to give you their attention.

Creating an irresistible offer is the crux of any successful marketing campaign, and is integral to the success of a product and company. Done correctly, an irresistible offer will bring people to you because they are confident (or are ready to be convinced) that you have the solution to address their problems.

How confident are you in the effectiveness of your irresistible offer? Are your conversion rates as high as you’d like them to be? Are your advertising dollars going to waste? If you're ready to take your offers to the next level and bring in new customers, contact us today for a free consultation.

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