If you are now marketing or intend to market your services or products on the Web, you must design your Web site offer creatively just as you would an offline offer.
Like any other advertising medium, your offer can contribute as much as 50% or more to the success or failure of your Web campaign.
Far too many marketers have considered the Internet as being completely different than traditional offline media. Their opinions seem to be, “I may have to use our traditional offers offline, but they must be different on the Web.”
This is just like saying human psychology for business and consumer marketing is different online. It’s a drastic error to assume that a person’s basic psychology changes online.
Many marketers are disappointed with their results from the Web simply because they often violate some of the most basic direct marketing offer strategies.
Here are 11 key strategies to help you enjoy greater success on the Web. These strategies apply to any product or service. You’ll cripple your response just by omitting one of them.
If you are skeptical about this, just test your online offer as you would in any other advertising medium.
 | Marketing Strategy #1 | |
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| Use an introductory discount to boost your sales… |
People love to look for perceived bargains. A discount can be a great motivator that causes your prospects to believe their purchasing decisions are wise…not frivolous.
Your discount can be 10%, 20%…or even half off. This discount offer can easily help you drive in many new sales! And this rule applies to high and low priced products.
| Marketing Strategy #2 | |
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| Test to find the optimum price for greatest possible profits… |
Price is a vitally important part of your offer. A higher price will lower your response. A lower price will increase your response. Every product or service has it’s own price point where you get maximum possible profit.
You can only find this optimum price point by testing many different price variables.
And, if you can get your prospects to use their credit cards and automatically charge for additional products or services, you may discover that an additional very profitable relationship has already developed.
| Marketing Strategy #3 | |
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| You’ll get far greater response with a “soft” offer than with a “hard” offer… |
With offline marketing, a “soft” offer increases your response over a “hard” offer. However, a “soft” offer may not pay off in the long run. This same strategy applies to online offers.
That’s another good reason why testing is so vitally important.
A “soft” offer is an offer where buyers are given the opportunity to order without paying with cash or credit card before receiving their merchandise. They merely check a box on the order form which reads, “bill me later.”
Or if you’re generating a lead, a “soft offer” is usually used for an expensive product.
A “hard” offer is an offer where payment by cash or credit card MUST be made with the order before it is shipped.
This strategy is usually used for an inexpensive product requiring a payment by credit card.
| Marketing Strategy #4 | |
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| Use a STRONG guarantee to get the greatest possible response… |
The higher your price, the stronger your guarantee should be for offline marketing. A strong guarantee helps increase your response. Online guarantees are just as important.
| Marketing Strategy #5 | |
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| Premiums help boost your response and sales tremendously… |
Almost every marketer who uses powerful premiums offline should also use premiums in online marketing. Powerful premiums help increase sales and your customers’ perception of value.
For example, I created the following premiums for a one-year subscription to the Psychopharmacology Update Web site:
- “Today’s Top 10 Trends in Psychopharmacology”
- “AHHD: Subtracting the Mystery from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder”
- “Dangerous Drug Interactions”
These offer strategies work exclusively for online marketing. Make sure you always use powerful sales copy to reinforce your benefits…
| Marketing Strategy #6 | |
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| Your customers can take advantage of the privacy and security of online buying… |
Be sure to list your privacy and security policies right next to your ordering information and instructions.
These policies are very important to many of your potential customers. Don’t let the layout or copy dominate or inhibit your prospects from ordering.
| Marketing Strategy #7 | |
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| Create an offer to collect e-mail addresses from all viewers… |
Capturing e-mail names and addresses (even from those who do not order immediately) gives you extremely valuable data you’ll need for a conversion campaign. Be sure to include a “no, not at this time” box in the ordering information.
If your prospect clicks on this information, your prospect comes to a page that provides the option of free, additional, value added information for the future.
Make this offer interesting and appealing…but not as attractive as your offer for ordering.
| Marketing Strategy #8 | |
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| Here's how FAQs can increase your response on the order page… |
Frequently asked questions (FAQs) are often used on the home page or entry page of a site. This is not good for marketing navigation. FAQs should only be used at the point of sale.
FAQs can help increase your response and should be used only on your order page. An estimated 40% of people who are ready to buy will go to FAQs. This means you must rationalize your price, resell your premiums, and reinforce your guarantee.
| Marketing Strategy #9 | |
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| Get more sales by keeping your Web site navigation simple… |
Make absolutely sure the navigation of your Web site is simple, uncluttered and without too many options. Don’t give your prospects options that will steer them away from ordering.
Be sure it’s always quick, easy, and simple for people to buy from you.
| Marketing Strategy #10 | |
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| Acknowledge every online order immediately… |
Make sure your customers or leads receive an immediate acknowledgement every time you receive an order online. This makes them happy knowing you have received their orders and are getting ready to ship them FAST!
| Marketing Strategy #11 | |
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| Increase your response with a value added offer… |
A value added offer obviously boosts your response more than anything else you can give to a customer.
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