The first rule of valuable offers is to know your customers, because different groups of people may respond differently to the same offers. For example, some people love to know about a discounted product because they like to save money.
However, some people associate the word discount with words like discontinued, cheap, or out of style. These two groups of people require very different offers. The former may respond positively to an email announcing a sale, while the latter is more likely to value an email announcing a sneak preview of the newest and most expensive product line.
For the best results, conduct a survey or watch your email tracking reports to discover what your subscribers value. Then divide your email list into groups based on the types of offers that motivate each group.
Here are some of the best forms of valuable offers for emails, along with some advice for matching the incentive to the type of buyer.
Coupons included in an email can be printed out or shown on a mobile device for in-store redemption or linked to an item in an online store. Use coupons when your prospects or customers want to be rewarded with prices that aren't available to the general public.
To add a personal touch to your email coupons use a Mail Merge to include your subscribers name on the coupon.
Giveaways are free products or services offered in exchange for information or a purchase. Use giveaways in combination with another product purchase when you want to offer more value without discounting the value of the featured product.
For example, if a car dealer offered a car at 50% off, people might wonder what's wrong with the car.
If however the car was offered at full price with a giveaway worth 50% of the value of the car, the same value is perceived without discounting the car.
If you decide to offer giveaways, make sure to check your local laws to make sure your giveaway doesn't qualify as a sweepstakes, contest, or lottery. If it does, you'll need to comply with local laws for these types of promotions.
Loss leaders are another form of giveaway. A loss leader is a promotional price that results in a loss to the business when the product is purchased. Why would you offer a product in an email at a price that loses money? Because you want to acquire a new customer with an extremely low price so you can realize profits through repeat sales generated by additional emails after the initial loss leader purchase.
Use loss leaders when you want to attract new customers to your business and away from the competition. Once you have an offer that gets people to respond, it's time to help them take the next step by suggesting one or more actions. That's called a call to action and it's the subject of my next Post.
