Providing attractive and valuable offers on your company’s website is a vital way of generating leads for your marketing and sales teams to nurture into eventual sales. But how do you come up with offers that will entice your audience to give you their contact information in exchange?
When an offer is exclusive, scarce, or in high demand, it becomes more desirable. Whether it’s a whitepaper, free trial, membership, sales promotion, or download, these irresistible elements can overcome a lead’s typical friction, doubt, or concern.
These elements work because they trigger a physiological reaction that makes an offer more valuable to us. People need to perceive the value of your offer to be greater than what you’re asking in return. The higher the perception of value, the more irresistible the offer. So how do you create irresistible offers?
Scarcity
If you look at the principle of supply and demand, you’ll notice that when supply is limited, demand goes up. If there may not be enough of something to go around, then we tend to want it more. Scarcity creates a sense of urgency.
Limited Time Offers
Limited time offers are among the most popular ways of creating scarcity. Just think about your typical car dealership. Practically every commercial is a limited time deal: “Get 0% financing before it’s gone!”
Limited Quantity Offers
When an item is of limited quantity, it suddenly becomes exclusive. In some studies, limited-quantity or limited-supply offers have outperformed limited-time offers. Why? It’s hard to tell when an offer of limited quantity will suddenly become unavailable, while a time-based offer has a known end time. Limited quantity offers are great for not only getting people to say “yes” to your offer, but to say it without procrastination.
Limited Time and Limited Quantity
Groupon is the perfect example of a company that uses both tactics. All Groupon deals end within a certain time frame, and they limit the number of people who can buy the Groupon. That’s a powerful combination. The site also packages these scarcity tactics with discounting, which is another great value add, especially for e-commerce businesses.
Bandwagon Effect
Humans have a natural tendency to copy one another, even without realizing it. We like to be a part of tribes and social communities. So when we notice our social circle is doing something, we tend to follow suit. One great way to make an offer more valuable is to show that other people are taking advantage of it. When possible, illustrate an offer’s value by mentioning the number of people who have purchased, downloaded, signed up, or donated.
Newsjacking
After Prince William and Kate Middleton got married in April of 2011, no one could stop talking about Kate’s wedding dress. Within hours after the wedding, vendors began making near-identical copies or similar styles of the Stella McCartney- designed dress. Even vendors such as David’s Bridal now have a “Royal” category so you can dress “just like Kate.”
Buzzworthiness creates high demand. Try aligning offers with what’s hot or trending at the moment.
Blue Frog Marketing, with offices in Des Moines and Denver, provides digital inbound and print marketing services to large and small businesses across the country. Contact us to find out how we can take your marketing to the next level.
Want to learn more about how to increase lead generation? Download our free eBook!
